Author: GIKorea

This is definitely something frustrating about Korea, how some people will just leave trash for others to pick up. You even see this while hiking where people will have a picnic and leave trash lying around. With that said, overall the leaving of trash lying around has gotten better over the 20+ years in Korea:

Mounds of trash revisited this year’s cherry blossom festivals nationwide as the streets were strewn with trash, such as disposable cups, delivery food containers and drink cans.

Near Gongji Stream in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, the situation was particularly dire. As the stream became a famous tourist attraction for enjoying cherry blossoms, garbage was haphazardly disposed of at the recycling center. Cigarette butts also littered the park as if smokers had a vendetta against the lawn.

Similarly, Yeouido Hangang Park in western Seoul faces a deluge of trash every year around festival time.

Despite having over six dumpsters set up, the volume of trash overwhelms the capacity. Overflowing trash cans are a common sight, with waste often found stacked up near trash cans.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is a documentary I will need to check out once it is available on Netflix:

Korean American Kim Yong-man and his video rental store, Kim’s Video and Music, served as a cultural cornerstone in New York City’s East Village during the 1980s and ’90s.

It was an iconic destination for cinephiles due to its extensive collection of rare and eclectic movies, and it became a favored spot for renowned directors such as Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee, Todd Phillips, and the Coen Brothers.

Kim’s store, which began as a small section of his laundry in 1985, expanded into a chain of 11 stores with 300 employees and 250,000 members at its peak.

Following its premiere in Korea last September, the documentary “Kim’s Video,” released Friday in New York and Los Angeles, delves into the story of the legendary “video king” and the peculiar destiny of his collection of 55,000 video tapes. It is also scheduled to debut in China on April 19 and in Japan on May 1.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This shows how much times have changed in Korea. Years ago people would not have intervened in fear of getting sued by the assaulter:

A South Korean man who sustained serious injuries while trying to stop an assault of a woman will be designated as a “wounded noble person” by the law and receive state compensation, the city government of Jinju said Monday.

The city government recently granted a model citizen certificate to the man in his 50s, and is preparing for the abovementioned official designation. The Act on Honorable Treatment and Support for Persons Who Died or Were Injured for Public Good stipulates benefits for those who died or were injured while making rescue efforts without any official duty to do so.

One meeting such criteria is defined as a “deceased or wounded noble person” by the act, and can receive compensation, benefits when getting jobs, and can even be buried in the National Cemetery in cases of particularly valuable contributions.

“He sacrificed himself while trying to rescue a citizen, so we (Jinju city) decided that we should help him… In addition to the designation, we will arrange for him to get a new job and help him in other affairs as well,” the city said.

Last November, a 20-something man started attacking a female store convenience store clerk also in her 20s in Hadae-dong, Jinju. The attacker told the victim that he suspected her to be a feminist, based on her short hair, and said “feminists should be beaten up.”

The victim sustained serious injuries, including permanent impairment of her hearing.

The 50-something man was at the site and tried to stop the attacker, but he too sustained serious injuries to his face and shoulder. He had to quit his job due to the trauma from the incident, and has been suffering from financial hardship since then.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The real question is why is there any South Koreans left in Haiti when you have a gang called the Cannibal Army running around killing people?:

South Korea has evacuated 11 citizens from Haiti via helicopter due to deteriorating security, the foreign ministry said Monday.

The ministry said they were airlifted to the neighboring Dominican Republic, adding that further details would be withheld to ensure the safety of other South Koreans in Haiti.

Last month, the government evacuated two citizens from the Caribbean country, as gang violence has gripped the island nation.

Haiti has seen a rise in violence and poverty since the assassination of then President Jovenel Moise in 2021.

Around 60 South Koreans are currently believed to be in Haiti.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is some good news for those hoping for better air in South Korea:

South Korea’s greenhouse gas emissions are believed to have fallen for the second consecutive year in 2023, government estimates showed Sunday.

According to the estimates by the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth, South Korea’s emissions in the energy transition sector last year were estimated at 203.7 million tons, a 4.8 percent fall from 219.3 million tons in 2022.

Emissions in the industrial sector are also believed to amount to 244.7 million tons last year, a 0.4 percent decline from 245.8 million tons in 2022, according to the estimates.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

That is what some analysts believe:

Now in his 13th year running North Korea, Kim is more aggressively testing the boundaries of what his adversaries will tolerate. Backed by rapid progress in his nation’s nuclear capabilities and missile program, the 40-year-old dictator began 2024 by removing the goal of peaceful unification from North Korea’s constitution and declaring he had the right to “annihilate” South Korea.

While such bellicose rhetoric would normally be dismissed — Kim could just be posturing ahead of South Korean elections on April 10 — two prominent analysts set off a round of discussion among North Korea watchers with an article suggesting that this time Kim isn’t bluffing. “Like his grandfather in 1950, Kim Jong Un has made a strategic decision to go to war,” former CIA officer Robert Carlin and nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker wrote in early 2024 on the website 38 North, which focuses on North Korea.

They didn’t forecast how soon that could take place. Carlin and Hecker’s views are not universal: Most analysts argue that any full-scale attack would be a move of desperation or suicide, inviting a response from South Korea and the US that would end the Kim family’s nearly eight-decade-long rule.

But with multiple conflicts raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, it’s just the kind of war the world could stumble into – with potentially devastating consequences for not just the Korean Peninsula, but the global economy and, particularly, the chip supply chain.

Stars & Stripes

I don’t agree that North Korea is plotting some sneak attack war on South Korea. Kim Jong-un cares about preserving his regime and a war would end it. I agree with Daniel Pinkston’s analysis of what North Korea’s strategy towards the ROK is:

Kim would’ve already invaded South Korea if he was actually preparing for war, according to Daniel Pinkston, an international relations lecturer at Troy University in Seoul and a former Korean linguist with the US Air Force. A simpler explanation, he said, is that North Korea is deterred from doing so. “The North Korea leadership is waiting for a restructuring of the world order and the collapse of the US-led alliance system in East Asia,” said Pinkston. “Unless that happens, I don’t see a theory of victory for North Korea.”

You can read more at the link.