Author: GIKorea

This is absolutely horrible:

An apartment in Seoul’s Nowon district where an apparent murder-suicide involving a family of three occurred is cordoned off by police on May 3, 2023. (Yonhap)

A family of three, including a months-old baby, were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in northeastern Seoul on Wednesday, police said.

A 33-year-old-man surnamed Lee, his 37-year-old wife and their baby, believed to be several months old, were found dead by the police at an apartment in the Nowon district at 4:46 a.m.

The woman was found stabbed with a knife inside the apartment, and the bodies of the man and the baby were found outside, the police said, adding officers went there after receiving a call from the man’s father.

The police began an investigation, speculating the man may have killed his wife before jumping off the apartment building with the baby.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It took a few decades, but the New York Times discovered there was prostitutes in South Korea to worked in the villes outside of U.S. military bases decades ago. It must be a slow news day for the New York Times to rehash old news like this:

In Dongducheon, South Korea, north of Seoul, women forced to work as prostitutes to American soldiers in the decades after the Korean War were confined in this building when they were discovered to have a sexually transmitted disease. (NYT)

When Cho Soon-ok was 17 in 1977, three men kidnapped and sold her to a pimp in Dongducheon, a town north of Seoul.

She was about to begin high school, but instead of pursuing her dream of becoming a ballerina, she was forced to spend the next five years under the constant watch of her pimp, going to a nearby club for sex work. Her customers: American soldiers.

The euphemism “comfort women” typically describes Korean and other Asian women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese during World War II. But the sexual exploitation of another group of women continued in South Korea long after Japan’s colonial rule ended in 1945 — and it was facilitated by their own government.

There were “special comfort women units” for South Korean soldiers, and “comfort stations” for U.S.-led United Nations troops during the Korean War. In the postwar years, many of these women worked in gijichon, or “camp towns,” built around U.S. military bases.

New York Times

You can read more at the link, but the kidnapping of women to be sold to brothels back then was very rare. What mostly happened was that families sold their daughters to brothel owners to pay for tuition for their sons with the thought that the son will lift the family out of poverty after finding a good job. The “kidnapping” was just the brothel owners picking up the girl that was sold.

Overall the article is just a rehash of old information that can be read in many books about Korea. A good book to read about the club system is Seasons in the Kingdom by Tim Norris. It is also worth reading the comments at the attached link with many former GIs providing context about the women and the conditions they found themselves in back then.

By the way, I wonder if the New York Times is next going to do an article where in recent years they discover there was a “juicy girl” system outside of U.S. military bases as well?

The Korean left has long hated Tae Yong-ho because he is a North Korean defector turned politician who has stood against their attempts to appease the Kim regime and often challenges their dogma in regards to historical issues. So anything with a sliver of truth they will use to discredit him or their ultimate goal to drive him out of office:

Rep. Tae Yong-ho of the People Power Party (PPP) on Wednesday flatly denied allegations that he received an illegal political donation around last year’s local elections amid several other looming controversies surrounding him.

According to a media report, the North Korean defector-turned-lawmaker allegedly accepted political funds from elected councilors of his constituency in Seoul’s Gangnam district, in return for backing their nomination. 

The donations were allegedly split up and given under the names of their families and acquaintances.

“I would like to clarify at this moment that I am confident that there is not a single stain regarding the issue of fundraising,” Tae said in a press conference held at the National Assembly.

Tae also denied media reports that senior presidential political affairs secretary Lee Jin-bok asked him to make remarks in support of Korea-Japan relations while talking about the issue of party nominations for next year’s general elections.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

South Korea over the past two decades has really ramped up the export potential of their defense industry and it is paying off now as the world rearms due to Russian aggression and Chinese expansionism:

The Korean 4.5-generation fighter jet KF-21 makes its first maiden flight in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang, in July 2022. [DEFENSE ACQUISITION PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION]

U.S. allies and security partners worldwide looking to re-stock their arsenals are increasingly turning to Korean defense companies to procure weapons.  
   
Korea signed defense export contracts worth a cumulative $17 billion in 2022, representing a 242 percent increase in a single year and making the country the eighth-largest weapons exporter in the world.  
   
The growth in Korean defense exports, which made up 2.8 percent of a global arms exports market dominated by the United States, Russia, France and China, is all the more remarkable given the late start of the Korean weapons industry compared to the big players. 

Rising Korean defense exports also more broadly signal the country’s growing capacity and will to supply arms to other U.S. allies in the face of rising military threats posed by Russia and China in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region.  
   
Korea’s potential as a source of advanced military hardware at a time when countries are still ramping up defense production became apparent in December 2021, when Australia inked a $730-million contract with Hanwha Defense for 30 K-9 self-propelled artillery howitzers and 15 armored ammunition resupply vehicles, and again in July, when Poland announced that it had signed contracts worth an estimated $14 billion for K-2 battle tanks, K-9 howitzers and FA-50 light attack aircraft from Korea. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It looks like someone was trying to be too clever on Facebook:

The U.N. Command is reviewing its social media policies after a short, sexually suggestive post was published recently on the organization’s official Facebook page.

The post — “Make love to me …” — appeared around midnight March 24. By mid-morning the message had disappeared.

The post “was made unrelated to the mission and goals of our command,” Army Col. Isaac Taylor, who also serves as spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea, said in a statement emailed to Stars and Stripes on Wednesday.

“We are reviewing and updating our current practices and security protocols to ensure it does not happen again,” he wrote. 

Taylor’s email did not answer questions about who was responsible for the post and whether any disciplinary actions were taken. Speaking by phone Monday, he said the investigation into the incident is ongoing. 

The U.N. Command’s Facebook account has around 13,000 followers and posts news and information about its activities and history. (…..)

The message was posted on Facebook as U.S. and South Korean troops carried out the large-scale Ssangyong maritime exercise in South Korea between March 20 and April 3. The allies also conducted large, joint training that included live-fire artillery drills and tabletop simulations throughout March.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Considering the extremely competitive nature of high school education in South Korea it is no surprise that various drugs are sought after to gain an advantage:

A banner in Daechi-dong, Seoul, reads: “Do not drink ‘strange beverages’ handed out to students.” (Choi Jae-hee / The Korea Herald)

On April 3, an appalling scam targeting unsuspecting students on the streets of this neighborhood sent shockwaves across the nation. Over 100 bottles of drinks laced with methamphetamines and ecstasy were distributed, falsely marketed as study aids to enhance concentration and memory.

The scammers even tried to blackmail some of the victims’ parents, threatening to report their children to the authorities for drug use unless they paid up.

Putting aside the audacity of their act, it raises questions: Why did they choose to target Daechi-dong among all the other neighborhoods in Seoul?

The drug-infused drinks were labeled as “Mega ADHD” and handed out to teenage passersby, just like in a street promotional event.

Perhaps what made the young victims less suspicious was that in Daechi-dong, study aids such as prescription medications for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, caffeine pills and energy drinks are widely used.

Some parents spoke of falsifying symptoms to get access to ADHD prescription drugs, believing they will enhance academic performance. The substance methylphenidate in ADHD medicine can help takers stay awake, energetic and focused.

“Some students are particularly vulnerable to stress before important exams and get easily distracted. Those who have maintained great academic performance would not want to spoil things due to temporary stress, so they resort to taking prescription stimulants,” said Huh, a housewife in her 50s residing in Daechi-dong who has a 17-year-old daughter.

“It is an expedient, but not illegal,” she said, explaining that some parents and students pretend to have or exaggerate ADHD when seeing a doctor.

Data shows the number of teenagers on ADHD pills has been on the rise.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.