Jeju Island has been the epicenter of the refugee issue in South Korea and this weekend protesters faced off against each other in Seoul. However, judging by the size of the protests few people apparently cared enough about this issue to join the protesters:
Anti-refugee protesters march to the National Human Rights Commission while demanding abolishment of the Refugee Act, in Jongno, central Seoul on Sunday. (Yonhap)
Two contrasting rallies, in support of and opposition to the Refugee Act, took place across from each other in Jongno in central Seoul on Sunday. The movements came two days after the Justice Ministry granted one-year humanitarian stay permits to 23 Yemeni asylum seekers.
Under the rain, some 200 rallygoers demanded the government grant greater legal refugee status to more asylum seekers, and called for efforts to reduce discriminations against asylum seekers, in front of Bosingak.
Just across the road, some 300 protesters gathered in front of Jongno Tower to chant for the abolishment of the Refugee Act, and chanted that the government should protect the interests of Koreans. [Korea Herald]
Here is another example that Americans in Korea should take note of, you don’t have the same right to self defense in the ROK as you would in the US:
A man has received a prison sentence for assaulting a driver who attacked him first.
The Seoul Eastern District Court sentenced the man, 39, to eight months in prison Saturday for retaliating against a driver, 52, who hit him first with a weapon after an argument about the driver’s driving style.
On the other hand, the court gave the driver a suspended prison sentence.
According to the prosecution, the driver hit the younger guy with a “blunt weapon” in anger last September after repeatedly being told to drive slowly.
But the younger man took the weapon from the driver and attacked him back with it, leaving the older man with injuries requiring six weeks of medical treatment.
The younger man claimed he acted in self-defense, but the court said he had other options, including simply running away from the situation. Judge Jang Dong-min said the behavior should be considered an assault that was obviously beyond what should be allowed under the self-defense law. [Korea Times]
The bottom line on self defense in Korea is that if you have to defend yourself, use as little force as possible even if someone is trying to kill you. There have been numerous examples over the years of victims of criminal activities being convicted by a Korean court for defending themselves. The self defense law is even worse for foreigners when the Korean assailant can just lie and the police will likely blame the foreigner for the altercation.
Here are a few examples involving USFK servicemembers:
Well President Moon is the person that said that people need to shake off the “stereotype that the private sector creates jobs.” This is what that belief leads to:
The government spent more than W50 trillion in 2017 and this year on its futile attempts to create jobs (US$1=W1,119). A lawmaker who is among candidates to become head of the ruling party blames the high unemployment on the W22 trillion the Lee Myung-bak administration spent a decade ago to dredge the four major rivers and waterways in the country. But the Moon Jae-in administration has spent twice as much money and only 5,000 jobs were created in July. In the past, when the government did not spend a single penny on job creation, jobs increased by around 300,000. Unemployment now stands above 1 million for the seventh straight month, while a record 1 million small businesses are expected to close this year.
W50 trillion is an astronomical amount of money. Not many countries have a total budget that size. After spending that much, the government needs to show some results, but there has been no progress whatsoever. So where has the money gone?
A closer look at the government’s job-stimulus objectives this year gives a vague idea. The government is paying W6 trillion to support the unemployed, while another W4 trillion is going into measures aimed at prodding the jobless to find work. That means around half of this year’s budget earmarked for job creation has in fact gone into supporting the unemployed and forcing companies to keep workers they do not need. And the W2 trillion allocated for job training is focused on short-term positions.
In fact, most of the jobs the government claims to have created have been short-term positions. About half of jobs it created last year by spending W11 trillion from the supplementary budget were for senior citizens, although the government said it aimed to boost youth employment. And those jobs will vanish as soon as government funding dries up. A study by the Labor Ministry shows that six out of 10 workers who found jobs through government programs quit in less than a year. Taxpayers’ money effectively turned into salaries for the jobless. [Chosun Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but you have to love how the Korean left is trying to blame former President Lee Myung-bak for high unemployment when he has been out of office for nearly seven years.
Apparently some people are upset at KBS for highlighting the looks of the biracial child of Korean soccer player Park Joo-ho:
Park Joo-ho and his family. Capture from Naver TV account of “The Return of Superman.”
KBS2’s reality show “The Return of Superman” has sparked a controversy for promoting “lookism” to market a four-year-old biracial girl on Aug. 19.
National football star Park Joo-ho appeared with his biracial daughter, Park Na-eun.
Park married Swiss woman Anna when Park was a player of FC Basel from 2011-13. Anna gave birth to their first daughter Na-eun in 2015.
Na-eun was an instant hit. But the show put excessive emphasis on her appearance, describing her as “pretty even when eating.”
Then it compared and contrasted her to Suri Cruise, daughter of Hollywood heavyweight Tom Cruise. The narrator said, “Na-eun looks better than Suri in my eyes.”
The aim of the program was to show how fathers care for their children without help from mothers, but it has long deviated, showing cute children in order to gain higher ratings.
