Author: GIKorea

The birthrate continues to decline significantly in South Korea:

A total of 18,982 babies were born in November, plunging 4.3 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marked the lowest number for any November since the statistics agency started compiling related data in 1981.

South Korea remains dogged by a chronic decline in childbirths as many young people delay or give up on having babies in the face of an economic slowdown and high home prices.

Over the January-November period, a total number of 231,863 babies were born, down 4.7 percent from a year earlier.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is a great deal by Ford to get their battery manufacturing facility built in the US by SK:

Rain had wetted much of the clay soil on the ground — rich terracotta earth colors — creating small and large puddles everywhere around a gigantic steel structure, densely embedded with millions of steel beams. 

Yet it was another busy Sunday for many of the 800 engineers and construction workers, who had turned up for work to “get moving” on schedule for the electric vehicle battery manufacturing plants, under construction in Glendale, about 84.5 kilometers south of Louisville in the U.S. state of Kentucky. 

The 6.28 million-square-meter construction site, unveiled to South Korean media on Jan. 8, is where South Korean battery producer SK On Co. and Ford Motor Co. are building what will be the biggest EV battery plants in the United States for such a facility built on a single site. (………..) The project is part of the US$11.4 billion investment the two companies’ joint venture, BlueOval SK (BOSK), announced in September 2021, to build twin EV battery plants in Kentucky and a third one in Tennessee.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I wonder how much of the rare Earth minerals being used in the battery construction is still coming from China?

Some interesting quotes from Kim Jong-un in Mike Pompeo’s new book:

North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un are not bothered at all by the U.S. military presence in South Korea, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo argued in a memoir published Tuesday.

They rather consider U.S. troops in South Korea as a protection against Chinese dominance, according to Pompeo.

Pompeo said the North Korean leader had raised the issue of U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises during their first meeting in Pyongyang.

“I insinuated that he was a little hypocritical to get worked up about them, given how his planes and rockets could within minutes, or perhaps seconds, lay waste to the city of Seoul, South Korea, a city of ten million people and only a few dozen kilometers from the demilitarized zone (DMZ),” he wrote. (…..)

Pompeo said he had also told Kim that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had “consistently told the United States that American forces leaving South Korea would make Chairman Kim happy.”

“At this, Kim laughed and pounded on the table in sheer joy, exclaiming that the Chinese were liars,” wrote Pompeo.

“He (Kim) said that he needed the Americans in South Korea to protect him from the CCP, and that the CCP needs the Americans out so they can treat the peninsula like Tibet and Xinjiang,” he added.

Pompeo also offered to U.S. policymakers: “expanding U.S. missile and ground capabilities on the Korean Peninsula won’t bother the North Koreans at all.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Kim also told Pompeo that he was willing to denuclearize which I have never believed. So saying that he doesn’t mind the US military presence in the ROK just may just be something Kim may have thought Pompeo wanted to hear.

It is interesting that this conclusion is being leaked to media:

The U.S.-led U.N. Command (UNC) has concluded both South and North Korea violated the armistice by sending drones into each other’s territory last month, an informed source said Wednesday.

The UNC recently reached the conclusion after its special team investigated the North’s Dec. 26 drone infiltrations, which led the South to send its drones into the North in a “corresponding” step.

UNC Commander Gen. Paul LaCamera has been briefed on the investigation outcome, the source told Yonhap News Agency, requesting anonymity.

LaCamera, who also heads the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command and the U.S. Forces Korea, is said to have been pondering whether to disclose the outcome amid concerns that it could risk friction with the Seoul government.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It seems pretty extreme to conduct some of these self injuries to avoid military service. The mandatory service is not that bad to cripple yourself for the rest of your life to avoid:

A football player damaged his own wrist with heavy dumbbells. Another man even lost his hearing after subjecting his ears to loud horn sounds. Some others faked mental health conditions.

They all did so for the same purpose: dodging their compulsory military service. For many, the almost two years of service is a thankless task given to all able-bodied men born in South Korea, which is technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with only an armistice.

According to Military Manpower Administration data disclosed Tuesday by Rep. Song Gab-seok of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, 321 people have been caught making such attempts to evade conscription over the past five years.

Experts believe the real number of such draft-dodging cases, including those who did not get caught, is far greater. According to data released earlier this week by the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, a state-run research center, 335 young men were reported missing in 2021 just before they were to join the military. Nearly 1,800 such cases have occurred in the past four years.

The revelations come amid a widening investigation into the people suspected of offering money to a “consultant” surnamed Koo, who gave them tips on how to avoid military duty.

The broker has been indicted on charges of offering such information to seven people, who allegedly paid him and his accomplice, surnamed Kim, at least millions of won (thousands of dollars) per case. The first hearing on their charges will begin on Friday, with investigators expanding the probe into 100 people now.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is good to see that the U.S.S. Pueblo is not being forgotten:

A resolution has been proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives calling for the return of a U.S. Navy ship seized by North Korea 55 years ago, a summary of the resolution showed Monday.

The resolution, introduced last week by Rep. Steube Gregory (R-FL), calls for the return of USS Pueblo while denouncing North Korea’s seizure of the ship and its crew on Jan. 23, 1968.

The House “maintains North Korea’s seizure of the vessel USS Pueblo and its detention of the crew were in violation of international law,” says the resolution.

It also adds the House “declares that USS Pueblo is the property of the United States government and it should be returned to the United States.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the Pueblo has long been used for propaganda purposes by North Korea. You can read more about the U.S.S. Pueblo incident at my prior posting on the seizure of the ship.