LOL! Seoul City recently placed 80 (130 says JTBC) massive tree pots in Seoul's Gwanghwamun to block Park Geun-hye lovers from installing "release her from jail" tents.
Today: PGH lovers install tents in Gwanghwamun spots "where there were no trees".
Anti-Trump rallyProgressive civic activists call for an end to international sanctions against North Korea in a protest rally held in downtown Seoul on June 29, 2019, that was also aimed at expressing their opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s scheduled trip to South Korea set to begin later in the day. (Yonhap)
Forest fire victims rally A group of residents and merchants from the northeastern cities of Sokcho and Goseong, victimized by a devastating forest fire in April, rally near the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on June 7, 2019, to demand the government compensate them for their damages from the fire and come up with policies to support them. (Yonhap)
I guess you can add this to the something I did not know about Korea category:
Members of the Korean Federation of Service Workers’ Unions rally in front of the National Human Rights Commission building in downtown Seoul, April 22, to condemn the restriction on the use of customer restrooms. Yonhap
Going to the restroom is a basic need. But for some, it is a daunting task even though they have access to restrooms nearby. At department stores and duty free shops, sales people are banned from using the same restrooms as customers.
They are told to use one of the limited number of “workers-only” restrooms, leading to long lines and added discomfort.
Members of cosmetics companies’ labor unions and the Korean Federation of Service Workers’ Unions (KFSWU) rallied in front of the National Human Rights Commission building in downtown Seoul on April 22 to call for the right to use restrooms that the department stores and duty free shops designated as “customers only.”
The unionists mainly belong to luxury brands such as Shiseido Korea, Bluebell Korea, ELCA Korea and LVMH.
“The department store prohibited sales workers from using restrooms on every floor of the building, saying those are only for customers,” Kim Yeon-woo, head of the Shiseido Korea union, said during a press conference in front of the commission.
“Many workers have a hard time using the designated staff toilets because they’re not located close enough to the sales counters and there are not enough of them.”
According to the laws on public toilets, there is no mention of “customer-only” restrooms. Washroom facilities at large commercial buildings over 2,000 square meters, such as department stores and duty free shops, are considered to be public toilets, meaning they are available for use by the public as well as store employees, according to Kim.
“However, department stores go as far as to give regular education to the workers not to use customers’ restrooms, because consumers may feel uncomfortable when they encounter sales workers there,” Kim said. “I can’t believe we have to demand such basic rights in the 21st century.”
Since they are left wing activists I would be surprised if anything significant happens to them for forcibly occupying the office of a prominent Korean opposition lawmaker:
Police on Saturday requested arrest warrants for two members of a progressive collegiate association for trespassing.
The two had occupied Liberty Korea Party Floor Leader Na Kyung-won’s office as part of a protest, Yeongdeungpo Police Station said Sunday. They are reportedly college students.
They were among 22 members of the group who had occupied Rep. Na’s office at around 10 a.m. Friday to stage a protest demanding Na and Liberty Korea Party chief Hwang Kyo-ahn step down from their positions.
The members are calling for Na and Hwang to resign based on claims that Na made an inappropriate remark on Korean history and Hwang tried to cover up Kim Hak-eui’s sex bribery scandal and hindered attempts to find the truth regarding the Sewol Ferry tragedy.
During the 40-minute protest, the members chanted and carried placards. They also formed a scrummage by lying down on the ground when the National Assembly’s security staff tried to stop them.
The members were dragged outside of the building some 50 minutes after the protest began. Police took the members to the police station after they continued their protest in front of the building.
The owner of a Ford Explorer smashes his car with a baseball bat in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, Jan. 20. Yonhap
A Korean man has destroyed his new car worth more than 50 million won ($45,000) in a fury, claiming he was given a Ford Explorer that “wasn’t actually new.”
Jang Dong-min smashed his vehicle with a baseball bat in front of a Ford sales shop in Jeonju on Jan. 20, accusing Ford Motor Company of giving him a car with “traces of repair.”
