Author: GIKorea

Some day care center workers in Jinju are face charges for child abuse:

CCTV footage shows a teacher hitting a child on the face at a day care facility in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province. Screen captured from Yonhap New Agency’s YouTube account

Police are investigating alleged child abuse cases at a day care center in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, involving children with disabilities. 

According to Gyeongnam Police Agency and local news reports, arrest warrants have been requested for four teachers for abusing 15 children at the specialized facility for children with developmental disorders. A number of employees are still under investigation.

CCTV footage that went viral online showed the teachers hitting the heads, arms, faces and legs of the children repeatedly. 

The police said that more than 500 acts of abuse had occurred in the span of two months at the facility and that one teacher is accused of 200 instances of abusing children during the period. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Kim Jong-un is making sure we are building up to another “crisis” on the peninsula with his expected space launch:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected the country’s first military reconnaissance satellite and gave the green light for its next action plan, Pyongyang’s state media said Wednesday, adding that the satellite is “ready for loading” on a rocket. 

Kim made the on-site inspection to the Non-permanent Satellite Launch Preparatory Committee a day earlier to check the overall status of the spy satellite and approved of its “future action plan,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, in a move that signals the launch could be imminent.

“After acquainting himself in detail with the work of the committee, he inspected the military reconnaissance satellite No. 1 which is ready for loading after undergoing the final general assembly check and space environment test,” it said in an English-language dispatch.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is apparently going to be a major topic during President Yoon’s upcoming summit with Prime Minister Trudeau:

The KSS-III Shin Chae-ho / Courtesy of Republic of Korea Navy

A planned summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is prompting speculation over a potential submarine deal between Korea and Canada as Ottawa plans to replace its aging submarines.

Yoon and Trudeau will sit down with each other Wednesday in Seoul to commemorate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Trudeau is the first Canadian prime minister to visit Korea in nine years. 

During their summit, the leaders are expected to discuss the two countries’ cooperation in national defense, including Canada’s submarine replacement program. 

Multiple Canadian news outlets have reported that the Royal Canadian Navy is urging the government to purchase up to 12 new conventionally-powered attack submarines to replace its aging Victoria-class diesel submarines.

Military analysts note that Korea’s KSS-III submarines, Japan’s Taigei-class submarines and Spain’s S-80 Plus class submarines are the perfect fit for the replacement program.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see what venue they are able to book this year for the SQCF:

A giant rainbow flag is carried aloft by participants at the Seoul Queer Culture Festival in Seoul Plaza, central Seoul, June 1, 2019. The event was joined by over 180,000 LGBTQ people and supporters combined. Courtesy of Seoul Queer Culture Festival organizing committee

For an estimated 2.5 million Koreans identifying themselves as sexual minorities, the annual Seoul Queer Culture Festival (SQCF) is the long-awaited “national queer holiday,” a rare occasion where they feel safe and encouraged to gather and express their identity.

The festival, which celebrates its 24th anniversary this year, started in 2000 with 50 participants on a road in northeastern Seoul’s Daehangno area. The event grew to over 135,000 participants last year, and despite opposition and interference by conservative Christians, it seemed to have nestled at Seoul Plaza, one of the biggest public venues in the capital.

However, the festival now has to find an alternative venue this year, after the Seoul Metropolitan Government earlier this month disapproved the use of the city square for the upcoming festival. 

This two-decade evolution of the SQCF has been a “journey of finding a public space where the country’s LGBTQ communities can be and show who they are,” Yang Sun-woo, the chairperson of the SQCF organizing committee, said during an interview with The Korea Times, Tuesday.

Yang, an activist at the Korean Sexual Minority Culture and Rights Center, has been taking part in the SQCF since she joined it in 2005 as a staff member of the Korea Queer Film Festival, a part of the SQCF. She has been in her current position since 2015.

Amid opposition from conservative Christians and merchants, the festival had to find one venue after another across the capital ― from Daehangno to Itaewon to Cheonggye Stream to Sinchon ― to house the growing queer community and its supporters, she said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The nursing act that has caused huge protests in South Korea from the health care community against it, has been vetoed by President Yoon:

A Cabinet meeting led by President Yoon Suk Yeol is held at the presidential office in Seoul on May 16, 2023. (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol rejected the opposition-led nursing act Tuesday amid strong protests from doctors and nursing assistants against it, exercising his veto power for the second time since taking office.

The act, which was railroaded by the main opposition Democratic Party last month, is aimed at stipulating the roles and responsibilities of nurses, and improving their working conditions.

“The people’s health cannot be exchanged for anything,” Yoon said during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office, before rejecting the legislation and asking the National Assembly to reconsider it.

Yoon said people’s health comes ahead of anything else, such as politics, foreign policy and economic policy, and can only be properly maintained through cooperation between various groups of medical professionals.

“The nursing act is creating excessive conflict between these related groups, and the move to separate nursing services from medical institutions is causing people to feel anxious about their health,” he said.

Yonhap

Here is why there has been much criticism of the bill:

Doctors and nursing assistants have opposed the bill, arguing the legislation would cause confusion in the medical sector because it could lead to nurses opening their own clinics without doctors’ supervision and that nursing assistants could be discriminated against.

You can read more at the link.