“Looks are not everything,” commented a viewer. Another wrote: “Lookism is so deeply rooted in some people ― they do not even know what the problem is.” [Korea Times]
It was only a matter of time before some lawyers would round up BMW owners in Korea and start launching lawsuits. What is interesting is that they are calling on President Trump to do the investigating for them since he is supposedly hostile to German auto manufacturers:
Ha Jong-sun of Barun Law, who is leading a class action suit against BMW over fire-prone engines, speaks during a press conference at the law firm’s office in Seoul, Monday. The lawyer said BMW drivers in Korea would file lawsuits against government officials and send letters to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Donald Trump. / Yonhap
BMW drivers in Korea sent letters to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Donald Trump to urge the German and U.S. authorities to investigate the cause of engine fires in BMW vehicles, an attorney for the drivers said Monday.
The so-called “BMW fire victims group” consisting of 1,000 BMW car owners in Korea also said they are considering filing lawsuits against government officials at the transport and environment ministries for their alleged dereliction of duty.
“We decided to send letters to Merkel via German Ambassador to Korea Stephan Auer to ask the German government and prosecutors to investigate BMW headquarters for its alleged concealment of the defect,” Ha Jong-sun of Barun Law told reporters at the law firm’s office in Seoul.
The lawyer added the victims would send letters to Trump to call on him to issue an executive order to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board to initiate its own investigation into potential defects in exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR) valves and coolers in BMW’s SUVs.
“Accordingly there is an immediate need to check the safety of EGR valves and coolers in X3, X5 and X6 diesel SUVs sold in the U.S. to prevent fatal car fires and save innocent lives on U.S. highways and roads,” Lee Gwang-deok said in the letter.
The victims plan to ship a burnt BMW vehicle to the U.S., as the cause of its fire has not been discovered in Korea.
They expect the U.S. president to take an appropriate measure, considering he has been hostile toward German carmakers. [Korea Times]
GIs have been dealing with shady landlords for decades, but in my opinion things have actually improved though it appears foreign students are now a bigger target:
Some landlords are targeting international students.
International students here are increasingly falling victim to real estate-related fraud.
In one case, a Vietnamese student, 28, didn’t get her room deposit of 5 million won back because her landlord said she didn’t pay any monthly rent. But she claimed she paid six months’ rent in a lump sum but didn’t receive a receipt.
“The real estate procedure is complicated for international students,” one Chinese international student, surnamed Jing, told Dong-A Ilbo. “And it is harder to understand the jargon when they speak in Korean.”
Foreign students, now numbering 120,000 here, often fall victim to the fraud.
The paper cites four types. The first is a makeshift contract. Instead of a standard template contract, the landlords arbitrarily draw up one that does not protect the rights of foreign tenants.
The second is the cash transaction.
The third is the imposition of repair costs on the tenants. In the second and third cases, the landlord tries to take advantage of the foreign students’ inability to speak Korean or lack of related knowledge.
The fourth is a conflict when a student sublets a room to another tenant without a contract, which a landlord can use as an excuse to eject the tenants. [Korea Times]
Typhoon Soulik has arrived and is drenching South Korea in heavy rain; be safe out there:
A solar panel swept off the roof of a senior citizens center in Samyang-dong, Jeju City, knocking over a telephone pole as Typhoon Soulik passed Thursday. [NEWS1]As Typhoon Soulik landed in Korea earlier this morning, the national weather administration warned of extremely strong winds and heavy rains throughout the country.
“The typhoon will bring on Friday strong winds of 30 to 40 meters per second [67 to 89 miles per hour] on land and winds of over 50 meters per second in mountainous areas,” said the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). “With this kind of wind, glass windows, street lamps and electricity poles can break. Watch out for your safety.”
This was the first time in six years that a typhoon has landed in Korea. Typhoon alerts were issued in Jeju Island, South Gyeongsang, the Jeolla and Chungcheong regions, and in the cities of Sejong, Gwangju, Busan and Daejeon Thursday afternoon.
The weather agency said it will rain more than 50 millimeters (two inches) per hour in Jeju Island, the southern coastal regions and in Gangwon as the typhoon moves northeast across the peninsula.
The medium-sized typhoon left destruction in its path as it passed near Jeju Island from Wednesday to Thursday. Some 30 trees were uprooted in Jeju City, some 12,000 households lost power across the island – of which some 4,600 had not recovered power as of press time Thursday – and at least one person went missing. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You would think that with all the media attention on BMW cars catching fire that the owner of this vehicle would have had his car inspected and repaired by now. The cynic in me thinks we may be at a point where owners want their cars to catch on fire to launch lawsuits against BMW:
A BMW sedan caught fire in South Korea on Monday in the latest in a series of similar cases that have sparked a police investigation the German carmaker’s massive recall in Korea.
The fire broke out in the 520d sedan around 4:49 p.m. as it traveled on an expressway in the city of Mungyeong, 155 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Firefighters put out the blaze and no one was hurt, officials said.
It was the latest in more than 35 similar fires that have affected BMW vehicles this year.
Police have launched an investigation after a group of BMW owners filed a complaint accusing the carmaker of negligence and other charges. BMW has blamed defects in the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) for the fires. [Korea Times]
