Tag: Korea

I will be surprised if Korean authorities allow Uber to continue to operate over the long term considering how it will greatly affect the large number of taxi drivers in the country:

Uber, a U.S-based ride-sharing service app company, has proposed meetings with taxi drivers in Seoul who have been protesting its presence in Korea.

An official from the Seoul Taxi Association (STA) reacted negatively to the proposal, saying Uber will have to stop its service first.

“Uber remains open to meeting with the taxi associations to discuss how Uber can help improve the lives and economic opportunities for Seoul’s taxi drivers,” Uber Korea said in a statement released Tuesday.

The statement came after thousands of taxi drivers staged a rally in central Seoul, asking the city government to kick Uber out of the Korean market.

“Uber first must agree to stop their service. Then, we can talk,” a tax lobby official said.

Launched in August, Uber connects customers with Uber-registered drivers through a smartphone app.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but has anyone tried this yet in Korea?  I wonder how much cheaper this is compared to the already reasonable taxi fares?

Who creates a building to barbeque in with a straw roof, one exit, and no fire extinguisher?  Well a guy in Damyang did with deadly results:

Four university students were killed and six others sustained injuries in a fire at a guest house in Damyang, South Jeolla Province, Saturday.

The fire erupted in a hut in the guest house compound, where some guests were having a barbeque.

A survivor said the fire began after one of the guests attempted to extinguish a charcoal fire by pouring water onto it, which caused sparks to reach the flammable ceiling.

Police said the hut was built with flammable materials ― dried grass for the roof, a wooden floor and plastic walls.

Twenty-six guests were inside the hut grilling meat at the time of the incident. All were students from Dongshin University in Naju, South Jeolla Province.

Another survivor said there wasn’t a fire extinguisher in the hut, which is used by guests for barbeques.

“I had to bring one from elsewhere, but even that stopped working after 30 seconds,” he was quoted as saying by a police officer.

Police suspect poor safety inspections are to blame for the fire which started at 9:45 p.m. and lasted 50 minutes.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but this is just another example of poor safety awareness in Korea. Hopefully the increased media attention on this subject in Korea will improve safety awareness to reduce incidents like this from happening.

It sounds like that someone in marketing over at IKEA wasn’t doing their job very well by not looking to avoid controversy with hot button issues such as this before their grand opening in Korea:

Swedish furniture retailer IKEA, which will open here for business next month, has already become a focus of controversy because of decorative world maps in its product range that identify the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan as the “Sea of Japan,” not the “East Sea.”

IKEA Korea said Tuesday that the maps, currently available at some of the company’s overseas outlets, won’t be shipped into Korea. The Korean unit of the international furniture retailer said the product was made based on Google Maps.

Korea and Japan have wrangled for decades over what to name the waters between the two countries.

“We are sorry for causing controversy,” IKEA Korea said in a statement. “We are fully aware of the seriousness of this case for the Korean people.”

The company said that the map in question had already been excluded from a list of products to be imported to Korea. But it didn’t suggest any solution such as replacing Sea of Japan with East Sea or including both names on the map.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I hope they scrubbed their website and promotional products to make sure that their is no reference to Takeshima as well.

Via a reader tip comes news that the Korean left is trying to re-stoke this old issue to bash USFK with:

The city estimated that polluted water near the Yongsan Garrison and Camp Kim came to 1,870 tons and 100 tons, respectively.

City officials noted that benzene, toluene and xylene among other chemicals were found in the underground water system.

Despite the capital pumping nearly 2,000 tons of contaminated water since 2001, pollutants were found to have remained in drainage water from the bases.

The discovery of pollutants is increasing concerns about waste disposal at U.S. bases, already heightened by concerns of possible Agent Orange contamination at camps in Korea.

Officials reiterated the urgency of preventing pollutants from entering the Hangang River. (Korea Herald)

You can read more at the link but the so called environmentalists are also bashing camps that are no longer even being turned over like Camp Casey and Camp Hovey. First of all there is going to be pollution on camps that are decades old and housed military equipment. This is not news. Secondly these studies in the past have been sensationalized by including lead contamination from rifle ranges and oil from new asphalt as pollution. They even claimed that people had to wear decontamination suits to go on Camp Kyle which I proved was false.

