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.”
— 이주민 / Chris Lee (@oldtype) February 22, 2019
https://t.co/nkwGkpSzQw
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
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) February 20, 2019
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.
Korea Times
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.
You can read more at the link.
For something that is technically illegal in South Korea, it is widely practiced:
Around 20 percent of Korean women who get pregnant have abortions, according to a government survey, Thursday.
Korea Times
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 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.”
Joong Ang Ilbo via a reader tip
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.
Korea Times
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.
The war on dog meat restaurants continues:
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon on Saturday pledged to completely eliminate the business of dog meat in South Korea’s capital.
Korea Times
“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.
You can read more at the link.
Fortunately this was just another small quake because I would hate to see what would happen if a massive quake ever hit the Korean peninsula:
A four-point-one magnitude earthquake struck off the southeastern city of Pohang on Sunday.
KBS World Radio
The Korea Meteorological Administration said that the quake took place at 12:53 p.m. in waters 50 kilometers east-northeast of the port city at a depth of 21 kilometers.
The KMA had earlier announced the quake’s magnitude was four but later revised it.
A KMA official said that it is a quake-prone region, but the magnitude is larger than usual, adding there have been no reports of damage received so far as the location is about 50 kilometers off the coast.
You can read more at the link.
This shouldn’t come as surprising news to anyone living in Korea that the moped delivery drivers are causing an increasing number of accidents:
Nowadays, more restaurant owners use delivery apps like Baedal Minjok, Yogiyo and Baedaltong to sell their goods, and the market for deliveries has steadily increased. In 2018, sales for delivery services reached 5 trillion won ($4.4 billion). This is four times the amount of sales 10 years ago. Time is money for couriers who receive an average of 3,500 won per delivery. This is why they resort to violating traffic laws to quickly finish off as many deliveries as they can.
Joong Ang Ilbo
“My children and I were walking on the sidewalk once when we were almost hit by a passing delivery guy speeding on his motorbike,” said Kim Yong-chul, a resident of Seongnam, Gyeonggi.
“It’s always scary when a speeding motorbike cuts in front of me when I’m driving,” said Baek Gyeong-ae, who lives in Goyang, Gyeonggi. “I’m always worried that an accident will occur.”
According to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the number of car accidents has decreased consistently for the last five years. However, during the same time period, the number of accidents caused by speeding motorbikes increased 32 percent.
You can read more at the link.
I find it interesting how this ROK government report adds Japan as a country to blame for pollution in South Korea and then does not list how much pollution it is responsible for:
External sources accounted for 75 percent of South Korea’s ultrafine dust air pollution in January, a state-run environment agency said Wednesday.
Yonhap
South Korea saw a drastic rise in the average level of ultrafine dust particles, those smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, in between Jan. 11 and 15. According to the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), a think tank under the Ministry of Environment, external sources from China, Mongolia, North Korea and Japan were responsible for 75 percent of ultrafine dust particles in South Korea during that period.
You can read more at the link, but I think the vast majority of Koreans realize the vast majority of pollution is coming from China and there is nothing they can do about it.
