Category: Korea-General Topics

“taxi driver interrogations” ㅋㅋㅋ https://t.co/BpjzUV6UjF

— the oranckay (@oranckay) February 2, 2019

This is a lot of garbage with no place to put it for now. Hopefully they don’t just decide to dump it in the ocean:

Part of some six-thousand tons of plastic garbage that was illegally exported to the Philippines has returned to South Korea.

A vessel carrying about one-thousand-200 tons of garbage arrived at 6:40 a.m. on Sunday at Pyeongtaek Port in Gyeonggi Province, three weeks after it departed from the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

The garbage, mainly consisting of used batteries, electronic devices and medical waste, was exported to the Philippines in July of last year after a joint venture firm between the two countries reported the contents as synthetic plastic.

As the company that illegally exported the garbage failed to respond, the Seoul government used emergency funds to cover the transport cost to bring the garbage back.

The Environment Ministry said it will look inside a couple of containers to check the conditions and types of garbage on Thursday after the Lunar New Year holiday. The Pyeongtaek City government is expecting it will take about six months to dispose the garbage through due procedures.

KBS World Radio

It looks like this experiment will have to go back to the drawing board for some more refinement:

South Korea has experimented with artificial rainfall off its west coast to assess the technique’s efficiency in mitigating fine dust. 

According to the Korea Meteorological Administration(KMA), in the experiment jointly conducted with the Environment Ministry, silver iodide was spread in the air above the West Sea around 120 kilometers away from Gunsan in North Jeolla Province for about an hour from 10:13 a.m. on Friday. 

No rain or snow was detected in the areas where the chemical materials were expected to induce precipitation. Only a light drizzle was observed near Yeonggwang in South Jeolla Province. 

In order to achieve substantial mitigation of fine dust via rain, heavy rainfall of ten millimeters per hour or more is needed for at least two hours. 

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link, but what I find interesting about all this is that the South Korean leftists will protest the US over oil contamnination they cannot even confirm is happening from Yongsan Garrison. However, the Chinese pollute the entire peninsula with fine dust to the point the ROK needs to create artificial rain to stop it and has anyone seen any of the leftists protesting this?

The big question is what are the consequences for the Moon administration for willfully violating UN sanctions? A sternly worded letter isn’t going to be a deterrent for future violations:

A report by a U.N. panel will accuse South Korea of failing to notify the Security Council of its shipments of petroleum products to North Korea in breach of international sanctions, diplomatic sources say.
It will be the first time for the sanctions committee on North Korea under the 15-member council to say that Seoul has violated U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang. South Korea has been stepping up efforts to improve relations with North Korea since last year.


The panel is also expected to say North Korea illegally sold fishing rights to other countries in contravention of Security Council resolutions.
The panel’s annual report is expected to show that vessels carrying North Korean fishing licenses were operating in waters between the Korean Peninsula and neighboring countries. The claim is based on information provided by two unnamed member states — one identified as Japan, according to officials in Tokyo.
It is anticipated that information obtained from fishermen will reveal that around 200 Chinese fishing vessels were operating in North Korean waters, and that the price of a single fishing license cost about 50,000 yuan ($7,250) per month.
South Korea allegedly did not notify the Security Council of its deliveries of petroleum products for use at a joint liaison office set up in September in Kaesong, just inside the North Korean side of the border.

Japan Times

You can read more at the link, but Japanese intelligence collection aircraft flying around the Korean peninsula that are now a subject of controversy are partly there to identify possible sanctions violations.

By the way the accompanying picture of students in South Korea cheering Kim Jong-un is pretty sickening. Someone in the South Korean media should interview families of those killed in the Cheonan attack and Yeonpyeong Island shelling what they think of these rallies.

This is Moon Jae-In at his best. https://t.co/AihvgC4pyU

— Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) February 1, 2019

It will be interesting to see if this actually happens:

Early this month, Rep. Hwang Ju-hong of the minor opposition Party for Democracy and Peace submitted a bill that has drawn surprisingly keen public attention. 

The proposed legislation, jointly handed in by nine other fellow lawmakers of rival parties, calls for mandatory use of the standard “international” age system at all government and public institutions, while recommending that private sector organizations such as companies adopt the same system for administrative matters.
A source of amazement to many foreigners who are unfamiliar with this country, but otherwise common knowledge to most expats living here, South Korea has kept its unique way of counting a person’s age alongside international age.

