Category: Korea-General Topics

To me this number is more concerning than the daily case rate being over a 1,000 for five days:

The government’s ongoing random testing, launched in the greater Seoul area at the beginning of this week, has identified nearly 300 cases of COVID-19 so far, a government agency on the coronavirus pandemic said Saturday.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters, an additional 116 people were diagnosed with COVID-19 at the capital area random testing centers Friday, raising the five-day total to 286.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this random testing shows that the coronavirus has likely spread to far more people than what is currently believed.

I would not be surprised of the daily case numbers stay over 1,000 based on the trends we are seeing in other northern hemisphere countries right now:

 South Korea’s new coronavirus cases spiked by more than 1,000 for the fifth straight day to hit a fresh record high Sunday, putting the country’s virus battle in the most trouble so far amid rising death tolls.

The country added 1,097 more COVID-19 cases, including 1,072 local infections, raising the total caseload to 49,665, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The tally marked a rise from 1,053 cases Saturday and 1,062 Friday. The previous record high was reported at 1,078 on Wednesday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the ROK Foreign Minister defending the criminalizing of human rights activists that have been sending leaflets to North Korea:

Earlier this week, the National Assembly passed the bill that prevents mainly North Korean defectors and human rights activists from flying propaganda leaflets or other materials critical of the Kim Jong-un regime over the border into the North. The government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea claim the new law will help protect residents in border regions and ease cross-border tension.

“Because this is happening in a very sensitive area, the most militarized zone in the whole world with people living right next to the border area,” Kang said in an interview with CNN.

Citing a 2014 cross-border gunfire exchange and the demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office in June, which she claimed were due to the leaflets, she added, “So in an area, highly militarily tense area, anything can go wrong and lead to even bigger clashes. And the people living near the border have been asking that these activities stop for years.” 

The foreign minister admitted that there was an argument denouncing the law as restricting freedom of expression, but she also said this could be limited in certain cases.

“Freedom of expression, I think, is absolutely a vital human right. But it’s not absolute. It can be limited according to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). But it has to be by law. It has to be limited in scope. And it is limited in scope. It is only used when these acts pose harm or pose danger to the life and the security of our people,” Kang said.

Korea Times

Kang brings up the 2014 incident when the North Koreans have had far worse cross border incidents that had nothing to do with the human rights activists sending leaflets to North Korea. For example the Kim regime shelled a South Korea island in 2010 with an artillery strike that killed both military personnel and civilians. To think that criminalizing the human rights activists is going to improve border security is a fallacy.

The only reason there hasn’t been a major border incident in recent years is because the Kim regime thinks they are close to getting their confederation idea implemented by the Moon administration and with it the beginning of the end of the US-ROK alliance as we currently know it.

As expected the Moon administration has suspended the Prosecutor General and are using the Justice Minister as the scapegoat:

 President Moon Jae-in has approved the justice ministry’s decision to suspend South Korea’s top prosecutor from duty for two months, Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.

The measure against Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl over multiple charges of ethical and legal misdeeds came after the ministry’s disciplinary committee voted to punish him in a marathon session that ended early Wednesday morning.

President Moon approved the decision at 6:30 p.m. after Choo visited his office in the afternoon for a related briefing to the president, according to Chung Man-ho, senior presidential secretary for public communication. The measure immediately went into effect.

Chung, meanwhile, added that Choo has tendered a resignation.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Choo is just carrying out the Blue House’s orders to get rid of Yoon because he would not cover up corruption occurring in the Moon administration.

Her resignation offer is what her political party was advocating for as cover for Yoon’s suspension. This is all political theater to get Yoon out of the way of the prosecutor reforms the Moon administration is trying to implement as well as stop any further investigation into corruption in the Moon administration. It also side lines Yoon who has been growing in popularity as a presidential candidate due to his stance against corruption in the Moon administration.

Could you imagine what the international media reaction would be if President Trump suspended Robert Mueller during his special counsel investigation into the Trump administration? This is basically what is happening here and I expect it will get little if any international media attention.

Here was a good move by Ambassador Harris to score some easy points with the Korean public at the expense of the Chinese:

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris learned how to make kimchi from a renowned chef Tuesday, calling the fermented cabbage dish “uniquely Korean, world-renowned food.”

