The nine Constitutional Court justices sit in the courtroom ahead of a ruling on anti-abortion law on April 11, 2019. (Yonhap)
The Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that the country’s strict abortion ban is unconstitutional, a landmark decision that signals major change in various aspects of society. The nine-justice panel made the ruling in a 7-2 vote, in response to a 2017 complaint filed by an obstetrician standing trial for performing multiple abortions. A vote of two-thirds is required to reverse a ruling. The court found that an outright ban on abortion under the criminal law is against the Constitution and ordered allowing termination in the early stages of pregnancy. Thursday’s ruling requires the parliament to revise the related laws by the end of next year.
The National Pension Fund should simply sell underperforming stocks, not change out managers & try to run the companies. KAL actually was doing well, great service, in black. But the Moon Jae-in admin's goal is to take over private companies. This is sad & scary at the same time. https://t.co/URknVclnxB
Is anyone surprised that President Moon is pushing for sanctions relief on behalf of North Korea before any denuclearization happens?:
President Moon Jae-in speaks at the start of a weekly meeting with Cabinet members at Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday. Yonhap
Moon Jae-in plans to ask the U.S. to ease sanctions on North Korea when he meets President Donald Trump at the White House this week, say unnamed South Korean officials cited by the KoreanTimes. The South Korean president is visiting Washington D.C. for a summit on North Korean nuclear diplomacy, where the two leaders are expected to discuss how to achieve the denuclearization of the north and peace on the Korean Peninsula. “Moon plans to embrace the risk of personal diplomacy by asking Trump to grant reciprocal measures after Seoul and Washington laid out the necessary groundwork via working-level discussions,” a South Korean official told the Korea Times.
Although it remains to be seen which sanctions Moon might ask the U.S. to revoke first, officials said he is likely to focus on those that impact the country’s citizens. “It’s likely President Moon may raise the lessening of sanctions that affect the lives of the North Korean people,” an official said, according to the Korea Times.
The only reason sanctions are impacting the lives of ordinary North Koreans is because the Kim regime allows them too. They have enough money to fund a nuclear weapons and ICBM program, which means they should have enough money to spend on the welfare of their own people if the regime wanted to.
Just two weeks after the Korean government ousted him as Chairman of Korean Air in a possible effort to nationalize the airline, Cho Yang-ho dies of lung disease:
The family of Hanjin Chairman Cho Yang-jo. At left is Cho Hyun-ah, President of the KAL Hotel Network, Cho Hyun-min, senior managing director at Korean Air, Lee Myung-hee, chairperson of the Ilwoo Foundation, Cho Yang-jo, and Cho Won-tae, president of Korean Air.
Hanjin Group and Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho has died at the age of 70 from lung disease at a hospital in Los Angeles.
According to Korean Air, Cho, who had been treated for the disease in the U.S. since last December, died just after midnight on Monday Korea time.
His wife, two daughters and son Won-tae, the president of Korean Air, were reported to have been by his side at the time of his death.
Arrangements are being made to transport Cho’s coffin from the U.S. for his funeral in South Korea.
An official from Korean Air said Cho’s condition drastically worsened from the shock and stress following the recent news of his removal from the airline’s board of directors.
It looks like a perfect storm of events led to the massive wildfire in Gangwon province:
A bus burned in the wildfire that ravaged Sokcho, Gangwon, from Thursday to Friday is transported on Sunday afternoon. [NEWS1]
Authorities investigating the wildfires in Gangwon that started Thursday and burned at least 400 houses and 2 square miles of land suspect they began at three separate locations on Thursday.
The first spark came at around 2:45 p.m. on a hiking trail in Inje County. The fire spread quickly in strong winds with speeds up to 6.5 meters per second (14.5 miles per hour) and moved into residential areas.
Around 95 residents in the area were evacuated. As firefighters fought the blaze near the residential areas, the fire burned through 30 hectares of forests before it was put out around noon on Saturday, according to the Korea Forest Service.
The cause of the spark on the hiking trail is being investigated.
“We have not ruled out the possibility of a fire caused by an accident,” said a police officer.
The second spark in Gangwon on Thursday came at around 7:17 p.m. on an electric wire connected to a power switch at a gas station in Goseong County.
