Category: Korea-General Topics

Considering all the scandals surrounding Cho Kuk it makes you wonder why Seoul National University wanted him back in the first place:

Cho Kuk, former justice minister indicted over an ex-vice mayor’s bribery case, was suspended from duty as a professor at Seoul National University (SNU) on Wednesday, officials said.

The university said it has decided to impose an administrative action against Cho, who resumed his job as professor of the SNU law school in October 2019 after stepping down from the justice minister post following a scandal involving his family.

“As of Wednesday, we decided to relieve him of his duty on the judgment that it would be difficult (for Cho) to normally carry out his job,” the university said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Hopefully the number of people infected doesn’t get any worse:

South Korean disease control authorities say 28 people are being monitored for suspected coronavirus infection, but there have been no additional cases since the country’s fourth patient was confirmed Monday. As the disease rapidly spreads in China, top diplomats from Seoul and Beijing discussed ways to fight the outbreak together, including the evacuation of Koreans from Wuhan, the epicenter of the crisis.
Our Kim Bum-soo wraps up the latest. 

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link, but one of the people in South Korea infected is from Pyeongtaek which is near Osan Airbase and Camp Humphreys. Just another reason to practice good hygiene in South Korea.

It has to be pretty terrifying for the South Korean citizens trapped in Wuhan to be in the middle of the Coronavirus epicenter:

South Korea is considering sending a chartered flight to the Chinese city of Wuhan to bring its citizens home from the epicenter of the outbreak of a deadly new coronavirus, government sources said Monday.

Officials from the foreign ministry, the interior ministry, the health ministry and the transport ministry held a meeting to discuss safety measures for South Koreans remaining in Wuhan, estimated at around 600, including mobilizing a chartered flight to bring them home, the sources said.

“We are aware of the urgency of the situation, and we are also consulting with China on the issue,” an official said. “There are many things to prepare as a package, such as strengthening the local quarantine system in case South Koreans arrive from there.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but hopefully the Moon administration can get them out and then keep them under quarantine until cleared.

Another failed so called green energy project in South Korea:

A 46-meter-tall solar power tower in Daegu that cost 11.6 billion won ($10 million) was demolished last month after eight less-than-stellar years. 

The country’s first solar power tower was built by Daesung Energy and the Daegu Metropolitan City in 2011 under the Lee Myung-bak administration, which promoted a low-carbon, green growth strategy. 

The Daegu city government, aspiring to become a leading solar city, provided 20,300 square meters (218,507 square feet) of land to build the tower in the city’s Buk District. It was meant to be a solar power plant and employed 450 heliostats, reflective mirror panels that concentrate sunlight on the top of the tower. The concentrated solar energy was supposed to reach up to 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) and drive turbines to produce energy of up to 200 kilowatts per hour, enough for 80 households.

Of the 11.6-billion-won budget to build the tower, 7.15 billion won came from the Korean Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (Ketep), a state-run institute under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, while Daesung invested some 4.5 billion won.

But the solar plant, after being plagued by many problems over the years and unimpressive research results, has been reduced to rubble. 

Daegu’s city government disclosed Wednesday that Daesung Energy demolished the tower last month, spending around 200 million won to do so. 

The tower never delivered on any of its promises. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The four missing Koreans were teachers taking part in a program to teach kids in remote areas of Nepal:

Six people, including four South Koreans, remain missing in Nepal’s northwestern Himalayan region after an avalanche hit the area on Friday, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday. 

The Nepali authorities said they have mobilized an additional six to 10 specialized police officers for a search mission that is underway. But heavy snowfall and rough weather conditions are making the search difficult. 

Three search teams consisting of 13 locals who are familiar with the terrain and seven police officers have already conducted a land and air reconnaissance, but could not find the missing trekkers. 

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Here is the Moon administration’s policy on sending forces to protect navigation in the Straits of Hormuz:

Presidential Chief of Staff Noh Young-min said Thursday that the government could seek its own way to protect the lives and properties of Koreans in the Strait of Hormuz rather than participating in a U.S.-led naval coalition policing the region.

His remarks came amid Washington’s increasing pressure on Seoul to participate in the International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC), a coalition of countries including the United States, Saudi Arabia, the U.K. and Bahrain sending naval units to the area to safeguard navigation. Korea has been put in a dilemma over whether to join the maritime mission amid recently heightened tensions in the Middle East in the wake of the U.S. killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Iran’s retaliatory attack on U.S. bases in Iraq.

“We have not yet decided on whether to participate as a member of IMSC,” Noh said during an interview with CBS radio, Thursday. “But the government is reviewing possible ways to protect the lives and properties of our people and companies in the Middle East amid the recent political turmoil there … Such a review is progressing considerably.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Korea’s policy appears to be we will keep thinking about this so we don’t have to make a tough decision. In the meantime we will let the U.S. military do the dirty work of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open.

It makes me wonder if this stance from Korea will factor into the ongoing cost sharing negotiations?

Here is a very odd story of a son’s body being used as a bargaining chip for payment by a Seoul hospital:

An Alabama couple was locked in a web of bureaucracy as they fought for a week to retrieve their son’s body after he died Jan. 2 in a South Korean hospital, leaving a $24,000 bill for his care.

Gregory Allen, a 31-year-old civilian employee at the Child Development Center on the Army’s Yongsan Garrison, died during open-heart surgery after he arrived on Dec. 30 at Soon Chun Hyang University hospital in Seoul in a disoriented state.

Allen’s parents flew to Seoul as soon as they heard Gregory had fallen ill and found him on Jan. 1 the intensive care unit. The official cause of death was pulmonary embolism, his parents said.

“We were shocked,” said his father, Leroy Allen Jr., a retired soldier from Madison, Ala., who had served in South Korea.

He and his wife, Margie, had little time to grieve. They said hospital officials handed them the bill and demanded payment before Gregory’s body would be released.

They gave the hospital $3,000 but didn’t have the rest. Gregory Allen’s insurance policy covered 80% of the cost, but it took time to process the claim.

“This was like 3 o’clock in the morning and they’re asking me for $21,000,” Gregory’s father told Stars and Stripes in an interview Tuesday. “Now they’re charging 90,000 won (about $80) every day that he’s sitting in that freezer in that hospital until that $21,000 is paid off.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.