Category: Korea-General Topics

This sounds like one of these only in Korea stories:

KB Kookmin Bank has come under fire for holding a grueling 100 kilometer march for its recruits and reportedly giving out oral contraceptive pills to its new female employees — a large portion of which are under 30 — during the training period.

According to the news report from a local daily, the commercial bank gave the pills to the employees to control their menstrual cycles before they go on a 100-kilometer overnight march. The bank has traditionally carried out the marching event every year to boost the morale of the rookies, the report said.

The bank explained that it provided the pill for the health of female employees who are on their period, as they could feel relatively more exhausted than their male co-workers during the harsh schedule. The employees were not forced to take the pill, the bank added.

The act, however, caused a public backlash after it was revealed on Monday.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but the bank did not mandate the use of the pills, it was optional if the female employees needed it.  As far as marching 100 kilometers if the new employees knew this was something they would have to complete for initial training and were being paid I don’t see what the big deal is?

South Korea plans to ban cryptocurrency trading
https://t.co/tlXZGdQYCz

— FKCCI (@FKCCI_info) January 11, 2018

Another example of an article to keep in mind when someone tells you that South Korea is an ultra conservative country:

Two months ago, work began on a four-story retail shop in Garosugil, the trendy neighborhood in Sinsa District, southern Seoul, with no clue as to what it would sell. It looked like a show room for a global fashion brand.

The store opened in November and one step inside makes clear what kind of store it is: a purveyor of what used to be called marital aids, now known as sex toys.

A huge buzz began over N.19, as the store is called, as no sex shop in Seoul has ever been this big.

In the past, sex shops in Korea were hidden in shadowy alleys with windows covered from the inside so passersby couldn’t peek inside. There have been attempts to sell sex toys with fresh marketing strategies, but most were online. A video clip of N.19’s fancy interior went viral on social media in early December, and the number of visitors soared.  (….)

Last year alone, more than 10 sex shops with modern, casual atmospheres opened in the Hongdae and Itaewon areas.

Retail specialists say young consumers are more open to discussions of sex and not embarrassed to see adult stores on main streets. It’s also a trend in the retail industry to open large stores that specialize in one product category.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Business for SpaceX continues to grow:

A South Korean orbiter to be launched toward the moon in 2020 will be carried on a rocket by the private US aerospace manufacturer SpaceX. “The US company SpaceX has been selected to carry out the scheduled launch of the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) in 2020, and a launch contract was signed on Dec. 15,” the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) announced on Dec. 18.

SpaceX and India’s Antrix took part in the overseas bidding to carry out the launch, with KARI selecting SpaceX as a priority negotiation candidate. The final launch contract is determined through negotiations. SpaceX entered the bidding with its Falcon 9 rocket, a launch vehicle weighing 549 tons and measuring 70 meters in length and 3.7 meters in external diameter with a two-stage liquid-propelled engine that is capable of carrying 22.8 tons into low earth orbit, 8.3 tons into geostationary transfer orbit, and 4 tons into Mars transfer orbit. South Korea’s lunar orbiter weighs approximate 550 kg.

For the first stage of its lunar exploration effort, KARI plans to cooperate internationally with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on development and operation of the KPLO and establish the necessary core technology and an independent base for lunar exploration. The KPLO is to carry a payload of six items, including a domestically developed high-resolution camera, wide-angle polarimetric camera, lunar gamma ray spectrometer, lunar magnetic field scanner, and space internet, along with a shadow camera developed by NASA.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link.

President Moon Jae-in (C, rear) meets two victims of sexual enslavement by the Japanese military during World War II to have lunch with them at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Jan. 4, 2018, in this photo released by his office. Moon reiterated his stance that a 2015 deal between Seoul and Tokyo on ending their longstanding dispute over former wartime sex slaves is defective but said the incumbent government may still work with the agreement to resolve the issue. (Yonhap)

Here is what one good idea fairy Mr. Emanuel Yi Pastreich from Kyunghee University wants to do with the UN Headquarters:

So what are the implications of American disengagement from the U.N. for South Korea, and for the peninsula as a whole? The immediate response among my Korean friends is dread. After all, Koreans see their country as a “shrimp among whales” that needs constant protection and support from the U.S.

But every crisis is an opportunity, if you have the courage to seize the moment.

No country is more deeply committed to multilateralism in trade, in diplomacy and in security than South Korea, granted that the alliance with the U.S. limits the South’s ability to make good on this general sentiment among policy makers. Whether on the left or on the right, there is a remarkable consensus in South Korea concerning good relations with all its neighbors (with the notable exception of North Korea).

What if South Korea proposed that U.N. headquarters be moved from New York City to the Korean Peninsula, perhaps even to Seoul?

To start with, the Trump administration might welcome this proposal. Just look at all the administration has done to undermine multilateral cooperation over the last year. Moreover, there are also progressive voices around the world that suggest the U.S. is no longer qualified to be home to such an institution in light of the country’s recent shift to isolationism.

