Author: GIKorea

The Danes are apparently scared of little spice in their food:

This food fight is certainly spicing up. 

Officials in Denmark have recalled ramen noodles manufactured by Samyang, saying a chili pepper extract included in three of its popular products could “poison consumers.”

However, the South Korean company has hit back, telling the BBC that there’s no problem with the quality of their products — and that the Danes simply can’t handle hot spice. 

The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration announced the recall on Tuesday, citing high capsaicin levels in the three recalled instant ramen products: Buldak 3x Spicy & Hot Chicken, 2x Spicy & Hot Chicken and Hot Chicken Stew.

New York Post via a reader tip

You can read more at the link.

How bad have Korean presidents been if Roh Moo-hyun comes out as the top president? Can anyone name one great thing Roh Moo-hyun did during his Presidency? Unless you are a North Korean sympathizer he did nothing great. His biggest accomplishments was increasing anti-Americanism to probably the highest levels ever and then funnelling billions of dollars of money to North Korea which allowed them to develop their nuclear and missile programs. If you can believe it there was a time when South Korea was paying more money to North Korea than to help fund the US-ROK alliance.

Anti-American street rally in Seoul in 2002.

Much of the problems with North Korea today can be linked back to the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun presidencies that believed funding North Korea would lead to economic development and eventual reunification, instead the Kim regime used the funding to advance their nuclear program to threaten the region and now even the world:

Former President Roh Moo Hyun is the favorite of Koreans, and Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung is the No. 1 businessman, according to the survey.

This is the result of a survey of 1,777 people aged 13 or older nationwide (excluding Jeju) from March 22 to April 5. The confidence level is 95% and the sampling error is ±2.3 percentage points.

When asked about the “favorite president of all time”, 31% of the respondents chose former president Roh Moo Hyun. Former President Park Chung-hee followed with 24 percent and former President Kim Dae Jung with 15 percent.

Maeil Business Newspaper

You can read more at the link, but Chung Ju-yung as the best businessman I can at least say he accomplished something great by founding Hyundai and becoming at the time the richest man in Korea. However, like former President Roh, Chung was another guy funneling cash to North Korea on behalf of the Kim Dae-jung presidency. Chung is yet another person through what he thought were good intentions helped create the North Korean nuclear and missile programs that remain a regional and even global threat today.

It is amazing how long this guy was able to get away with this scam and make millions of dollars undetected:

A former Army sergeant was sentenced to three years in prison for defrauding millions of dollars from the service in a rideshare scam using illegally obtained personal information from more than 800 soldiers, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Kevin Romulus Pelayo, 45, co-owned and operated a rideshare company, Soldiers Vanpools LLC, out of Killeen with his wife, Cristine Furio Fredericks, 40, according to court documents. The company claimed to shuttle military personnel to and from Fort Cavazos, then known as Fort Hood, from Jan. 1, 2014, through June 10, 2020. Killeen is the city just outside the gates of Fort Cavazos.

The rideshare company was funded by the Army’s Mass Transportation Benefit Program, a federal subsidy for government workers to use mass transit, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Western District of Texas. “Pelayo and Fredericks submitted the names, Social Security numbers, and other identifying information of active-duty soldiers to the MTBP on a monthly basis from 2014 to midway through 2020, falsely claiming that the soldiers were active participants in the rideshare program,” according to federal authorities.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but it makes me wonder how many other people defrauded the government using this program and were not caught?

Big salute to Jin for completing his mandatory military service instead of trying to find some kind of exemption to get out of it:

Jin, the oldest member of K-pop supergroup BTS, was discharged from his 18 months of mandatory military service Wednesday, with fans worldwide eagerly anticipating his return to the music scene.

After hugging his fellow soldiers in turn during a brief, teary farewell ceremony inside the 5th Army Infantry Division in Yeoncheon, 61 kilometers north of Seoul, the singer walked out of the compound at about 9 a.m. to be welcomed by his bandmates.

During his service, he served as an assistant drill instructor at the Army recruit training center there.

After saluting in front of the main gate, Jin received a bouquet of flowers and was seen smiling brightly as he reunited with five of his bandmates — J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook. RM, currently serving in a military brass band, marked the occasion with a celebratory saxophone performance of the band’s megahit single “Dynamite.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing how little these doctors in Seoul think of the Hippocratic Oath as they let patients go without care because of their own selfishness:

Doctors at major hospitals in Seoul and its neighboring areas have decided to stage indefinite walkouts, while medical professors resolved Wednesday to join community doctors in a one-day strike next week, demanding the suspension of a medical school quota hike.

In a meeting late Wednesday, professors from the country’s 40 medical schools decided to join the one-day general strike set for next Tuesday, organized by the biggest association of community doctors.

Kim Chang-soo, head of the Medical Professors Association of Korea, told Yonhap News Agency that the association has decided to join the strike, though he said it remains unclear how many professors will actually participate in the walkout.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is a pretty large quake for South Korea:

An official at the Korea Meteorological Administration points to the location near Buan County, North Jeolla Province, where a 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck on Wednesday morning, on a map displayed at the administration in Seoul. Yonhap

A 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck an area near the southwestern county of Buan, North Jeolla Province, on Wednesday morning, marking the strongest tremor to be detected on the Korean Peninsula and its surrounding waters so far this year.

Usually, North Jeolla Province seldom experiences earthquakes, and it was the first time that a quake with a magnitude of more than 4 has occurred in the region.

According to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), the epicenter of the quake was detected 4 kilometers south-southwest of Buan at 8:26 a.m., with a latitude of 35.7 degrees north, a longitude of 126.71 degrees east, and a depth of 8 kilometers.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This should be considered a good thing for South Korea as China has repeatedly shown they are willing to use economic retaliation to try and coerce policy changes where the U.S. has not:

South Korea’s exports to the United States exceeded those to China so far this year, data showed Monday, raising the possibility that the U.S. could be the top export destination for South Korea for the first time in 22 years.

Outbound shipments to the U.S. amounted to $53.3 billion from January through May 2024, compared with South Korea’s export value to China of $52.69 billion, according to the data from Statistics Korea and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

If the current trend continues, the U.S. will be the No. 1 export destination for South Korea for the first time since 2002.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.