Category: Korea-General Topics

If Iran is not a threat to the UAE as Iran claims, then why are U.S. and ROK troops stationed there?:

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s description of Iran as the “enemy” of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has provoked protest from Tehran as it calls Yoon’s remark undiplomatic and asks for Seoul’s explanation.

The government is stepping up to prevent the issue from creating diplomatic problems with Iran. 

Yoon made the remarks during his visit to the Akh Unit, which trains the UAE’s special operations forces, Sunday (local time), as part of his efforts to encourage its soldiers. 

“You are here because the UAE is our brother nation,” Yoon told the troops. “And (defending) our brother nation’s security is as important as that of South Korea’s. The UAE’s enemy ― the most threatening nation ― is Iran and our enemy is North Korea… We are in a very similar position to the UAE.” 

He was on a four-day state visit to the Middle Eastern country when he made the comment.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the ministry is looking into and following up on the comments of the Korean president on relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the UAE, which are neighboring countries with established diplomatic relations.

The spokesman also said Yoon’s remarks show he is totally unaware of the historical and friendly relations between Iran and the Persian Gulf littoral states, including the UAE, as well as positive developments quickly taking place in this regard.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is looking like some challenging driving conditions currently in Gangwon-do:

Around 10 vehicles were stranded for over a hour on a snow-covered road, with an estimated 100 traffic accidents reported, in the eastern mountainous province of Gangwon on Sunday, officials said.

Many parts of Gangwon Province had heavy snow from Saturday to Sunday, including 55.9 centimeters of snowfall in the Misiryeong mountain ridge and 52.3 cm of snow in the Hyangrobong hill. 

Heavy snow blanketed a section of highway in the coastal county of Goseong around noon, stranding about 10 vehicles in the area.

Drivers had struggled to steer their cars out of accumulated snow for about 1 1/2 hours before police, fire and military authorities removed snow. 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Despite this news I see far less obese people in Korea compared to the U.S.:

South Korean men have become more obese over the past 13 years due to drinking and lack of exercise, a government report showed Friday.

The percentage of males aged 19 and over who have body mass indexes (BMIs) of 25 kilograms per square meter or over reached 44.8 percent in 2021, up from 35.9 percent in 2008, according to the report compiled by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

In particular, male adults who had a BMI of 30 ㎏/㎡ accounted for 7.6 percent of all men last year, up from 4.1 percent in 2008.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but somebody needs to tell Yonhap that tracking obesity rates is now considered racist.

Former President Moon is not happy about the criticism his administration has received from the current President:

 Former President Moon Jae-in has said his administration established a system to counter North Korean drone infiltrations, according to officials of the main opposition Democratic Party.

Moon made the remarks when DP leaders visited his home in the southeastern city of Yangsan on Monday, apparently in response to criticism from President Yoon Suk Yeol that the North’s recent drone infiltration revealed how Seoul’s military readiness and exercises have been “greatly lacking” over the years.

“Former President Moon said the government had introduced radars and prepared substantially with regard to countering drones,” a DP official who met Moon on Monday told Yonhap News Agency.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I have seen no one criticizing the detection capability. Clearly the ROK military did a good job detecting the drones which Moon’s administration should be given credit for acquiring. However, the inability to shoot them down to include crashing one of their own aircraft is what the criticism of the ROK military has been about.

This is quite a high rate of positives coming in which makes you imagine how many people must be infected right now in China:

Seen here is the arrival hall of Incheon International Airport’s Terminal 1, west of Seoul, on Jan. 3, 2023. According to quarantine authorities, 61, or 19.7 percent, of 309 travelers from China were found to have been infected with the virus in COVID-19 tests at the airport the previous day, when South Korea began to require a PCR test for all entrants from the neighboring country.

Yonhap

It appears the ROK needs to work on their quarantine procedures because one infected Chinese traveler was able to escape by getting on to a bus:

A man of Chinese nationality has escaped a quarantine facility, Tuesday night, where he was placed in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 upon arriving in Korea earlier in the day. 

The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency said Wednesday that the 41-year-old Chinese national, who had tested positive in a PCR test upon arriving at Incheon International Airport, disappeared from a hotel on Yeongjongdo Island at around 10 p.m. Tuesday. The hotel is currently being used as a government-designated isolation facility for foreign nationals.

The man allegedly ran away after arriving at the hotel with other virus carriers via a government-provided bus. Footage from surveillance cameras showed that he was last spotted near a large retailer located about 300 meters from the hotel, but his whereabouts are still unknown.

Korea Times

It is going to be interesting to see if China’s COVID surge leads to a surge of infections in other nations in the region like Korea and Japan.

This is a good scientific achievement by the ROK:

South Korea’s unmanned space vehicle Danuri has sent back photos of Earth and the moon after reaching the moon’s orbit last month, the state space research center said Tuesday.

The orbiter began performing three rounds of lunar orbit insertion (LOI) maneuvers Dec. 17 to lower its speed and commit itself to the gravity of the moon before entering the selenocentric orbit on Dec. 27.

The first photo was taken Dec. 24 some 345 kilometers above the moon, when Danuri was carrying out its second round of LOI, and the second one was taken four days later while rotating around the satellite of Earth, according to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The wintertime surge that happened last year after the holidays appears to not be happening this year:

South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases fell for the sixth consecutive day Monday amid concerns over a wintertime surge, with the government beginning to require a PCR test for travelers from China as the virus spreads in the neighboring country.

The country confirmed 22,735 new coronavirus infections, including 35 from overseas, bringing the total to 29,139,535, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The daily caseload has been on a steady decline since Tuesday when the figure jumped to 87,578. Monday’s figure is smaller than 25,531 infections a week earlier.

The country added 53 COVID-19 deaths, bringing the death toll to 32,272. The death rate stood at 0.11 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.