The kimchi-making event at the Habib House, the ambassador’s official residence in Seoul, came amid Chinese media’s claim that Beijing led the development of a global standard for the staple Korean dish.

“There’re some pretenders out there, but I think there’s nothing more Korean than kimchi,” Harris said during the 25-minute event streamed live on Facebook by the Asia Society Korea Center. 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but great job who ever came up with the idea for this event.

This looks like an attempt to show the public “we are doing something”:

More than 300 Special Warfare officers were dispatched to public health centers Monday to help with the government’s handling of the new coronavirus, the Army said. 

A total of 379 officers from the Army’s Special Warfare Command were sent to 78 public health centers in Seoul and the surrounding areas to conduct diverse supporting roles, such as contact tracing, data management and transferring samples for virus tests for two months, according to the Army. 

The move came as the metropolitan area has reported large numbers of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. On Sunday, the country’s number of daily infections hit a record high of 1,030, and nearly 80 percent of them were from Seoul, the western city of Incheon and Gyeonggi Province.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this appears to be nothing more than a PR move because you don’t need special forces soldiers to do contact tracing or data management.

The community spread of the coronavirus continues to worsen in South Korea like much of the rest of the northern hemisphere that is entering winter:

South Korea’s single-day coronavirus cases broke the 1,000-mark for the first time on Sunday, prompting President Moon Jae-in to warn that the country will have to consider enforcing the toughest level of social distancing unless the current spread is curbed.

The country added 1,030 more COVID-19 cases, including 1,002 local infections, raising the total caseload to 42,766, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

Sunday’s daily caseload jumped from the previous day’s record high of 950, marking the highest since the country reported its first COVID-19 case in January.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It appears the autopilot in a Tesla vehicle may have contributed to this crash:

Police are investigating the fatal conflagration of a Tesla Model X that killed its owner and injured two others in an underground parking garage in Seoul.  
   
The Model X crashed into the wall of the parking garage of an apartment complex in Yongsan District, central Seoul, then caught fire, on Wednesday. This led to the burning death of the car’s owner, who was in the passenger seat.  
   
The driver, who escaped with injuries, claimed “the car suddenly got out of control,” raising the possibility of a sudden unintended acceleration as the cause of the accident, according to police.  
   
It is unusual for a car slowly winding its way through a parking garage to suddenly smash into a wall and result in the death of a passenger. The police will ask the National Forensic Service to try to determine the cause of the accident.    
   
Some experts asked about the case suggested that the Tesla’s autopilot function could have played a role.  
   
“It is more likely that the car’s autopilot feature malfunctioned or the driver’s misunderstanding of the system caused the accident, instead of a sudden unintended acceleration,” said Kim Pil-soo, a professor at Daelim University College department of automotive engineering, who observed the accident site. “If the car was powered by an internal combustion engine, the fire could have been more easily extinguished. But since it was an electric car, it was harder to stop the fire.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but using the autopilot in a parking garage seems to be a very bad idea.

Ever since being accused of sexual assault by a number of actresses, Kim Ki-duk has kept a low profile and has now reportedly passed away from the coronavirus in Latvia of all places:

Filmmaker Kim Ki-duk has died following complications after contracting the coronavirus.   
   
Foreign media reported Friday evening that the 59-year-old filmmaker had passed away at a hospital in Latvia.   
   
Local media later confirmed the reports after contacting Kim’s family.   
   
Kim is best known for his 2012 drama “Pieta,” which won him the Golden Lion Prize at the Venice Film Festival that year, and other representative works include “Arirang” (2011) and “Moebius” (2013).   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This may be a new daily record of 950 COVID cases for Korea, but compared to California’s daily rate of over 35,000 daily cases it is still quite low:

The daily number of new coronavirus cases in South Korea crossed the 900-mark on Saturday, reaching a record high nearly 11 months after the country reported its first virus case.

The country added 950 more COVID-19 cases, including 928 local infections, raising the total caseload to 41,736, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). 

Saturday’s daily caseload marks a sharp jump from 689 the previous day and is the highest mark since January, when the country reported its first confirmed COVID-19 case. The previous record was 909 tallied on Feb. 29. 

Cluster infections from private gatherings coupled with massive infections at a church and a hospital pushed up the tally.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.