A train with the word “BLiND” graffitied on it at a subway station in the southeastern city of Daegu is shown in this photo provided on May 26, 2015, by the Daegu Suseong Police. The police said that the graffiti, which was discovered on May 10, was the work of two male foreigners who broke into the train station through an external vent. (Yonhap)
Here is something all you fans of beer in Korea may want to checkout this weekend:
The second Great Beer Festival Korea for the year will be held at the Museum Cafe in Yongsan on May 30-31.
The festival will feature 130 kinds of beers, along with some food pairings. There will also be fun events such as stencil tattoo and DJing, along with live music and nonverbal performances.
“The festival is sure to be an entertaining time for couples, friends and families.
Microbreweries and specialty beer establishments are popping up everywhere. With a growing number of people bored with mass-produced beer and aching for more variety on the menu, craft beer is becoming a major trend,” according to a press release.
“The biggest appeal of craft beer, beer fans agree, is that it lets them find the flavor that suits their mood, their taste and their personality.”
This festival will run from 5 to 10 p.m. on May 30, and from 3 to 8 p.m. on May 31. [Korea Times]
I can understand why these women feel unsafe but is following someone around in Korea considered a crime? If not it would explain the indifference shown by the police:
Concerned residents in the Haebangchon neighborhood, located next to Itaewon in Seoul, have formed a community awareness group in response to an increased amount of sexual harassment in the area.
People Unite against Street Harassment (PUSH) was established in March this year and held a fundraiser during the 10th anniversary of the HBC Festival last weekend.
Brittany Hayes and Alicia Trawick from Florida in the United States lead the group.
“Over the past year there have been different things happening, but it was kind of being brushed under the rug,” said Trawick. “The police were not doing anything, so we took it upon ourselves to do something.”
PUSH President Hayes believes the police response has left a lot to be desired.
“A lot of people have contacted the police about this issue but nothing has happened,” she said. “A girl wrote on the HBC forum on Facebook that she had been stalked by a guy and when she went to a police officer on the street he ignored her.”
Ashley Pifer, also from the U.S., said she had such an experience.
“I was with my friend in a mart along HBC road when an African man came in,” she said. “He said, ‘Hello, how are you?’ My friend responded and I just ignored him.”
“We walked down the road to CU Mart. I went inside and made a purchase and as we were leaving the same man walks in. He proceeded to rub my arm and say, ‘What’s this? I like.’ I moved away and walked out.
“I left my friend and walked further up the road to the pharmacy. When I came out the same man was standing across the street. I panicked and called my boyfriend and then the man ran away. To me it wasn’t coincidental that we were in three places in a row.”
As she later discovered, the incident was not isolated but part of a pattern.
“I wasn’t even going to report it until I saw a post on the HBC forum,” she said. “A guy said a similar man had followed his girlfriend home. So I decided to make a report because others came forward with similar stories,” said Pifer.
“My Korean boyfriend and I spent two hours being transported to three police stations. The whole time the police were trying to convince us not to make a report. One of the officers spoke to us in English and tried to help but after speaking with his superiors he came back and pretended he could not understand me. I eventually gave up. They didn’t believe me and it was pointless.” [Korea Times]
This photo, taken on May 25, 2015, shows a body camera mounted on a police officer from a police station in the southwestern city of Gunsan. Body cameras are those mounted on the front of a uniform and set to record an officer’s law enforcement of crime scenes. The Gunsan police have deployed four body cameras for the first time in South Korea, as part of its efforts to apprehend criminals interfering with their execution of duties and procurement of assault and robbery evidence. (Yonhap)
Students clean the areas in between graves at the National Cemetery, where South Korean patriotic martyrs and war dead are laid to rest, in Seoul on May 26, 2015, ahead of Memorial Day, which falls on June 6. (Yonhap)
It will be interesting to see if President Park’s solar initiatives goes anywhere:
Hanwha Group, the world’s largest solar cell maker, said it plans to open the nation’s first zero-carbon town run solely on solar power on Jukdo Island, a small island on the nation’s west coast, in cooperation with small and medium-sized enterprises in the solar industry.
