Category: Korea-General Topics

Jeju's disappearing grave guardians http://t.co/dcxmlBwvc1 #Stone #Culture #Jeju

— The Jeju Weekly (@JejuWeekly) February 7, 2015

So if South Korea does increase their birthrate then where are all these people going to go in such a small country?

President Park Geun-hye called Friday for measures to address South Korea’s low birthrate and aging population, which experts say could undermine the vitality of Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

South Korea’s birthrate stood at 1.19 in 2013, the lowest among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 34 mostly rich nations.

South Korea has tried in vain to boost a falling birthrate as the rising cost of raising a child and job shortages have discouraged women from having more children.

Park said the next five year is the golden time in handling the country’s population crisis marked by the low birthrate and rapidly aging population.

“We can transform a crisis into an opportunity and create a sustainable growth engine only when we properly cope with” the population crisis, Park said in a meeting meant to address both issues at the presidential office.

By 2018, South Korea is expected to become an “aged society,” in which 14 percent of the population is 65 or older.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but basically the problem becomes that there are less workers supporting a large number of aged people.  So it sounds like the government is admitting to a ponzi scheme that is unsupportable without more people signing up for it.

Why you should celebrate your child's first lie: great ideas from Korean novelist Kim Young-ha http://t.co/qO44jZC8aA pic.twitter.com/C0T692YZc6

— Boing Boing (@BoingBoing) February 5, 2015

Here is a horrible story of a honeymoon gone wrong for a Korean couple who traveled to Guam:

Meanwhile PNC spoke to one of the witnesses of the Ritidian drownings. Ben “Guelo” Rosario says the victims were Korean tourists, a husband and wife who were on Guam celebrating their honeymoon. Rosario is a member of the nonprofit organization called Tasa and he said one of the rescuers who pulled the victims from the waters was one of the younger members of the organization Jerome Laguana. “He’s sixteen years old and he actually helped the two couples. The lady he said was too close to the reef and the wave came and pulled her out and the husband came and tried to help her and the husband got pounded by the second wave,” said Rosario.

Rosario says Laguana and his cousin battled rough currents to pull the couple in to shore. “After they brought them up some of the Koreans ran up there and started [doing] CPR and it tires you so you know I asked them to have me do it.” So Rosario jumped in and began to help administer CPR while they waited for Guam Fire Department crews to arrive. “How long until rescue units arrived?” asked PNC. Rosario replied saying, “After we started probably about another twenty minutes. Yeah it’s a far place you know.” Also, the road to Ritidian is riddled with potholes which no doubt made it more difficult for GFD units to get there. “Anybody that goes up to Ritidian please take care. The water is not cooperating up there all the time so be careful when you’re up there,” said Rosario.  [Pacific News Center]

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” lang=”en”><p>Video: Visiting the Mr.Toilet Museum in Suwon Korea <a href=”http://t.co/hcOjGJkQud”>http://t.co/hcOjGJkQud</a></p>&mdash; Christine Kaaloa (@grrrltraveler) <a href=”https://twitter.com/grrrltraveler/status/562132051587907584″>February 2, 2015</a></blockquote>
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It looks like the squid industry on Ullengdo is on the verge of collapse due to overfishing by Chinese boats:

Once abundant squid stocks in the East Sea have now almost been depleted by Chinese fishermen who operate in North Korean waters. This has caused tremendous hardship among fishermen on Ulleung Island, Korea’s most famous squid fishing point.

“Only five years ago the market was brimming with boxes of fresh squid every morning, but now we can no longer talk about it with any pride,” said 59-year-old trawler captain Lee Ju-hyuk.

The Jeodong market near the pier, where all the catch is gathered and traded, was one-third empty around 6:30 a.m. on Monday. But at this hour five years ago the catch was so abundant that people had to put spare boxes in nearby buildings.

Bright squid-lure lamps lit up the horizon off the island all night. When the boats arrived at dawn, workers cleaned the squid and middlemen bought and loaded them on their trucks.

But on Monday only about 30 middlemen and workers hovered around the fish collection point, and most of them had to turn back empty-handed. Around this time of year, squid used to be dried everywhere — on the seawall, in front of the door and on the tin roof of every household. Now that is history.

People here put the blame squarely on Chinese fishermen, who started fishing in northern waters in 2010.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

It is hard to believe there has never been a woman in charge of one of Lotte’s Department stores until now:

Although women play a limited role in management at conglomerates, their presence is slowly growing. Lotte Department Store named two female department store managers on Monday.

Women have headed smaller stores and outlet malls for the group before, but none have ever been put in charge of a department store branch.

Promoting the two women reflects Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin’s announcement last year that he would put more women in higher positions.

Lee Min-sook will be the chief manager of Lotte Department Store in Gwanak District, southern Seoul, while Lee Joo-young will take the top position at the Ansan branch in Gyeonggi.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

I hope they give him at least a good middle name he can fall back on if this doesn’t work out:

Famous StarCraft player Lim Yo-hwan announced he will name his child Marine after the infantry unit in the game’s Terran species.

In an interview with a local news outlet Wednesday, the 36-year-old eSport legend said he couldn’t think of other names aside from the popular unit from the real-time strategic computer video game. His wife, actress Kim Ga-yeon, 44, agreed to the name, he added.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

I don’t smoke, but it seems to me that the business owners are making a good point about the legality of the ban:

Twenty owners of restaurants and bars will ask the Constitutional Court to review the smoking ban imposed on all such establishments.

An online community of smokers, I Love Smoking, said Friday that some of its members who run eateries will file a petition with the court next month as they believe the new law, which bans smoking at all cafes, restaurants and bars, regardless of their size, infringes on their basic rights.

The move came after the restaurant owners saw a sharp decline in sales after the expanded ban on smoking took effect on Jan. 1.

“Sales have dropped more than 30 percent since the law went into effect. It is threatening my livelihood,” Kwon Huck-nam, who runs a restaurant selling grilled beef tripe in Seoul, told The Korea Times.

Like Kwon, many owners of restaurants, especially meat restaurants and bars where many patrons smoke while drinking, have faced similar difficulties due to the regulation.

“Given that cigarettes and alcohol go together in most cases, many customers are leaving their old hangouts because they cannot smoke there any longer,” Kwon said. “In this regard, the regulation is unfair and too harsh for people like us. It infringes on the freedom of business and the right to property.” [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but is it a stretch to imagine someone in the future wanting to ban alcohol in business establishments as well?

There is no place in the classroom for teaching pro-North Korean propaganda and hopefully this teachers were all fired from their jobs:

Four teachers received suspended jail terms Friday after a Seoul court found them guilty of engaging in pro-North Korea activities.

The four, who are part of a progressive teachers’ union, were indicted in February 2013 on charges of holding two lectures endorsing North Korean ideals from January 2008 to May 2009. The lectures, prosecutors said, took place in front of prospective teachers and fellow members of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, the country’s second-largest teachers’ union.

The four were also charged with the possession of original North Korean texts and the distribution of excerpts from a memoir by North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in violation of the National Security Law.

The law bans any activities meant to praise, promote or propagandize North Korean ideals.

The Seoul Central District Court found them guilty of these charges and gave them 18-month sentences with a two-year stay of execution.

“The court finds them guilty of possessing documents that praise North Korea’s ‘songun’ and ‘juche’ ideologies,” Judge Cho Yong-hyeon said in a ruling, referring to the North’s military-first and self-reliance philosophies. “It is inappropriate for South Korean citizens, let alone teachers, to have such documents in their possession.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but for those that don’t know the Korea Teachers’ Union has been filled with North Korean propagandists and sympathizers for years.