How is $184 going to restore anyone’s “livelihood”?:
Rep. Park Chan-dae, the new floor leader of the Democratic Party, speaks at the National Assembly in western Seoul on May 3, 2024. (Yonhap)
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) plans to propose legislation providing cash handouts of 250,000 won (US$184) to the entire population as its first bill of the new National Assembly set to open later this month, its new floor leader said Monday.
Rep. Park Chan-dae unveiled the plan in a radio interview with local broadcaster MBC after DP leader Lee Jae-myung asked President Yoon Suk Yeol last Monday to accept his election pledge for the cash handouts as a way to help restore the people’s livelihoods.
Yonhap
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Being a farmer in South Korea is definitely not a lucrative business and very dependent on subsidies according to this report:
I ask people around me how much money I earn from farming in Korea on average per year. It usually refers to about 30 million won to 60 million won. Maybe it’s because there’s an amount of money I heard from somewhere. That’s roughly correct, as farm household income averaged 46.1 million won in 2022.
However, among them, the actual agricultural income earned from farming is only 9.5 million won. It’s about a fifth. The rest are non-agricultural income (19.2 million won), transfer income (15.2 million won), and non-ordinary income (2.2 million won). In other words, money earned from business or government direct payments or subsidies accounts for 80% of farm income.
Maeil Kyeongchae
You can read more at the link.
None of this should be surprising to people who have lived for a while in South Korea; always check your receipts and make sure the taxi drivers turn on the meter:
Foreign tourists to Korea are least happy with its shopping and taxi riding experience, a Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) report showed Sunday.
The KTO said its Tourist Complaint Center received 902 complaints last year, seeing a significant increase compared to 288 in 2022.
It said the number of complaints decreased between 2020 and 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic but hiked last year as the tourism industry recovered.
Of the complaints, 808 (89.6 percent) were made by foreign visitors.
The highest number of complaints (215) was related to shopping, including price gouging, tax refunds and refund and exchange policies.
“I bought a set of 10 foot masks after viewing the price at 8,000 won in combine, but later realized that I was charged 80,000 won. When I asked for cancellation, the seller told me to come back the next day because the store manager wasn’t present,” a Japanese tourist was quoted as saying by the KTO.
Taxi service was the second-greatest inconvenience for foreign tourists, taking up 18.8 percent of the complaints (170). Problems included overcharging and refusing to turn on meters, drivers not being courteous with customers and deliberately taking longer routes for higher fares.
The Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Police Agency said Thursday it caught a taxi driver who tried to charge a Chinese tourist an exorbitant fare for a ride from Jeju International Airport to a hotel near Hamdeok Beach.
The police said the taxi driver received 200,000 won when the taxi fare should have been 23,000 won and ordered him to return 177,000 won.
Complaints concerning accommodations came in third.
Among 142 reported cases, those related to poor facilities and hygiene accounted for 31.7 percent.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
Ozone alert issued
This photo shows a view of Seoul from Namsan Park on May 4, 2024, as an ozone alert was issued in 14 districts in Seoul. (Yonhap)
With all the cyber threats that South Korea faces this is probably a good exercise for them to take part in:
South Korea’s Cyber Operations Command will participate in a U.S.-led multinational cyber exercise this week to strengthen its capabilities to counter malicious cyber activities, Seoul’s defense ministry said Sunday, amid growing security threats from North Korea.
Nine personnel from the South’s military will join the Cyber Flag exercise to be held from Sunday through Saturday (local time) in the U.S. state of Virginia, according to the defense ministry.
The online exercise is designed to hone skills for multinational cooperation in countering cyberthreats and share intelligence against enemies’ cyber activities.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
It looks like the doctor strike is slowly defeating the will of the Korean government to take action against them to get them back to work:
This photo taken April 30, 2024, shows a hospital in Daegu, 237 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)
The government appears to have shelved a plan to take punitive measures against a protracted walkout by trainee doctors and have pulled back slightly from its plan to increase medical school admission quotas amid a standoff with major doctors’ associations, according to officials Sunday.
Still, the doctors’ associations remained adamant over the issue and renewed their call for the government to revisit the medical reform from scratch, despite some signs of an internal split.
During a media briefing last week, Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said the government has decided to grant local universities autonomy in deciding their medical school quota by a range of 50 to 100 percent for the 2025 academic year in a bid to break the monthslong deadlock, according to officials.
Additionally, the government has delayed the suspension of licenses for doctors who have been inactive for months under its “flexible disposition” policy since late March.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
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