Category: Korea-General Topics

It looks like people who like to get their freak on with sex dolls in South Korea will soon have more variety to choose from:

The government’s latest decision to scrap a ban on imports of life-size sex dolls has reignited debates on sex doll experience cafes where customers pay money to enjoy the products in a private space. 

The Korea Customs Service announced on Monday it will lift the ban on the import of complete-bodied sex dolls, ending a years-long dispute with importers of the products. Although there are currently no laws specifically prohibiting the import of sex dolls, customs authorities had been seizing most of them, citing a clause that bans the import of goods that may harm public morals.

The customs agency’s move came after a series of court rulings sided with the importers by saying that the use of sex dolls should be left to individual discretion. The authorities, however, stressed that child-like sex dolls and those resembling certain people will continue to be banned.

The lifting of import bans came as good news to owners of sex doll experience shops that have been increasing here in recent years. These shops offer customers a chance to enjoy the sex dolls at a private place. Now that the import ban is lifted, the shops will be able to provide their clients with more product options, not limited to domestically manufactured ones.

But the operation of such businesses in Korea is still in a legal gray zone, with opponents describing them as a “new form of sex trafficking.” 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but calling dolls a form of sex trafficking is ridiculous.

It will be interesting to see if this suspension of flights had anything to do with North Korea:

South Korea’s transport ministry said Monday it temporarily suspended flights at the Gimpo and Incheon international airports, but it didn’t specify the reason. 

At the request of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it had banned flights at the country’s two major airports for about an hour Monday afternoon. 

Flights at the Gimpo and Incheon airports resumed at 2:10 p.m. after the flights were halted at 1:08 p.m. and 1:22 p.m., respectively, the ministry said. 

Twenty flights at Gimpo and 10 flights at Incheon were delayed due to the suspension order, according to the airports’ operators.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Incheon International Airport I have always felt is a very easy provocation target for North Korea that would have immense impact on South Korea.

Many Koreans regardless of government regulations are not going to be taking their masks off anytime soon:

Many Koreans aren’t ready to take off their masks indoors.  
   
According to a survey by polling institution Real Research Korea from Dec. 5 to 9, 44.3 percent of the 3,800 people surveyed said they would “keep their masks on” no matter what.  
   
Korea is the only OECD member nation still requiring masks be worn in all indoor spaces, a regulation it has kept since October 2020. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but you can walk around Seoul and even outdoors the majority of people are masked up. Even people jogging in the park are masked up. However, you can go into a packed restaurant with everyone eating with their masks off. It is probably going to be quite a while before people get socially reverted back to not wearing masks.

South Korea’s daily COVID rate continues to remain at a manageable level. At this point it seems the government should provide weekly instead of daily updates just to stop the COVID fear:

South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases fell below 60,000 Sunday due to fewer tests a day earlier amid concerns of a surge in cases during the winter season.

The country reported 58,862 new COVID-19 infections, including 85 from overseas, bringing the total to 28,188,293, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The daily caseload jumped to over 86,830 on Tuesday, the highest in three months, from 25,657 a day ago but it had been on the decline to 66,930 on Saturday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

While North Korea is using nuclear technology to build bombs to kill massive amounts of people, the South Koreans are using nuclear technology to better people’s lives:

Korea is committing 400 billion won ($308 million) a year to the development of small nuclear reactors as it doubles its overall annual spending on nuclear energy to 2 trillion won, according to the president.    
   
“The government will actively support the nuclear energy industry so it can become a major pillar leading our exports and so that Korea can once again be recognized globally as a major nuclear energy power country,” President Yoon Suk-yeol said Wednesday. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but this strategy seems to make sense to me because I don’t know how you advocate for electric cars and against fossil fuels and not have nuclear energy as an option power them.

There has to be plenty of survivor guilt for the people that survived the Itaewon crowd crush disaster especially those that lost friends like this teenager did:

A teenage survivor of the Itaewon tragedy, who lost two friends in the crowd crush that took 158 lives on Oct. 29, died in an apparent suicide while receiving psychological treatment for trauma.  
   
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, police found a dead high school student in a motel room in Mapo District, western Seoul at 11:40 p.m. on Monday, after half an hour of searching for the teen following a missing persons report by his mother.  
   
The student checked in alone at around 7 p.m. Monday and committed suicide in the bathroom, according to local news reports. No suicide note was found. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but condolences to friends and family of the deceased.

The yellow dust season just seems to keep coming earlier and earlier for South Korea:

Yellow dust advisories were issued across South Korea except for South Gyeongsang Province on Tuesday, with the fine dust level in Seoul hitting the highest point so far this year, authorities said.

The yellow dust advisories were upgraded from “attention” to “caution,” the second highest in the environmental ministry’s four-notch warning system, in Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi Province surrounding the capital and Gangwon Province as of early Tuesday afternoon, the environment authorities said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but yellow dust is a good reason for everyone to wear a mask.