The Joong Ang Ilbo has an update on the racial incident involving a Columbian man at a Busan Costco. His activism after the incident led to positive change at the Busan police department that handled his case:
Leonardo Mendoza and Shin Jin-yeong having a friendly chat in front of a supermarket after a severe racial discrimination case involving Mendoza in Busan. [SONG BONG-GEUN]After the incident took place, did the Busan Yeonjae Police Department chief (Ryu Sam-yeong) call to apologize?
That’s correct. On Sunday (April 2) night, three days after, he apologized, saying, “We do have training, but it was very insufficient and we will expand training pertaining to foreigners.” On the next day, I called again and requested to have an internal racial discrimination training session. I went for a lecture to the police station on April 5. When I met him at the chief’s office, he said, “Of police chiefs countrywide, I am the only one with a perm. Of policemen, there are those who dislike hearing a lecture held by a foreigner. I ask for your understanding even though the audience may be small.”
When I actually went to the lecture hall, there were 250 policeman cramped inside. The policeman who handled the incident at the time attended and apologized to me in person. I learned for the first time in my 16 years living in Korea that there was an external affairs section that investigated incidents involving foreigners.
What kind of thoughts did you have?
With all that’s happened, the police chief can be called a hero. Anyone can write or post something. However, the police chief went above and beyond what he had to do and went a step further. In the end, the incident ended on a positive note. I counted, and there are 252 police departments in Korea. The change at the Yeonjae Police Department cannot stop there. The remaining 251 police chiefs must take an interest in safety measures for foreigners. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but the Korean man involved in this incident ultimately giving a half hearted apology for the incident as well.
Could you imagine what would happen to South Korea if their nuclear reactors were struck by North Korean ballistic missiles causing multiple Fukushima like disasters across the country?:
South Korea’s nuclear power reactors have not been designed to deal with military attacks, a report submitted to a lawmaker by the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) showed Sunday.
The evaluation sent to Rep. Kim Jong-hoon of the conservative Liberty Korea Party revealed that the outer protective wall of local reactors were never meant to withstand a missile strike or other forms of concerted attacks.
The reinforced concrete walls are the last barrier built around reactors that can contain radioactive materials from being leaked into the surrounding area in the event of a serious accident.
“They have been designed from the outset only to remain standing in the face of typhoons, earthquakes and other forms of natural disasters,” the lawmaker said. He pointed out that the casing can deflect the blast of explosions and debris from the inside, although not from external strikes or even the kind of terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but this just goes to show the importance of missile defense which certain people in South Korea actually want to handicap and leave critical infrastructure like this with less protection.
Via a reader tip comes this news that Constitutional Court judge involved who approved the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye has been given a prestigious position at Korea University:
Lee Jung-mi
Lee Jung-mi, the former acting chief justice of the Constitutional Court who impressed many with her grace under pressure as the court ruled on Park Geun-hye’s impeachment, will take up a chair at Korea University, her alma mater.
Lee will teach at the university’s law school for a year from April 1, Korea University said on Thursday. [Chosun Ilbo]
I think it is a very fair question to ask whether Lee would have been given this position if she had decided the other way on the impeachment? Considering she took this job so quickly after stepping down she must have known that this was something being offered when she was making her decision on impeachment. Would she have been able to take this job if she decided the other way with protesters and the media hounding her every move?
I feel horrible for the families that have to live through this tragedy all over again as the resources have finally been mustered to lift the sunken Sewol ferry boat:
Salvage operators will load the Sewol ferry onto a semisubmersible ship late into Friday night ― the final task before heading to land.
“We are racing against time,” said Lee Cheol-jo, an official from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, who is in charge of the operation. “With strong tidal currents expected in the area Saturday, the workers have to do everything correctly to finish the job hopefully before midnight.”
He said loading the ferry onto a semisubmersible ship is the trickiest stage of the operation, which requires optimal weather conditions.
The workers plan to finish the job before March 24, the last day of the neap tide period around the area. The next neap is not until April 5.
Lee said the rest of the operation will not be as vulnerable to weather conditions.
The semisubmersible ship will take the 6,825-ton ferry to Mokpo Port next week.
The sunken ferry was lifted from the depths, Thursday, nearly three years after it sank and left 304 people dead on April 16, 2014, in Korea’s worst maritime disaster. [Korea Times]
As if things couldn’t get any weirder in the Choi Soon-sil corruption case, the Danish lawyer for her daughter suddenly dies:
Peter Martin Blinkenberg / Yonhap
A Danish lawyer defending a Korean woman wanted by Korean prosecutors over the presidential corruption scandal died suddenly on Friday of unknown causes.
Chung Yoo-ra’s lawyer Peter Martin Blinkenberg died on Mar. 17 at his home in Lohals, Langeland, Ekstra Bladet reported.
Blinkenberg, who specializes in financial cases, was trying to keep Chung in Denmark after prosecutors there decided to extradite her to Korea.
The daughter of Choi Soon-sil, an alleged influence-peddler behind impeached Korean President Park Geun-hye, is wanted on charges of receiving kickbacks while attending Ewha Womans University.
These included manipulation of marks and attendance records.
The perks are suspected of having been carried out at Korea’s most prestigious women’s university under the influence of Choi, who is under arrest.
Christian Blinkenberg, the dead lawyer’s brother, told Danish news outlet Borsen that the “unexpected death” came when the father of two teenagers was spending his last day “within the walls of his beloved cottage” in his hometown. [Korea Times via a reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but his death as expected has people claiming a conspiracy to force Chung to return to Korea by killing her lawyer. With Park out of office really the fate of Chung is now a sideshow thus no real urgency for her to be extradited now in my opinion.
Here is something very rare to be seen on Korea’s East coast, orcas:
A killer whale mother and calf were seen in Korea’s East Sea, the National Institute of Fisheries Science (NIFS) said Friday.
The whales were observed near Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday, according to the institute.
In 2015, two killer whales were seen in the same area, but the last time a killer whale mother and calf were seen was in 2001, off Hongdo, in South Jeolla Province.
The latest sightings may signal Korea’s East Sea as a new habitat for killer whales.
The NIFS believes the whales have expanded their habitat from the Sea of Okhotsk to the East Sea because of its abundance of prey such as seals. [Korea Times]
