Category: Korea-General Topics

This just shows how touchy of an issue real estate is in Korea; that mostly this one issue has caused the ruling party to quickly slide in public polling:

081401-Poll-Graph

For the first time since the 2016 political scandal that led to President Park Geun-hye’s removal from office, the approval rating of the United Future Party (UFP) overtook that of President Moon Jae-in’s Democratic Party (DP), a poll showed Thursday.  
   
According to a Realmeter poll conducted earlier this week, 36.5 percent of respondents said they support the UFP, up by 1.9 percentage points from the previous week. That figure was the highest since the party was rebranded in February.  
   
In the same survey conducted from Monday through Wednesday on 1,507 adults nationwide, the DP’s approval rate was 33.4 percent, down by 1.7 percentage points.  
   
It was the first time the UFP outstripped the DP in Realmeter’s weekly approval rating poll since October 2016.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the Korean public is upset about the government’s efforts to manipulate the real estate market while many government officials to include President Moon are being accused of hypocrisy and benefitting from real estate speculation.

This is not a good look for doctors to be going on strike during a pandemic, but they are at least going to keep the ICU’s staffed with personnel:

Doctors working at vital departments, including intensive care units, will continue to be on normal duty on Friday despite the strike. Last week, trainee doctors at hospitals also launched a one-day walkout.

As of Thursday, 8,365, or 24.7 percent of 33,836 clinics across the nation, reported they will close their doors on Friday, according to the health ministry.

“It will take some time to estimate how many hospitals will join the strike, as some of them may also be closing for the vacation season,” a ministry official said.

South Korea’s medical law stipulates that the minister, or related regional governors, can issue an order for hospitals to open if “a serious hazard occurs or is likely to occur to public health.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this strike has to do with the Moon administration trying to increase the quota on how many doctors can be trained each year to try and better staff rural areas. However, the doctors are saying there are plenty of doctors, the problem is most of them want to live in the Seoul area for better hospitals and quality of life.

This has the potential to turn into a much larger outbreak if these people were not wearing masks and social distancing while infected:

At least 11 employees at a local fast-food franchise have tested positive for the new coronavirus, officials said Wednesday, raising concerns over a possibly bigger outbreak.

Ten employees of Lotteria were found to have had a meetiing at the franchise restaurant near Gunja subway station in the eastern Seoul ward of Gwangjin between 3:18 and 5:25 p.m. on Aug. 6, according to health authorities and the Seoul city government.

They later visited two other restaurants in the area, with nine more people joining them.

An employee who lives in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, first tested positive on Tuesday, and three others, all Seoul residents, also tested positive on the same day.

Additional infections were reported on Wednesday, bringing the number of cases to 11 as of 6 p.m.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I learned something new today; I did not know that Korea had a quota on the number of students who can be trained to become a doctor:

The Moon Jae-in administration has been at odds with doctors over its healthcare reform bills that will increase the number of medical students admitted to universities and establish a state-funded medical school.

The government said July 23 that it wants to produce more doctors to broaden the reach of public health care services as the necessity for this was confirmed with the onset of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As soon as the plan was made public, however, doctors’ groups were up in arms immediately, vowing to go on strike.

The Korea Medical Association (KMA), the nation’s largest union for doctors, and the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA) announced plans to stage an all-out strike Aug. 14 to protest the reform. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but what is going on is that the Moon administration is trying to increase the number of doctors so there are more of them in rural areas. However, the KMA is saying the issue is not the number of doctors, but the fact that doctors flock to the Greater Seoul Metropolitan Area because of higher pay and quality of life factors.

The rain continues to fall on South Korea:

 South Korea’s annual rainy season has continued for 49 days now, the longest on record, and is poised to set a fresh record as more rains are forecast to pour down until mid-August.

The monsoon season, which has begun on June 24, tied the previous record of 49 days set in 2013, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said, and will continue until Aug. 16 in the capital Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and western Gangwon Province.

On the southern resort island of Jeju, the rainy season lasted for 49 days from June 10 to July 28, breaking the previous record of 47 days set in 1998.

This year’s rainy season will end the latest on record, surpassing the previous record set on Aug. 10, 1987. 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but of course global warming climate change is being blamed for the rain.

Despite the uptick in local infections, South Korea’s numbers are still incredibly low:

COVID-19 infections traced to a church have spread to Namdaemun Market, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Seoul, the health authorities said Monday. This is renewing concerns over mass infections while the number of new cases here has hovered between 20 and 43 a day, since the beginning of the month.

According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), the country added 28 new cases Sunday, bringing the total caseload to 14,626. 

Among the 28, 17 were locally transmitted infections, including 11 reported in the densely populated capital, and five in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province.  

At least nine were tied to the Namdaemun Market. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Well if the monsoon rains were not bad enough, now a typhoon is heading towards South Korea as well:

 South Korea will come under the direct influence of Typhoon Jangmi, the season’s fifth typhoon, this week, which will bring heavy rain to the country’s flood-hit southeastern region, the state weather agency said Sunday.

The tropical storm, which formed early Sunday southwest of Okinawa and started to move northeast, is expected to pass waters 350 kilometers south of Jeju Island around 10 a.m. Monday, according to the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA).

Around 3 p.m. on the same day, it is predicted to arrive in waters 30 km southwest of Busan, some 325 km southeast of Seoul, it said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Monsoon season is hitting hard this year in South Korea:

The death toll from weeklong heavy rains here rose to 21, officials said Saturday. At least 11 people were reported missing and seven injured, while more than 3,000 were displaced, according to the national disaster control center and local governments.

Torrential rain has wreaked havoc across the country since Aug. 1 amid the prolonged monsoon season. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.