Tag: South Korea

It looks like ROK conservatives are preparing for President Yoon’s impeachment to be confirmed and are now communicating their platform for the upcoming snap election:

Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo, left, and Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo pay tribute to the 2.28 Democracy Movement Monument in Daegu, Friday. Yonhap

“The current Constitution, adopted in 1987, must change. People should not experience [DPK] Rep. Lee’s 29 impeachment motions or the president’s martial law imposition ever again,” Han told reporters Sunday. “Accomplishing this requires a willingness to make sacrifices on the part of those entrusted with important tasks.”

In an interview, Han said that if elected president, he would advocate for a constitutional amendment to introduce a four-year term with the possibility of reelection and would step down in 2028 to ensure that the next presidential and general elections coincide. He also said establishing a congress with two separate legislative chambers, similar to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, is essential.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon also echoed the idea, suggesting that whoever is the next president should resign after three years in office so as to align the two elections (presidential and general). Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo expressed his support for the four-year term with reelection and a bicameral legislature but disagreed with the proposal to shorten the next presidential term to three years.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Hopefully this ends up being a sustainable increase:

The number of babies born in South Korea increased for the first time in nine years in 2024, driven by a post-pandemic rise in marriages, evolving attitudes toward parenthood and demographic changes, the statistics agency said Wednesday.

A total of 238,300 babies were born last year, up 3.6 percent from a record low of 230,000 in 2023, according to Statistics Korea. The figure had been declining since 2015, when it stood at 438,400.

The total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, also rebounded for the first time in nine years, reaching 0.75 in 2024, up from 0.72 tallied a year earlier.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Some how I doubt the writers of the 14th Admendment envisioned foreigners from other countries rushing to the U.S. to have a kid in order to avoid military service in their home country. People without legal status in the U.S. should not have their kid given citizenship because this is just another example of how it is abused:

A Seoul court has supported the rejection of an application for dual US-South Korean citizenship because their parent’s residence in the US was for the purpose of their child gaining US citizenship.

The Seoul Administrative Court said Monday that it had ruled in favor of the Seoul Southern Immigration Office, which rejected the plaintiff’s February 2024 application to retain the citizenships of both countries.

South Korea’s Nationality Act states that a child of a citizen obtains citizenship at birth, and the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution grants citizenship to anyone born inside its territories. This means that someone born in the US to parents who are Korean citizens — as in case of the plaintiff — is granted dual citizenships at birth.

Dual citizens at birth are usually allowed to retain the nationality of South Korea and another country by pledging to the government not to exercise the rights of foreign citizenship before the age of 22, or within two years of completing their mandatary military service in the case of men. This is to prevent dual citizens from dodging duties mandated for South Koreans, such military service.

But the immigration office refused to allow dual citizenship to the plaintiff, saying that the plaintiff’s mother is thought to have lived in the US only for the explicit purpose of obtaining US citizenship for her child — sometimes referred to as “birth tourism.” The Nationality Act states that in cases where the parent is “deemed to have resided in a foreign country for the purpose of having the person acquire the nationality of the foreign country,” the child can retain his or her South Korean citizenship only after renouncing the other nationality.

The plaintiff’s mother went to the US in 2003 just before giving birth to the plaintiff, staying in the country for a month and a half.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if Hong has an immunity deal of some kind in return for his testimony? If so it should be disclosed:

A list of politicians who President Yoon Suk Yeol allegedly ordered to be arrested has been at the center of the president’s impeachment trial this month along with the whistleblower who disclosed it as crucial evidence. Hong Jang-won, one of 16 witnesses summoned in Yoon’s impeachment, which began on Jan. 14, is the only figure who has been called into the Constitutional Court twice.

As a graduate of the 43rd class of the Korea Military Academy, Hong worked as South Korea’s top spy specializing in overseas intelligence and North Korea for over 30 years. (…….)

Hong appeared in court again on Thursday after the president’s legal team raised concerns about the credibility of his testimony. Hong’s testimony given on Feb. 4 drew significant attention as he claimed that Yoon ordered him to arrest key political figures on the night of the short-lived martial law declaration on Dec. 3.

“Take this opportunity to round them (the lawmakers) all up. The NIS will be given counterespionage authority, so for now, assist the Defense Counterintelligence Command (in doing so),” Yoon told him, according to Hong. (……..)

