Author: GIKorea

Korean shoppers are supposedly hoarding sea salt due to fears that all the salt off the shores of Korea will soon be contaminated by the release of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant:

Workers produce sea salt at a salt farm in Sinan County, South Jeolla Province, in October 2021. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries denied that the salt price has increased due to hoarding amid the Fukushima concerns. 

“The major cause for the salt price rise was a decrease in production due to more rainy days than usual and retailers’ stockpiling in preparation for the monsoon season,” a ministry official said. 

But the view of industry players was different. They said that while this year’s production decreased by about 30 percent from a year earlier, this was not enough to explain the soaring salt price at present. 

“Japan’s plan has scared consumers off. This would not be the sole reason for increasing salt prices but had some impact for sure,” an official of a salt farm in Sinan County said. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the IAEA approved of the plan by the Japanese to release the water into the ocean with a small enough amount of radioactivity that it would be diluted. According to the Korean government they have stepped up monitoring of the ocean water around Korea and have not detected any radioactivity.

If this idiot would have fell not only could he have killed someone down below, but he could have caused a traumatic experience for anyone witnessing it:

A British free climber was taken into custody Monday after reaching the 72nd floor of Korea’s tallest skyscraper in Seoul by climbing up the outside with his bare hands, police said. 

The 24-year-old, identified as George King-Thompson, began his ascent up the 123-story Lotte World Tower in southern Seoul at around 5 a.m. before a security guard found him around 7:50 a.m. and called the police, saying a foreigner, only in his underwear, was climbing up the outer wall of the building.

Police and rescue workers arrived at the scene at 8:03 a.m. and installed a safety air mat to prepare for a possible fall, but he kept on climbing and reached the 72nd story of the 555-meter-high building, the world’s fifth tallest, at 8:47 a.m.

He was then allowed to ride a gondola-like lift, known as a building management utility, and escorted inside the tower through the opening of a smoke ventilation system, and was detained by the police waiting for him inside. 

He was not injured but showed signs of exhaustion, which he recovered from, the police said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It makes me wonder if any Chinese intelligence operatives were involved in influencing this former Samsung executive to leak this sensitive chipmaking technology to China:

A file photo of the Suwon District Prosecutors Office (Yonhap)

A former senior executive of Samsung Electronics Co. has been arrested and indicted for stealing the chip giant’s trade secrets to build a copycat chip plant in China, prosecutors said Monday.

The 65-year-old former executive, whose name is withheld, was charged with violating the industrial technology protection and unfair competition prevention laws, according to the Suwon District Prosecutors Office.

He is accused of attempting to build a complete copy of Samsung’s semiconductor factory in China after illegally acquiring the company’s confidential data, including chip plant basic engineering data (BED) and process layout and design drawings, from August 2018 to 2019.

The prosecution also indicted six other people — one employee of a Samsung Electronics subcontractor and five employees of a Chinese chipmaker established by the former executive — without detention on charges of colluding in the alleged technology leak.

BED is a technology needed to ensure impurities do not exist in semiconductor manufacturing facilities. Process layout contains information on the floor plan and dimension of a chip plant’s eight core processes for semiconductor production. Such trade secrets essential for the manufacturing of sub-30-nano DRAM and NAND flash chips are considered national core technologies.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is China needlessly raising tensions with South Korea trying to treat them like a vassal state:

Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming (L) speaks with Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, before their dinner meeting at the envoy’s residence in Seoul on June 8, 2023. (Yonhap)

China called in South Korean Ambassador Chung Jae-ho and lodged a complaint, Beijing’s foreign ministry said Sunday, in a tit-for-tat after the Chinese ambassador to Seoul was summoned over remarks warning Seoul against betting against China.

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Nong Rong met with the South Korean envoy on Saturday and expressed serious concerns and a complaint over what it called an unfair response that South Korea showed about a meeting between Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming and opposition leader Lee Jae-myung.

Xing said during Thursday’s meeting with Lee, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, that it is a wrong bet to believe that China will lose in the rivalry with the United States. He also warned that “those betting on China’s defeat will certainly regret it later.”

On Friday, South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin called in Xing and “sternly warned” against the envoy’s “unreasonable and provocative” remarks. Chang also warned Xing’s remarks could be seen as interference of South Korea’s domestic politics.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This shouldn’t be too surprising because it will likely be months before North Korea’s scientists are able to asses the data and repair whatever went wrong with their previous space launch. Additionally they likely have to build another satellite to put on top of the rocket:

The office of President Yoon Suk Yeol said Sunday it is not letting its guard down even though the window for North Korea’s satellite launch has expired, as the country can go ahead with a launch at any time.

North Korea had set a period between the start of May 31 and the start of June 11 as the window for a satellite-carrying space rocket launch. The country fired the rocket on the first day of the window, but the launch ended in failure with the rocket crashing in the Yellow Sea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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