It looks like the new regulations put in place by the ROK government to better police international marriage licenses is working as intended:
The number of international marriages of a Korean and foreign spouse is on a steady decrease, along with falling divorce and childbirth rates among multicultural families, the state-run statistics agency said Thursday.
According to a multicultural family report compiled by Statistics Korea, the number of international marriages stood at 24,387 in 2014, the lowest since 2003. It fell 9.5 percent from a year earlier, showing a steady annual decline since 2008.
The steady decline has been attributed to government efforts to sort out unlicensed marriage agencies and insincere marriage deals to prevent marital violence and marriage fraud.
The number of husbands at least 10 years senior to their wives made up 37.5 percent, down from 44.8 percent in 2012 and 41.7 percent in 2013. [Korea Herald]
It doesn’t sound like this Indonesian recently arrested in South Korea for ISIS ties was much of a threat, but it is good to see that authorities are taking threats seriously considering that ISIS has declared South Korea as part of the “Crusader Alliance” and eligible for terrorist attacks. If anyone is wondering South Korea has reportedly had 200 Syrian refugees arrive at its airport.
The news that police are questioning an Indonesian national in Korea about his ties with a terrorist group linked to al-Qaida brought home the message that the country may not be completely safe from terrorist attacks.
According to the National Police Agency, the 32-year-old man arrested at his house in South Chungcheong Province on charges of violating immigration laws and forging documents, is suspected of supporting the Nusra Front, a Syrian branch of al-Qaida. The police found a model M16 rifle, a bowie knife and several books on Islamic fundamentalism at the man’s home.
The man, who entered the country on a forged passport in 2007, uploaded a video clip of himself waving a Nusra Front flag on Bukhansan Mountain on a social media site in April. Last month, he uploaded a picture of himself wearing a cap featuring the terrorist group’s logo standing in front of Gyeongbokgung Palace, the police said.
The recent National Intelligence Service report that about 10 people in Korea have publicly expressed support for the Islamic State and two Korean nationals attempting to join the IS have had their passports canceled is a cause for concern about potential terrorist activities in the country by Korean and foreign nationals alike. Also a reminder that the country needs to stay vigilant about potential terrorists entering country is the revelation that 48 people who were either affiliated with international terrorist groups or categorized as security risks have been arrested and deported since 2010. [Korea Herald]
I had to roll my eyes when the article describes a two hour drive as a “tough journey”:
K-Pop Group Red Velvet is popular with ROK Soldiers.
It was a tough journey. It took more than two hours for the eight-member girl group to reach the destination. The road was not well-paved, and some sections were full of twists and turns. Their performance was not broadcast on TV, and the girl group was also paid a lot less for the gig compared with other performances hosted by private event organizers.
To put it simply, it was one of the least attractive jobs out there for entertainment groups, but 9Muses could not turn down the offer.
“Many people think of 9Muses as guntongnyeong, and they have been much loved by soldiers for a long period of time,” a person who works for Star Empire Entertainment said. “Thus, we try not to say no when we get offers from the military.
“In addition, popularity among young soldiers helps expand their fandom among music fans in their 20s.”
Guntongnyeong is a compound word made up of the Korean word gun, which means military, and daetongnyeong, which means president.
The neologism is often used when describing girl groups that are popular among members of the military.
And the title of guntongnyeong is much coveted among girl groups because “popularity within the military is often used to measure one’s popularity,” according to another industry insider.
Because of this, many girl groups take time to perform at military bases, which are usually located in remote areas of the country.
Recently, the JoongAng Ilbo wanted to identify which girl group among all-female acts were the No. 1 choice among soldiers. The newspaper ran a survey of 466 soldiers who were on their way back to their posts after taking leave.
It turned out that the eight-member girl group AOA received the most number of votes among survey responses. The respondents who voted for AOA included soldiers of various ranks. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but you would think they would make more effort to appeal to US soldiers as well in an effort to make their image look more international.
The pro-Kim regime lackeysin the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions were able to mobilize a pretty impressive number of people to protest the decision to implement state approved history textbooks and passing regulations allowing companies to more easily lay off older workers to help younger workers find jobs. The protest was the largest since the anti-US beef protests in 2008. These history books have not even been written yet, but I would not be surprised if like the anti-US beef craziness of 2008 that these textbooks end up being much to do about nothing. However, it gives the leftists in the KCTU reason to mobilize and bash the Park government:
Tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched in Seoul on Saturday in what police believed was the largest protest in the South Korean capital in nearly a decade.
About 80,000 people were expected to turn up for the downtown rallies that were to stretch into the evening, according to an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, who didn’t want to be named, citing office rules.
The marches, organized by an umbrella labor union and civic groups, brought together protesters with a diverse set of grievances against the government of conservative President Park Geun-hye, including her business-friendly labor policies and a decision to require middle and high schools to use only state-issued history textbooks in classes from 2017.
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions briefly clashed with police who unsuccessfully tried to detain KCTU President Han Sang-goon during a news conference, but there were no immediate reports of injuries. A Seoul court had issued an arrest warrant for Han over a failed court appearance, after he was indicted for his involvement in organizing a May protest that turned violent.
Demonstrators, many of them wearing masks and carrying banners, occupied a major downtown street and began marching between tight perimeters created by police buses, intended to block them from entering large roads leading to the presidential Blue House. A large number of police, many wearing helmets and body armor, move swiftly to flank the demonstrators.
This was probably the largest crowd seen in a demonstration in Seoul since 2008, when people poured onto the streets to protest the government’s decision to resume U.S. beef imports amid lingering mad cow fears, said the Seoul police official. [Korea Times]
The South Korean government has taken measures to increase security of French sites in South Korea after the deadly ISIS terror attack in Paris:
The South Korean police increase security of the French embassy to Seoul on Nov. 14, 2015. (Yonhap)
The South Korean government went on full alert on Saturday to stem any possible terrorist aggressions in the country following the deadly attacks in Paris that killed around 120 people.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs held an emergency inter-governmental meeting to check the security of Korean nationals in France after the shootings, bombings and a hostage situation at a popular concert venue in the French capital on Friday (local time) reverberated around the world.
“We have to tighten border controls and security in key public facilities in case of an emergency in the country,” said Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn during the meeting.
The police increased police patrols around French facilities in South Korea, including its embassy and schools, in a way to prevent any possibilities of additional terrorist attacks in the country, with other foreign missions also on strict guard. [Yonhap]
There is probably plenty of more ill gotten funds that the Chun family has that hopefully prosecutors continue to go after:
U.S. prosecutors this week returned more than $1.1 million in seized assets linked to South Korea’s disgraced former president, Chun Doo-hwan, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
The $1,126,951.45 was seized through forfeiture actions in Southern California and Philadelphia, where authorities found a tony white clapboard home in Newport Beach and a secured investment in a Pennsylvania company linked to Chun’s son, Chun Jae Yong.
The younger Chun has admitted to South Korean prosecutors that the funds came from his father, according to a complaint in the U.S. forfeiture case.
The sum seized by prosecutors here is a sliver of the $229 million of the criminal restitution Chun was ordered to pay by South Korean courts in 1996 for ill-gotten gains amassed through bribes from corporations such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG during his eight years as president in the 1980s. [LA Times]
