PETA is was recently protesting the Thai embassy in the Yongsan district of Seoul because apparently farmers in Thailand use monkeys to help pick coconuts and keep them in very poor conditions:
A performer, dressed in a monkey costume with a chain around his neck, pushes a cart piled high with coconuts in front of the Royal Thai Embassy in Yongsan District, Seoul, Friday afternoon. After taking several steps forward, he suddenly empties the cart, leaving dozens of coconuts precariously tumbling down the road, before picking up a sign.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link, but it is interesting that PETA is having this protest at the same time that abuses of migrant workers in South Korea is making headlines.
South Korea’s Employment Permit System is coming under scrutiny by the foreign media which is likening its migrant agriculture workers as modern day slaves:
The Employment Permit System was launched in 2004, to replace a 1990s industrial trainee system notorious for exposing migrant workers to horrific working conditions. It was meant to afford migrant workers the same basic legal rights as Koreans. But critics say the current system is even more exploitative and traps workers into a form of servitude.
Migrant farm workers are more vulnerable than factory workers since rules about working hours, breaks and time off don’t apply to agriculture. The country’s Labor Standards Act doesn’t apply at all to workplaces with four or less employees, which is typical of many farms.
Choi Jung Kyu, a human rights lawyer, says workers at these farms are virtually unprotected against unjust firings or wage theft, uncompensated for workplace injuries and have scant access to health care. They often must pay $90-$270 a month to stay in miserable makeshift dormitories that often are just shipping containers equipped with propane tanks for cooking. Such temporary structures usually only have portable toilets.
Associated Press
You can read more at the link, but many of these elderly farm owners likely grew up in the same rough conditions these migrant workers find themselves in. It doesn’t make it right, but in their minds this is probably how they justify the conditions they have their workers living in.
Condolences to the friends and family of Byun Hee-soo:
Byun hee-soo, a 23-year-old transgender former soldier forced to discharge from the Army last year, was found dead at her home, police said Wednesday.
Korea Times
The Army made the discharge decision in January last year after judging that Byun’s loss of male genitals belongs to the Level 3 physical disability under the military laws.
You can read more at the link, but according to this report Byun tried to commit suicide three months ago and was seeing a mental health counselor.
Considering how packed Seoul always seems it is hard to believe it is going through a population decline:
Seoul’s population has fallen below 10 million for the first time in over 30 years, the city government said Wednesday.
The total number of inhabitants in the capital stood at 9,911,088 at the end of last year, with 9,668,465 citizens and 242,623 foreign nationals, the local government said, citing data from the ministries of interior and justice.
This marks the first time Seoul’s population has sunk below 10 million since it crossed the threshold in 1988.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
The Moon administration has finally gotten Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl to resign:
Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl resigned Thursday, after strongly objecting to the ruling party’s push to create a new state agency to fully take over investigative powers from the prosecution service.
“I am offering to resign as of today,” Yoon said at a brief press conference held in front of the Supreme Prosecutors Office in Seoul.
“The spirits of the Constitution and the system of rule of law are crumbling. And it will cause damage to people. It is hard to watch common sense and justice collapsing,” he said, adding that he has done everything he could do in his capacity as prosecutor general.
President Moon Jae-in swiftly accepted his resignation offer, Cheong Wa Dae said, shortly after the prosecution chief made the announcement.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration has been trying to take out Yoon because he had the nerve to investigate corruption within the administration. That is what makes this new investigation agency they want to establish so controversial because an administration with a numerous corruption issues wants to form their own agency to investigate corruption and other crimes. The concern is that ruling party will use it to protect themselves and go after their political enemies. If this new agency was in operation when the Cho Kuk scandal hit does anyone think this Blue House appointed agency would have done much to investigate and indict him and his family for corruption?
As I have said before South Korea has long been a rule by law country and not a rule of law country. This agency may make it worse.
Here is an issue that women in Japan are looking to see addressed:
Mari Inoue is a 34-year-old English professor in Tokyo. She got engaged to her boyfriend Kotaro Usui three years ago. A wedding, they say, is out of the question.
It’s not the pandemic that is preventing them, but an archaic Japanese law that requires married couples to adopt the same surname. (…..)
Japan is among only a few advanced economies to stop couples holding separate surnames after marriage – through a law that explicitly discriminates against women, according to a UN committee.
BBC
You can read more at the link, but lawsuits have failed to change the law because the judges think this is something that should be addressed through legislation. Will women care enough to make this a major election issue? I guess we will find out in the coming months and years.
