Author: GIKorea

Prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to prove that these companies hired Kim Keon-hee’s company to organize these art exhibitions because her husband was heading the Seoul District Prosecutors Office at the time:

 Prosecutors have cleared first lady Kim Keon Hee of graft suspicions involving three art exhibitions hosted by her former cultural content company, officials said Thursday. 

Kim had been under graft suspicions that about a dozen conglomerates sponsored three art exhibitions organized by her former company, Covana Contents, allegedly because President Yoon Suk Yeol was serving in a high-level prosecution position at that time.

Yoon was heading the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office while one of the art exhibitions on Swiss sculpture Alberto Giacometti was held in 2018.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Entry into South Korea has gotten a little bit easier for Chinese travelers:

The South Korean government on Wednesday lifted the post-entry PCR test requirement for travelers from China.

Health authorities had initially disclosed that quarantine measures for arrivals from China will be eased further amid a decline in the infection rate among arrivals from that country. 

The latest move comes after the government had required travelers from China to take a PCR test for COVID-19 upon arrival and suspended short-term visa issuance as of January 2, following a resurgence of the pandemic in the neighboring country. 

KBS World

You can read more at the link.

This should be no surprise that protesters would come out against trying to improve relations with Japan:

Soon after President Yoon Suk Yeol gave a key address, calling Japan a partner for South Korea’s regional security and economy, some hundreds held a rally on Independence Movement Day on Wednesday, urging him to keep his promise of resolving historic disputes with the neighboring country including the one over sexual slavery during its 1910-45 rule of Korean Peninsula.

In the late morning chill, around 200 civic activists gathered near the Japanese Embassy in central Seoul, holding paper cutouts of yellow butterflies — a symbol of victims representing a wish to escape from violence and fly — chanting “apologize,” and demanding compensation from Japan.

The protest was a part of the 1,585th weekly rally protesting Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II that has been held for the last 30 years.

Lee Yong-soo, a 93-year-old victim of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery, took over the microphone, said she still has a faith in President Yoon, and demanded his administration to send the matter to the United Nations Committee Against Torture.

“The then-presidential-candidate Yoon Suk Yeol was the third person to visit me, and he said he would resolve the comfort women issue even if he wasn’t elected. His words touched me,” she said. “I don’t think that he lied (at that time), and I will believe in him.”

Watching Lee’s tearful speech, 63-year-old Kim Deok-yeon said he has participated in the demonstration since last year to raise awareness, especially among the younger generation.

“These people were forced to become sex slaves of Japan’s wartime brothels, but Japan seems reluctant (to take responsibility). As a Korean citizen, I couldn’t stand my anger toward Japan for committing such atrocities,” he said, referring to the victims as “survivors of a dark part of history.”

Kim stressed the importance of educating Korean students about undistorted facts in and out of the country, lamenting Japan’s recognition of Dokdo as part of its territory.

“History doesn’t lie — it has everything recorded down. Now is a time to properly educate the younger generation about our country’s past so that the same history will not repeat itself in the future,” he said, hoping young people would create a change.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but if this 63 year old man really cared about sex slaves then what is he doing about modern day sexual slavery of Korean women in China right now?

According to one report the sexual trafficking of Korean women is a $105 million industry in China. Imperial Japan was obviously wrong about trafficking Korean women 80 years ago which they claim was resolved with the payments made in the 1965 Normalization Treaty. The Japanese government had apologized even started a victim compensation fund before the prior President Moon shut it down for political reasons. Restarting this victim compensation fund appears to be the route that President Yoon is trying to go again, but we will see what happens.

I knew a KATUSA Soldier in this situation who was born in the U.S. and his parents still lived in the U.S. He could of avoided military service by not going to Korea, but his parents were adamant that he complete his military service just like other Korean males:

The Constitutional Court has upheld the constitutionality of the law requiring military service for men born to South Korean parents temporarily staying overseas before they can renounce their Korean citizenship.

According to legal sources Wednesday, all eight Constitutional Court judges rejected a 23-year-old man’s petition questioning the constitutionality of the Nationality Act forcing conscription on people in his situation.

The man was born to South Korean parents in the United States while they were studying there. He held dual South Korean and U.S. citizenships, and his application to renounce his South Korean nationality in 2018 was rejected.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I wonder what would happen in the U.S. if a law like this was ever passed?:

The Constitutional Court has ruled that the school violence prevention law mandating a school bully’s apology to the victim and other countermeasures is constitutional, officials said Tuesday. 

The court made the decision 6-3, rejecting a middle school student’s petition claiming that the anti-school violence law infringes upon the freedom of conscience and personality rights by forcing an apology to a victim of school bullying.

Under the school violence prevention act, bullies can be ordered to make a written apology to victims, banned from contacting, threatening or retaliating against victims, and be ordered to transfer classes.

The student filed the petition for a review of the law’s constitutionality after being punished for school violence in 2017 with orders to make a written apology to the victim, move to a different class and not to contact the victim.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the TTX last week was a success because they plan to do another one later this year:

Korean Ambassador to U.S. Cho Tae-yong at a press conference held in Washington on Monday. [NEWS1]

Korea’s ambassador to the U.S. said South Korea and the United States are currently working on a joint tabletop exercise (TTX) that goes beyond military maneuvers to embrace diplomacy, information and economics.  
   
The expanded exercise reflects the alliance’s move toward “extended deterrence” against threats from North Korea.  
   
Ambassador Cho Tae-yong told reporters in Washington on Monday that the two countries took part in the U.S. Defense Department’s 8th Deterrence Strategy Committee Table-Top Exercise (DSC TTX) at the Pentagon on Feb. 22.   (…..)

“We plan to pursue a TTX in which several agencies from each country will participate in the near future,” Cho said.    
   
“We have reaffirmed the commitment to extended deterrence that utilizes all defense capacities, including nuclear weapons, as pledged by President Joe Biden during the South Korea-U.S. Summit in May last year.”    
   
He added, “The two sides are closely cooperating to strengthen the alliance’s executing power.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.