A lot of this issue comes down money.
When the base handover agreements were completed by the Roh Moo-Hyun government, they agreed to take the land including all buildings and infrastructure at no cost. Further cleanup efforts beyond what the United States already has done is supposed to be handled by the ROK. So on this issue the left gets to bash USFK again while the government can use this issue to get more money from the U.S. To pay for base clean up.

Foreigners join a traditional Korean wrestling competition, or ssireum, at an event in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, on Nov. 14, 2014. (Yonhap)

This is not exactly a tasteful photograph to celebrate graduation with and I am not surprised it is being criticized in Korea:

A poster showing topless art students posing has gone viral on social media after it was uploaded on a personal online account.

Eighteen modern dance students at Chonbuk National University in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, took the now-famous photograph to commemorate their graduation, reports said.

It is customary for seniors to take studio photographs with their friends. However, this particular photo drew controversy when it was made into a poster for a graduation recital — an official school event.

The photos show the dancers 17 female and one male ­shirtless and with their backs to the camera.

“Things are difficult in our department as a result of this poster going viral,” Kim Yoon-ah, a teaching assistant in the dance department, told The Korea Times.  [Korea Times via the Marmot’s Hole]

You can read more at the link, but the rule of thumb just about anywhere is to ask yourself is this a photograph you would want to send to grandma? With that said the one guy in this photo is probably proud to show it to everyone including grandma.

Singer IU salutes at an event in Seoul on Nov. 6, 2014, to promote her to an honorary police corporal. (Yonhap)

It is anyone surprised the Korean leftists were not out protesting the ROK-China FTA like they were doing with the U.S.?:

Korea and China more or less concluded years of on-and-off talks about a free trade pact on Monday. President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping announced the conclusion of the FTA in Beijing on Monday.

The negotiations began in May 2012.

Once the FTA goes into effect, binding the world’s second and 15th-largest economies, it will create an economic bloc valued at US$11 trillion.

Korea stands to gain greater access to a W5,000 trillion (US$1=W1,085) market with a population of 1.3 billion.

Korea is only the third country along with Chile and Peru to sign FTAs with the U.S., EU and China.

The biggest gain for Korean negotiators is that most of the agricultural market, including rice, remains protected from Chinese imports. China in turn managed to maintain existing tariffs on Korean-made petrochemical products, steel and cars. (Chosun Ilbo)

You can more at the link.

The captain of the Sewol ferry boat will likely die in prison considering his age, but I am surprised how the engineer was convicted of murder and not the captain:

A district court on Tuesday sentenced the captain of the sunken ferry Sewol to 36 years in prison for abandoning passengers at the time of the deadly sinking.

Lee Joon-seok, however, was acquitted of charges that he murdered 304 passengers as he left them behind while he was the first to be rescued when the ill-fated ship was sinking off South Korea’s southern coast on April 16.

The Gwangju District Court in this southern city convicted the 68-year-old skipper of gross negligence and dereliction of duty, including abandoning his ship while the passengers, most of them high school students on a school trip, remained trapped inside the ship.

“Captain Lee ordered the second mate to tell passengers to get off the ship when the patrol ship was about to arrive at the scene,” judge Lim Jung-yeob said in his ruling. “It is hard to conclude that the captain’s act eventually led to the death of the passengers just based on the evidence submitted by the prosecution.”

Prosecutors, who had earlier sought the death penalty against Lee, said they would immediately appeal the verdict.

In the same ruling, the Gwangju District Court sentenced the ship’s chief engineer, only identified by his surname Park, to 30 years in prison, convicting him of murder.

Prison terms ranging from five years to 20 years were delivered to 13 other crew members, including the first engineer surnamed Sohn, who have been charged with abandonment and violation of a ship safety act. (Yonhap)

I do find it interesting how these crew members are deservedly getting smashed with these sentences while the corporate owners and aids of the ferry boat company who in my opinion are the biggest villains get a slap on the wrist.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” lang=”en”><p>&quot;Gov&#39;t Cancels Billion-Dollar Fighter Jet Contract with BAE&quot; has been published on Koreanoodles. Read it at… <a href=”http://t.co/2Kk4tKHac8″>http://t.co/2Kk4tKHac8</a></p>&mdash; Korea Noodles (@Korea_Noodles) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Korea_Noodles/status/530863789290553344″>November 7, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>