Tag: Korea

If it feels like there are less ATMs to use in South Korea you would be right because their numbers are decreasing due to banks losing money trying to maintain them:

As the bankbook fades in popularity, ATMs are beginning to vanish as well. According to the Financial Supervisory Service, the number of ATMs run by domestic banks peaked at the end of 2011 with 56,102 machines and has declined since then, marking 53,562 units last year.

The ATM was first introduced by British bank Barclays in 1967. Back then, ATMs caused as big of a splash in the banking industry as financial technology, or fintech, is making today. As ATMs proliferated, many bank tellers saw themselves becoming redundant. Ironically, as ATMs now fade, the number of bank employees is on rise – to 118,703 last year from 110,529 a year earlier.

One reason for the decline of ATMs is a decrease in bank branches where the machines are installed. Between 2011 and 2014, 64 domestic bank branches and local offices shut their doors, largely due to the rise of internet and mobile banking services.

However, ATMs are disappearing much faster than bank branches. In many cases, this is because the fees charged by the machines are no longer sufficient to make them profitable.

“The income from bank charges made at ATMs isn’t even sufficient for managing the machines, and it is a lot easier to close the machines than to adjust the workforce,” said one business insider. “This is why ATMs installed outside stores are diminishing as well.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but banks are losing about $1,500 a month to each ATM they have.  Personally I find myself using ATMs less and less due to using a debit card instead of cash.  As mobile payment platforms such as Apple Pay become more popular this will further decrease the need for ATMs.

For those of us who were in Korea in 2000 when the Yongsan Water Dumping Incident happened this news about 25 companies dumping toxic chemicals in the Han River with hardly any outrage shows the entire hypocrisy of what happened back in 2000:

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday it has caught 25 companies releasing wastewater polluted with hazardous chemicals into the Han River.

Most of the polluters are small and medium-sized enterprises operating factories to make textiles and metals, according to the municipality. But it refused to disclose their names.

The city government suspected the firms discharged nearly 3,000 tons of wastewater poisoned with potassium cyanide, chromium, lead, copper and phenol, all of which should be tightly regulated for its potential health risks.

The city found the illegal wastewater release after taking samples from 52 locations along the river during an inspection that began in April.

“The city received tips about their illegal activities,” a city inspection officer said. “We know there are businesses which have released hazardous chemicals into the river. This year, inspection has been stricter because of a drought. If factories upstream leak chemicals, it could cause serious damage to drinking water for Seoul residents.”

The Han River is a major source of drinking water in Seoul and its surrounding areas.

The inspector said the level of potassium cyanide found in water was 765 times higher than the permitted amount. The amount of chromium was 10 times more than the allowable limit. The level of lead, copper and phenol showed 4,098 times, 628 times and 222 times, respectively, higher than the regulated cap.  [The Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but this is just another example of why I do not recommend drinking tap water in Korea.  To put this pollution in perspective South Korea went into a anti-American hatefest over 20 gallons of formaldehyde that was diluted first by running water, then was processed through the Seoul waste treatment system, and finally through the Nanjido central metropolitan treatment plant along with 1.9 million gallons of other sewage and waste. Here we have 3,000 tons of potassium cyanide, chromium, lead, copper and phenol dumped in the Han River with little criticism.

https://twitter.com/SouthKoreaDaily/status/611668552509075456

Could you imagine what the reaction would be if these were American servicemembers accused of this even if the story didn’t add up like this one apparently isn’t according to the report:

Eight Korean men are embroiled in a rape scandal in the Philippines, which has prompted other Korean expats there to fear for their safety.

Broadcaster GMA reported Monday that the eight Korean men are suspected of raping a Filipino woman in her 20s after plying her with alcohol and taking her to a hotel.

The Filipino broadcaster said the woman met one of the men in online chat and agreed to meet him for drinks. The woman says the two then went to another bar, where seven other Korean men sexually molested her and took her to a hotel where they raped her. She says the men physically assaulted her when she tried to resist and she had to go to hospital.

Police have not yet been able to find definitive evidence to corroborate the victims’ claims of rape.

The report created a public uproar in the Philippines and went viral on the Internet. But a Korean Embassy inspector says the woman’s claims do not add up.

The inspector told the Chosun Ilbo, “A close inspection of surveillance camera footage showed no trace of the seven other men who the woman claimed took part in the rape.”

Police in the Philippines are investigating the prime suspect. An embassy official said, “We are concerned that the report by a major broadcaster could harm Korea’s image and lead to revenge attacks on Koreans. We plan to seek a review of the police investigation and launch an official response.”  [Chosun Ilbo]

Hopefully the truth will eventually come out, but this is another example of why people should wait and see facts come out before drawing conclusions on crimes like this.  However, she did go to the hospital which should be able to provide a wealth of physical and forensic evidence to help determine if she was gang raped even if the video evidence does not support it.  So it will be interesting to see what comes of this case.

Some how I don’t think this issue is going to make it very high up on President Park’s priority list:

A famous gay sauna in Seoul has banned old, unattractive foreigners, according to a source who was refused entry.

Black is a gay bathhouse in Shinnonhyeon, Seoul that made the headlines in 2012 when the owner was arrested for allowing gays to have sexual intercourse in his public bathhouse.

