Author: GIKorea

Father and Grandmother Arrested for Murdering Newborn Baby in Yongin

Here is another infant murder case in Korea this time involving a father and grandmother:

 A father was put under emergency detention Thursday on charges of killing a newborn and abandoning the body in collusion with the baby’s maternal grandmother, police said, the latest in a string of child abuse cases involving unregistered babies.

The man in his 40s was first taken into custody in Yongin, south of Seoul, in the wee hours of Thursday on charges of murder and corpse abandonment before the grandmother in her 60s was detained later in the day on the same charges, police said.

The pair allegedly killed the newborn not long after he was born in March 2015 and abandoned his body on a nearby hill. How the baby was killed was not known, but a direct means could have been used as murder charges were brought against them.

They reportedly committed the crime while the baby’s mother was recovering after labor, and the husband allegedly lied to his wife, saying the baby was going to die soon as he was born sick.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Seoul Now Operating 5 Autonomous Bus Routes

This might be interesting to check out the next time I am in Seoul:

Self-driving transit buses are expanding their presence in Seoul, as the city introduced, Wednesday, a new route in Yeouido, western Seoul. It is the city’s fifth autonomous bus service route.

At 12 p.m., a Hyundai Solati, a diesel minibus accommodating up to 13 people, took to the road around the National Assembly and it drove a round trip of 3.1 kilometers that featured six stops around the parliament. 

Two autonomous buses run every 30 minutes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Monday to Friday, but they do not operate on statutory holidays and weekends. 

Those who want to ride the bus need a smartphone app called TAP!, where users can pre-book a ride by setting their departure and destination.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Official Says South Korea Releases More Radioactive Water Per Year than What is Projected for Fukushima Nuclear Plant

So when are the Korean leftists going to start protesting their own nuclear power plants that are releasing more becquerels of tritium per year than what the Fukushima plant is scheduled to release?:

The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power say the concentration of tritium in the discharged water will be lowered to 1,500 becquerels per liter, using a unit that refers to the amount of ionizing radiation released from a radioactive element. Officials say the annual limit will be 22 trillion becquerels.

That figure is smaller than what many other nuclear facilities around the world routinely release into water or air. Grossi of the IAEA said the release of radionuclides into water “has a proven record.” He said China, South Korea, the U.S. and France were among the countries doing it.

A nuclear-fuel recycling facility in northwestern France discharged 10,000 trillion becquerels of tritium into the English Channel in 2021, according to operator Orano.

Orano’s spokesperson Gwénaël Thomas said in an email that tritium discharges from its facility “have no health impact,” because the radiation is a tiny fraction of natural radioactivity in France and tritium is a naturally occurring radioactive element.

A spokesman for Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, the leading operator of nuclear plants in South Korea, said the country’s discharges into water last year totaled about 214 trillion becquerels of tritium. He said that level was safe for the public.

Wall Street Journal

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear that if the Japanese stick to the IAEA approved plan, what they are doing is within international norms. This means much of these protests are more politically driven than any concern about the environment. It reminds me of the THAAD protests in South Korea where the activists were saying the radar was going to poison the agriculture around the area which was scientifically proven to be nonsense. However, these protesters are not going to let science ruin a good narrative.

Tweet of the Day: North Korean Students Win Hacking Competition

Picture of the Day: Counterfeit Cigarette Ring Busted

Illegal cigarette trade
Illegal cigarette trade
This photo, taken July 4, 2023, shows counterfeit cigarettes at the customs office in Incheon, west of Seoul. The office has arrested a crime ring on suspicion of smuggling 180,000 packs of bogus Esse cigarettes, a brand sold by KT&G Corp., and Chinese-made ones. (Yonhap)

South Korea Ends Salvage Operation After Recovering Failed North Korean Rocket

The ROK has concluded that the North Koreans were trying to conduct a legitimate space launch with their rocket that crashed in the ocean back in May:

The salvaged wreckage of a North Korean space rocket is displayed on the deck of the ROKS Gwangyang at the Navy's Second Fleet in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, on June 16, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

The salvaged wreckage of a North Korean space rocket is displayed on the deck of the ROKS Gwangyang at the Navy’s Second Fleet in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, on June 16, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

South Korea has retrieved a North Korean spy satellite wreckage and concluded it has “no military utility,” Seoul’s military said Wednesday, ending a 36-day operation to salvage the sunken debris of a failed North Korean space rocket launch in late May.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that the military raised multiple key parts of the rocket and the satellite through the operation that began May 31 and ended earlier in the day.

South Korean and U.S. experts have conducted a detailed analysis of the wreckage and found that the salvaged satellite debris has no military utility, the JCS said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Busan Deliveryman Given Suspended Sentence for Manslaughter Caused By Drunken Incident

This sentence seems fair to me considering the deliveryman was accosted by the drunken man and he did not mean to cause his death:

The Busan District Court on Tuesday handed down a suspended sentence to a deliveryman for causing the death of a resident in an apartment complex after a physical altercation over the use of an elevator.

The court imposed a two-year jail sentence suspended for three years with 80 hours of community service.

The deliveryman faced charges of manslaughter after he pushed the resident with his shoulder, causing the resident to fall head-first to the floor and suffer a traumatic brain hemorrhage.

The altercation took place in January when the resident, who was intoxicated at the time, kicked the delivery cart and verbally abused the deliveryman for occupying the elevator for approximately six minutes.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Police Search For Two Elderly Female Thieves in Seoul

This is something you don’t see very often in Seoul:

Surveillance footage showing two elderly women allegedly stealing goods and electrical cords from moving boxes has set off a police investigation and online outrage.

The footage, taken on Friday in Seoul, shows the two women rummanging through boxes temporarily placed outside a building during a move, while moving company employees were busy with other boxes.

According to the online post from the victim, the boxes were temporarily placed outside a building in the process of moving to another building 10 minutes away.

The video footage shows the duo working together, one keeping lookout while the other stole the goods.

A neighbor who saw the women alerted one of the movers, and when the mover attempted to restrain them, they dropped the toilet paper rolls and paper cups they were carrying and ran away while the mover was on the phone talking to the owner.

The items stolen include wire cords, a tablet PC and camping equipment amounting to one million won ($769).

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: Yeonmi Park is a Grifter?

Picture of the Day: New School Zone Crosswalks in South Korea

Yellow crosswalk for children
Yellow crosswalk for children
A crosswalk near a school zone in Seoul has been newly painted in yellow on July 3, 2023, to help drivers easily recognize it one day ahead of the implementation of the toughened Traffic Law. (Yonhap)