Category: Korea-General Topics

Test of foreigners applying to become English teachers in South Korea may have ended, but a stigma may remain according to this article:

And while organizations like the Korean Federation for AIDS Prevention provides foreigners with HIV/AIDS resources and free, anonymous testing, HIV-positive foreigners are vulnerable to deportation out of the country, as potential “persons carrying an epidemic disease, narcotic addicts or other persons deemed likely to cause danger and harm to the public health” defined in Article 11 of the Immigration Control Act.

According to Michael Solis, a visiting researcher at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, the government had deported more than 500 foreigners who were HIV-positive as of 2007. Kwon said that in 2010, following UNAIDS criticism of South Korean travel restrictions, the government stopped banning and deporting foreign teachers with HIV. But for those who test positive, it remains difficult to afford treatment or be hired as teachers and educators, she added.

Stigma around foreigners and HIV/AIDS remains.  [Korea Expose]

You can read the rest at the link.

South Korea’s Brain Drain | The Diplomat https://t.co/XbEqFgnLBB

— KingSejong (@KingSejong) July 14, 2017

Korea ends HIV testing for English teachers https://t.co/5jWkGR7BBy pic.twitter.com/ISMgNSA9lG

— Expat Living (@expat_living) July 7, 2017

New Highway to Slash Driving Time to East Coast https://t.co/Uw7lgHzN5t pic.twitter.com/YkuZAagsj1

— The Chosun Ilbo (@EnglishChosun) June 30, 2017

Is this the future of South Korea with people walking around with air masks because of how bad the pollution is?:

The town of Hadong in southeastern South Korea will sell canned fresh mountain air in a tie-up with a Canadian company amid growing concerns about air pollution, municipality officials said Wednesday.

The municipality said it will hold a ceremony on Friday to mark the dedication of a plant on a site of 99 square meters in the town’s Uisin Village to produce canned air coming from Mount Jiri in the region.

According to them, the can of pure air with the trademark of Jiri Air, which carries eight liters of fresh air from the mountain, will be sold at a price of 15,000 won (around $13) each at drugstores across the country. The amount of the air in one can is equivalent to 160 lungfuls that a customer takes for a second.

Inhaling the air through a built-in mask makes customers feel like they are in a forest of cypresses as it has a cypress aroma.

The air comes from a forest 700 to 800 meters above sea level where no people live.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but if I was going to spend $13 on air I would not buy air from within South Korea where the entire peninsula receives yellow dust of some kind.  This Canadian company could probably sell better air from Canada itself.

Fortunately this protest did not turn violent:

Conservative South Koreans who favor THAAD deployment confronted anti-THAAD activists near the site in Seongju when they attempted to enter the local town hall.

More than 200 members of a coalition of conservative organizations, including irate Korean homemakers, began a rally outside the building around noon on Tuesday, South Korean news service News 1 reported.

As tensions mounted between the two factions, about 1,500 police were deployed to block potential conflict, which was avoided until about 5 p.m. when activists calling for the “prompt deployment of THAAD” began marching on town hall.

 A Buddhist sect was holding an event on the road outside the building when the march began.

Won Buddhists protesting THAAD have called for its cancellation.

Facing police obstruction, the conservative activists demanded the “right of way quickly,” citing the law.

Shouts were exchanged across the sides, and anti-THAAD activists blocked the road to prevent an escalation.

No injuries were reported.

South Korean activists who oppose THAAD have not stopped occupying the town hall and outlying areas since the missile defense system was deployed in April.  [UPI]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest from animal rights activist trying to stop the dog meat industry in South Korea:

Following the closure of most dog meat shops at Moran Market in Seongnam, animal rights activists are now targeting one of the largest dog meat markets in Seoul.

According to the Dongdaemun-gu Office, one of the six dog meat sellers at Gyeongdong Market in central Seoul closed his business last month after officials convinced him to so do.

This came after animal rights activists’ constant demands for banning the dog meat trade there.

“We have already responded to about 100 petitions on the issue this year,” a district official said. “It would be more than 1,000, including unofficial petitions by phone calls.”

The demand puts officials in a bind, in which they can do little to solve the issue. That’s because the current livestock hygiene laws do not classify dogs as livestock, and consequently can’t ban killing and sale of dogs, which makes it difficult for them to regulate the industry.

The only thing meat dealers must be cautious of is animal protection laws, which bans killing animals for no particular reason, killing them in a cruel way and killing them in front of other animals of the same kind.

Well aware of the laws, sellers usually electrocute dogs out of view of other dogs, which is legal.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but my biggest problem with dog farming in South Korea is that some of these farmers are very inhumane with dogs raised in small cages and then beaten to death to better tenderize the meat.

If the ROK government wanted to get on the good side of the Trump administration this is one way of doing it:

While the Donald Trump administration continues to express concern over its goods trade deficit with Korea, Seoul will officially import U.S. shale gas for the first time starting next month.

According to Korea Gas Corporation (Kogas) on Monday, it will import 2.8 million tons of shale gas annually, which is worth about $1 billion, for 20 years.

Kogas said it held the reception ceremony for importing U.S. liquefied natural gas with Cheniere Energy at Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana on Sunday, local time.

The Korean government announced earlier this year that it will diversify the sources of its imports of crude oil to include shale gas from the United States to reduce Korea’s trade surplus with America in the hopes of avoiding being labeled a currency manipulator by the Trump administration.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Crowd at Otto Warmbier's funeral rose to applaud Joe Yun, @StateDept special rep who collected him from North Korea https://t.co/lQimusoOZE pic.twitter.com/aSREMhi4Q3

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) June 22, 2017

Ulleung-do is one of my favorite places in South Korea, but unfortunately the last time I was there I did not get my own personal guide dog:

Oftentimes, the best way to describe directions to someone is to explain using street view technology, so you can use notable landmarks as cues for turns and stops. While Google Maps has been pretty good at covering a large part of the world, it’s certainly missing one useful component: a helpful guide dog who photobombs every shot along the way.

At least that’s one competitive advantage for Daum, a Kakao-owned web portal, for its coverage in Ulleung-gun, Gyeongbuk, South Korea. Map services often employ human photographers to capture off-road images, and it appears this very good dog has decided to accompany just about every shot along the trail on this little South Korean island.

Need help finding that lookout point over the beautiful blue ocean? Sure, follow doggo up the stairs and hang when you’ve found the area with the wooden benches.  [The Verge via Reddit Korea]

You can read more at the link, but looking at the pictures this dog is actually on the neighboring island of Jukdo and not Ulleongdo.