Category: Korea-General Topics

This is a really pretty area of South Korea that is unfortunately being scorched by this large wildfires:

A series of fires wreaked havoc on eastern coastal cities in Gangwon Province, from Thursday night to Friday, killing one person and forcing more than 4,000 to be evacuated from their homes.

The government declared a national disaster Friday morning as the damage mounted up, especially around Goseong; and is also considering designating the affected regions natural disaster areas to provide better support. A state of disaster is proclaimed when there is an urgent need to deploy emergency measures to minimize casualties and damage in the event of a major catastrophe.


According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, the fire in Goseong started by a roadside at around 7:17 p.m. Thursday, and spread quickly to neighboring areas, especially around Sokcho as strong winds fanned the flames.

Earlier in the afternoon, a separate fire broke out on one mountain in Inje, and another near Gangneung at about 11:50 p.m. that spread to Donghae.

A 60-year-old man died from the fire in Goseong, and another was seriously injured while more than 30 people have been treated for minor injuries.

About 130 houses, 11 warehouses and other buildings were destroyed in five towns and counties in the area, and more than 4,000 residents and tourists at holiday destinations in the province were evacuated, according to the authorities.

The Korea Forestry Service said about 250 hectares of forest was burnt down in Goseong alone, nearly the size of 735 soccer fields, as well as another 250 hectares in Gangneung and 25 hectares in Inje.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it is horrible to see so many people lose their homes, hopefully no one loses their life due to this fire.

This seems like a political stunt to me because I doubt a member of parliament can’t find child care:

National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang has decided not to endorse a female lawmaker’s request to bring her six-month-old child to a plenary session.  

Speaker Moon explained in a letter sent Thursday to Liberty Korea Party Representative Shin Bo-ra that his decision was inevitable, given the impact it could have on other lawmakers and deliberations on bills.

However, he positively evaluated her request and efforts to raise public awareness about childcare and the social need to create family-friendly working environments finding balance between work and family. 

Speaker Moon promised to seek cooperation from the House Steering Committee to ensure discussions are swiftly held on revising the parliamentary law to reflect the lawmaker’s request.  

Shin sought permission last week to bring her baby to work with her when she briefs other lawmakers on her proposals for two bills aimed at improving the conditions in which women work and take care of children.

KBS World Radio

Dr. Tara O has an article posted about the April Fool’s Day posters that were put up on college campus around South Korea lampooning people to overthrow the Moon administration on behalf of Kim Jong-un. The posters were put up by the Jeondaehyeop organization that many members of the Moon administration were once part of:

Satire posters criticizing the Moon Jae-in administration popped up all over South Korean university campuses to coincide with April Fools’ Day. The heading on the posters stated “Letter to South Korean students” and “Let’s overthrow the South Korean system” with  Kim Jong-un and Jeondaehyeop (전대협) listed at the bottom. The group claimed they posted in about 450 universities nationwide.

There are two Jeondaehyeop organizations.  The older Jeondaehyeop, also known as the National Council of Student Representatives, was a university student organization formed in 1987.  It was controlled by the “NL” (National Liberation) faction. This group, whose members are now in their 50s and many of whom are in the Moon administration and the ruling party, worshipped Kim Il Sung and looked to North Korea to usher in socialism/communism in South Korea and to unify the Korean Peninsula. They saw the U.S. as an obstacle to this goal, thus were (and still are) active in anti-U.S. activities

Im Jong-seok (임종석), President Moon Jae-in’s former Chief of Staff, was the third president of Jeondaehyeop and led many prominent pro-North Korea activities, including arranging for another student Lim Su-kyung’s (임수경) illegal visit to North Korea in 1989.  When Im was called a communist, he sued another citizen for libel. The fourth president of Jeondahyup Song Kap-seok (송갑석) said “North Korea is the only legitimate government on the Korean Peninsula, which guarantees justice and sovereignty, and only the unification by North Korea is the genuine motherland unification” (3:09).  Song is now a national assemblyman, Deoburreo Minjoo Party. Song was also the  Deputy Chief Administrator of Moon Jae-in’s presidential campaign and the Chairman of the Gwangju Regional Committee of the Rho Moo-hyun Foundation.

East Asia Research Center

You can read much more at the link, to include the full English translation of the poster. Something I did not realize is that the Jeondaehyeop organization which was once pro-North Korean is now an anti-North Korean student group.

Besides the group changing its political leanings, what is so ironic about this is that the Moon administration is investigating Jeondaehyeop under the National Security Law, when they have allowed openly pro-North Korean rallies in the middle of Seoul.

When you read the English translation of the poster it is pretty clear why the Moon administration is hitting back at this group hard because much of what is said in the poster may resonate with many Koreans.

Over at One Free Korea he has a good round up about from the State Department report that criticizes the Moon administration for their on going efforts to censor criticism from their opponents:

In December, I was a panelist at this event at the American Enterprise Institute. You can read the transcript here, or watch it on video here. In my remarks, I tried to put the censorship of South Korea’s left and right into that country’s recent historical context, noting the signs that left-wing leaders who emerged from a nominally pro-democracy movement were now engaging in a strategic and systematic campaign to silence defectors, vloggers, and political critics through internet censorship and defamation suits. The Korean Embassy sent its resident propagandist to that event to denounce this as “fake news,” a phrase that Donald Trump has sown in the lexicons of authoritarians everywhere. You can see me harangue him near the end of the event, after each panelist speaks and after Professor Sung-yoon Lee’s more extended comments.

