Tag: South Korea

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.”

Maeil Business Newspaper

You can read more at the link, but fortunately the woman and baby end of being saved.

It looks like MCST got caught pushing out unverified reports as facts:

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) recently released a webtoon based on the “North Korea Human Rights Report” that included the claim, “30 North Korean middle school students were publicly executed for watching South Korean dramas.”

However, the Unification Ministry, which published the actual human rights report, stated that no such information is included, raising suspicions that the MCST might have fabricated the news.

According to Rep. Yoon Hu-duk of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, who is also a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, the MCST published a webtoon titled “Talking About the Lives of North Korean Residents Through the 2024 North Korea Human Rights Report” on July 30. The webtoon appeared on the “Korea Policy Briefing,” the official government website that introduces government policies.

In the webtoon, characters claim that “North Korea publicly executed 30 middle school students for watching South Korean dramas on USBs carried by balloons,” and “Not only that, but just recently, 30 teenagers around the age of 17 were sentenced to life imprisonment and execution for similar reasons.”

However, the 2024 North Korea Human Rights Report, which the MCST cited as the basis for the webtoon, does not contain such information.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It seems like the consensus in South Korea to develop their own nuclear deterrent continues to grow:

Defense minister nominee Kim Yong-hyun said Monday that South Korea’s nuclear armament could be among the options considered to respond to North Korea’s nuclear threats amid high public support for the idea of their country going nuclear.

“That is included among all possible options,” Kim said in a parliamentary confirmation hearing, in response to a question on the possibility of securing room for nuclear armament.

Speaking to reporters last month, Kim said that he was open to all means to respond to North Korea’s nuclear threats, while stressing that the alliance with the United States remains the basis in dealing with such threats.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This seems like a logical thing for the government to do in response to the strike by Korean doctors:

Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo enters the venue of a briefing held in Seoul on Sept. 2, 2024. (Yonhap)

 The health ministry said Monday it plans to deploy military physicians to hospital emergency rooms amid growing concerns over a possible disruption of emergency care during the Chuseok holiday due to a prolonged walkout by junior doctors.

Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told reporters the government would send some 250 military and public health doctors to cope with emergency care before and after the holiday that runs from Sept. 14 through 18.

“We are reinforcing the staff by utilizing military and public doctors, while recruiting nurses and contract doctors,” Park said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is some more information about the ROK intelligence agent that was leaking the identity of undercover agents in China:

A military intelligence official indicted for allegedly leaking the identities of undercover South Korean agents has admitted to working for a Chinese operative since 2017, military prosecutors said Wednesday. 
  
The 49-year-old official, who worked for the Defense Intelligence Command before his suspension, initially denied leaking military secrets but eventually told investigators that he was recruited by Chinese intelligence in 2017 during a visit to Yanji, the capital of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, to meet his contacts. 
  
According to military prosecutors, the official claimed he was detained by Chinese officials at the Yanji airport and offered a chance to work for a Chinese intelligence agent in exchange for his family’s safety. 
  
Military prosecutors indicted the official on Tuesday on charges of bribery, aiding the enemy and violating the Military Secrets Protection Act by leaking classified information. 
  
While the official said he began selling military secrets in 2017, prosecutors said they were able to confirm he had received payments since 2019 and leaked classified information since June 2022, two years before counterintelligence officials caught wind of his suspicious activities.

Total payments to the suspect that have been tracked thus far by South Korean counterintelligence amount to 160 million won ($120,000). 
  
Prosecutors said the suspect gathered secrets by taking photos and screenshots of information on computer screens at the Defense Intelligence Command’s headquarters in Seoul, which he then uploaded to a Chinese cloud server at home.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but I have to wonder how real the supposed threats to his family were? I would not be surprised if he was looking for money from the start. Considering he only got paid $120,000 he sold out his country for a paltry sum.

The Yoon administration has already used up so much political capital pushing through the increase in the medical school quota, I can understand why they are upset with the party leadership trying to get them to suspend it:

President Yoon Suk Yeol has postponed his planned dinner with ruling People Power Party (PPP) leaders until after the Chuseok holiday, his office said Wednesday, amid differences with the PPP leader over the issue of the medical school quota increase.

Yoon had planned to host a dinner Friday with PPP leader Han Dong-hoon, floor leader Choo Kyung-ho, five Supreme Council members and the party’s policy chief, but the presidential office said the meeting has been put off to prioritize the issues of people’s livelihoods. (…….)

The postponement comes after Han proposed deferring the medical school quota increase for 2026 to help break an impasse over the government’s medical reform plans.

The presidential office reportedly balked at the idea, saying the government stands by its plan to increase admissions by 2,000 seats every year for the next five years.

Han took to Facebook on Tuesday to publicly propose the deferral of one year, noting a sudden increase in the number of students, including the approximately 3,000 current students who need to retake classes next year, could put a strain on medical schools.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the medical school quota increase the government is implementing to increase the number of doctors in rural areas. However, current doctors have been protesting and striking to stop the quota increase which has put a strain on the nation’s medical system. They do not want the added competition from more doctors and are doing everything in their power to stop it and it appears the PPP’s leadership might be getting influenced by them.

ROK authorities need to put this guy away for a very long time to deter anyone else from leaking information like this. Hopefully none of these ROK agents were killed due to these leak:

The defense ministry’s prosecutors’ office on Tuesday indicted a military intelligence official for allegedly leaking information of South Korean espionage agents operating overseas.

The official at the Korea Defense Intelligence Command, whose identity is withheld, was arrested earlier this month on allegations of handing over personal information of “black agents” to a Chinese national of Korean descent, who is possibly an informant for North Korea’s intelligence agency.

The defense ministry said the prosecutors indicted the official on charges of aiding the enemy, bribery and violating the Military Secrets Protection Act, believing that the individual leaked confidential information in exchange for financial gains.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.