The Korea Herald has an article published on why elderly people can often be seen pulling carts and picking up cardboard in South Korea:
When the temperature dropped to minus 7 degrees Celsius in mid-February, Lee Deok-ja, 74, was dragging her handcart around Deungchon-dong, western Seoul, picking up cardboard.
It was about 12:30 p.m. and her handcart was empty. Lee said she had already been to the junk shop three times that day. Instead of filling up the handcart — which appears to weigh more than 40 kilograms when empty — the petite lady chooses to go to a junk shop several times a day and fill her cart little by little.
“Every time I go there, I get 1,000 won (90 cents), 2,000 won or 3,000 won. That’s how I earn 10,000 won to 15,000 won a day,” she said. The nation’s minimum hourly wage this year is 8,720 won.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link, but the common element on why they pick up cardboard is that they do it to supplement the national pension check they receive each month. It is very difficult to survive on just the pension check and many kids supplement their elderly parent’s income. If an elderly person does not have kids who give them money they end of doing low skilled job as picking up cardboard to supplement their pension.
Here is the latest “Me-to” like movement happening in South Korea which is going after celebrities who anonymous people claim were bullies in school:
Some celebrities and stars accused of bullying have denied allegations about their past deeds.
Korea Times
Countering an anonymous schoolmate’s claim that she was beaten and abused by a violent girl who later became a star, K-pop girl band (G)I-DLE member Soojin said she was not a violent girl when she was in school.
“It’s true that I was a bit unusual when I was a middle schoolgirl. There were always bad rumors about me which I was quite used to. I wore clothing that was not suitable for a schoolgirl. I once smoked, too, as I was curious about smoking,” she said in a statement she uploaded on her online fan community. “But there’s one thing I’d like to make it clear regarding the allegations. There was no violence involved. I know who the girl is but I never hit her or stole her school uniform or her other belongings as she claimed.” (……..)
K-pop star Hyun-ah is another denier about her past. An anonymous internet user claimed in a post on an online community that the singer was her elementary classmate and she was a violent girl.
You can read more at the link, but attacking celebrities for things that may or may not have happened in elementary school or middle school I think says more about the accusers than the celebrity. How do you let something that happened in elementary school define and impact you your entire life as these accusers are claiming?
When I first heard that Tiger Woods was driving a Genesis branded SUV during his crash I have to admit I was a bit surprised he was driving one:
Are Genesis cars and SUVs safe?
After Tiger Woods crashed a Genesis GV80 SUV in the Los Angeles areaTuesday, causing devastating leg injuries, the safety of the little-known luxury brand made by Korean automaker Hyundai was thrust into the spotlight.
On social media, some people speculated that the SUV’s safety features may have saved the golf legend’s life, given that authorities said he was traveling at a high speed. Others questioned whether the vehicle should have done a better job of protecting Woods.
Independent assessments of Genesis vehicles have given them high marks for safety.
USA Today
You can read more at the link.
The BBC has an article on North Korea’s slave labor system based on a report released recently by the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korea Human Rights:
Generations of South Korean prisoners of war are being used as slave labour in North Korean coal mines to generate money for the regime and its weapons programme, according to a report released by a human rights organisation. The BBC has taken a closer look at the allegations.
“When I see slaves shackled and dragged on TV, I see myself,” Choi Ki-sun told me. He was one of an estimated 50,000 prisoners seized by North Korea at the end of the Korean War in 1953.
“When we were dragged to labour camps, we were at gun point, lined up with armed guards around. What else could this be if not slave labour?”
Mr Choi (not his real name) said he continued to work in a mine in North Hamgyeong province alongside around 670 other prisoners of war (POWs) until his escape, 40 years later.
BBC News
You can read the rest at the link, but the article goes on to discuss the songbun system and how someone’s class can sentence them to slave labor as well. For those that have closely followed this issue the fate of Korean War POWs, the songbun system, and North Korea’s slave labor camps is nothing new.
Clearly the NKHR is trying to remind people of the regime’s brutality likely because there is an effort by the engagement crowd to once again appease the Kim regime for little to nothing in return. If the engagers want to give Kim Jong-un his dream deal, than the American public should clearly understand the brutality of the regime they want to prop up.
Another servicemember going to jail for a sex crime related offense:
An airman stationed at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa pleaded guilty and another is scheduled for a court-martial on charges of making and distributing indecent recordings without the subject’s consent.
Senior Airman Dante Torello of the 353rd Special Operations Group pleaded guilty Feb. 3 to videoing his victim’s genitalia without consent and distributing the recording, according to the court docket. A photo of Torello released in June 2019 by Kadena’s 18th Wing described him as a loadmaster for the group’s 1st Special Operations Squadron.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link, but there is another airman awaiting trial who was the person giving oral sex without consent that Torello was videotaping.
