Category: Korea-General Topics

A tragedy has just happened off the coast of Japan involving a South Korean tanker ship. Interestingly the article does say what chemicals were being transported in this ship. Hopefully this doesn’t lead to an ecological disaster as well:

 A South Korean chemical tanker capsized off Japan’s west coast Wednesday, claiming eight lives with two still missing, Japan’s coast guard officials said.

The Keoyoung Sun vessel, carrying 11 crew members, made a distress call to the Japanese Coast Guard at around 7 a.m., reporting that it was tilting in waters near an island of the Shimonoseki city in the Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Of the 11 crew members on board — two South Koreans, eight Indonesians and one Chinese — nine have been rescued and two others were unaccounted for.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This demonstrates how incredibly selfish Korean doctors are to protect their fiefdoms. These medical professors are willing to go on strike to pressure the government to not increase medical school students which is being done to try and address the nation’s doctor shortage:

Professors from medical schools nationwide have begun to contemplate whether to submit resignations in collective action pressuring the government to seek a breakthrough in the protracted walkout by trainee doctors, a medical professors’ group said Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, medical professors from 19 universities met online, decided to form a joint emergency response committee and resolved to decide at their respective schools by Friday whether to collectively submit resignations. 

The 19 schools include Seoul National University, Yonsei University, University of Ulsan, the Catholic University of Korea and Pusan National University.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Fortunately no one was injured or worse when they discovered this huge bomb:

An unexploded 1,000-pound bomb leftover from the Korean War was partially dismantled and removed from a construction site last week south of Seoul, a South Korean air force spokesman said.

The AN-M65 general-purpose bomb from the 1950-53 conflict was discovered Thursday by workers at a construction site in Cheongju city, roughly 60 miles south of the capital, a South Korean air force spokesman said by phone Monday. The spokesman declined to say precisely where the bomb was discovered. South Korean officials regularly speak to the media on a customary condition of anonymity.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if Governor Sanders is visiting South Korea in an effort to get Korean car manufacturers to locate in Arkansas?:

President Yoon Suk Yeol met with the governor of Arkansas, the United States, on Monday to discuss ways to strengthen the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

The meeting with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former White House press secretary during the Donald Trump administration, took place at the presidential office. Sanders is visiting Seoul as part of a two-nation trade mission to South Korea and Japan. 

“Just like the 70-year-old South Korea-U.S. alliance that is evolving into a comprehensive global partnership, I hope cooperation between South Korea and Arkansas could deepen in many ways,” Yoon said during the meeting. 

Yoon also pointed to the special tie that South Korea has with Arkansas, the home of Gen. Douglas MacArthur whose leadership in the Korean War battle of Incheon resulted in a decisive victory.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The strike by trainee doctors on the behest of Korean doctors trying to protect the scarcity of doctors in the ROK has now led to the suspension of thousands of medical licenses. To really end this strike the government needs to find a way to protect the trainee doctors from retaliation from their doctor supervisors if they return to their hospitals:

The health ministry said Monday it had sent prior notices of license suspension to some 5,000 trainee doctors who have defied an order to return to work, in protest of a plan to boost the number of medical students. 

Deputy Health Minister Jun Byung-wang told reporters that it completed sending the notices to 4,944 junior doctors last week. When receiving the notices, the doctors will be required to submit their opinions on punitive measures by March 25. 

With the government vowing to take legal action against junior doctors making threats to their colleagues, or impeding their return to hospitals, the ministry opened a hotline to protect physicians wishing to return, Jun said. 

“The government will spare no efforts to help trainee doctors wishing to return to hospitals,” Jun said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

So even the Korean medical professors are joining in on the effort to keep the number of doctors in Korea artificially low. These creates a scarcity of the service they provide thus driving higher prices:

Some medical school professors shaved their heads or tendered resignations on Tuesday in protest over the government’s plan to increase the medical school enrollment quota, as the strike by about 9,000 trainee doctors entered its third week and the health ministry threatened to take disciplinary action against those defying a return-to-work order.

As 40 medical schools nationwide applied for a combined 3,401 additional admission seats by the Monday deadline in response to the government’s plan to hike the enrollment quota by 2,000 beginning next year, medical professors further stepped up their protests.

About 10 professors of Kangwon National University’s medical school in Chuncheon, 76 kilometers east of Seoul, held a hair-shaving ceremony Tuesday morning, expressing their opposition to the university’s application for an additional enrollment quota.

“Though many professors expressed their opposition to an increase in new admissions, the university made the opposite decision,” said Ryu Se-min, head of Kangwon National University’s medical school.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.