Category: Korea-General Topics

It seems like countries that tried the COVID Zero strategy are now the ones experiencing massive outbreaks. New Zealand and Hong Kong, like South Korea were all hailed as COVID success stories and all three have largely given up now on stopping COVID:

Korea reported a record 342,446 new Covid-19 infections on election day, and one in 10 people in the country have contracted the virus.  
   
Wednesday’s count was up 139,726 from the previous day, or 68.9 percent, and crossed the 300,000 mark for the first time. All but 58 cases were locally transmitted, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).  
   
The total caseload now stands at 5,212,118, exceeding 5 million for the first time. That is 10.2 percent of the country’s total population of 51.3 million people.  
   
On Feb. 28, health authorities warned the pandemic would peak at up to 350,000 daily cases around mid-March based on the predictions made by research institutes. After then, the government scrapped the vaccine pass system to get into restaurants, bars and cafes, and the mandatory quarantine of virus patients’ cohabitants. It also relaxed a curfew on businesses by an hour to 11 p.m. Such eased public health measures, along with and more transmissible strain of the virus known as “Stealth Omicron,” led to the sharp rise in infections.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Congratulations to Yoon Suk-yeol on winning an extremely close ROK Presidential election:

Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) was elected as Korea’s next president early Thursday morning, narrowly beating his liberal rival.    
   
Yoon, the first former prosecutor to be elected as president, stressed a message of national unity and cooperation with the opposition in a speech at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, shortly after his victory was ascertained.    
   
In Korea’s closest presidential election, frontrunners Yoon and Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) were neck-and-neck in exits polls Wednesday evening, making a victor too close to call nearly all the votes were tallied around 4 a.m. Thursday.  
   
At 4:05 a.m., with 98.15 percent of the ballots counted, Yoon earned 48.59 percent of votes, effectively confirming his victory in the 20th presidential election. Lee received 47.8 percent of votes, just 0.8 percentage points less than Yoon.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but it will now be interesting to see what position Ahn Cheol-soo receives because it is arguable that his coalition with Yoon put him over the top to win the Presidency.

Additionally we will need to wait and see what the reaction from North Korea will be. Considering Yoon’s hardline rhetoric towards North Korea during the campaign it seems the Kim regime is likely to go bigger on whatever provocation they have planned. There has been reports of North Korea preparing for a nuclear test so this could be their response if preparations are complete. If not another ICBM or other missile tests would be a near term way for them to respond to Yoon’s election.

At this point the damage has been done to the creditability of early voting, lets just hope this is not a very close election:

The National Election Commission (NEC) decided Monday to allow COVID-19 patients and those in quarantine to put their votes into ballot boxes themselves after an earlier decision to collect their votes in unofficial containers first sparked widespread complaints of foul play.

The election watchdog came under fire following revelations virus-infected voters and people under self-isolation were not allowed to put their votes into ballot boxes and election officials instead collected them in plastic bags and other unofficial containers during early voting Saturday. 

The indirect voting sparked suspicions of election rigging, but the NEC has flatly rejected such claims.

On Monday, the NEC held an emergency meeting to discuss the issue and decided to allow virus patients to put their votes into ballot boxes the same way as other voters in the March 9 election after regular polling closes.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is okay to bash Japan, but not okay to bash China because they will actually harshly retaliate is basically what the experts are warning:

 South Koreans avidly took part in boycotting Japanese brands when bilateral tensions escalated in the past years, given the history of the two countries. This time, the antagonism is directed at another neighbor in Northeast Asia: China.

While the situation may appear negligible and based merely on online skirmishes over the origin of cultural elements such as the pickled side dish kimchi or hanbok, a recent survey shows that the level of anti-China sentiment in Korea is notable. At this time when certain presidential candidates may be looking to take advantage of this sentiment to shore up support, experts warn of potential dangers, given how crucial bilateral relations between the countries are. (…..)

Andrew Yeo, SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korean Studies and a senior fellow at the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, said, “It is always tempting to drum up nationalism and anti-foreign sentiment during election season, which can create unintended consequences of permanently damaging bilateral relations between Korea and China.”

China remains Korea’s No. 1 trading partner. The Moon Jae-in administration has also largely relied on Beijing for progress in relations with Pyongyang, given the North’s close alliance with China. 

“Whoever wins the election will need to maintain ties to Beijing given the significance of economic ties between Korea and China,” Yeo said via email.

“There may be greater pressure to decouple from China and join U.S.-led coalitions if the anti-China sentiment is sustained for a prolonged period, which neither China would take kindly. However, given the size and influence of China’s economy in East Asia, Korea will need to sustain a sizeable degree of trade and investment with Beijing,” he said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Some how I doubt the first thing on these kids minds will attending school will be converting people to Islam:

Some locals are protesting the government’s decision to enroll Afghan children resettled in the southern city of Ulsan at a single elementary school and kindergarten.  
   