As it turns out, I was not the only one who noted some of the same events with concern. The State Department’s annual country reports on human rights also mentioned a number of them:

One Free Korea

You can read much more at the link.

The bus ad: "Do you want to hack the White House?" "Then it's Woosong Univ" in #SouthKorea. Anti-US themes, blatant praise of Kim Jong Un, submissive attitude toward China–not the SK most people know, but made possible by #MoonJaein, his party, his supporters–small % of SK popn https://t.co/g7h0rB1f79

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) March 31, 2019

It will be interesting to see if the use of over four different genders spreads throughout other government agencies in South Korea:

The state-run human rights watchdog is set to add a non-binary gender option in official petition documents in a move to embrace lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people.

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) will be the first government organization to offer a gender-neutral option in official papers. 

“After recently receiving a petition urging us to allow a third-gender option in our petition documents, a relevant department reviewed it and reached the conclusion that this was permissible,” said an NHRCK official.

“We are now working to change our petition forms to reflect the decision, and new documents will be available within a month.”

Currently, those who file petitions with the commission must identify themselves as male, female, transgender male or transgender female in their applications.

“We accepted the petitioner’s claim that there could be more than the four genders,” the official said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but at least there is not 71 different gender options yet. Can you imagine what government forms would look like with 71 different gender options on them?

This is another example that there is not freedom of speech in South Korea:

 Police said Monday they began a preliminary probe into North Korean-style posters that appeared on walls at several universities nationwide lampooning the current Moon Jae-in government over its key policies. 
The National Police Agency said it is gathering facts on a number of 112 calls made since Saturday with regard to the anti-government posters found hanging on bulletin boards at least 30 colleges in Seoul, Busan, Gangwon, as well as the southern Gyeongsang and Jeolla regions. 
“We will see if the content of the posters carry expressions that can be deemed defamation or contempt,” a NPA official said. 
The 55-by-80 centimeter, two-page poster, entitled “A Letter to South Korean Students,” blasts President Moon Jae-in’s key policies, such as income-led growth, his push to phase out nuclear power and the policy of engagement with North Korea. 
The poster is printed in the unique typeface North Korea often uses in its propaganda and appears intended as ridicule of the government. 
It calls for the overthrow of the liberal Moon administration and ends with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s signature, by his official title as chairman of the DPRK State Affairs Commission. 
The DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 
The poster, claiming to be written by Jeondaehyup, calls for students to join a massive rally slated for Saturday at a public park near Seoul’s Hyewha Station. 
Jeondaehyup is an abbreviation for the now-disbanded hard-line national student activists’ association that led key democracy movements in the 1980s. The association had been attacked by South Korea’s conservative bloc for its pro-North Korea tendencies.

Yonhap

The Moon administration has been very active squelching freedom of speech in South Korea, but remember that the prior Park administration took legal action against political posters as well. However, a loop hole is to call a political poster a work of art and then it is apparently legal.

This article makes me wonder what the real story is that the police are going after the Samsung heiress for something that may have happened 3 years ago?:

Police searched a plastic surgery clinic, Saturday, as part of an investigation into an allegation that Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin habitually received injections of propofol, an intravenous short-acting anesthetic. Lee is also the oldest daughter of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee.

Investigators from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency carried out an eight-hour search at the Gangnam-based clinic from 6:30 p.m., Saturday, and confiscated Lee’s medical records and the clinic’s drug control records. 

They conducted a digital forensic analysis to restore deleted data, as well. 

Later in the day, police announced they had booked the head of the clinic on the charge of violating the Medical Law.

The search came three days after the drug abuse allegation was first reported by a local media outlet, citing a former employee of the clinic. 

According to the report by Newstapa, Lee was regularly given propofol at the hospital from January to October 2016 while the witness worked there. The former employee said Lee received the substance in a VIP room at least twice a month.

In the wake of the allegation, police asked the clinic to submit its documents without seeking a warrant, but it refused to comply.

Hotel Shilla has parried the allegation, claiming that she had only visited the clinic for legitimate treatment.

Korea Times

Back in 2016 when the supposed illegal propofol use happened Lee Boo-jin was recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the Top 50 businesswomen in Asia. That year she was also dealing with a $1 billion divorce fight.

So does anyone have any issues with the plastic bag ban that is about to go into affect in South Korea?:

Use of disposable plastic bags will be banned at large retailers nationwide, starting next month, as part of the government’s efforts to reduce waste and conserve the environment, the Ministry of Environment said Wednesday.

The ministry said about 2,000 hypermarkets and approximately 11,000 big supermarkets with sales floor space of 165 square meters or more will be prohibited from offering disposable plastic bags to their clients from April 1.

Department stores and large shopping malls are also subject to the revised enforcement regulation of the Act on the Promotion of Saving and Recycling of Resources, the ministry said.

Retailers that violate the ban could face fines of up to 3 million won (around $2,644).

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but with any law in Korea it will interesting to see how stringently it is enforced.

Moon Jae-in's body guard shows a machine gun, looks to be an MP-7. His hand positions indicate he's ready to engage. Brandishing a weapon like that is extremely odd. It's usually hidden. This is at a busy market place in Daegu. If he uses it, it would create a lot of casualties. pic.twitter.com/DNZCkawoLA

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) March 23, 2019