#MoonJaein again says "south side," instead of #SouthKorea. He used the same term when he went to Pyongyang. This time, it's on TV during Korean Thanksgiving day. Is he ashamed of South Korea?https://t.co/6nXmRRef4R
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) September 15, 2019
Another infectious disease has come into South Korea likely from North Korea:
South Korea was on alert Tuesday to prevent the spread of African swine fever after the first case of the animal disease was confirmed near the border with North Korea.
The agriculture ministry announced the beginning of operations to slaughter some 4,000 pigs as a precautionary step.
Kim Hyeon-soo, minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs, said quarantine officials are set to complete the culling of the pigs at three farms, including the one where the disease was detected, in Paju, just south of the inter-Korean border, by Tuesday.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Via a reader tip comes this article about South Korea’s growing drag queen culture:
Hurricane Kimchi takes the stage at an underground bar in Seoul, dancing agilely to Wonder Girls’ 2008 K-pop hit “Nobody.”
Dressed in high heels, a fluffy white wig and a tight gold sequin dress — an homage to the song’s video — he commands a fervent crowd that cheers, sings along and throws money at his feet. At one point, an audience member runs up to shove a 10,000-won bill (around $9) inside his belt.
Drag queens remain a rare sight in South Korea. But Hurricane Kimchi’s alter-ego, LGBTQ activist Heezy Yang, is out to change perceptions in a country with traditionally conservative views on gender and sexuality.
The activist’s work ranges from writing a novel about his experience of coming out, to taking part in a mock gay wedding ceremony in Seoul’s metro. He is also the founder of the Seoul Drag Parade, an annual event that hopes to “encourage both queer and non-queer people to use drag to find their identity (and) express their true feelings, thoughts and style,” according to its website.
Then there are the weekday drag shows he organizes in Itaewon, a diverse international neighborhood that has become the capital’s main gay district and is known as “homo hill” to the LGBTQ community and locals.
CNN
You can read more at the link, but I can remember many years ago when the transgender folks used to hang out up in the TDC Ville trying to hook up with drunk soldiers.
Anyone surprised that these workers were killed because they did not have proper safety equipment?:
Three migrant workers were found dead, and another one is in a coma, following an accident inside an underground tank at a fishery products processing factory in the eastern county of Yeongdeok on Tuesday, local fire authorities said.
The four — three Thais and one Vietnamese — were found at the bottom of the tank at 2:30 p.m., according to the North Gyeongsang Province Fire Service Headquarters.
The workers, whose names have yet to be made public, are believed to have suffocated while doing maintenance work inside the tank at the factory in Chuksan Port in Yeongdeok, some 250 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
The 42-year-old and 28-year-old Thai workers and the 53-year-old Vietnamese person died in the accident, and the other victim, a 34-year-old Thai, is currently in a coma, the fire headquarters said.
The tank stores byproducts from the processing of fish and shellfish, it added.
The rescue authorities said the workers appeared to have entered the tank without safety equipments even though there was a high risk of inhaling toxic gas from decomposed fishery products.
Yonhap
It is things like South Korea claiming they are a developing country that gives weight to President Trump’s frequent criticisms of how these international organizations are unfair to American workers:
South Korea’s new agriculture minister has ruled out the possibility of abandoning the country’s special and differential treatment under the World Trade Organization regime, despite growing U.S. pressure to reform the global trade body.
In a recent brief comment to Yonhap News Agency, Kim Hyeon-soo said that South Korea has no plan to give up developing country status, underscoring the country’s efforts to keep the status intact, mainly to protect its sensitive agriculture industry, especially rice.
Currently, Asia’s fourth-largest economy imposes a 513 percent tariff on imported rice. Government data showed 54 percent of the 1 million South Korean farming households grow rice, a staple food for Koreans.
Yonhap
South Korea is one of the most developed and maybe even the most technologically advanced country I have ever been to and to claim they are a developing nation is ridiculous. President Trump is threatening to unilaterally consider South Korea and other nations in the WTO as developed nations if the WTO does not change its developing nation criteria.
