For those of us who were in Korea in 2000 when the Yongsan Water Dumping Incident happened this news about 25 companies dumping toxic chemicals in the Han River with hardly any outrage shows the entire hypocrisy of what happened back in 2000:
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday it has caught 25 companies releasing wastewater polluted with hazardous chemicals into the Han River.
Most of the polluters are small and medium-sized enterprises operating factories to make textiles and metals, according to the municipality. But it refused to disclose their names.
The city government suspected the firms discharged nearly 3,000 tons of wastewater poisoned with potassium cyanide, chromium, lead, copper and phenol, all of which should be tightly regulated for its potential health risks.
The city found the illegal wastewater release after taking samples from 52 locations along the river during an inspection that began in April.
“The city received tips about their illegal activities,” a city inspection officer said. “We know there are businesses which have released hazardous chemicals into the river. This year, inspection has been stricter because of a drought. If factories upstream leak chemicals, it could cause serious damage to drinking water for Seoul residents.”
The Han River is a major source of drinking water in Seoul and its surrounding areas.
The inspector said the level of potassium cyanide found in water was 765 times higher than the permitted amount. The amount of chromium was 10 times more than the allowable limit. The level of lead, copper and phenol showed 4,098 times, 628 times and 222 times, respectively, higher than the regulated cap. [The Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but this is just another example of why I do not recommend drinking tap water in Korea. To put this pollution in perspective South Korea went into a anti-American hatefest over 20 gallons of formaldehyde that was diluted first by running water, then was processed through the Seoul waste treatment system, and finally through the Nanjido central metropolitan treatment plant along with 1.9 million gallons of other sewage and waste. Here we have 3,000 tons of potassium cyanide, chromium, lead, copper and phenol dumped in the Han River with little criticism.
I can remember many years ago when the anti-US groups were complaining about US diplomats and servicemembers not paying their parking tickets. It is interesting you don’t hear a peep from any groups about Chinese and Russian diplomats not paying their tickets:
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Tuesday that it would strengthen enforcement of traffic violations by foreign embassy vehicles in Korea in an effort to curb immunity and collect unpaid fines.
Diplomats in Korea are obligated to pay penalties for traffic violations, but police enforcement over them has not been strict due to immunities granted by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which was signed in 1969.
The number of traffic violations by Foreign Service workers has risen sharply over the last four years, rising from nine incidents in 2012 to 81 last year. The Korean police long relied on traffic enforcement cameras for surveillance of foreign service workers, but with the new measures, field crackdown is expected to be implemented with full force.
The police will forward requests to the embassies regarding the matter. The countries that have fully paid the penalties are the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Japan. The countries that have registered the highest number of violations in the last three years are Russia (23), China (12), the U.S. (12) and Mongolia (10). [Korea Herald]
It is probably smart that the nationalities of these expats are not being released because I can just see some people trying to blame a certain nationality for the MERS spread:
Dozens of foreigners have been put in quarantine for Middle East respiratory syndrome, but health authorities have yet to identify all of their nationalities, sources said Tuesday.
The Health and Welfare Ministry said that about 20 to 30 foreigners in Korea were ordered to be under home monitoring as they were suspected to have been exposed to MERS-confirmed patients.
As of Tuesday, more than 5,000 individuals in the country are being monitored at home for possible infection.
The exact number and nationality of those concerned has not been fully confirmed because the information of their home countries was not collected in the initial stages of the screening, according to the ministry.
“Once the MERS response team sends the list of those that they assume could be foreigners, we first identify based on names whether they are Korean nationals or not, and then proceed with the personal identification. So far, it may be uncertain, but there are believed to be around 20 to 30 expats under quarantine monitoring,” a Health Ministry official who is in charge of foreign affairs told The Korea Herald.
