This wants again has the appearance of the Korean government trying “to do something”:
The sun rises above a bridge on the Han River in Seoul, Wednesday, amid skies blanketed by fine dust. / Yonhap
President Moon Jae-in will seek measures with the Chinese government to tackle fine dust pollution here, a Cheong Wa Dae spokesman said Wednesday.
Moon ordered the government to “discuss with the Chinese government to come up with contingencies to minimize the impact of the fine dust,” according to presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom, Wednesday.
Moon said the two countries need to discuss joint dust-reducing measures, creating artificial rain over waters between the two countries and launching a fine dust forecast system.
Citing China’s claim that fine dust from Korea drifts into Shanghai, Moon said, “making artificial rain over the Yellow Sea would help the Chinese side as well.”
Noh Young-min, presidential chief of staff who served as ambassador to China until recently, said “Beijing is bigger than the combined size of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, but creates a massive artificial rain from dawn to night in the city.”
You can read more at the link, but I am confident that most ROK Heads realize that the Chinese government is not going to do anything to help pollution over Seoul. In fact if you read the article carefully the Chinese government is blaming the ROK for pollution over China!
The artificial rain idea the ROK government has been trying for years with no success. Yet the ROK Presidential chief of staff claims that the Chinese are doing this from dawn to night in Beijing. A quick look at a 14 day weather report for Beijing shows no to little chance of forecasted rain despite all the fine dust pollution.
This reeks of “were doing something” when the Moon administration knows as long as China continues to pump out pollution there is really nothing they can do:
Fine dust in Seoul this week.
President Moon Jae-in ordered the government on Tuesday to take extraordinary measures to fight fine dust pollution that has choked the country for days. Moon received an urgent briefing from Environment Minister Cho Myung-rae on particulate matter problems for about 50 minutes, a presidential spokesman said. Moon called for interagency efforts to curb the pollution and reduce damage, including the installation of high-capacity air purifiers in more daycare centers and schools. “The government should respond immediately, rather than clinging to long-term responses, to people’s demand when it explosively increases,” he was quoted as saying by spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.
You can read more at the link, but the measures include having more government meetings to discuss the problem and asking China to please stop polluting. Good luck with that.
You would think that after the Nut Rage drama Cho Hyun-ah would be keeping an extremely low profile:
Injuries allegedly caused by Cho’s violence / Courtesy of Cho’s husband
Cho Hyun-ah, 44, the Korean Air heiress who made headlines around the world for the 2014 “nut rage” incident, is being investigated for allegedly attacking her husband during divorce proceedings.
The Suseo Police Station in Seoul said Saturday that investigators started analyzing evidence provided by her husband, surnamed Park, 45, who claims Cho’s abusive behavior against him and five-year-old twin sons destroyed their marriage.
In a recently released video, Cho shouts “Die! Die!” at Park, who told investigators his wife repeatedly “strangled him” and threw a tablet PC at him, which seriously injured his toe.
On Feb. 20, Park said he was preparing for a long legal battle.
“I thought it would be better to put up with it, but when my child asked me, ‘Dad, would you protect me?,’ I was able to get up the nerve (to fight),” he wrote on Facebook.
“I’m afraid of standing up to a chaebol family, but as a father, I will protect my children.”
A senior lawmaker from Korea’s ruling Democratic Party is on the record saying that their support among people in their 20s is falling because those people were “poorly educated under conservative administrations.”
There's a lot more than the current narrative on 5.18 Gwangju, but there has been consistent, strong & even hostile opposition to discussing it. They even expeled a lawmaker from a party because he said he wants to restore honor to the troops by talking about other perspectives. https://t.co/SbR7Qh3pJ1
It will be interesting to see how vigorously this crackdown is enforced:
Police and the justice ministry have launched a rare joint crackdown on undocumented foreign workers and their Korean employers.
The crackdown will last for one month during which officials will scrutinize workplaces known for having many illegal foreign workers. Primary targets include construction sites, massage parlors, bars and other night entertainment facilities.
Illegal foreign workers will be subject to deportation and banned from entering Korea for 10 years. Employers caught hiring them will be prosecuted.
For something that is technically illegal in South Korea, it is widely practiced:
Members of women’s groups hold a performance at a square in Seoul in this September photo, to call for the abolishment of a law that punishes women who have abortions. Korea Times file
Around 20 percent of Korean women who get pregnant have abortions, according to a government survey, Thursday.
The Korea Institute of Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) announced the result of the survey, which it conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Welfare on 10,000 women aged between 15 and 44 online from September to October.
It was the third government survey on abortion, an illegal practice here ― except in certain life-threatening circumstances and in the cases of rape and incest ― but widely conducted secretly. Previous surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2010.
You can read more at the link, but to put this into perspective, this 20% number is very similar to the United States where it is estimated that 25% of women will have had an abortion by age 45.
I never thought I would type these words, but go Speaker Pelosi:
A South Korean delegation of lawmakers, right, talk with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left, on the denuclearization of North Korea at the Capitol in Washington Tuesday. [YONHAP]
A South Korean delegation of lawmakers visiting Washington this week for talks with U.S. officials ahead of the second U.S.-North summit clashed with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over Pyongyang’s true intentions after she accused the North of pursuing South Korea’s “demilitarization.”
