At least some more parts of the old Yongsan Garrison is being used as a public park. Hopefully this continues instead of just filling in this land with apartments:
A repurposed section of Yongsan Garrison, once the U.S. military’s primary headquarters in South Korea, opened to the public as a park on Thursday during a ceremony convened by South Korean President Yoon.
Over 200 kids and parents attended the grand opening of the Yongsan Children’s Garden, a newly developed 74-acre park in Seoul, according to a news release from the presidential office.
Yoon at the ceremony praised the park’s construction and said there are “no decent fields in our country where children … can run as much as they want,” according to the release.
The opening ceremony took place on the eve of Children’s Day, a South Korean national holiday.
The park is next to the presidential office and includes a cafe, a walking trail lined with sycamore trees, a baseball field and a soccer field. Its location is meant to “serve as a bridge between the government and the people,” the release said.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
This is absolutely horrible:
An apartment in Seoul’s Nowon district where an apparent murder-suicide involving a family of three occurred is cordoned off by police on May 3, 2023. (Yonhap)
A family of three, including a months-old baby, were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in northeastern Seoul on Wednesday, police said.
A 33-year-old-man surnamed Lee, his 37-year-old wife and their baby, believed to be several months old, were found dead by the police at an apartment in the Nowon district at 4:46 a.m.
The woman was found stabbed with a knife inside the apartment, and the bodies of the man and the baby were found outside, the police said, adding officers went there after receiving a call from the man’s father.
The police began an investigation, speculating the man may have killed his wife before jumping off the apartment building with the baby.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Considering the extremely competitive nature of high school education in South Korea it is no surprise that various drugs are sought after to gain an advantage:
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| A banner in Daechi-dong, Seoul, reads: “Do not drink ‘strange beverages’ handed out to students.” (Choi Jae-hee / The Korea Herald) |
On April 3, an appalling scam targeting unsuspecting students on the streets of this neighborhood sent shockwaves across the nation. Over 100 bottles of drinks laced with methamphetamines and ecstasy were distributed, falsely marketed as study aids to enhance concentration and memory.
The scammers even tried to blackmail some of the victims’ parents, threatening to report their children to the authorities for drug use unless they paid up.
Putting aside the audacity of their act, it raises questions: Why did they choose to target Daechi-dong among all the other neighborhoods in Seoul?
The drug-infused drinks were labeled as “Mega ADHD” and handed out to teenage passersby, just like in a street promotional event.
Perhaps what made the young victims less suspicious was that in Daechi-dong, study aids such as prescription medications for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, caffeine pills and energy drinks are widely used.
Some parents spoke of falsifying symptoms to get access to ADHD prescription drugs, believing they will enhance academic performance. The substance methylphenidate in ADHD medicine can help takers stay awake, energetic and focused.
“Some students are particularly vulnerable to stress before important exams and get easily distracted. Those who have maintained great academic performance would not want to spoil things due to temporary stress, so they resort to taking prescription stimulants,” said Huh, a housewife in her 50s residing in Daechi-dong who has a 17-year-old daughter.
“It is an expedient, but not illegal,” she said, explaining that some parents and students pretend to have or exaggerate ADHD when seeing a doctor.
Data shows the number of teenagers on ADHD pills has been on the rise.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
Great job by the firefighters in Seoul for quickly putting out this forest fire before any property damage in the city could occur:
A wildfire on a mountain in central Seoul was completely put out Monday afternoon after 25 hours, authorities said.
The fire started on Mount Inwang, a popular trekking spot in the central ward of Jongno, shortly before noon Sunday and spread rapidly due to strong wind, temporarily forcing about 120 households to evacuate, according to the Seoul city government. No injuries or deaths have been reported.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but no word yet on what the cause of the fire was.
Hopefully firefighters can get this fire under control before it spreads down the mountain slopes towards Seoul:
President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed relevant authorities Sunday to make all-out efforts to put out and prevent spring wildfires, his office said.
Yoon issued the message following reports of wildfires on Mount Inwang, near the previous location of South Korea’s presidential office, and a mountain in Hongseong, 114 kilometers south of Seoul.
As of 2:30 p.m., some 580 officials and nine helicopters had been mobilized to put out the blaze on Mount Inwang that broke out shortly before noon. There have been no reports of deaths or injuries caused by it.
Authorities have banned entry to the mountain, with residents in nearby areas being evacuated. Some 120 households already have been evacuated.
Some 0.23 square kilometers of land, equivalent to the size of 32 football fields, have been destroyed by the wildfire.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
