Category: Korea-General Topics

It seems to me that every dollar South Korea spends on aid to North Korea is one more dollar that the Kim regime can divert towards its missile and nuclear programs:

President Moon Jae-in suggested Friday that South Korea could go ahead with humanitarian aid to North Korea in a thinly veiled rejection of a call for caution by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Abe asked Moon to consider the timing of the proposed aid during their phone conversation, but Moon said aid is an issue that should be dealt with regardless of political situations, an official said.

Moon said monitoring is a precondition to the aid in an apparent attempt to ensure that the aid reaches its intended beneficiaries in North Korea.

South Korea is set to decide next Thursday whether to approve the aid to infants and pregnant women in North Korea. If approved, it would mark the resumption of Seoul’s aid to North Korea via U.N. organizations, last carried out in December 2015.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Here is President Moon’s response to those calling for either the deployment or development of tactical nukes in South Korea:

South Korean President Moon Jae-in ruled out the possibility of redeploying U.S. nuclear weapons in the country Thursday, CNN reported.

In an interview with the U.S. cable news channel, he warned it could lead to a nuclear arms race in Northeast Asia.

“I do not agree that South Korea needs to develop our own nuclear weapons or relocate tactical nuclear weapons in the face of North Korea’s nuclear threat,” he was quoted by CNN as saying.

The interview was made ahead of his visit to New York next week to attend the U.N. General Assembly.

Moon said South Korea needs to develop military capabilities in the face of the North’s growing nuclear threat, while expressing objection to some conservatives’ call for Seoul’s own nuclear armament.

“To respond to North Korea by having our own nuclear weapons will not maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula and could lead to a nuclear arms race in northeast Asia,” Moon said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but this is what the academic circles are saying about introducing nuclear weapons to South Korea:

South Korea obtaining nuclear armament will not stop North Korea’s military provocations or deter its nuclear threats, experts on the North said Thursday.

They expect deploying tactical nuclear weapons will only give Pyongyang more reason to speed up its nuclear development.

“The call to reintroduce nuclear weapons reflects an understandable frustration,” Stephan Haggard, director of the Korea-Pacific Program at the University of California San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy, told The Korea Times.

“But it does very little to strengthen the deterrent. Moreover, reintroducing nuclear weapons would only provide further justification for North Korea to continue with its own nuclear program. This is simply a bad idea.”

Joseph DeTrani, a former U.S. special envoy to the six-party talks, also said he is not in favor of deploying tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea, citing the U.S.’s extended nuclear deterrence commitment to the South.

“The U.S. is committed to the defense of South Korea, and our nuclear umbrella for South Korea and Japan is a very important and credible element of our deterrence strategy,” he said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

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It looks like the Trump administration was able to get one less client of North Korea’s arms sales.  The Egyptians in the past have bought ballistic missiles from the North Koreans:

Egypt’s defense minister, on a visit to Seoul, announced that his country has cut military ties with North Korea, according to a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Egyptian government of the agency’s report, but Cairo has come under mounting pressure in recent weeks to sever ties with North Korea as the United States seek to curb Pyongyang’s efforts to develop long-range nuclear weapons.

Last month Washington cut or delayed nearly $300 million in aid to Egypt over its human rights record and its ties with Pyongyang.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

For people in Korea interested in purchasing the new iPhone X you may have to wait awhile because Apple is not prioritizing getting the phone to the Republic of Samsung any time soon:

Apple fans in Korea watched the company’s unveiling of its new devices Wednesday morning and got their first glimpses of the highly-anticipated 10th anniversary iPhone X, and successors to the iPhone 7, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.

But if they plan on buying those new Apple phones, they might have to wait – possibly until January for the special-edition iPhone X.

The iPhone 8 models and the iPhone X won’t be released at the same time. Apple is set to accept orders for 4.7-inch iPhone 8 and its bigger sibling, the 5.5-inch 8 Plus, on Friday and will begin shipping on Sept. 22. The first batch of countries to receive deliveries on Sept. 22 total 29 and Korea is excluded. The second batch, also totaling 29, will see the phones delivered on Sept. 29. Korea is not in that group.

Orders and deliveries for the 5.8-inch iPhone X will be later, a confirmation of rumors that Apple is having trouble with its supply of key components including OLED displays.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Another example of the expansion of the entitlement culture.  Fortunately the ROK Supreme Court shot down this attempt to make parents responsible for paying for the tuition of their adult children:

Parents do not have custodial duties for adult child, the top court has ruled.

The Supreme Court set the rule with a case in which an adult son filed a suit against his divorced father, demanding he cover the cost of studying in the United States.

The court rejected the claim, stating that the father was not obliged to look after his adult child.

The father-son dispute dates back to 2010 when the father’s second son fled to the U.S. at age 15 for study, without his father’s consent. The father refused to support the son there, including school tuition and other living costs.

The parents divorced shortly afterward, with the mother given custody and the father obliged to support their basic life.

In 2016, the son filed a suit against the father, demanding that he pay 140 million won ($123,000) to cover tuition and living costs at a prestigious university to which he was admitted in 2014.

The son claimed his father was obliged to support him financially because “an increasing number of children make their living with money from their parents.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

This is something that can take people new to South Korea by surprise.  Personally I have spent so much time in South Korea that I hardly even notice the female restroom cleaners when they walk in, much less feel my human rights are being violated:

Men’s toilets in Korea have been places of embarrassment and the subject of debate for years, especially among non-Koreans, because of women cleaners there.

Whenever females enter, wearing rubber gloves and holding brushes to scrub urinals and toilet seats, male patrons cannot help feeling embarrassed.

The cleaners, mostly ajumma ― Korean jargon for tough middle-aged women ― apparently cause serious mental discomfort to men who cannot handle the awkward situation.

Some patrons are philosophical with the attitude that the women are simply doing their jobs. But other patrons claim the presence of the women is violating the men’s human rights.

“I haven’t seen this trend in other countries, but the fact that women clean men’s toilets, while men are busy urinating, is a violation of basic human rights,” said South African Francois Pieters, who has lived in Korea for almost four years and was shocked to experience such an encounter on Sep. 7.

“Most of the foreign men in Korea, if not all of them, are shocked by this and yes, we do feel violated.”

Pieters claimed he went to a toilet in Seolleung Station in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, to change clothes for a wedding, but could not do so because two cleaning women were there.

“If they can put up a sign, like almost all of the other countries I’ve been to, then that would not violate anybody’s human rights,” Pieters said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

This is some crazy hoarding going on in Songtan:

A woman was rescued from a house crammed to the ceiling with discarded goods collected from the streets, police said Tuesday.

Rescue workers found the woman, 79, slumped in a trash-packed room after they struggled through tons of hoarded items on Friday.

They took nearly 40 minutes to reach her just meters away from the entrance, Yonhap News Agency reports, citing rescuers. She was taken to a hospital, and has recovered.

For five years, the son had habitually brought home abandoned clothes, paper boxes, plastic bottles and other items, filling the 42-square-meter dwelling to the ceiling with what neighbors called “trash.” Police said the woman lived with her only son, 58, who had a hoarding disorder, in Songtan, Gyeonggi Province.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

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