South Korea unveiled its “tobacco endgame” plan that calls for adopting uniform, plain packaging for all cigarettes and more graphic warning labels to push people to quit smoking, the government said Tuesday. The comprehensive endeavor, reached by the public health policy review committee, aims to lower the smoking rate for men significantly from 38.1 percent in 2017, the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The percentage of male smokers in the country has been falling steadily since 2008 with the government wanting the figure to fall to lower than 29 percent by 2022. The ministry said indoor smoking areas will be banned, with all products containing nicotine to be classified as tobacco goods and subject to tougher restrictions. The ministry added that for the time being, an increase of the price of tobacco products is not being considered. The government increased taxes on cigarettes by 2,000 won (US$1.70) per pack on Jan. 1, 2015, raising the price to 4,500 won per pack.
You can read more at the link, but there is no doubt that smoking is bad for you, but how come these measures aren’t taken against other industries that are bad for people’s health like drinking too much soda?
Here is yet another opportunity to hike along the DMZ that is about to open:
The second inter-Korean border trail along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that demarcates South and North Korea will be opened to civilian hikers next month, officials said Monday.
The central section of the DMZ in Cheorwon, Gangwon, will be opened for the government-initiated DMZ Peace Trail program on June 1, the officials said.
The first DMZ Peace Trail was launched in an eastern coastal section in Goseong, Gangwon, on April 27, drawing hundreds of hikers to its scenic seaside routes over six days each week, with the trail closed on Mondays. Civilian hikers’ access to the Cheorwon DMZ Peace Trail zone was approved by the United Nations Command (UNC) on May 8. (……)
Hikers will begin their trek from the Monument for the Baekma (White Horse) Plateau Battle and walk or take a ride along the DMZ southern boundary before arriving at an Arrowhead Hill guard post. It will be the first time since the division of the Korean Peninsula that a guard post within the DMZ will be open to civilians.
On Arrowhead Hill, hikers can also watch the military’s excavation work for war remains, the officials added. As part of efforts to better guarantee visitors’ safety, South Korea recently notified North Korea of the tour program, according to Defense Ministry officials.
Here are the modern day comfort women that you never hear the left in South Korea ever talk about. Instead they bash Japan for things that happened nearly 75 years ago while saying nothing about the modern day Korean comfort women in China:
The sexual exploitation of North Korean women and girls generates an estimated $105 million annually for Chinese criminal networks, according to a report released by a London-based human rights group Monday.
The Korea Future Initiative, a non-governmental human rights organization, described a year-long study of thousands of North Korean women and girls forced into marriages and pregnancies, organized prostitution and cybersex work in China.
The report found that the victims, generally between the ages of 12 and 29 and overwhelmingly female, could be trafficked directly from North Korea or coerced, sold or abducted in China. They are subject to abuse thanks to a demand for sex slaves in China.
Some victims – including a nine-year-old girl – were trafficked into Chinese cybersex dens, where they are sexually assaulted or forced to perform graphic acts in front of webcams live-streamed to a paying global audience – including South Korean men. A single live-stream session featuring a North Korean pre-teen can cost as much as $110.
We don't have to try to wreck #China's economy. What we do to stop its theft of our intellectual property and end its violations of #trade commitments will cripple its economy and perhaps topple the Communist Party. Regardless of its effect on China, we must defend ourselves. https://t.co/myKucSsJnk
Women’s World CupJi So-yun, a member of the South Korean women’s national football team for the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup, speaks during a media day event at a convention center in Seoul on May 20, 2019. The tourney is set for June 7-July 7 in France. (Yonhap
You can always count on the Chinese to bust international sanctions:
China has provided rice and fertilizer to North Korea, Chinese data showed Sunday, amid U.N. Security Council (UNSC) sanctions against the North that prohibit any large-scale economic assistance.
According to data from China’s customs office, Beijing provided 1,000 tons of rice, worth about US$1 million, to the impoverished North between May and October of 2018. The data showed Beijing also provided 162,000 tons of fertilizer, worth more than $55 million, to the North.
The shipments of what appears to have been free assistance followed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s visit to China in March 2018, when he held his first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
What a horrible deal this would have been if President Trump would have agreed to it:
U.S. President Donald Trump has said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wanted to remove only one or two of the five nuclear sites in his country during their summit in Hanoi in February. Trump made remarks in an interview with Fox News on Sunday (Washington time), reiterating his vow not to allow Iran to have nuclear arms amid heightened military tensions with the Islamic republic. “When I left Vietnam where we had the summit, I said to Chairman Kim … And I think very importantly I said, look, you are not ready for a deal because he wanted to get rid of one or two sites,” Trump said. “But he has five sites … I said what about the other three sites. That is no good,” he added. The Hanoi summit collapsed as Trump and Kim failed to bridge their gaps over the scope of Pyongyang’s denuclearization and Washington’s sanctions relief. Since then, the bilateral negotiations have hit an impasse. Trump, however, highlighted that there have not been nuclear and long-range tests amid his administration’s diplomatic efforts. “They haven’t had any tests over the last two years. It is zero,” he said.
You can read more at the link, but I think President Trump should not be bragging too much about the missile and nuclear test moratorium. The self imposed moratorium Kim Jong-un has already said will end next year if a deal is not struck, just in time for the Presidential election season.
The North Koreans unsurprisingly are unhappy about the seizure of one of their ships by the United States:
The seizure of the Wise Honest was the first time the United States has seized a North Korean cargo vessel for international sanctions violations
North Korea’s top envoy to the United Nations (UN) has sent a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to criticize the United States’ recent seizure of its cargo ship suspected of violating international sanctions, Pyongyang’s state media said Saturday.
In the letter sent Friday, Kim Song called the seizure an “unlawful, outrageous and sovereignty-infringing” act, which, he said, indicated the United States is “indeed a gangster country,” according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
The U.S. Justice Department said on May 9 that it has seized the 17,061-ton Wise Honest suspected of transferring coal and machinery in violation of the sanctions regime, in the first such direct seizure by U.S. authorities.
You can read more at the link, but something I have been saying for a long time is these sanctions busting ships should be seized and then auctioned off with the money going to the victims of their terrorism attacks over the years. It is time to catch more ships to further put pressure on the Kim regime.
Unfortunately it looks like some foreign students in Seoul had to deal with a creepy ajushi:
A building superintendent has been booked for allegedly sexually harassing foreign residents in Seodaemun, northwestern Seoul, Seodaemun police said.
The suspect, in his 40s, allegedly verbally and physically harassed foreign women, most of whom are studying or on a temporary stay in Korea. The building is used as a dormitory for foreign students of a nearby university.
Police began their investigation after one of the alleged victims complained.
Police allege the suspect has been harassing foreign residents for a long time. The victims said they did not know how to deal with it.
“He tried to kiss me twice and grab my butt,” one victim told a local news outlet. “He would also ask me to sleep with him.”
Journalist Byun Hee-jai is released from jail on bail in #SouthKorea. Actually he protested the very restrictive bail conditions, which would've prevented him from prepping to defend himself & refused to leave, so they forced him out of jail.https://t.co/aE6Q7wZMlx