“The nationality identification is underway, but even if everything is confirmed, their nationalities will be kept confidential because of diplomatic issues,” she said, adding that some countries ask that the information not be released. [Korea Herald]
There is no doubt that when it comes to schooling in South Korea the competitiveness between teenagers can reach extreme levels to include high rates of suicide. This latest scandal is just another example of some of the negative affects of the hyper competitiveness with education in Korea:
Kim Jung-yoon, a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, walks out of Incheon International Airport under protection of an acquaintance on Friday. (Yonhap)
Two weeks ago, a South Korean “math prodigy” made headlines across the country after claiming that she had been accepted into two prestigious American universities, Stanford and Harvard.
Kim Jung-yoon, a senior at Thomas Jefferson high School for Science and Technology in Virginia, rose to fame after media reported that the top-tier universities had competed to recruit her to their undergraduate programs and ended up creating a special shared program only for her to study at both schools.
According to the reports, the 18-year-old girl secured a rare chance to study at both schools and choose where to graduate from. Kim showed acceptance letters from the schools to back her claims.
Kim was featured on radio talk shows while her father contributed to the hype by conducting interviews with local news outlets.
The reports on Kim’s achievement sparked envy among Koreans who have been living in a climate where admission into top universities is seen as key to elevating their social status.
But about a week later, her whole story was unraveled, with both Harvard and Stanford universities denying the acceptance of the Korean student. The universities confirmed that there was no such joint program allowing a student to study at both schools, calling the acceptance letters provided by Kim forgeries.
Kim, who appears to have masterminded the whole furor herself, immediately went from being idolized to ridiculed, with her father apologizing last week for causing a stir and promising to take care of her mental health.
Putting aside the reason behind her scam, the scandal appeared to leave a bitter aftertaste here, as it bluntly illustrated the country’s avid obsession with academic elitism and a competitive media industry prone to lapses of judgment.
A 28-year-old student said he could sympathize with her as he understands what it feels like to fail to enter top-tier universities and to be treated like a “loser” in Korean society. [Korea Herald]
You can read the rest at the link, but the teenager came up with the lie initially probably to get her parents off of her back, but the dad then publicized it in the media. If he had not publicized it then this would have just been a family issue when the lie would have eventually been exposed. So the adults, the dad and the journalists who ran the story are more at fault in my opinion than the teenager. You would think before publishing a story the journalists would have picked up the phone to call the universities to make sure the claims are accurate.
As far as the over competitiveness within the Korean education system; I think it is better than what we see in many US schools where there is an extreme lack of educational competitiveness from both the kids and the parents.
It will probably take just one kid to get infected by MERS to cause all these schools to get shutdown again:
President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday visited a primary school in southern Seoul, which has reopened following the weeklong shutdown over the deadly MERS virus.
The visit is the latest in a series of public activities designed to allay public fears about the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome that has killed 19 South Koreans.
The school had been closed for seven days last week as a precautionary measure against the virus. The school is located near Samsung Medical Center, which has been a major source of infections.
“I will do my best to ensure that (the virus) is brought to an end,” Park said in a meeting with students during a separate visit to a middle school in western Seoul. The middle school was closed for two days last week.
The visit came as South Korea reported four new cases of the viral respiratory illness that put the total number of people diagnosed with the disease at 154 — about half of them infected in Samsung Medical Center. [Yonhap]
Hopefully the spread of MERS is contained so the people in Pyeongtaek can get back to normal lives. Fortunately the ROK Air Force servicemember who tested positive for MERS recently has recovered:
A truck emits disinfectant smoke around Saint Mary’s Hospital in Pyeongtaek on Wednesday. South Korea’s first MERS patient spent three days in the hospital, spreading the disease to at least 30 others. Photo: European Pressphoto Agency
PYEONGTAEK, South Korea—A city best known by many for its nearby U.S. military base and surrounding rice paddies became ground zero as a deadly virus rarely seen outside the Middle East began to spread through South Korea.
At St. Mary’s Hospital in a newly developing industrial area of Pyeongtaek, about 35 miles south of Seoul, doctors puzzled for three days in mid-May over the flulike condition of a 68-year-old man, who hadn’t disclosed at that point that he had recently returned from the Middle East.
