The real question is how long has this been going on with everyone turning a blind eye to it? Additionally is this just a one time raid and then everything goes back to what it was or are the authorities serious about stopping b this:
China’s CCTV on Monday broadcast an expose on casinos on Jeju Island that attract Chinese gamblers through prostitution.
The broadcaster said 80 percent of gamblers on Jeju are Chinese, often lured with the promise of free tour programs and prostitutes.
One casino contract shown in the CCTV program promised clients purchasing W100,000 worth of chips a free special massage, while around W36 million worth of chips leads to an opportunity to sleep with an aspiring Korean actress or model, and buying W90 million worth of chips two nights with the woman (US$1=W1,150).
Some Korean casino offices in China were raided by police. CCTV said 13 Koreans and 34 Chinese recruiters were arrested in June for illegally luring gamblers in Beijing, Shanghai, Hebei and Jiangsu. [Chosun Ilbo]
Below is a good read in the Financial Times about Cheju’s female divers called “haenyeo” for those that have not read about them before. I think what will end the haenyo tradition is the small pay the hard work earns. A top haenyeo earns up to $25,000 a year, most earn half that number according to the article requiring them to often work second jobs as farmers:
Each of the elderly women utters a distinctive cry as they surface around me from the bitterly cold East China Sea, clutching fistfuls of seaweed. From my left comes a sound like the bleating of a goat; ahead, a determined groan of endurance. All of them are whistling too, an ancient technique to expel carbon dioxide from the lungs. Occasionally, the wetsuit-clad grandmothers exchange a few words after depositing their seaweed in sacks tied to orange buoys beside them. But none of them rests for more than a minute before plunging to the seabed once more — a rhythm they maintain for five hours.
These are the haenyeo (sea women) of South Korea’s Jeju island, who have dived in search of seaweed and shellfish since at least the 17th century. Their work is one of the country’s most celebrated traditions but one that many islanders fear could soon be consigned to the past.
Traditionally a job handed down from mother to daughter, haenyeo life has been shunned in recent decades by nearly all the girls born in Jeju’s seaside villages, who have tended to favour more comfortable lives in the island’s two cities or on the mainland. From more than 14,000 in the 1970s, the number of haenyeo has dwindled to fewer than 4,500 today. [Financial Times]
You can read the rest at the link and I recommend watching the video included with the article as well.
A July report from the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) surprised volcanologists by dating Jeju’s most recent volcanic eruption to 5,000 years ago. Media outlets gleefully reported Mt. Hallasan was not dead, or dormant, but alive.
The research team, led by Jin-yeong Lee, radiocarbon dated carbonised wood (charcoal) below the basalt layer at Sangchang-ri, Seogwipo City, to 5,000 years old. This was 2,000 years more recent than the 7,000-year-old eruption at Mt. Songaksan, thought to be Jeju’s last volcanic activity.
Scientists had speculated that the basalt layer at Sangchang-ri was formed 35,000 years ago, yet the carbonised wood was below the basalt, making the rock at least as young as the ancient trees. Sangchang-ri was thus confirmed as the site of the most recent volcanic activity in South Korea. (The title of most active volcano on the peninsula goes to Mt. Baekdusan in North Korea, which last erupted in 1903.)
The findings were picked up by media outlets and headlines stated that Mt. Hallasan was “alive” and not dead, a fact already known as the earlier Songaksan activity was already within the same Smithsonian Institute’s Global Volcanism Program (GVP) 10,000 year timeframe for active volcanoes. Nevertheless, the Science Daily headline, “Jeju Island, Korea is a live volcano,” typified the reaction. [Cheju Weekly]
Here is an interesting historical account from the article:
While scientific evidence of volcanism on Jeju Island is proving difficult to confirm, one piece of historic evidence suggests that the island was active much more recently than 5,000 years ago. The “Dongguk Yeoji Seungram,” a Joseon Dynasty geography textbook (multiple volumes published between 1481 and 1530) includes this seemingly eye-witness account.
“In June 1002 CE, a mountain arose in the middle of the sea. There were four giant holes at the top of the mountain, out of which red liquid flowed and soared, and thick smoke plumed for five days. All the red liquid hardened and became stone like roof tiles.”