About 20 people were engaging in a sexual act when the police burst into the sauna according to media reports.

The business still thrives today as people consider it to be a “hot place” but people are also being turned down because they are too old, too fat or from an ethnic minority.

“When trying to visit there I was rejected saying that this place was only for KOREAN PEOPLE,” the source said on the Consumer Complaints Forum of The Korea Observer.

“Clearly foreigners for them means white people and not Asian because I saw a Chinese guy going inside which is a clear discrimination based on race. I was very offended by this policy.”

He said it was very disappointing to see “an already discriminated minority such as being gay goes on to discriminate against another minority such as being a foreigner.”  [Korea Observer]

You can read the rest at the link, but the bathhouse says it only discriminates against unattractive foreigners who are fat or old.  For those that are wondering this is actually perfectly legal in Korea because there are no laws that forbid discrimination by business owners based on race in Korea.

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/611461194960908288

A South Korean Army chaplain offers a prayer to an injured solider as he takes part in a field training exercise for South Korean and U.S. military chaplains at the Army’s Special Warfare Command in Seoul on June 16, 2015. (Yonhap)

It is probably smart that the nationalities of these expats are not being released because I can just see some people trying to blame a certain nationality for the MERS spread:

Dozens of foreigners have been put in quarantine for Middle East respiratory syndrome, but health authorities have yet to identify all of their nationalities, sources said Tuesday.

The Health and Welfare Ministry said that about 20 to 30 foreigners in Korea were ordered to be under home monitoring as they were suspected to have been exposed to MERS-confirmed patients.

As of Tuesday, more than 5,000 individuals in the country are being monitored at home for possible infection.

The exact number and nationality of those concerned has not been fully confirmed because the information of their home countries was not collected in the initial stages of the screening, according to the ministry.

“Once the MERS response team sends the list of those that they assume could be foreigners, we first identify based on names whether they are Korean nationals or not, and then proceed with the personal identification. So far, it may be uncertain, but there are believed to be around 20 to 30 expats under quarantine monitoring,” a Health Ministry official who is in charge of foreign affairs told The Korea Herald.

“The nationality identification is underway, but even if everything is confirmed, their nationalities will be kept confidential because of diplomatic issues,” she said, adding that some countries ask that the information not be released.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

There is no doubt that when it comes to schooling in South Korea the competitiveness between teenagers can reach extreme levels to include high rates of suicide.  This latest scandal is just another example of some of the negative affects of the hyper competitiveness with education in Korea:

Two weeks ago, a South Korean “math prodigy” made headlines across the country after claiming that she had been accepted into two prestigious American universities, Stanford and Harvard.

Kim Jung-yoon, a senior at Thomas Jefferson high School for Science and Technology in Virginia, rose to fame after media reported that the top-tier universities had competed to recruit her to their undergraduate programs and ended up creating a special shared program only for her to study at both schools.

According to the reports, the 18-year-old girl secured a rare chance to study at both schools and choose where to graduate from. Kim showed acceptance letters from the schools to back her claims.

Kim was featured on radio talk shows while her father contributed to the hype by conducting interviews with local news outlets.

The reports on Kim’s achievement sparked envy among Koreans who have been living in a climate where admission into top universities is seen as key to elevating their social status.

But about a week later, her whole story was unraveled, with both Harvard and Stanford universities denying the acceptance of the Korean student. The universities confirmed that there was no such joint program allowing a student to study at both schools, calling the acceptance letters provided by Kim forgeries.

Kim, who appears to have masterminded the whole furor herself, immediately went from being idolized to ridiculed, with her father apologizing last week for causing a stir and promising to take care of her mental health.

Putting aside the reason behind her scam, the scandal appeared to leave a bitter aftertaste here, as it bluntly illustrated the country’s avid obsession with academic elitism and a competitive media industry prone to lapses of judgment.

A 28-year-old student said he could sympathize with her as he understands what it feels like to fail to enter top-tier universities and to be treated like a “loser” in Korean society.  [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link, but the teenager came up with the lie initially probably to get her parents off of her back, but the dad then publicized it in the media.  If he had not publicized it then this would have just been a family issue when the lie would have eventually been exposed.  So the adults, the dad and the journalists who ran the story are more at fault in my opinion than the teenager.  You would think before publishing a story the journalists would have picked up the phone to call the universities to make sure the claims are accurate.

As far as the over competitiveness within the Korean education system; I think it is better than what we see in many US schools where there is an extreme lack of educational competitiveness from both the kids and the parents.

It will probably take just one kid to get infected by MERS to cause all these schools to get shutdown again:

President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday visited a primary school in southern Seoul, which has reopened following the weeklong shutdown over the deadly MERS virus.

The visit is the latest in a series of public activities designed to allay public fears about the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome that has killed 19 South Koreans.

The school had been closed for seven days last week as a precautionary measure against the virus. The school is located near Samsung Medical Center, which has been a major source of infections.

“I will do my best to ensure that (the virus) is brought to an end,” Park said in a meeting with students during a separate visit to a middle school in western Seoul. The middle school was closed for two days last week.

The visit came as South Korea reported four new cases of the viral respiratory illness that put the total number of people diagnosed with the disease at 154 — about half of them infected in Samsung Medical Center.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.