Author: GIKorea

I am actually surprised there has not been another Korean President that has ever visited Qatar considering all the past business deals ROK businesses have completed in the Middle East:

President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, speaks with Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at a ceremony for signing memorandums of understanding during their bilateral summit at the Amiri Diwan palace in Doha on Wednesday. This marks the first state visit by a Korean president to Qatar. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Korea and Qatar signed deals amounting to some $4.6 billion during President Yoon Suk Yeol’s bilateral summit with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha on Wednesday. 
  
Yoon was greeted in an official welcoming ceremony, followed by bilateral talks, a ceremony to sign memorandums of understanding (MOU) and a state luncheon, according to the presidential office. 
  
Yoon is the first Korean president to make a state visit to Qatar.

The two sides discussed expanding cooperation beyond energy and construction to investment, defense, agriculture, culture and people-to-people exchanges.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting politicla appointment within the ruling PPP, a descendant of a missionary family who is now a prestigious doctor in Seoul that considers himself a country boy from Jeolla:

Ihn Yo-han, chairman of the innovation committee of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), speaks to reporters during his way to the office at the party’s headquarters in Seoul’s Yeouido, Tuesday. Yonhap

A fresh face has emerged in Korean politics. Ihn Yo-han, a naturalized Korean physician, has come to the rescue for the ruling People Power Party (PPP) as the conservative bloc gears up for a momentous change in preparation for the general elections slated for April next year.

Ihn, also known as John Linton, was appointed as chairman of the PPP’s innovation committee, Monday. He is tasked with leading the reform of the ruling party as it strives to regain voters’ trust ahead of the parliamentary elections.

Political commentators viewed that the PPP’s appointment of Ihn shows its commitment to drastic change, but said it remains to be seen how big a role the physician will play. 

“By appointing Ihn as the innovation committee chief, the PPP has succeeded in grabbing public attention and delivering a message that things are going to change,” said Shin Yul, a professor of political science at Myongji University.

“It also sends a positive message that people of diverse backgrounds are playing a major role in Korean politics.” 

Ihn is the first special naturalized Korean citizen, earning the status in 2012 thanks to his contributions to the country, such as the development of an ambulance customized for Korea in 1992. 

He is currently the director at the International Health Care Center of Yonsei University Severance Hospital. 

The 64-year-old doctor comes from a family with a long history of contributions to Korea.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I did not take this viral video for me to realize the need to avoid Chinese food products:

Fears of Chinese-made food products are spreading among Korean consumers, once again, after a video went viral last week showing a worker at a Tsingtao beer factory urinating into a tank believed to contain raw ingredients.

The video, which has received tens of millions of views on social media worldwide since being uploaded last Thursday, purportedly shows a worker dressed in a uniform clambering into a high-walled container and urinating inside it.

The clip is believed to have been recorded at Tsingtao Brewery No. 3, according to a statement released on Friday by Tsingtao, one of China’s top beer producers and exporters. The company said in the statement that it had contacted the police to investigate the incident.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is rare type of defection if these four were in fact planning to defect:

A South Korean vessel tows a wooden boat that crossed the inter-Korean border to a port in the coastal county of Yangyang, 150 kilometers northeast of Seoul, on Oct. 24, 2023. (Yonhap)

 A group of four unidentified individuals from North Korea crossed the eastern maritime inter-Korean border on a wooden boat early Tuesday, officials said, in an apparent attempt to defect to South Korea.

The Coast Guard and military officials secured the 7.5-meter-long boat carrying the North Koreans in waters east of Sokcho, 151 kilometers northeast of Seoul, a military official said, after South Korean fishermen at the scene reported seeing an “unusual” boat at around 7:10 a.m.

The group consists of one man and three women, according to Coast Guard officials. Details of their identities have not been made known.

Lim Jae-kil, one of the fishermen who were at the scene, recalled seeing a man who appeared to be in his 30s wearing boots and oil-stained clothing, and two women, presumably in their 30s and 50s, respectively.

The individuals did not express their intent to defect to the South but asked where they were and remarked on how “nice” Lim’s boat was, he said.

Lim said he had never seen such a boat in his more than 40 years of life as a fisherman, adding it appeared to have the engine of a cultivator.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the last maritime defection from North Korea was back in 2019 according to the article.

It looks like Halloween will not be cancelled in Seoul due to last year’s Itaewon crushing tragedy. Instead they will just deploy more police for crowd control:

People pass by an alley that was the site of a deadly crowd crush in central Seoul’s Itaewon, Sunday. The tragic event claimed at least 158 lives, including 26 foreign nationals from 14 countries, during Halloween celebrations on Oct. 29, 2022. Yonhap

Police will deploy over 1,000 personnel for crowd control in Itaewon and 15 other areas in Seoul that expect to attract a large number of people celebrating the Halloween weekend, a year after the deadly Itaewon crowd crush that claimed at least 158 lives.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) announced during a regular press briefing, Monday, a set of enhanced crowd control and security measures for 16 areas of the capital that are anticipated to see huge crowds from Friday to next Tuesday.

“The agency selected high-risk alleys after holding several meetings and conducting field studies with local governments,” a police official said, explaining that the agency expects people to flock to Mapo and Gangnam districts instead of Itaewon and its neighboring area in Yongsan District this year.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.