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]
I think the concentration of wealth that you see both in the ROK and the US has to do with crony capitalism where politicians are serving business interests more than the public at large:
The top 10 percent of South Koreans control 66 percent of the country’s wealth, with the inequality gap becoming more acute over time, a recent report showed.
According to the report by Kim Nak-nyeon, an economics professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University, Asia’s fourth-largest economy is encumbered by a sizable difference in wealth between the haves and have-nots.
While the rich monopolized wealth that includes both financial and property holdings, the lower 50 percent only accounted for 2 percent of the country’s assets.
The scholar, who based his findings on public data released by the National Tax Service from 2000 through 2013, said the size of wealth controlled by the top 10 percent started growing in the 2000-2007 period, before the global financial crisis, with the average wealth held totaling 624 million won (US$544,500). [Korea Times]
What I find most amazing about this report is that Germans on average work four months less a year than Koreans. This just shows how unproductive the hours by Korean workers likely are when Germans are able to have a manufacturing and export based economy like Korea without the need for long hours:
Company employees and self-employed Koreans worked an average of 2,124 hours per person last year, second only to Mexico, at 2,228 hours.
Koreans work 354 more hours every year than the OECD average of 1,770. This calculates to 6.8 more hours of work each week.
In addition, the average number of hours worked by Koreans rose by 45, up from 2,079 hours in 2013.
Korea had the highest average number of working hours until 2007 when Mexico exceeded this.
The lowest average of working hours is in Germany, at 1,371 hours a year. This is equivalent to eight months of working hours in Korea. [Korea Times]
Noted Korea historian and a ROK Drop favorite, Robert Neff has an article published in the Korea Times that discusses Seoul’s haunted past:
Korean woman circa 1900-1910 / Courtesy of Robert Neff collection
According to many, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Seoul was haunted. Homes deserted after murders and lynchings had occurred during times of unrest were natural sites for haunting but not all ghosts were content with remaining at one site ― some roamed about the streets.
At a well near Cheonggye Stream and the Jeongdong area, women were afraid to go there by themselves ― especially at night ― for fear of being accosted by the spirit of a decapitated man who had been executed for some unknown transgression. Apparently the ghost wandered about seeking a drink to quench his everlasting thirst but was unable to do so because he had no head.
The area surrounding the Independence Arch was avoided at night because it was said to be plagued by restless spirits and tokgabi (goblins). Tokgabi were generally mischievous but could be extremely dangerous if angered. They assumed many shapes and often began as simple mundane items that had been corrupted when blood ― especially women’s ― was splattered upon them. Thus, it is no wonder they were often found near execution grounds, battle-fields and sites where murders or accidents had occurred. The tokgabi often roamed in legions and could cause whole neighborhoods or villages to become deserted. [Korea Times]