“I can’t help but wonder if my children won’t be influenced, including by Islamic practices,” wrote one user on an online community forum of parents in Ulsan on Wednesday, following the announcement by the city’s education office of schools and kindergartens for the Afghan families resettled in Ulsan.  
   
When Kabul fell to Taliban forces last August, Korea airlifted 391 Afghans out of the city. Members of the families brought to the country had worked for Korea’s embassy in Kabul or on Korean aid projects and include medical professionals, IT experts and interpreters. They did not enter Korea as refugees but as “special contributors” and were issued long-term residence visas after relevant laws were amended.  
   
Of them, nearly half — 157 Afghans of 29 households — were employed by a subcontractor of Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan last month. 

As the Afghans resettled in the southern city — the eighth most populated city in Korea, also known as a hub for shipbuilding industry — some Korean parents asked the local government to ensure that the Afghan children be dispersed throughout several schools and kindergartens, “for fear of the safety” of their own children.  
   
A few even held rallies in front of an elementary school in the city to demand they do not accept Afghan students.  
   
The Afghan children brought to Korea include 16 kindergartners, 28 elementary school students, 19 middle school students and 22 high school students. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but not properly integrating these kids into South Korean society is what will cause issues later on if they feel isolated as adults.

It is amazing how COVID just continues to spread in South Korea, but there has been a sharp drop in the mortality rate. Last month it was .84% and now it is .24%:

South Korea’s daily coronavirus cases surpassed 200,000 for the first time Wednesday as the highly transmissible omicron variant continues its frenetic spread across the nation.

The surge came after the government temporarily suspended the enforcement of the vaccine pass system Tuesday, citing the lack of staff handling the pandemic. 

The country reported a record high of 219,241 new coronavirus infections, including 219,173 local cases, raising the total caseload to 3,492,686 according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The daily caseload exceeded 100,000 for the first time in mid-February.

Virus-related deaths fell to 96 on Wednesday from 112 a day earlier, bringing the death toll to 8,266. The fatality rate was 0.24 percent, the KDCA said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the fact that South Korean teachers are handing out self test kits to kids in schools will likely mean the daily case rate number will only rise further.

South Korea’s COVID situation continues to be pretty bizarre because across the rest of the world cases are dropping significantly while the ROK’s continues to skyrocket. Anyone have any guesses on why this is?:

 South Korea’s new COVID-19 infections hit a fresh high of over 176,000 on Tuesday amid the fast spread of the omicron variant across the country.

According to health authorities and local governments, a total of 176,786 cases had been confirmed nationwide as of 6 p.m., up 58,786 from the tally posted at the same time the previous day, and marked an all-time high. The previous daily record was set on Feb. 23 at 171,451.

The total number for Tuesday is expected to rise further, as daily cases are counted until midnight and announced the following morning.

Earlier, the country reported 138,993 new coronavirus infections, including 138,935 local cases, raising the total caseload to 3,273,449, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

President Moon criticizes Japan in his March 1st speech to show a humble attitude towards its wartime past, but mentions nothing about North Korea and China to do the same. Those two countries most recently went war against the ROK and are responsible for more death and destruction on the peninsula than Japan ever caused:

“We will never again experience that pain from one hundred years ago,” Moon said. “We will safeguard the survival and raise the pride of all Koreans through peace and prosper in peace.” 

Moon also called for Japan to look squarely at history and show a humble attitude over its wartime past in order for the two countries to overcome historical feuds and move forward for cooperation.

“In this time of many difficulties, Korea and Japan — close neighbors — must be able to overcome the history of the once unfortunate past and cooperate for the future,” Moon said. 

“Beyond Korea-Japan relations, I sincerely hope that Japan will take leadership as an advanced nation. To this end, Japan must squarely face history and be humble before it,” Moon said. 

South Korea remains open to dialogue with Japan to work together on various regional and global issues, such as COVID-19 and supply chains, Moon said. 

Moon said Seoul “will always keep the door open for dialogue to join forces not only for regional peace and prosperity but also in responding to global challenges — ranging from COVID-19 and the climate crisis to the supply chain crisis and the new economic order.”

With North Korea showing signs of ratcheting up tensions by test-firing ballistic missiles, Moon said dialogue with the North must be resumed to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula. 

Recalling heightened tension about five years ago, when North Korea conducted a nuclear test, Moon said his administration “was able to achieve peace through dramatic dialogue. However, dialogue has been suspended, making our peace tenuous.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.