According to Hong, soon after Yoon called him at 10:53 p.m., he received a call from then-DCC chief Yeo In-hyeong, who listed the names of the people to be arrested that night.

“‘Is he insane?’ I thought, and then I stopped writing (people’s names) during the call,” Hong testified in court on Feb. 4, recalling his reaction as he heard the names.

“Lee Jae-myung, Woo Won-shik, Han Dong-hoon, Park Chan-dae, Cho Kook…” Hong listed the names without hesitance when Yoon’s lawyer asked who they were.

However, NIS Director Cho Tae-yong — Hong’s boss — raised strong doubts about the veracity of the alleged note during his own testimony as a witness on Feb. 13.

“I’ve checked the surveillance camera footage,” Cho told the court, adding that Hong was in his office at the time when he claims he was near Cho’s official residence.

Hong on Thursday admitted to a “slight error” in his memory.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but how do you have memory lapses with something as significant as this?

According to the latest Gallup poll, the DPK has risen in popularity while the PPP has slide by five points:

The support rating for the ruling People Power Party fell as the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea regained its lead in terms of party affiliation, with the president’s impeachment trial poised to end Tuesday, a poll showed Friday.

According to Gallup Korea’s poll of 1,002 potential South Korean voters conducted in the third week of February, those who identified as supporters of the ruling party amounted to 34 percent, down 5 percentage points from a week prior.

With declining support, the ruling party — whose lawmakers have en masse protested President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment trial procedures — conceded the lead it had held in the previous poll. Those who responded in support of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea rose 2 percentage points to 40 percent. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, putting their numbers just within the margin at opposite extremes.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This Soldier must not care much about whatever family he has in North Korea because they will assuredly be sent to work camps due to this decision:

One of the two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine has expressed his wish to go to South Korea, a news report said Wednesday, in what would be the first known case for a North Korean captive to voice an intent to defect to the South.

A North Korean solider, identified only by his surname Ri, said in an interview with the Chosun Ilbo that he never knew he would engage in combat against Ukraine as he was told that he would be sent to Russia for training as an overseas student.

“I have made up my mind 80 percent … Above all, I will seek refuge and am thinking about going to the Republic of Korea (ROK). If I apply for asylum, would they take me?” Ri said, when asked about his plan for the future.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is quite a turn over in restaurants when the number of closures is even worse than the COVID years:

South Korea’s restaurant industry is in the midst of its worst downturn in nearly two decades, with over 107,000 eateries shutting down in 2024 — the highest number on record.

For the first time in 16 years, more restaurants closed than opened, signaling a shift in a sector once known for its resilience and fierce competition. A combination of rising ingredient costs, slowing consumer spending, and post-pandemic economic struggles has created a perfect storm in the industry.

According to government data, 10.4 percent of full-service restaurants closed in 2024, the highest closure rate since 2005. In the capital city of Seoul, the rate was even higher at 13 percent, while Sejong City saw a staggering 14.6 percent closure rate. These figures reflect a growing financial strain on restaurant owners, who have faced mounting challenges since the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the dining industry.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

You would think by now people would realize any data you give to a Chinese company could eventually be accessed by the Chinese government. With DeepSeek the data is so far just been sent to ByteDance which can then be easily sent to the Chinese government if requested:

South Korea’s data protection regulator has confirmed that the DeepSeek chatbot, developed by a China-based artificial intelligence startup, sent the nation’s user data to a third party, the Chinese owner of TikTok, ByteDance, according to officials Tuesday. 

The confirmation came a day after the regulator, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), announced it has temporarily suspended new downloads of DeepSeek in South Korea over concerns about its data collection practices.

“We confirmed DeepSeek communicating with ByteDance,” a PIPC official said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Trilateral ties may be unshakeable, but good luck trying to get North Korea to denuclearize because that is pretty much a fantasy as this point:

The top diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan held their first meeting since the launch of the new Trump administration, reaffirming their “unshakable trilateral partnership.”

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and his American and Japanese counterparts Marco Rubio and Takeshi Iwaya held talks on Saturday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

According to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, the top diplomats discussed ways to enhance trilateral cooperation, responses to North Korea issues including its nuclear weapons, regional situations, and ways to expand economic cooperation.

In a joint statement, the three sides reaffirmed their resolute commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea.

KBS World

You can read more at the link.