Author: GIKorea

Can anyone think of a strike where people were protesting against the addition of jobs? That is essentially what this is. The government wants more medical school slots to address the shortage of doctors in rural areas and current doctor trainees do not want this:

 A mass walkout by trainee doctors is approaching a deadline set by the government to return to work, as medical services have been crippled with both the government and junior doctors showing little signs of backing down. 

About 9,000 trainee doctors walked off their jobs for the ninth day in a row Wednesday, as the government ordered them to go back to work by Thursday. Unless they return to work, they will face suspension of licenses and even indictment. 

At the center of the dispute is the government’s plan to boost the medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 next year, from the current 3,058. 

On Tuesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol said the plan is a “minimum necessary measure” to address a shortage of doctors and stressed that, “This cannot and should not be a subject for negotiation or compromise.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Paris Baguette in my opinion is not a bad bakery, but it is not a great one either and they are going to be up against some big competition in the Hawaiian market:

SPC Group opened Hawaii’s first branch of Paris Baguette, the company said Monday.

The first outlet of the Korean bakery franchise in the idyllic island state that attracts around 10 million global tourists annually is located in Honolulu’s popular Bishop Street.

Since SPC Group entered the Chinese market in 2004, it has opened over 550 stores in 10 foreign countries, including the United States, France, Britain, Canada, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see how many of these refugee from Russia that South Korea ends up accepting:

A record number of Russians are seeking asylum in South Korea, according to South Korean authorities, with applications surging fivefold last year as Russians became the largest group seeking refuge in the East Asian country.

A total of 5,750 Russian nationals sought asylum in South Korea in 2023, according to a report released earlier this month by the Korean Immigration Service. That’s five times higher than the 1,038 who sought protection in 2022 – and more than the total number of asylum applications from Russians recorded between 1994 and 2019.

Last year also marked the highest number of overall asylum applications for at least the past eight years, according to the Immigration Service. After Russians, the largest groups of asylum seekers came from Kazakhstan, China and Malaysia.

How can the operators of this business overlook not securing the carabiner before a bungee jump? Condolences to the deceased friends and family because this is absolutely horrible:

This Yonhap file photo shows Starfield Anseong Mall. (Yonhap)

A woman in her 60s died after falling from a bungee jumping platform at a large shopping mall in Anseong, just south of Seoul, on Monday, police said. 

The victim, whose identity has been withheld, plummeted eight meters to the concrete floor at a sports experience facility housed at Starfield Anseong Mall, they said. The facility offers various experience facilities, such as bungee jumping and climbing.

The victim was wearing safety equipment at the moment, but a key safety component, a carabiner, which is a type of safety hook, was unsecured at the time, they said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The government should threaten to suspend their licenses for far longer than three months. How about a 5-10 years; that would probably get them back into the hospital:

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min speaks during a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters at the government complex in Seoul on Feb. 26, 2024.

The government issued an ultimatum on Monday to trainee doctors who stopped work for a seventh day to protest against the government’s plan to boost medical students, warning that it could begin suspending the licenses of trainee doctors next month unless they return to work soon.

Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told reporters that trainee doctors who refused to return to work by Thursday could start facing punishment the following day amid deepening concerns over public health as doctors and the government were on a collision course over the plan to raise the medical school admission quota by 2,000 seats next year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.