Category: Korea-General Topics

I guess we will see if this starts a new trend in Korean bookstores, in my opinion this is pretty childish:

 A South Korean bookstore in the central city of Daejeon stirred up an anti-Japan controversy by attaching the nameplate ‘Waegu Novels’ to the bookshelf for Japanese novels.

Waegu is a term used to refer to a group of Japanese pirates who plagued the seas of East Asia, especially between the 13th and 17th centuries. Some Koreans use the term as a way to look down on Japanese people.

In an interview with local media on Wednesday, the owner of the bookstore said that Japan’s economic retaliation against South Korea as well as the fact that a number of bookstores in Japan run ‘Anti-Korea’ corners in their Korea section made him angry.

Korea Biz Wire

You can read more at the link.

It seems to me instead of erasing the history, the Bank of Korea should just put a plaque there explaining the history to people:

Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Ju-yeol said Friday the bank is in talks with the Cultural Heritage Administration to possibly remove the engraving of the word “priority” written in Chinese on the cornerstone of the bank’s former headquarters in downtown Seoul.

“The BOK will be very quick in addressing the issue about Hiromubi Ito’s calligraphy and the strokes slanted down from the left to the bottom right which were found in the two characters of ‘jeong’ and ‘cho’ engraved on the foundation stone. The bank is exploring three options. After thorough discussions with the CHA, the bank will resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” the central bank chief told lawmakers on the sidelines of his participation in this year’s annual Assembly audit of the BOK.

Lee didn’t elaborate further, but he issued a public apology over the matter. The apology came a day after the CHA confirmed the writing engraved on the bank’s former headquarters was Hirobumi Ito’s handwriting. 

Ito was the first resident general of Korea prior to the 1910-45 Japanese occupation of the peninsula. Ito was assassinated by Korean independence activist Ahn Jung-geun in Manchuria in 1909.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

With everyone already scared of the coronavirus now there is a new fear, the flu vaccine:

Public fear is escalating over the safety of the seasonal flu vaccination after a series of deaths among people who had recently received the vaccination, although the health authorities have said there was no connection.

As of 4 p.m., Thursday, the number of deaths nationwide of people who had been vaccinated against the seasonal influenza increased to 25, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). 

An increasing number of elderly people here are expressing concerns over the vaccination as most cases were in this age group, although the KDCA repeated that the deaths were not associated with the flu shots.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but 25 is a lot of people. To put that is perspective that is the amount of people killed by the coronavirus in South Korea since September 30th.

The BTS controversy in China has escalated:

South Korean Ambassador to China Jang Ha-sung said Wednesday that he has taken issue with a senior Beijing official over the reported suspension of the delivery of some merchandise featuring K-pop superband BTS.

Jang made the remarks during a video-linked parliamentary audit session following reports that the Chinese logistics firm, Yunda Express, and other firms have boycotted the shipments of goods related to BTS.

The boycott came after BTS faced online rebukes in China earlier this month following its member’s remarks honoring the sacrifices of South Koreans and Americans during the 1950-53 Korean War, in which Chinese troops fought in support of North Korean forces.

Yonhap

You can read more a the link, but like I said in my prior posting could you imagine what would happen if BTS recognized Chinese and Japanese troops that fought in World War II in China. The 50 Cent Army would be attacking BTS for recognizing the Japanese troops that tried to destroy China, which is the same thing the Chinese troops during the Korean War tried to do to the ROK. 

It is pretty clear that the Chinese propaganda apparatus is trying to put BTS in its place and letting them know they better always talk positively about China or else. This usually works with most companies, players, and entertainers, but will it work BTS? I suspect they will probably get in line with Chinese propaganda to maintain access to the Chinese market.

Considering how over populated South Korea is, it may be a good thing to have some population decline in my opinion:

The government should change its immigration policy drastically in the face of the declining population, experts said Monday. 

According to a paper titled “Searching for the Direction of Mid- and Long-term Korean Immigration Policy,” published in the latest issue of the journal entitled Multicultural Content Research by Chung-Ang University’s Institute of Cultural Contents, the establishment of a ministry in charge of managing immigration issues is necessary to implement comprehensive related policies.

Kim Yeon-hong, an official of the Human Resources Development Service of Korea who authored the paper, said, “The situation will become so serious that the nation’s population will see a significant decrease in 2020, and the country, by 2030 will face national-security challenges due to a shrinking active military.” 

“In order to maintain the current size of the economy, the inflow of immigrant workers will be inevitable.” Kim said. 

According to data from Statistics Korea, the number of deaths from January to July of this year was 176,363 while the number of births was 165,000. The difference between the birth and death rates is particularly notable this year, indicating that the nation’s net annual population has naturally decreased for the first time in history.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

DNA technology is continuing to help Korean born adoptees find their biological parents:

A 47-year-old Korean-born woman adopted by an American family 44 years ago has reunited with her biological family after conducting a DNA test through a South Korean mission in the United States, the foreign ministry said Sunday.

