Tag: Korea

It seems that US animal rights groups still have their eyes set on stopping dog eating in South Korea:

A dozen dogs originally destined for dinner tables in South Korea arrived in the Washington area to be adopted as pets.

They were the first of a total of 23 dogs being imported into the United States this week as part of a campaign to combat the eating of dog meat in East Asia.

Washington-based Humane Society International (HSI) located the dogs at a farm in Ilsan, northwest of Seoul, where they were being bred specifically for human consumption.

The farmer — who acknowledged a personal fondness for dogs — agreed to give up the animals and accept an offer of compensation and grow blueberries instead, HSI director of companion animals Kelly O’Meara told AFP, as the mongrels settled into kennels Monday at the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, Virginia after a long flight from Seoul.

HSI has been working with local groups in China, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam to raise public awareness of the dog meat trade.

“But South Korea is unusual because it actually farms dogs to supply demand,” O’Meara said, while other countries target feral dogs as food.

Every year, between 1.2 million and two million dogs are consumed in South Korea, she said, supplied by farms that number “at least in the hundreds.”  [AFP]

You can read more at the link, but my biggest problem with dog farming in South Korea is that some of these farmers do not do it very humanely with dogs raised in small cages and then beaten to death to better tenderize the meat.

It seems like smuggling drugs is risky enough, but to smuggle them into a country that will not hesitate to kill you just seems stupid:

China executed a South Korean national last week for smuggling and trading drugs, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Monday, following Beijing’s execution of three South Korean drug dealers five months earlier.

Despite Seoul’s repeated pleas for clemency, the Chinese authorities on Tuesday executed the South Korean national, identified only by his surname Kim, who was sentenced to death for drug smuggling and transportation in China, the ministry said.

Kim was arrested in China in May 2010 on charges of smuggling some 5 kilograms of drugs into the country and trafficking them.

A Chinese district court sentenced him to death in April 2012 and an appellate court upheld the ruling eight months later. China’s highest court also confirmed the sentence.

Seoul’s foreign ministry expressed regret over China’s execution of the South Korean national despite its repeated calls for clemency.

“The Korean government regrets that the execution took place although Seoul had requested Beijing to refrain from handing carrying it out on humanitarian grounds and the principle of reciprocity,” the foreign ministry said. “We plan to beef up cooperation with related countries to prevent Korean nationals from being involved in drug-related crime.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This is a nice gesture by the Park administration which hopefully the Chinese government appreciates:

South Korea plans to return some 60 sets of remains of Chinese soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War to their homeland, a defense ministry official here said Monday.

In a symbolic gesture of friendship toward its former battlefield foe, South Korea pledged to repatriate the bodies to China by March during the Seoul-Beijing security talks held in Seoul earlier in the day, according to the official.

“After the repatriation last year, we’ve unearthed some 60 more bodies of the Chinese servicemembers. After taking some necessary steps, we will send them back to their home by March,” the official said, asking not to be named. “The Chinese side expressed gratitude for the decision.”

In March last year, the South Korean government returned the bodies of 437 Chinese soldiers killed on Korean soil during the war on humanitarian grounds, after President Park Geun-hye made such an offer during a 2013 summit with her Chinese counterpart.  [Yonhap]

I have to wonder if this is an attempt by competing Korean retailers to shutdown a foreign competitor?  There are plenty of shopping areas in Korea with horrible traffic:

Swedish furniture retailer IKEA faces a business suspension here because of severe traffic congestion on roads surrounding its first mall, in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province.

The municipal city recently demanded IKEA to come up with a “dramatic breakthrough” by Wednesday, or the mall would be shut from Jan. 15.

The mall has operated since Dec. 18 under temporary approval. Gwangmyeong officials said there were no legal problems to withdrawing approval.

“People’s frustration caused by the congestion has reached boiling point,” said an official familiar with the case. “Not only drivers but also people living or working near the outlet are affected.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but IKEA has been under attack in Korea from even before they opened their doors.

The Park administration document scandal has gotten even more interesting with the revelation that the document in question was a forgery:

A presidential document claiming a former aide to President Park Geun-hye tried to exert undue influence on state affairs was fabricated by a senior police officer, prosecutors said Monday.

The document centers around allegations that Jeong Yun-hoe, who was President Park’s adviser before she was elected, pulled strings to try and replace the president’s current chief of staff, Kim Ki-choon.

Announcing the interim outcome of their probe, investigators at the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office said that they have concluded that Supt. Park Kwan-cheon authored and leaked the document.

The document was then handed over to the president’s younger brother, Ji-man, who is also the chairman of EG Group, an electronic materials producer, under the orders of former presidential secretary Cho Eung-cheon.

Cho was indicted on charges of leaking confidential information, and violating the Presidential Records Management Act, prosecutors said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but considering how this document was intended to take out Jeong Yun-hoe it is pretty clear that he must have been still providing advice to the President which others around Park must not have liked.

If you are going to Yongsan Garrison you better leave your drones at home:

The U.S. military stationed in South Korea has introduced stricter security rules banning all civilian drones and remote controlled model aircrafts from flying over the main military base in Yongsan in central Seoul, a South Korean military source said Thursday.

The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) issued a total ban in late December on all unmanned aerial vehicles or radio-controlled model aircrafts equipped with a camera or other types of information-gathering devices on the entire premise of the Yongsan Garrison. “The flight ban involves all computer- or radio-controlled civilian drones and toy model aircrafts, except for military drones authorized by the U.S. military,” a military source in Seoul said.

According to the source, those who own radio-controlled model aircrafts can fly only in extremely limited zones after registering them with the U.S. military for permits. Under the stricter rules, only those at age 13 or older are allowed to fly model aircrafts in authorized zones to a maximum altitude of 100 feet above ground. The USFK said violators would be “dealt sternly” in accordance with the military and civilian legal procedures. [Donga Ilbo via reader tip]

You can read more at the link.

I'd missed this. Sports played at the Asian Games in Incheon included cricket. Sri Lanka won; Afghanistan came 4th. http://t.co/fO1YGnZ80U

— Aidan Foster-Carter (@fcaidan) January 1, 2015

From the Joong Ang Ilbo:

Two weeks before New Year’s Day, Eun Deok Cultural Center was covered in snow. Located next to Changdeok Palace in Jongno District, central Seoul, the cultural center is the cradle of Won Buddhism – modern Korean Buddhism.

There, Dathane Turner, the first American believer in Won Buddhism’s 100-year history, sat quietly at a coffee table. He visited Korea to conduct a spiritual ceremony and was scheduled to fly back to the United States shortly after.

There was sadness in his family affairs.

The question “Why is my life is so arduous?” has lingered in his mind since he was a young boy, Turner said.

To find the answer, he tried to study positive psychology at graduate school and looked around asceticism centers.

But all those attempts turned out to be in vain.

One day when he searched for “meditation” on the Internet, he was randomly taken to a webpage that introduced him to Won Buddhism.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Cheerleaders dressed in “hanbok,” traditional Korean clothing, perform at a basketball game in Busan on Jan. 1, 2015. (Yonhap)

U.S. reiterates support for improved inter-Korean relations http://t.co/Sh58UWa43i

— Yonhap News Agency (@YonhapNews) January 1, 2015