North Korea would love demilitarization of South Korea, but the Kim regime knows they won’t get that. What they are hoping for is military superiority in order to extort the North Korea. This is what the pursuit of a peace treaty is about, ending the US-ROK alliance while keeping their nuclear weapons that gives them military superiority over the South.
Here is what the ROK delegation said in response:
When Rep. Chung Dong-young of the minor leftist Party for Democracy and Peace replied that forging ties with the North like the United States did with Vietnam would help the United States “expand its national interest,” Pelosi shot back that she doesn’t trust the North.
The Kim regime has done nothing to earn trust. By the way Chung Dong-young used to be the Unification Minister during the Roh Moo-hyun administration in South Korea who has a long history of anti-Americanism and Kim regime appeasing.
At one point, Pelosi reportedly said last year’s first summit between North Korea and the United States was nothing but a show, and that U.S. President Donald Trump failed to return home with any accomplishments. Pelosi continued, saying she wanted to see real proof that Pyongyang was denuclearizing. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, she added, is trying to demilitarize the South, not give up his nuclear weapons.
The Kim regime is willing to do “pretend denuclearization”, but I have not seen any evidence they intend to really denuclearize. I think the Trump administration is beginning to realize this as well and is why they are focusing on ending the ICBM program which they may have more success doing.
The Japanese even came up during this meeting:
National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang, who led the South Korean delegation, said Pelosi also brought up his recent spat with the Japanese government and told him she was worried about strained ties between Seoul and Tokyo, adding she hopes they settle the issues soon. Moon said he felt Pelosi made the comment due to Japan’s request.
I wish Pelosi would have hit back at him with my line by asking him to call for Kim Jong-un to hold hands and apologize to the victims of the Korean War, something his grandfather caused that was far more destructive than anything the Japanese ever did to South Korea. Or call for him to hold hands and apologize to the families of South Koreans abducted over the years by North Korea. Better yet will he call for Kim Jong-un to hold hands with the families of the victims of the Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong Island shelling. I would have loved to have seen his reaction.
This how Moon Hee-sang the ROK Parliament Speaker ended the meeting:
Unfazed, Moon told reporters during the press briefing that “the era of Pax Koreana” has arrived, and that the K-pop sensation BTS and Andy Kim, a Democratic New Jersey House representative of Korean descent, are “conquering the world from New York.”
Andy Kim and BTS are conquering the world? I really hope this is a mistranslation because this is almost as delusional as believing that Kim Jong-un really wants to denuclearize.
That is what this Korea Times editorial is claiming:
National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang gave the wrong gift to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during his visitto the latter in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, with a group of lawmakers.
The gift in question was a scroll with Chinese calligraphy he presented in person. The photo of the occasion has been posted on media websites and carried in newspapers.
There are two problems ― the first being plain to see and the second more subtle and more damaging.
The first is “Dear Pelosi” written on the right side of the scroll. Missing isthe honorific “Madam” or job title “Speaker” or “Madam Speaker” ahead of her last name.
Addressing the speaker just as Pelosi is inappropriate at best and ignorant at worst.
Then, “Dear” looks misplaced because it is not a letter but a scroll. Then, it violates the usual rule of scroll writing that allows for the name of the writer with their pen name and stamp of their seal, not that of the recipient.
The second is the four Chinese characters writ large.
Chinese characters were used by the upper class to boast of their knowledge and show their superiority over the ordinary classes in the Joseon Kingdom, a tradition that has survived in pockets of society.
Moon and his aides should have remembered what happened after the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Mar-a-lago Hotel in Florida.
Trump quoted Xi as telling him that Korea belonged to China during their private walk. Trump’s lack of historical knowledge and resultant gullibility, most likely shared by much of the American public, is reinforced by Western society’s Sino -centric view of Asia.
It wouldn’t be a great exaggeration if Moon had helped strengthen such a Western belief with his Chinese gift. Of course, the chance is that Pelosi won’t be as single dimensional as Trump.
Then, the meaning of Moon’s favorite phrase is detrimental to Korea’s image _ the Yellow River of China flows through countless turns and twists but only heads east.
The speaker uses it to express his conviction that North Korea’s denuclearization and establishment of a peace structure will eventually be achieved despite many challenges.
But the history of the phrase is rather unsettling.
You can read more at the link, but the “Dear Pelosi” on the scroll really does stand out and just looks odd to be on there. Besides that does anyone really think Speaker Pelosi knows the difference between Chinese characters and Hangul? Does anyone even think she knows where the Yellow River flows and the significance of the phrase?
Plus she probably receives so many gifts that this one will probably just be stored away somewhere or given to someone. It seems to me the Korea Times is making more of this than they should.
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon on Saturday pledged to completely eliminate the business of dog meat in South Korea’s capital.
“Once dog-butchering businesses are completely removed soon, I plan to make a declaration,” he said in a meeting with an audience after watching animated film “The Underdog” at a local cinema.
