It looks like the Yoon administration may be using what limited political capital they have on another unpopular initiative:
Opposition is growing among teachers and parents alike to the government’s plan to move up the elementary school starting age by one year to 5 starting as early as 2025.
Reporting this year’s key policy plans to President Yoon Suk-yeol last week, the education ministry said it will soon begin discussions on the plan to lower the school starting age from the current 6 to 5 and implement it in 2025 at the earliest upon social consensus.
Through the plan, the government seeks to take on more child care for young children against the backdrop of low birth rates, close education gaps and eventually help school graduates land jobs and start their careers earlier than now.
Many teachers and parents are, however, voicing objections to the plan that they say could further deepen already fierce competition for grades and put the burden of schooling on the intellectually unprepared 5 year olds.
Teachers and parents point out the plan could put many students at competitive disadvantages, as the 5- and 6-year-olds who started school at the same time in the transition period will have to compete more for college entrance and job opportunities.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but according the article 94% of teachers oppose this and 36 activist groups have come out against it. Anything involving education in Korea becomes a hot button issue as the Yoon administration is finding out.
This is making me wonder if Pelosi was going to land in Taiwan in secret and this official just blew her cover:
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to visit Taiwan as part of her tour of Asia,according to a senior Taiwanese government official and a US official, despite warnings from Biden administration officials, who are worried about China’s response to such a high-profile visit.
The stop — the first for a US House speaker in 25 years — is not currently on Pelosi’s public itinerary and comes at a time when US-China relations are already at a low point.
The Taiwanese official added that she is expected to stay in Taiwan overnight. It is unclear when exactly Pelosi will land in Taipei.
CNN
You can read more at the link.
It is good to see this trilateral cooperation restarting again after it was stopped when former President Moon Jae-in was elected:
South Korea, the United States and Japan will kick off a combined ballistic missile defense exercise in waters off Hawaii this week, informed sources said Sunday, amid their stepped-up security coordination against North Korea’s evolving military threats.
The biennial Pacific Dragon exercise is scheduled to take place from Monday through Aug. 14, according to them. In addition to the three countries, Australia and Canada will join the exercise in this year’s edition.
Featuring the mobilization of eight warships and two aircraft, the exercise is aimed at enhancing cooperation among the participating countries in detecting, tracking and reporting ballistic missile targets.
The exercise has been arranged as the defense chiefs of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan agreed to reinforce their security coordination during their trilateral gathering on the margins of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 11.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
The Chinese are making threats against South Korea again:
South Korea must “act prudently” and preserve the status quo rather than deploy a second U.S.-made missile defense system, a Chinese diplomat said Wednesday on Twitter.
The United States, not South Korea, has a “malicious intention to deliberately undermine” Beijing’s security by deploying another Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system in South Korea, Liu Xiaoming, China’s special envoy to the two Koreas, said in a tweet.
Stars & Stripes
First of all the U.S. has never offered to deploy a 2nd THAAD battery to South Korea. These batteries are very limited and it is doubtful the U.S. would want two of them on the peninsula at the same time. Secondly the Yoon administration during the campaign said they wanted South Korea to purchase its own THAAD battery.
However, they have already backtracked on this because a THAAD is not something you just go to a car dealership and buy. This is a multi-year long acquisitions process to purchase, build the battery, and train personnel for billions of dollars. This acquisition would take longer than the 5 years Yoon has in office and likely not worth the political capital to make it happen.
It looks like the Chinese threats worked:
Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s office released an itinerary for the House Speaker’s planned trip to Asia that listed at least four stops — but made no mention of Taiwan.
Reports that the California Democrat was planning to visit the contested, self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own had sparked anger and threats in China, where officials vowed to do what was necessary to “firmly safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Pelosi on Sunday set off for the Indo-Pacific, where she is leading a delegation of five Democratic lawmakers focused on “mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance” in the region, according to a news release from her office.
The delegation will visit Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, according to the release.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
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