There has been a strong argument for years that a major U.N. institution should be located in Northeast Asia. After all, other than the United Nations University in Tokyo and some smaller offices, The major U.N. institutions are in Geneva (and elsewhere in Europe), Nairobi, New York City and Washington D.C.

Northeast Asia, as the new center of the global economy and a growing source for new cultural production, would be a logical place for the headquarters.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I do find it interesting that Mr. Pastreich is claiming US isolationism and disengagement from the UN when the Trump administration has repeatedly gone to the UN for sanctions on North Korea.  Mr. Pastreich’s argument is mostly based on the Trump administration’s decision to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem.  Last I checked the United Nations has no authority to tell other countries where their embassy should be located.

Also Mr. Pastreich talks about the Trump administration wanting to limit or end global governance.  In my opinion the Trump administration wants to influence global governance that is not in the US’s interest.  Sanctions on the Kim regime is in the US’s interests thus why the Trump administration pursues it with the United Nations.  Signing on to the Paris Climate Accord brokered by the UN the Trump administration determined was not in the US’s economic interest.

Here is the latest K-Pop controversy:

Goods that are tribute to K-pop girl band GFRIEND have angered fans because the objects can apparently be used as sex toys.

The life-size pillows, 180 centimeters long and 60 centimeters wide with a full body image of each member color-printed on top, are the source of the controversy. People criticized the goods for encouraging fans to hug the objects and perhaps do more than just hugging them.

Source Music released the products on Dec. 29 ahead of the band’s first exclusive concert on Jan. 6-7 at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul. They were introduced on the band’s social network site with hashtags “#GFRIEND 1st Concert 2018” and “#Season_of_GFRIEND.”

Each object in the six-piece package costs 60,000 won ($56). They were among 25 new products including cheering wands and shopping bags. The goods are worth a total of 1 million won.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

"I don't eat dogs, but I am disgusted by those who preach that only animals deemed cuddly enough or friendly enough by Westerners deserve to live." My story on South Korea's dog-eating tradition & debates over 'Western hypocrisy" @AFP https://t.co/w1uAOOMhMZ

— Hawon Jung (@allyjung) December 27, 2017

If this happened in the US the media would probably be claiming racial profiling and activists would use legal action to stop the deportations.  In Korea deporting people with terrorism ties is considered common sense:

South Korea has deported 17 foreigners in a preemptive anti-terror action before the PyeongChang Olympics in February, the immigration office said Tuesday.

They were from five countries, including unidentified ones in Southeast and Central Asia, according to the Korea Immigration Service.

They were either members of international terrorist groups specified in the country’s Anti-Terror Law or those on a wanted list shared by a network of intelligence agencies. Detailed information about them was unavailable.

“We have deported 17 foreigners who could potentially pose a terrorist menace to the Olympics,” an immigration official said. “It was possible with the close cooperation and intelligence sharing of spy agencies in 50 countries.”

He did not elaborate, but said the government will spare no effort to make the Olympics a success.

“We must be very thorough in counter-terrorism as athletes and people all over the world are coming to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics,” he said.

“We don’t rule out the possibility that foreign terrorists could enter (the country) by pretending to be Olympics travelers or hired workers at Korean companies. So we have to be vigilant before and during the Olympics.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

When it comes to the comfort women issue the Moon administration has made it clear that there will be no compromise with Japan:

South Korea’s previous government of ousted President Park Geun-hye kept part of a 2015 deal with Japan on resolving the issue of wartime sexual slavery secret from the public in order to avoid criticism of concessions made to Tokyo, a task force said Wednesday.

After months of looking into how the unpopular deal was reached, the foreign ministry task force also said that the Park administration failed to make adequate efforts to listen to victims before reaching the agreement.

It called for the government to come up with a longer-term approach to resolve such a historical matter as the so-called comfort women issue, saying that “give-and-take” negotiations or political compromise could not be the ultimate solution.

“A victims-centered approach, which has become the norm when it comes to the human rights of women in time of war, has not been sufficiently reflected and the deal was reached through give-and-take negotiations like an ordinary diplomatic agenda” the task force said in its 31-page report on the outcome of its review.

“The agreement was finalized mostly based on government views without adequately taking into account the opinions of victims in the process of negotiation,” it added.

The findings are expected to make the already unpopular deal even more so, and could spark stronger calls for renegotiation, a move sure to strain relations between the two neighboring countries.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but according to the article despite the supposed anger of the comfort women with the agreement, 36 out of 47 of them took the compensation money from Japan.

With that all said when is the Korean government going to demand that China apologize and pay compensation for all the Koreans they killed and their near success of destroying the Republic of Korea during the Korean War?  That is more recent history then the World War II era comfort women issue.