The state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) said Friday that the fire seemed to have been sparked when “an alien substance” blown by the wind caught on an electric wire connected to a power switch.
The fire that began from spark spread quickly due to the wind, blazing through 250 hectares of the county and Sokcho area before it was put out Friday afternoon.
“We think it is likely that an alien substance, flying in strong winds, that hit the electric wire,” said Kim Chae-hyun, head of the Sokcho branch of Kepco. “Through this force, the wire could have been cut, causing the sparks to fly and catch fire in the vicinity.”
Authorities are investigating Kepco’s management of the electric poles and wires in the area.
In a similar case in the United States, Pacific Gas & Electric Company admitted that its equipment sparked the most destructive wildfire in California in November last year. The company filed for bankruptcy in January.
The third spark in Gangwon on Thursday is suspected to have came around 11:46 p.m. in a small town in Gangneung. The fire blazed through Gangneung and Donghae, burning some 250 hectares of forests and land, before it was put out Friday afternoon.
Police are investigating a temple in the town as the starting point of the fire.
They found four altars at the temple, one of which was burned black, and candles on the altar. The temple is run by a man in his 80s who lives with his wife and daughter nearby.
The good news is that one of the largest wildfires in South Korean history is now under control; the bad news is that one person lost their life and hundreds of homes and buildings were destroyed:
Officials of the local government in the east coast city of Sokcho assess damage from a forest fire on April 7, 2019. (Yonhap)
More than 400 homes and 920 livestock facilities were confirmed to have been burned in a devastating forest fire that raged through east coastal regions this past week, government data showed Sunday, as more damage has been discovered after the blaze was brought under control. The fire, which started Thursday night in the county of Goseong, about 160 kilometers northeast of Seoul, spread quickly to neighboring cities and counties, reducing forests about 742 times the size of a soccer field to ashes. One person was killed in the blaze, one of the biggest wildfires in South Korea. According to the government’s anti-disaster office, the human casualties remain the same, but more property damage has been identified. So far, a total of 401 homes, 925 livestock facilities, 77 warehouses and 100 buildings have been confirmed to have been burned. In addition, 241 agricultural machines and 15 cars were also lost in the fire, according to the office.
Pres. Moon (@moonriver365) at 63rd Newspaper Day Ceremony: "Newspapers are a mirror for our society. They are a barometer for the strength of a people and a nation. Thus, there is no difference between the goals of the people and the Government and those of #newspapers.” pic.twitter.com/eBbQa1uPGZ
— The Office of President Moon Jae-in (@TheBlueHouseENG) April 4, 2019
Apparently something blowing around in the wind made contact with a power switch to start the massive fire in Gangwon-do:
The state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) announced that the fire seemed to have been sparked by a power switch at a gas station in Goseong, just miles south of the border with North Korea. According to Kepco, “an alien substance” blown by the wind caught on an electric wire connected to a power switch, causing a spark, which grew into a fire.
No further detail was given about the unidentified substance.
You can read more at the link, but shouldn’t there be better fire prevention measures around these power switches to where something blowing in the wind doesn’t start a fire?
Ruling party lawmaker Park Jeong attended the commemoration event for North Korean & Chinese forces buried in Paju, South Korea. But he skipped the commemoration event for the sailors killed from NK's attacks on Cheonan, Yeonpyeong, etc. held only 3 days prior. https://t.co/vpOzhKhCcr
It shows how big this fire on South Korea’s East Coast is that President Moon felt like he had to go out there in get in front of the cameras:
President Moon Jae-in on Friday made a surprise visit to the eastern city of Goseong, where more than 10,000 firefighters and military personnel have gathered to put out a massive fire that started the day before. The president first visited the site command center in Goseong, 160 kilometers east of Seoul, where he urged continued efforts to completely put out the fire that is believed to have destroyed more than 300 buildings so far.
“We may have failed to prevent the fire from spreading in the early stage because of strong winds, but I still believe we were able to stop the fire from spreading further because of the joint efforts of our firefighters, military and police officers and also civilians,” the president said after being briefed on current conditions, according to pool reports.
Later, the president visited a makeshift shelter set up at a school to offer his personal condolences to those evacuated and dislocated. “The most important thing is not to get hurt. The life is what is most important,” Moon said while meeting with a group of residents who evacuated their homes in Goseong.
