Could you imagine what the outcry in the US would be if tax deductions such as for children and mortgage interest were eliminated?:
Many salaried workers will be disappointed with their year-end tax settlement for 2014. Tax refunds are expected to shrink after tax code revisions made in 2013 went into force this year.
Some are even angry because they have to pay additional taxes. Their monthly deductions didn’t cover the amount they owe under the new tax laws.
Mr. Kim, a 33-year-old married worker at a conglomerate who has no children yet, breathed a sigh of relief after he learned that he will receive a tax refund of 430,000 won ($400) this year. Kim’s salary has been fixed at 37 million won since 2013, but his estimated tax refund is almost half of that last year.
“I feel lucky because at least I don’t have to pay more,” he said. Many of my superiors are panicking because they found out they owe taxes.”
Mr. Park, a senior manager at another conglomerate, is upset. Park used to receive about 800,000 won in tax refunds. He was taking care of his retired parents, but last year his younger brother decided to look after them. As a result, Park is no longer eligible for the tax deduction for taking care of his parents. As a result, his total tax refund this year sharply dropped.
“I heard from our finance team that I might end up paying an additional 1 million won in taxes,” he said.
Since the National Tax Service opened its website for year-end settlements on Jan. 15, complaints are exploding among office workers and other company employees.
In July 2013, the former economic team of the Park Geun-hye administration led by Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok announced a tax reform plan.
Its main idea was to do away with deductions from taxable income of spending in four areas: education, medicine, charitable donations and insurance premiums, including the national pension system.
Under the new system, those forms of spending will instead be deducted at a new rate from tax owed, not from taxable income as a whole.
They are the major income tax deductions in Korea.
The measure was aimed at raising government revenues amid an economic slowdown, while keeping the president’s promise that the government wouldn’t raise tax rates. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
I am willing to bet like many foreign jihadis this teenager is probably a loser who spends a lot of time in front of his computer and feels like joining ISIS is some kind of way to feel empowered:
A South Korean teenager who recently vanished in Turkey may have crossed the border into Syria to join the Islamic State (IS), a Seoul official said Tuesday.
The whereabouts of the 18-year-old Korean, identified only by his surname Kim, have been unknown since he arrived in Turkey on Jan. 10. A local Turkish newspaper claimed that he had exchanged e-mails with IS before traveling to the country.
Citing CCTV footage obtained by Turkish police, the ranking South Korean foreign ministry official said Kim took a van together with an unidentified man after meeting him in front of a hotel in Kilis, a city situated near the border with Syria.
Kim and the unknown man then got off near a refugee camp in Besiriye, about 18 kilometers southeast from Kilis, on that day, the official said, adding the van with a Syrian plate is an unlicensed taxi.
“Their whereabouts have not been known since they got off in Besiriye,” the official said, asking not to be named. “There are also no records showing that they crossed the border at a checkpoint.”
There has been no clear evidence so far supporting that Kim might have joined the IS group, but Seoul doesn’t exclude such a possibility, the official said.
“The government cannot presuppose a possibility (that Kim might have joined the IS), but (if it is confirmed), it is a very worrisome situation,” he said. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but ultimately I am willing to bet this teenager will regret doing this.
A suit to protect medical workers from the Ebola virus is being tested at a medical center in Daejeon, South Chungcheong Province, on Jan. 13, 2015. Last week, South Korea sent a group of five doctors and four nurses to Britain for safety training before flying to Sierra Leone on Jan. 19 for a four-week mission. Seoul plans to send a total of 30 medical staff members to Sierra Leone. The first batch of 10 health care workers has worked there since late December while the final batch of 11 workers will be sent next month. (Yonhap)
The Korean-American woman who went on a speaking tour in South Korea praising North Korea has now been deported:
A Korean-American woman was expelled from South Korea Saturday for making a series of pro-North Korean remarks during her on-stage talks shows in South Korea, Justice Ministry officials said.
Shin Eun-mi was put on Korean Air Flight KE011 leaving Seoul at 7:50 p.m. for Los Angeles after undergoing two hours of questioning by immigration officials. The expulsion bars her from entering South Korea for the next five years.
On Thursday, the 54-year-old was suspended of indictment after being accused of making comments sympathetic to the North Korean regime at talk shows she hosted in Seoul and other provincial cities in the past several months in violation of South Korea’s National Security Law.
The law bans any activities meant to praise, promote or propagandize North Korean ideals in the country.
“I feel like I was betrayed by my lover. It’s just like an one-sided love,” she told reporters right after receiving the expulsion order. “I leave here today, but the government cannot drive my heart loving the country out of my fatherland. I will continue to wish for peace and reunification of Korea.”
Since being sued by local conservative civic groups for alleged pro-North Korean remarks, she has said she is not a North Korean follower and her comments were all for the peaceful coexistence of the two Koreas. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but this case has drawn criticism that the National Security Law is being used to stop free speech in South Korea. In regards to this case I disagree because foreign citizens by law are not supposed to be involved in political activity in South Korea. So the next time she visits she should leave her politics back in California where it belongs.