The most widely known system, referred to as “Korean age,” is the method whereby one year is simply added to a person’s Western age calculating how many years and months that person has lived since his or her birthday.

So if a man was born on January 1, 1980, he is 39 by the international standard but would introduce himself as being 40 years of age in Korea.
Everyone also gets a year older on New Year’s Day, rather than on their actual birthdays.

Such tradition is known to have derived from ancient East Asian thinking that counts the gestational period as part of a person’s age, according to experts. The time in the mother’s womb has been considered as also part of life.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Philippines government is trying to get Koreans to be more polite to their airport staff:

Twenty-three Korean citizens have been banned from entering the Philippines for being rude and disrespectful to airport staff.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 Koreans were denied entry and blacklisted in 2018 for showing arrogance or using foul language to immigration officers.

“Being on the blacklist means you won’t be able to enter the Philippines for at least one year,” the ministry said on Facebook on Jan. 23.

“To avoid such trouble, please be polite when talking to Philippine officials. If you don’t respond to their questions or raise your voices, you may be denied permission to enter the country. Therefore, you should be able to speak English or have someone who can.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I feel bad for the family in this case, but I think people do have a legitimate argument that taxpayers shouldn’t be responsible for the medical costs:

Whether the government should financially support an individual who fell from a cliff at the Grand Canyon and is currently in a coma is drawing a mixed reaction.

On Dec. 30, 2018, a 25-year-old man surnamed Park fell off the cliff and was transferred to a hospital. Although he survived physically, he is still unconscious. 

His medical bill at the Flag Staff Medical Center is now over 1 billion won ($ 885,347), and his family wants him to be brought back to Korea, which will cost an additional 200 million won.

“If the duty of citizen is to do their duty to the state, the state’s responsibility is to protect its countrymen, even one,” stated a post written by Park’s uncle on the Cheong Wa Dae website for a petition which has received more than 19,000 signatures. 

However, the post faced a huge backlash with people saying the government should not provide any financial support. 

Korea Times

You can read the rest at the link, but the family is blaming the tour guide for the fall. I have been to the Grand Canyon many times and there are areas without safety fences, however you have to be doing something stupid to fall off the cliff.

A ROK Drop favorite, Robert Neff has an interesting article with historical pictures of Suwon. It is hard to believe that just about a hundred years ago that Suwon looked like this:

Twice, between early October and November 1884, George C. Foulk, an American naval ensign attached to the American legation in Seoul, traveled to Suwon. 

The first time was in an open chair carried by two Korean coolies ― or servants ― and the second was part of his larger exposition to explore the southern half of the Korean Peninsula.

The road between Seoul and Suwon appears to have been kept in good repair and the ever-critical Foulk apparently even complimented the scenery along his path:

“The last four miles of road before Suwon were lined with picturesque old pines and numerous memorial stones. At one place was a resting place and pleasure resort for the King by a small lotus pond.”

Korea Times

You can read the rest of the article about Mr. Foulk’s trip to Suwon at the link.

The KTU is trying to kick native English teachers out of Korean classrooms:

A union of liberal teachers has called on education authorities to remove all ― if not reduce the number of ― native English teachers from elementary schools in Seoul.

According to the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) Wednesday, its Seoul office representatives will soon meet their counterparts from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) to discuss the issue.

“There have been opinions that the quality of some native English teachers’ teaching skills is low, which increases Korean teachers’ workload,” a KTU official reportedly said. “They can be replaced by Korean teachers, given that what they teach is elementary level English.”

In April 2018, the SMOE announced measures to improve the quality of English education in public schools. As part of the reform, the office decided to provide native English teachers to all 557 elementary schools in the city.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I am no fan of the KTU which was banned by the prior Park Geun-hye administration due to its anti-Park government and pro-North Korean agenda that led to teacher firings.  ROK Heads may also remember that the KTU has a long history of teaching anti-Americanism in the classroom as well.

With that all said, on this issue I can understand what the KTU is trying to do. If it gets rid of the native-English teachers that opens up hundreds of jobs for Koreans. The kids English education may suffer, but from a union perspective that is probably a low priority to them.