Author: GIKorea

To everyone in the greater Seoul area be safe on the roads:

Major highways running across Seoul were partly closed on Thursday, with the first flood alerts in nine years issued for areas near a major bridge on the Han River, as heavy rains pushed up the water level of the river that flows through the capital city.

Several sections of the Dongbu Urban Expressway, Seoul Inner Loop, Olympic-daero and Gangbyeon Northern Highway have been closed to traffic due to the inner city river’s swelled water level, according to the police and the city of Seoul. 

As heavy rains continued to batter the country’s metropolitan and central regions, authorities opened the floodgates of Soyang River Dam and Paldang Dam a day earlier, releasing the waters to empty into the sea through the Han River.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This poll shows how small the number of Koreans with anti-U.S. views are in the ROK:

Most South Koreans expressed support for the South Korea-U.S. alliance despite ongoing tensions over burden-sharing, a new poll found Monday.

According to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 90 percent of respondents said they either strongly support or somewhat support the alliance, similar to the 92 percent in December.

The survey, conducted on 1,000 adults in South Korea from June 23-25, also found that a unilateral withdrawal of American troops from South Korea is likely to undermine public support for the alliance.

That’s because the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea is closely linked to views of the alliance as mutually beneficial.

Eighty-two percent of the respondents said they are very confident or somewhat confident in the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea. Of those who are very confident, 78 percent said the alliance is mutually beneficial.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but unfortunately the anti-U.S. leftists in Korea have a big megaphone which can make it seem they are larger than what they really are.

This is a significant accomplishment for China to have completed its BeiDou satellite navigation system. It increases both their soft power as well as military clout to not be reliant on GPS:

China is celebrating the completion of its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System that could rival the U.S. Global Positioning System and significantly boost China’s security and geopolitical clout.

President Xi Jinping, the leader of the ruling Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army, officially commissioned the system Friday at a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

That followed a declaration that the 55th and final geostationary satellite in the constellation launched June 23 was operating after having completed all tests.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link.

For a country of 51 million people, having only 3 reported local COVID infections in one day is pretty amazing:

South Korea reported 23 more cases of the new coronavirus Monday, with local infections at a nearly three-month low, health authorities said.

The new cases, including 20 imported cases, raised South Korea’s total cases of COVID-19 to 14,389, with local infections at three, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

The number of new COVID-19 cases had been in the 30s since Friday when South Korea reported 36 new virus cases. The number fell to 31 on Saturday and 30 on Sunday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but of the 20 imported cases from Monday, 14 were from Koreans returning to the ROK and 6 were foreigners that arrived and were tested while in quarantine. Even more impressive is that the ROK has had only 301 deaths from the coronavirus.

I believe the ROK demonstrates what competent public health institutions combined with a citizenry that believes in these institutions can accomplishment during a pandemic. This is the complete opposite of what is going on in the U.S. right now.

While U.S. movie theaters are largely shutdown, movie goers in South Korea are heading back to theaters:

With several exciting home-grown big-title releases, the South Korean box office is a bright spot amid the grim reality for the hard-hit film industry. Earlier this week, S&P Global Market intelligence and OPUSData numbers showed a 92% shrink in the Asian box office from January to June this year, compared to the first six months of 2019, as reported in Variety. 

Invigorating South Korea’s box office at the end of June, zombie thriller #Alive burst onto screens with its timely (and strangely resonant) story of two characters trying to survive a mysterious virus infecting the city’s population. Distributed by Lotte Entertainment, the film starred Yoo Ah-in and Park Shin-hye, and was widely-credited for sparking the domestic box office back to life. It became the first film in South Korea to surpass the one-million admissions mark since February. It has since grossed $13.4 million. 

Forbes via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but the sequel to the zombie flick, Train to Busan, called Peninsula and a North Korea thriller, Steel Rain 2 have further brought the South Korean box office back to life this summer.

Here is a power tip for everyone, don’t try to wash and microwave your money; it usually does not end well:

Money laundering is not a good idea, as a South Korean found out when he or she put banknotes in a washing machine to remove possible traces of the coronavirus.

Officials say the loss was considerable.

The person living in Ansan city, near Seoul, placed an unspecified amount of 50,000-won ($42) bills in a washing machine earlier this year. Some of the money was seriously damaged, and the person reached out to the Bank of Korea to find whether it could be exchanged for new bills.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the Bank of Korea refunded some of his damaged bills but others were too damaged to be refunded causing the man to take a serious loss.