This is a horrible apartment fire that happened in Uijongbu:
UIJEONGBU, South Korea, Jan. 10 (Yonhap) — A big fire that broke out Saturday morning at a 10-story apartment building in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, leaving three dead and 101 people injured, has been brought under control, the police said.
Among the injured who were taken to the hospital, five were in critical condition, they said.
The fire is reported to have erupted at 9:25 a.m. from a car parked on the ground floor of the building, preventing residents from evacuating through the front entrance.
The fire was put under control at about 11:40 a.m. after spreading to two other buildings.
The police and firefighters are now focusing on finding the cause of the fire, saying they are investigating the possibility of arson but are open to all possibilities. [Yonhap]
It seems that US animal rights groups still have their eyes set on stopping dog eating in South Korea:
A dozen dogs originally destined for dinner tables in South Korea arrived in the Washington area to be adopted as pets.
They were the first of a total of 23 dogs being imported into the United States this week as part of a campaign to combat the eating of dog meat in East Asia.
Washington-based Humane Society International (HSI) located the dogs at a farm in Ilsan, northwest of Seoul, where they were being bred specifically for human consumption.
The farmer — who acknowledged a personal fondness for dogs — agreed to give up the animals and accept an offer of compensation and grow blueberries instead, HSI director of companion animals Kelly O’Meara told AFP, as the mongrels settled into kennels Monday at the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, Virginia after a long flight from Seoul.
HSI has been working with local groups in China, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam to raise public awareness of the dog meat trade.
“But South Korea is unusual because it actually farms dogs to supply demand,” O’Meara said, while other countries target feral dogs as food.
Every year, between 1.2 million and two million dogs are consumed in South Korea, she said, supplied by farms that number “at least in the hundreds.” [AFP]
You can read more at the link, but my biggest problem with dog farming in South Korea is that some of these farmers do not do it very humanely with dogs raised in small cages and then beaten to death to better tenderize the meat.
It appears that some in the Korean government want to pull a Sony and give in to North Korean threats at the expense of free speech for their citizens:
A South Korean parliamentary committee adopted a resolution Thursday calling on the government to take necessary steps to protect its citizens from any harm caused by civic activists’ flying of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the inter-Korean border.
The resolution, adopted by the National Assembly’s foreign affairs and unification committee, also urges the two Koreas to abide by their earlier agreements to stop all slander against each other, noting it is key to building trust.
“(We) urge the government to take necessary steps so as to ensure the spread of anti-North Korea leaflets does not damage the improvement of South-North ties and jeopardize the safety of our citizens,” the resolution said.
The leaflet campaign, often led by North Korean defectors in the South, has long been a source of tension between the two Koreas as it aims to stir up dissent against the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Seoul has long dismissed Pyongyang’s demands to ban the campaign, citing freedom of speech.
Speaking during the committee meeting, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae stressed that the government’s position remains unchanged. The government also believes it should take steps if they are needed for the people’s safety, he said.
The minister, however, ruled out a direct link between the leaflet scattering and any improvement in bilateral ties.
The government’s stance has been closely watched after the district court in Uijeongbu, just north of Seoul, ruled Tuesday that it is legal for authorities to restrain the campaign if it puts the lives of South Koreans at risk. [Yonhap]
This is actually old news because the slave labor like conditions on some of South Korea’s remote islands has been reported on before. Now will the AP go and report an update on the near slave labor like conditions at the Kaesong Industrial Complex and other places North Korean workers are used?:
In this Feb. 19, 2014, lawmakers and human right activists look at salt farms as a part of human rights inspection on Sinui Island, South Korea. Slavery thrives on this chain of rural islands off South Korea’s rugged southwest coast, nurtured by a long history of exploitation and the demands of trying to squeeze a living from the sea. Five times during the last decade, revelations of slavery involving the disabled have emerged, each time generating national shame and outrage. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Slavery thrives on rural islands off South Korea’s rugged southwest coast, nurtured by a long history of exploitation and the demands of trying to squeeze a living from the sea.
Two-thirds of South Korea’s sea salt is produced at more than 850 salt farms on dozens of islands in Sinan County, including Sinui island, where half the 2,200 residents work in the industry. Workers spend grueling days managing a complex network of waterways, hoses and storage areas.
Five times during the last decade, revelations of slavery involving the disabled have emerged. Kim’s case prompted a nationwide government probe of thousands of farms and disabled facilities that found more than 100 workers who’d received no, or scant, pay.
Yet little has changed on the islands, according to a months-long investigation by the AP based on court and police documents and dozens of interviews with freed slaves, salt farmers, villagers and officials. [Associated Press]
You can read the rest at the link, but these islanders actually have recruiters that go around and pick up mentally disabled homeless people to bring to these islands as slaves. Due to the remote nature of these islands the Korean authorities appear to have difficulty stamping out this practice.
