Category: Korea-General Topics

#SouthKorea has no oil & nuclear energy produced about 30% of energy needs. Then #MoonJaein announced nuclear energy exit, which let to blackouts, increased coal & gas imports, reduced nuclear science majors/scientists, stopped SK from further nucl energy export, raised costs… https://t.co/vfk0ycrdMr

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) December 25, 2018

Korea’s smokers will now have even more gruesome images to look at every time they buy a pack of cigarettes:

Tougher anti-smoking warnings will be applied to cigarette packages from Sunday.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said that it is replacing all the eleven graphic warnings on cigarette packs starting from Sunday. Tobacco companies will now have to insert new warnings on the packaging of cigarettes including electronic cigarettes.

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link.

It seems to me that going on strike and denying taxi service to customers only encourages those same customers to use ride sharing apps:

Tens of thousands of taxi drivers in South Korea protested in front of the National Assembly Thursday, calling for a ban on Kakao Mobility’s ride-sharing service.

The app was set to move from beta testing to full operation this month, but the company put those plans on indefinite hold after a taxi driver self-immolated in protest in front of the National Assembly and later died.
 
Taxi industry and labor groups waved banners and held up photos of the deceased driver near the legislature, complaining that such ride-sharing apps pose a direct threat to the livelihood of taxi industry workers.

At least four taxi industry and labor groups took part in the rally, the third of its kind in the past three months. Police estimated 40-to-50-thousand were on the streets.

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link.

Another example of the poor safety culture in South Korea:

Police said Wednesday that they had found a ventilation defect in a gas boiler at a holiday home in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, tentatively concluding that carbon monoxide poisoning killed three high school students and left seven unconscious the day before.

During an investigation of the two-story property, police tested the gas-powered boiler and found that its ventilation pipe emitted a high level of fumes. 

The test came after police set up an ad-hoc investigation headquarters and inspected the vacation home. They found that the gas boiler’s ventilation pipe was not properly connected and this was the probable cause of the incident. 

This backed up an earlier finding that the level of carbon monoxide in the students’ room was 155 parts per million (ppm), well above the standard 20 ppm.

In examining the three dead students, pathologists found that the carbon monoxide levels in their blood were far above the fatal level, adding no other toxic substances were detected. 

“We conducted combustion tests repeatedly and found that the boiler emitted a large quantity of exhaust fumes from the faulty pipe,” said a police officer, adding investigators plan to do more tests on the boiler jointly with the National Forensic Service (NFS) and the Korea Gas Safety Corp.

In addition, there was no alarm system for gas leaks at the vacation home ― although this was not illegal.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Considering all the media attention surrounding this case I be this guy thought he would get a bigger pay out than this: 

The Seoul Western District Court ordered Korean Air, Wednesday, to pay former chief flight attendant Park Chang-jin 20 million won ($17,779) in compensation for his suffering from the so-called “nut rage” incident. 

However, the court dismissed his claim for compensation from the carrier’s former Executive Vice President Heather Cho, the elder daughter of the conglomerate’s owner.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I don’t find this survey very helpful when the term discrimination is not defined.  I have not been picked up by taxi cabs before, is that discrimination?:

One of out of every five foreigners in South Korea suffer discrimination, due mainly to their nationalities, government data showed Wednesday.
The data compiled by Statistics Korea showed that 21.2 percent of 1.3 million foreigners said they were discriminated by South Koreans. 
Among them, 60.9 percent said they were discriminated on the basis their nationality, while 25.7 percent said they faced discrimination on the grounds of their lack of Korean language proficiency.
The data showed 6.6 percent cited appearance and 2.6. percent pointed to occupation as the reasons behind discrimination.
The statistics agency did not provide details on the nationalities of foreigners who they said were discriminated against.

Yonhap

Increased wages and prices have caused fried chicken, a favorite snack among South Koreans, to go over ₩20,000 (approx. US$18). Naturally, sales have fallen.

I wonder where all those people who said they'd happily pay more for increasing the minimum wage have gone? https://t.co/hgg3aRfYYS

— John Lee (The Korean Foreigner) (@koreanforeigner) December 16, 2018

Not one mention in the below article that the tax probe only came about after Google would not take down conservative Youtube channels critical of the Moon administration: 

Anchor: The National Tax Service has launched a tax probe on Google Korea amid controversy that many multinational IT firms in the nation are not paying enough taxes compared to the profits they reap. 
Our Bae Joo-yon has more on whether it’s possible to impose further taxes on such companies. 

Report: National Tax Service inspectors secured account books and electronic data Wednesday from the Seoul headquarters of Google Korea. 

Some market observers say the inspectors are probing tax evasion allegations involving high-income content creators on YouTube, the global video streaming service owned by Google.

Others say authorities are probing whether Google Korea may be involved in offshore tax evasion. 

The probe comes amid controversy that Google Korea has been paying too little taxes. 

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link.

This was never going to go well and it seems President Moon has finally realized this:

Anchor: President Moon Jae-in has acknowledged problems of his key economic policies, calling for ways to break the shock of minimum wage hikes and reduced work hours. This comes as the government forecasts the economy will be sluggish next year as well.
Kim In-kyung has the details.

Report: The government has decided to revise the minimum wage decision-making system by February and implement it from 2020, adjusting its pace of increase. It will also spend a record-high 61 percent of its budget in the first half of the year in 2019. 

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link.

At least one enemy of the Moon administration has been able to keep his job and avoid jail for now: 

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) President Shin Sung-chul will keep his post after the board decided Friday to defer the voting on whether to suspend him.

The board meeting was in response to a Ministry of Science and ICT’s demand to suspend Shin for allegedly embezzling money from the national research fund when he was Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) president in 2014.

Shin denied the accusations, but the science ministry also filed a complaint with the prosecution.

“During the board meeting, the claims of the two sides from the government and the school were in opposition to each other, but they agreed to postpone the suspension voting,” a KAIST spokesman told reporters at the Eltower in southern Seoul. 

The school said the issue would be discussed at the next board meeting. KAIST is scheduled to hold its regular board meeting in early 2019.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but what Mr. Shin is really being attacked for is being friends with former President Park Geun-hye.