“It was the last and only thing I could do after no one had believed me,” Jang told The Korea Times Tuesday. “Every time I looked at my car, I felt my heart swelling with anger … I couldn’t just let it go.”
Jang bought his first Ford Explorer in May 2017, but within a few weeks, a serious engine problem occurred, he said. So the company exchanged that car for a new one in August that year.
But he later found some traces, which he believes indicate that his car was not brand new.
After receiving an experts’ technical evaluation report that supports his claims, Jang eventually brought the issue to the court. But the judges did not accept his claims.
Protest over remarks by ex-president’s wifeMembers of a civic group lie on the road in front of the residence of former President Chun Doo-hwan in Seoul on Jan. 4, 2019, as they hold a rally in protest over the reported remarks by Chun’s wife, Lee Soon-ja, that her husband is the father of South Korea’s democratization. Chun has faced public criticism of his involvement in the 1980 Gwangju massacre and irregularities during his term. Chun served as president until February 1988 after rising to power in 1980 through a 1979 coup. (Yonhap)
After the suicide of a taxi driver who set himself on fire to protest the introduction of a ride sharing app in South Korea, 100,000 taxi drivers will surround the National Assembly on Thursday. I was pleasantly surprised that someone in the media is actually reporting on what I believe these taxi drivers should be doing instead, evolving with the times:
Taxi drivers protest in front of the National Assembly at Yeouido, Nov. 22, at the second major rally against ridesharing apps. Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han
But taxi drivers say Kakao’s planned ridesharing app steps outside legal boundaries. The app allows users to hail rides at any time of day, rather than being limited to rush hour.
The app would also charge around 70 percent to 80 percent of the normal taxi fare, which means it could easily take customers away from taxi drivers who are already facing long work hours and small incomes.
“I’m sacrificing my life in the hopes taxi drivers can earn livable wages one day,” Choi wrote in a suicide note.
Despite such strong protest from taxi drivers, public sentiment has mostly been in favor of the ridesharing app due to dissatisfaction with the availability and quality of taxi services. It is common for taxi drivers to refuse passengers going short distances late at night, especially in crowded areas of Seoul like Hongdae, Gangnam and Itaewon.
But the problem can be solved within the taxi business itself, Lee said.
“We actually have too many idle taxis, so the number of operating taxis in the country is virtually 200,000, not the registered 250,000,” Lee said. “We are working to resolve this by creating our own cab-hailing app that sends taxis to where they are most needed. The app will also hide the intended destination of passengers from the driver, so they can’t pick and choose between passengers.”
You can read more at the link, but there is nothing hard about making a rival app for taxi drivers, the hard part is changing the taxi driver culture which is causing the demand for a ride sharing app in the first place.
It seems that taxi drivers going on strike actually encourages people to use carpooling apps even more:
Taxi drivers on Thursday stage a protest outside the National Assembly in western Seoul in opposition to Kakao’s move to introduce a carpooling service. [YONHAP]Taxi drivers from four interest groups gathered outside the National Assembly Thursday to protest Kakao’s move to introduce a carpooling service.
The drivers are demanding legislators make the proposed business illegal, claiming that the service will threaten their livelihoods.
The collective move came after a 24-hour strike on Oct. 18. The strike itself was called two days after Kakao made public on Oct. 16 its plans to introduce the Kakao T carpooling service and began recruiting drivers.
Kakao has not been dissuaded. After the strike, it released an app for carpooling drivers and added a tab for the carpooling service to its existing Kakao T taxi app. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but instead of trying to get the government to give them special treatment, it seems the taxi cab drivers should improve their business model to compete with the ride sharing apps instead.
Japanese citizens rally on Nov. 13, 2018, at a subway station near the Tokyo Dome, where K-pop sensation BTS was to stage a concert on the day, in a counterprotest to a demonstration bashing Korea. The boy group came under attack by the ultra-right groups in Japan after one of its members was seen wearing a T-shirt alluding to Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule and the atomic bombing of Japan. (Yonhap)
