Anyone traveling to and from Incheon on the Line 1 subway may have noticed that it was closed. The line was closed due to this crane collapse captured in the video below:
South Korea and the Philippines on Monday signed a pact to protect classified military information in a bid to exchange military intelligence, Seoul’s defense ministry said.
South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo and his Filipino counterpart Secretary Voltaire Gazmin signed the deal in Manila following their talks, according to the ministry.
Han arrived in the Philippines on Monday for a two-day visit following his trip to Australia for a so-called “two plus two” meeting among the two nations’ defense and foreign chiefs.
The ministry said that the pact calls for exchanging comprehensive military information between Seoul and Manila, which will help them deepen military cooperation. [Korea Herald]
Just like in the US the Korean government has found that the demonization of smokers is an effective way to raise revenue. Then again another way to look at it is that smokers put more demand on the health care system and thus should be expected to pay more:
When the administration calculated its 2016 budget, it predicted that total cigarette consumption (shipping) would be 3.46 billion packs, or 600 million (21%) more than this year. Cigarette consumption has fallen by 34% since taxes per pack were raised by 2,000 won (US$1.67) at the beginning of the year, but revenues were projected to increase by 2.854 trillion won (US$2.38 billion) over the year, including national and local taxes.Yet in the administration’s calculations, the projected 2016 shipments were down by just 21.2% from the annual average of 4.39 billion packs for the four years from 2010 to 2013. Critics are now charging that the goal of the cigarette tax hike was not to discourage smoking as claimed – but to raise more tax revenues. [Hankyoreh]
Another mass casualty incident involving a Korean boat has occurred:
The Coast Guard, Navy and civilians combined their efforts Monday to search for eight people still missing from a capsized fishing boat off the country’s south coast but no progress was made, officials said.
The death toll from the accident stood at 10, with eight people still unaccounted for and three others rescued, the Korea Coast Guard said.
The 9.77-ton boat called the Dolgorae, or Dolphin, was found about 6:25 a.m. Sunday near Chuja Island, north of the southern resort island of Jeju, the maritime security agency said. The boat lost contact with another chartered fishing boat around 7:38 p.m. Saturday, about half an hour after it left Chuja for Haenam, South Jeolla Province, it said. [Yonhap]
Below is a good read in the Financial Times about Cheju’s female divers called “haenyeo” for those that have not read about them before. I think what will end the haenyo tradition is the small pay the hard work earns. A top haenyeo earns up to $25,000 a year, most earn half that number according to the article requiring them to often work second jobs as farmers:
Each of the elderly women utters a distinctive cry as they surface around me from the bitterly cold East China Sea, clutching fistfuls of seaweed. From my left comes a sound like the bleating of a goat; ahead, a determined groan of endurance. All of them are whistling too, an ancient technique to expel carbon dioxide from the lungs. Occasionally, the wetsuit-clad grandmothers exchange a few words after depositing their seaweed in sacks tied to orange buoys beside them. But none of them rests for more than a minute before plunging to the seabed once more — a rhythm they maintain for five hours.
These are the haenyeo (sea women) of South Korea’s Jeju island, who have dived in search of seaweed and shellfish since at least the 17th century. Their work is one of the country’s most celebrated traditions but one that many islanders fear could soon be consigned to the past.
Traditionally a job handed down from mother to daughter, haenyeo life has been shunned in recent decades by nearly all the girls born in Jeju’s seaside villages, who have tended to favour more comfortable lives in the island’s two cities or on the mainland. From more than 14,000 in the 1970s, the number of haenyeo has dwindled to fewer than 4,500 today. [Financial Times]
You can read the rest at the link and I recommend watching the video included with the article as well.
Below is a post I thought some of you may find of interest from Reddit Korea in regards to a man visiting Korea for the first time with his Korean fiance’. I think his concerns of confrontations with other Koreans due to being with a Korean female is overstated. 10 years ago I think this is more of a concern, but no longer. It doesn’t mean however that it won’t happen. If something was going to happen it would more than likely be on the subway with some older drunk ajeosi. It is best just to walk away and not get into a confrontation with one of these people which is best advice I can give. Something that may take some getting used to though is the stares. I get this even when not with my wife, but it is even worse when I am with my wife. Anyone else have an opinion on this?
One of my favorite Anti-English Spectrum cartoons from 2005.
My Korean fiance and I are going to Korea soon and she is freaking out as she heard stories about locals (usually (old) men) expressing hate towards Korean girls that date foreigners.
She left Korea when she was very young, but still speaks perfect Korean and understands the culture fairly well.
The things she is scared of are…. 1. her extended family judging her for dating a white male as it is considered “prostitute-like” 2. Strangers on the street verbally abusing/staring at/swearing at her for being with a white guy. 3. People assuming that I am a white-trashy dude who is with her for cheap sex.
She says that every single one of her Korean friends (all three of them :p)that visited Korea with her Caucasian husband/bf got verbally abused on the train/bus by total strangers and apparently one of them has been physically attacked by an old man on the train in Seoul.
I find it hard to believe that it is that bad and want to know how true this is.
Do they really hate Korean girls dating outside their own nationality? If so, why is that?
What are the chances of noticing/experiencing the hate towards us when we visit Korea?
What can we do to minimise the chance of getting physically/verbally abused? [Reddit Korea]
I am sure this news is probably not surprising to most people who are familiar with South Korea. I am also sure most people in Korea know the hyper competitiveness is what is causing the high suicide rate, but little will probably be done to correct it:
An average of 29.1 people per 100,000 in South Korea committed suicides in 2012, exceeding the OECD average of 12, according to the OECD Health Data 2015.
The countries of Hungary followed next with 19.4 people per 100,000 taking their own lives and then Japan with 18.7 percent.
Korea has been posting a sharp increase in its suicide rate since 2000. While suicide rate in Japan remains high, it has been on the decline since 2010.
Suicide is a major concern in the nation; it is also cited as the top cause of death among teens and young people in 2013. [Korea Times]
It looks like it will be a rainy week for everyone in South Korea as Typhoon Goni passes through:
Typhoon Goni is expected to strike Japan’s southern island Kyushu and move north along the East Sea.
The Korea Meteorological Administration forecast Sunday that the 15th typhoon of the season will hit Kyushu on Tuesday morning before moving northeast to pass the East Sea near Dokdo Islet on Wednesday.
The weather agency forecasts the typhoon will bring rain to Jeju Island and the eastern parts of Korea on Monday.
Rains are expected for the entire nation on Tuesday, with strong winds and heavy rains of up to 200 millimeters expected for the coastal areas of the East Sea.
The tropical storm is also expected to bring strong winds and waves in the southern and eastern seas, putting residents in the coastal areas on alert. [KBS World Radio]