On Thursday, Yoon Sang-ae, now an American citizen, had a tearful video call with her 78-year-old biological mother, Lee Eung-soon, her twin sister, Yoon Sang-hee, and brother, Yoon Sang-myung. 

Yoon Sang-ae was three years old when she went missing while at a market in Seoul with her grandmother. She was flown to the United States months later. 

She registered her DNA information in search of her family when she visited South Korea in 2016. Her biological mother also registered her DNA the next year to find her daughter. (…………)

It was the first case where a Korean-born adoptee found the biological family after the government began providing a DNA test service for overseas adoptees to help them be tested and register their information without having to come to South Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is a story about the “peaceful” protesters in Chicago and a Korean-American shop owner:

The crowd was growing impatient as Crystal Holmes fumbled with the keys to the store.

Dozens of people were swarming the street around Western Beauty Supply, the Chicago shop where Holmes works. She had persuaded some of them to let her open the store so they could rob it without breaking the windows.

“She’s taking too long,” someone yelled. “Let’s go in and get it.”

Western Beauty Supply sells products like wigs, hair extensions and combs mostly to Black women. Most of the employees, like Holmes, are also Black, but the owner is a Korean American man, Yong Sup Na.

When a few young men appeared outside the store earlier that evening in May, Na went out to speak with them. He offered some of them cash, and they walked away. At that point, Na told Holmes that he felt confident his business was safe. “They are not going to break into the store,” he told her.

A few minutes later, though, a larger group showed up. A woman snatched Na’s keys, but Holmes persuaded her to give them back. Then she ordered Na, her boss, to leave. “You don’t know what could happen,” she told him.

Even as Holmes tried to save the store from ruin that evening, when protests and looting followed the police killing of George Floyd, she understood what was causing the turmoil roiling Chicago and dozens of other cities.

“I understand where the rage is coming from,” Holmes, 40, said in an interview. “We don’t have any businesses in the community and we are getting killed by the police and killing each other, and we are just getting tired.”

New York Times

You can read more at the link, but I think there should be some self reflection here instead of blaming Koreans for being “insular” as described in the article.

How come a guy who came to the country in his late 20’s with no money and not speaking the language was able to become a successful shop owner who put his kids through college, but people with all the advantages of being born in the US could not? If you read the article there are some hints why.

Considering Beijing’s territorial grab in the South China Sea, it is easy to imagine that they are setting conditions now to make similar territorial grabs from Korea in the future:

Activities by Chinese warships in waters near the Korean Peninsula have increased in recent years, military data showed Friday.

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff data released by Rep. Kim Min-ki of the ruling Democratic Party, Chinese war vessels crossed the tentative median line in South Korea’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around 290 times last year.

An EEZ is a sea zone that a country has special rights over regarding the exploration and use of marine resources. It stretches out to 200 nautical miles from the shore.

Seoul has demanded that the EEZs of South Korea and China be demarcated by drawing a median line between the two countries’ overlapping areas. But Beijing has demanded that a proportional EEZ line be drawn by taking into account coastlines and the population along them.

Chinese warships crossing the median line accounted for nearly 80 percent of the total 370 tallied during the cited period, including 50 and 30 times by Russian and Japanese warships, respectively.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but despite these facts the Korean leftists want people to believe the Japanese are the real territorial threat to South Korea.

Famed Korean author Jo Jung-rae thinks that any Korean who studied in Japan should be prosecuted:

“People who studied in Japan are doomed to become pro-Japanese. They become traitors. Some call them ‘homegrown Japanese pirates’…,” he said during a news conference to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his literary debut at the Press Center in central Seoul. 

“I know there is a campaign going on and it aims to purge Koreans who are sympathetic about Japan regarding its past evil acts and distortion of history. People like them must be punished in accordance to law. I’m willing to actively participate in the campaign.”

His remarks created a stir. 

Critic Chin Jung-kwon said Jo’s remarks reflect “insanity” and “outdated nationalism.” Chin wrote on social media that if all Koreans who spent some years studying in Japan are Japan sympathizers, then President Moon Jae-in’s daughter must be pro-Japanese as she studied at Tokyo’s Kokushikan University. 

Jo is a respected novelist having authored many best-selling books. His award-winning historical fiction work “The Taebaek Mountains” is considered the best novel of the 1980s.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Jo wants to put people in jail who studied in Japan because a group of authors wrote a book based on facts about the Japanese colonial period that dispute much of what Jo has written in his historical fiction books. So instead of disputing the facts he rather have people jailed.