The man left St. Mary’s and was later admitted to a larger hospital in Seoul, where he was ultimately diagnosed with Middle East respiratory syndrome and was quarantined. But during that time in St. Mary’s, the man spread the MERS virus to more than 30 people. (…………………………)
A South Korean Defense Ministry official said one Korean man stationed at the Osan Air Base near Pyeongtaek who tested positive for MERS would be released on Thursday. The air base is close to the main U.S. military base of Camp Humphreys for which Pyeongtaek is known.
St. Mary’s was the first hospital named by the government as being part of the MERS outbreak. All patients, including MERS sufferers, have been moved to other hospitals. [Wall Street Journal via reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but it is going to be interesting to learn why MERS spread so widely in various hospitals as well as why so few people have died compared to outbreaks in the Middle East.
I wonder what was so unique about this 14th patient that caused him to spread the virus to so many people? Was it because that he was a medical worker and not properly washing his hands before treating other patients?:
Samsung Medical Center in Seoul was partially shut down Sunday as more cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome were confirmed in the hospital. Meanwhile, the death toll across the country reached 15 and the number of those infected 145.
Hospital officials said they would stop receiving outpatients, suspend operations and restrict the visitors of hospitalized patients until June 24 as part of its efforts to contain the virus.
As of Sunday afternoon, 19 new cases were reported, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. Of them, 11 occurred at Samsung Medical Center, putting the total number of MERS patients from the hospital at 72.
The hospital’s move to temporarily close came after the authorities confirmed that an emergency worker who transferred patients to the hospital was infected with MERS. The 55-year-old was suspected of having been infected by the 14th patient, who is considered the “super spreader” for spreading the virus to more than 70 people. [Korea Herald]
You can read more at the link, but Samsung Medical Center is definitely taking a huge hit to their reputation with the spread of the MERS virus coming from their hospital.
This Council on Foreign Relations article makes the case that North Korea is preventing South Korea from being an affective middle power nation in regards to cyber security issues:
US Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Jaeho Yeom, President of Korea University, as he arrives to speak about cyber security and Internet freedom at Korea University in Seoul, Korea on May 18, 2015. (Saul Loeb/Reuters).
South Korea is one of the world’s most wired countries, which demonstrates the country’s embrace of cyber technologies. However, this commitment renders South Korea vulnerable to malicious cyber activities. As has happened in many countries, South Korea has scaled up its domestic cybersecurity efforts to address cyber threats, including the appointment in 2015 of a presidential adviser on cybersecurity. Despite increased attention on cyber defense and resilience, South Korea has not developed approaches that obviously stand out from equivalent efforts by other countries. South Korea struggles with the same problems as other nations, which means its domestic cybersecurity activities do not necessarily boost its middle power ambitions.
These ambitions also suffer because South Korea faces threats from North Korea that dominate South Korea’s cybersecurity agenda. Although North Korea is a cyber menace beyond the Korean peninsula, no other country bears the cyber burden Pyongyang imposes on South Korea. Indeed, in no other country is cybersecurity so interwoven as part of an existential security threat. This burden damages South Korea’s middle power aspirations in cyber affairs by highlighting South Korea’s vulnerabilities, forcing Seoul to prioritize North Korean cyber threats, and undermining the idea South Korea has effective strategies other countries can use.
South Korea’s close political, economic, and security relationship with the United States also affects its desire to be a middle power on cyber issues. A function of middle powers is to find ways to navigate international cooperation through the shoals of great-power competition. Middle powers should be—or perceived to be—sufficiently independent to be able to broker such cooperation. South Korea remains dependent on the United States in defending against North Korea, which colors perceptions of how autonomous South Korea can be on security issues. [Council on Foreign Relations]
You can read more at the link, but you would think that South Korea would be a great nation to learn from in regards to cyber security if they are constantly being probed and attacked by the North Koreans.