If someone created a fictional character–a corrupt millionaire financier, anti-free speech "liberal" socialist, self-absorbed law professor who failed the Bar masquerading as an arbiter of justice/rights aspiring to be Justice Minister–would you laugh or cry? #Life crushes #Art
— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) September 6, 2019
Here is the latest on Typhoon Lingling:
At least three South Koreans were reported killed Saturday as Typhoon Lingling made landfall here, bringing heavy rains and strong winds that caused hundreds of minor accidents throughout the nation.
A woman in her 70s died after she was knocked over by strong winds gusting at 39 meters per second, or 140 kph, in Boryeong, some 150 kilometers southwest of Seoul, according to rescue officials there.
In Incheon, 40 kilometers west of the capital, a bus driver was crushed to death after a wall at a hospital parking lot collapsed.
Later in the day in Paju, north of Seoul, a 61-year-old man was killed after being struck in the head by a roof panel at a golf driving range. Rescue officials said the man had been working on the roof when a sudden gust of wind blew the piece of panel toward him.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Like the U.S., South Korea now has its own typhoon to prepare for as well:
A powerful typhoon is quickly moving northward to South Korea, with rain and strong winds seen on the country’s southern island of Jeju Friday.
Typhoon Lingling, this year’s 13th typhoon, passed over seas 330 kilometers southwest of Jeju at a speed of 43 kph as of 6 p.m., according to the Korea Meteorological Association.
Its central pressure was 950 hectopascals, and the maximum wind speed near its center was 43 meters per second, or 155 kph. Strong gusts like this can topple cars and ships, and uproot trees.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
I think the most blame should be put on the mother who did not ask anyone for help though I would not be surprised if she was suffering from depression that contributed to her death:
Han Sung-ok, 42, seemed determined to pick through nearly every lettuce on the market stand. She turned each one over and examined it while her six-year-old son clambered on the fence nearby.
The vegetable seller in the southern Seoul suburb looked on, annoyed. This was one picky customer and she didn’t even buy a lot of vegetables – only one or two items for as little as she could pay. On this occasion it was a lettuce for 500 won (about $0.40; £0.33).
Uttering only a few words, Han handed over her money and left with her son.
Just a few weeks later, both were dead.
Having fled food shortages in her native North Korea and dreaming of a new life, Han and her son are believed to have starved to death in one of the wealthiest cities in Asia. Their bodies lay undiscovered for two months until someone came to read the water meter and noticed a bad smell.
Mother and son were found apart on the floor. The only food in their tiny rented apartment was a bag of red pepper chilli flakes.
BBC
You can read the whole thing at the link, but she definitely had a hard life and trouble adapting to South Korean culture. People in the government probably should have done more to check on her welfare, but ultimately if she would have reached out to defector organizations or even a local church she could have gotten help instead of starving to death.
I wonder how much Gloria Steinem is being paid to attend this event?:
World-renowned activists in the areas of peace and human rights are coming to South Korea early this autumn to call for peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Scheduled attendees for the “Let’s DMZ” event taking place to commemorate the first anniversary of the September 19 Pyongyang Joint Statement between the South and North Korean leaders include Gloria Steinem, a social activist known as the “godmother of the global women’s rights movement”; Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a human rights campaigner known as the “napalm girl”; and Mikis Theodorakis, a Greek composer and democracy activist with a history of resistance fighting.
Let’s DMZ includes numerous different events taking place around the Gyeonggi Province area over the month of September with the aim of transforming the Demilitarized Zone from a symbol of division into one of peace that can be seen, heard, and experienced by everyone. Gyeonggi Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young described plans for four major events – a DMZ Forum, Live DMZ, DMZ Festa, and Art DMZ – in a Let’s DMZ briefing on Aug. 28 at the Gyeonggi Provincial Office in Suwon.
Hankyoreh
You can read more at the link, but maybe North Korea will launch some more missiles during this event to show what they think of the so called peace process these activists are championing.
