Category: Korea-General Topics

It looks like Korea’s “Bali-Bali” culture led to the Hyundai and LG workers not wanting to wait and go through the H1B visa process:

Many of those reportedly entered the US using B1 visas — issued for business purposes, such as attending meetings or signing contracts — or through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization visa waiver program for short-term stays. US immigration officials said that was the central issue in the raid.

Foreign nationals must acquire an appropriate visa such as the H-1B, L1 or E2 to legally obtain employment at workplaces located in the US. But as those visas can take months to obtain and their numbers are capped, they are often deemed impractical for companies that need to dispatch workers frequently or on short notice. Industry officials also complain that wait times for all types of visas have lengthened since the start of the Trump administration.

According to Korean media reports, the US allocates annual H-1B visa quotas to certain countries with which it has free trade agreements, including Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Chile and Australia. Despite having a free trade agreement with the US, South Korea does not receive a quota.

In response to the concern, an official from Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, who requested anonymity, noted that H-1B visas are distributed through a lottery. The official said that the ministry has repeatedly urged the US government and Congress since 2012 to create a separate visa quota for Korean professionals, such as via the proposed Partner With Korea Act.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but I wonder how many of the jobs the detained Joreans were doing could have been done by Americans?

I don’t doubt any of this is true and does anyone think the left isn’t doing the same thing with the KCTU and the organizations that support them?:

Former first lady Kim Keon Hee asked for the Unification Church’s cooperation in backing a specific candidate in the People Power Party’s (PPP) leadership election in March 2023, an indictment written by special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team showed Monday.

The team suspects that the Unification Church sought to request various policy favors from the administration of former President Yoon Suk Yeol in exchange for its political support.

According to the indictment for a former Unification Church official surnamed Yun, obtained by Yonhap News Agency, church leader Han Hak-ja emphasized the ideology of unity between church and state in around October 2019 and has since pushed for various projects and events related to Africa, Cambodia, a Demilitarized Zone peace park and hosting a U.N. secretariat in South Korea.

Under the instruction of Han, Yun selected Yoon as a presidential hopeful, who can not only accommodate the Unification Church’s policy proposals but also establish friendly relations with the church, ahead of the 2022 presidential election, according to the indictment.

Yun is accused of offering Rep. Kweon Seong-dong of the PPP 100 million won (US$72,000) in January 2022 while promising the church’s extensive support for Yoon in the presidential election in exchange for the government’s support for the church’s projects and events in the future.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

More good news on the birth rate issue in South Korea:

The number of babies born in South Korea rose at the fastest pace on record in June, government data showed Wednesday, a positive sign for a country struggling with an ultralow birth rate.

A total of 19,953 babies were born in June, up 9.4 percent from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea.

It marked the steepest on-year increase for any June since 1981 when the agency began compiling relevant data.

June also marked the 12th consecutive month of on-year growth, though the monthly number of newborns fell below the 20,000 mark for the first time in three months.

The country’s total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, went up by 0.06 from a year earlier to 0.76 in June on the back of increased childbirths among women aged 35-39.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If they can get this project to look like what it was projected to be it would actually be pretty cool, however right now it doesn’t even look like a tree:

A South Korean port city’s attempt to build a landmark attraction to draw visitors has run into public backlash, with critics calling its new 34.4 billion won ($24.8 million) “Big Tree” observation tower a costly disappointment.

The Big Tree, which rises 46.5 meters in Changwon, southeastern South Korea, was inspired by the towering Supertrees at Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay. It was designed to anchor Daesang Park, a public-private partnership development worth about 1 trillion won ($720 million), and to serve as a draw for both domestic and international visitors.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This was a good idea by the Korean negotiators to really emphasize the manufacturing the ROK can help bring back to the U.S.:

During the interview, Kim also introduced a red baseball cap used by the South Korean negotiating team in talks with the U.S. The cap bears the embroidered slogan “Make America Shipbuilding Great Again” on its front, a message inspired by Trump’s “Make America Great Again” mantra. 

“We designed this and brought about 10 of them to the U.S.,” he said, adding that the tariff negotiations would have been very difficult if South Korea did not have the shipbuilding card.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is not surprising that the ROK would not further open up these markets. Long time Korea watchers may remember what happened back in 2008 with the U.S. beef protests. President Lee is not going to have that happen again on his watch:

South Korea’s markets for rice and beef will not be further opened under a tariff deal with the United States, a senior presidential official said Sunday.

Kim Yong-beom, the presidential chief of staff for policy, made the remarks during an appearance on a KBS news program amid lingering uncertainty over the details of the tariff deal.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Horrible flooding tragedy currently going on in South Korea:

Seventeen people have been killed and 11 have gone missing in the heavy rains and landslides that began across South Korea four days ago, the government said Sunday.

The data from the interior ministry and the National Fire Agency, as of 6 p.m. Sunday, also showed that a large portion of the toll — 10 dead and four missing — occurred in the southern county of Sancheong.

The other deaths occurred in Osan and Gapyeong in Gyeonggi Province; Seosan, South Chungcheong Province; and Dangjin, South Chungcheong, and the southwestern city of Gwangju.

Firefighting officials said rescue work was still under way in Sancheong, which could lead to a change in the toll.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.