The ROK military claims stern measures will be taken if North Korea’s trash balloons start causing fires:
South Korea’s military on Monday vowed to take “stern” military measures should North Korea “cross the line” with its ongoing trash balloon campaign or inflict serious damage to the South Korean people.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) made the remark in a statement in response to the North’s repeated launch of trash-carrying balloons across the border, including those attached with timer devices that could potentially cause fires.
You can read more at the link, but it sounds like an empty threat to me. Really what is the ROK going to do in response, launch their own balloons that start fires in North Korea?
Who would have thought having a bunch of kids in the classroom who don’t speak Korean would lead to stress for the teachers trying to educate them? Yes I am being sarcastic:
More than half of teachers at schools with a high number of immigrant students face challenges communicating with pupils from multicultural backgrounds due to their limited Korean language skills, a recent study shows.
According to a report released on Sunday by the Korea Educational Development Institute (KEDI), a lack of policy support often exacerbates this problem, potentially increasing teachers’ workloads and undermining the quality of education they provide.
The report, which surveyed 342 teachers from 95 elementary and middle schools nationwide, revealed that 76.9 percent of respondents cited the increasing number of students from foreign families who do not speak Korean as the most challenging aspect of their work. Additionally, 59.1 percent reported heightened workloads and burnout due to the need to support these students, while 44.5 percent pointed to insufficient policy and institutional support as a significant issue.
You can read more at the link.
Usually I do not have much sympathy with taxi drivers in Korea when they try and rip off Soldiers. But in this case a $50 fair for a ride from Seoul to Dongducheon is actually a pretty fair price:
Police plan to recommend assault charges against a U.S. soldier accused of throwing a 73-year-old taxi driver to the ground after complaining his fare was too high. On Sept. 1, a 21-year-old enlisted soldier from Camp Casey hailed a taxi with three other people in Seoul’s Map district, a Dongducheon police officer told Stars and Stripes by phone Friday.
South Korean officials customarily speak to the media on condition of anonymity and typically do not identify individuals suspected of crimes until they are formally charged. The taxi driver dropped the soldier’s companions off before heading to the final destination near Casey in Dongducheon, the officer said.
The soldier slept during the ride and was woken up by the driver upon arrival. After being asked for the $50 fare, the soldier complained it was too high and threw the driver to the ground by his neck, the officer said. The driver immediately reported the incident to police and said he suffered an orbital fracture and scratches to his face.
You can read more at the link.
Is this posturing or this a sign of breaking of will within the Yoon the administration against the striking Korean doctors:
Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said Sunday that the government could revisit its medical school admission quota plan for 2026 if the medical community offers a rational alternative.
In an interview with KBS, Cho said, “For 2026, if the medical community presents a reasonable alternative, we can review the admissions numbers with a fresh perspective.”
“The government has proposed an increase of 2,000, but since the medical community has criticized this as unscientific and lacking evidence, we are asking what they believe would be a scientifically based and well-founded admission number,” Cho added.
You can read more at the link, but at this point President Yoon might as well stick this out and make increasing the number of doctors in Korea part of his lasting legacy even though his poll numbers are getting burned by it now.
At this point you just have to assume that any Chinese made electronic device has the ability to spy on you and that includes the Chinese made smartphone in your pocket:
South Korea’s military has been forced to remove more than 1,300 surveillance cameras from its bases after learning that they could be used to transmit signals to China, Yonhap news agency reported.
The cameras, which were supplied by a South Korean company, “were found to be designed to be able to transmit recorded footage externally by connecting to a specific Chinese server”, the outlet reported an unnamed military official as saying.Korean intelligence agencies discovered the cameras’ Chinese origins in July during an examination of military equipment, Yonhap said.
While some of the cameras were near the border with North Korea, they weren’t monitoring it and were instead focused on training bases and fences, the official said.
You can read more at the link.
Automakers that made bets on hybrid cars are seeing great sales compared to the EV market which appears to have plateaued until battery technology and charging infrastructure makes significant advancements:
Exports of hybrid cars produced domestically this year are close to the highest ever, the report showed.
According to the Korea Automobile Mobility Industry Association (KAMA) on the 16th, a total of 279,165 hybrid cars were exported from January to August this year by domestic automakers such as Hyundai Motor, Kia, GM Korea, and KG Mobility. This is an increase of 32.5% from 216,629 units in the same period last year, the highest performance in the January-August period ever. If the current trend continues until the end of the year, it is expected to exceed the annual export volume of 313,071 hybrid vehicles recorded last year.
Exports of hybrid vehicles have been steadily increasing over the past five years. It reached 124,503 units in 2020 and surpassed 300,000 units for the first time last year.
Among eco-friendly cars, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) have been suffering from sluggish export performance this year, but hybrid vehicles are the only ones with good performance. Amid the prolonged phenomenon of electric vehicle catharsis (temporary slowdown in demand), its value as a substitute seems to be a significant impact. Electric vehicle exports from January to August this year were 179,203 units, down 23.2% from 233,276 units in the same period last year. PHEV exports also fell 30.6% year-on-year to 34,893 units.
You can read more at the link.
This is what the doctor strike in South Korea is causing, pregnant women stuck in ambulances for six hours trying to find a hospital that will take them:
It is known that the pregnant woman asked 119 for help, saying, “The amniotic fluid is leaking,” but she was treated after waiting for six hours in an ambulance without finding a hospital. Fire officials knocked on the doors of 75 hospitals but were rejected.
According to the Chungbuk and provincial fire departments on the 15th, a report came into 119 at 11:25 a.m. the previous day that “a 25-week-old pregnant woman’s amniotic fluid burst” in Cheongju.
The 119 paramedics decided that it was an emergency situation where the pregnant woman was bleeding, and began looking for hospitals to accept patients.
The fire authorities requested 75 large hospitals, starting with Chungcheongbuk-do, from Incheon to Incheon, Gyeonggi-do, Jeolla-do, Gyeongsang-do, and Jeju-do, but all refused to transfer due to “no obstetricians” and “lack of newborn hospital rooms.”
You can read more at the link, but fortunately the woman and baby end of being saved.
