Category: Korea-General Topics

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. 

It looks like the ROK will not be selling its Surion helicopter to the Philippines:

Korea’s prospects of selling its first homegrown helicopter, the Surion, to the Philippines are dimming as the island country inclines toward buying a tried-and-tested U.S. model instead. 
A high-ranking military officer here said Tuesday, “The Philippine government gave higher grades to the U.S.’ UH-60 Blackhawk than the Surion in fuselage evaluations. We’re trying hard to sweeten the deal by adding more incentives, but it looks like everything is pretty much set.”
Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the country concluded that purchasing Blackhawks is the “best option.”

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is an unusual story of a Cambodian woman who entered into an arranged marriage with a South Korean man 29 years old than her.  The man taught her how to play billiards and now she is a champion player:

When the daughter of a potato farmer came to Korea from Cambodia in 2010 to start the second chapter of her life as the wife of a Korean man 36 years older, Srong Pheavy, like any other marriage migrant woman here, had no idea what was coming.

She did not know back then that she had a knack for carom ― with the potential to play for international titles. She also did not know that she would be Cambodia’s heroine to whom building a school for children would not be a far-fetched lifetime goal.

Pheavy, 29, who lives in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, is now in hot demand. After winning the women’s tournament at the 2018 ZANCA-Championship Asia 3-Cushion Open, Nov. 26, she extended further her already established reputation inside Korea. She was invited to appear on “Sugeun Lee’s Channel” on YouTube in November, run by one of the country’s top comedians Lee Su-geun, and played a friendly scotch double match with Korean celebrities where she wowed male players. 

In Cambodia, she is “received as highly as Korean figure skating queen Kim Yuna,” according to the JoongAng Ilbo.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This leaflet is being put up all over in Seoul, and being distributed to citizens indiscriminately by "Baekdu Guards," a pro-North Korean leftist group. The targets are freedom fighters including Taegukgi rally participants. pic.twitter.com/KXhI9a7Whn

— 인지연 Jiyeon Ihn (@JiyeonIhn) December 11, 2018