This will be a signature project for the South Chungcheong Creative Economy Innovation Center, which Hanwha Group jointly opened with the central government in Cheonan, South Chungcheong, on Friday.
The South Chungcheong center is the nation’s 11th creative economy center out of a total of 17 planned under President Park Geun-hye’s creative economy initiative, the administration’s attempt to revitalize Korea’s economy through innovation.
More than 150 people including President Park, Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn and South Chungcheong Gov. Ahn Hee-jung attended the center’s opening.
“In the 20th century, Korea used to rely on imports for 100 percent of its energy needs,” said Park in a congratulatory speech. “The era of fossil fuels coming to the end is a challenge but also can be an opportunity for the Korean economy.
“If we move proactively in new energy-related technologies and commercialize them as soon as possible, the Korean solar-energy model will lead the world’s renewable energy market,” Park added. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
A woman and a girl photograph themselves with wax figures of American actor Brad Pitt and actress Angelina Jolie during a publicity event at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on May 19, 2015, to commemorate the opening of a global wax museum, Madame Tussauds, in Seoul. (Yonhap)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for the first time on Monday pushed openly for the deployment of the U.S.’ Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in South Korea. The need “to be prepared for every possible outcome… is why we need to deploy ships, forces… and we are talking about THAAD,” Kerry told U.S. soldiers at their garrison in Yongsan, Seoul. He reiterated the importance of keeping U.S. forces on the peninsula, saying North Korean threats are the reason for the deployment of vessels and troops here. Seoul has maintained a flimsy fiction that the controversial deployment of THAAD batteries has not been discussed because they form the core of the U.S.’ missile strategy aimed at containing China. [Chosun Ilbo]
It will be interesting to see what comes out of this. I am willing to bet there won’t be much coming out of this publicly, but behind the scenes a few issues will probably be worked out:
South Korean and Japanese defense chiefs are expected to hold bilateral talks later this month for the first time in four years despite soured ties over historical rows, government sources here said Tuesday.
Defense Minister Han Min-koo plans to meet with his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani around the end of this month in Singapore on the sidelines of the regional security forum, the Shangri-La Dialogue, according to a source. The upcoming annual security forum is slated for May 29-31.
If held, it will be the first bilateral talks between the top defense officials in four years, as they have shunned such meetings due to deteriorated bilateral relations over history-related issues, including Japan’s refusal to apologize for its wartime atrocities.
Icy Seoul-Tokyo relations have taken a turn for the worse in recent months after the Abe administration renewed claims to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, and attempted to deny its wrongdoing during World War II, such as the forced sexual enslavement of Asian women, mostly Korean, for its soldiers. Korea was under harsh colonial rule by Japan from 1910 to 1945.
“On the table would be issues of mutual interest including how to work closely to deter and counter North Korea’s nuclear and missiles threats and the implementation of the revised U.S.-Japan defense guidelines,” another source said. [Yonhap]
If parents can use technology like this to monitor their kids imagine what companies or the government could monitor?
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — “Smart Relief” is a mobile app for parental control of Android smartphones. South Korea’s government funded the app, which alerts parents to possible bullying based on its monitoring of phrases and words used in smartphone messages and in online searches. The developer says it can also give parents insight into the worries or preoccupations of their children.
Such apps are criticized in South Korea as an invasion of privacy but their use is burgeoning, particularly after the country’s telecoms regulator ordered monitoring applications be installed on the smartphones of Koreans aged 18 and below. Smart Relief is not one of the 15 apps authorized for use in that program but shares similar features with them.
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The app monitors about 800 words and phrases in messages including:
Threat, kill, shut up, violence, destroy, handicap, crazy, prostitute, garbage, thief, porn, suicide, pregnancy, inn, obscene, sex, sexual crime, sexual relationship, prostitution, motel, beer, rape, adultery, run away from home, outcast. [Associated Press]
