Category: Korea-General Topics

This is another example NIMBYism is South Korea:

A conflict is deepening over the construction of a two-story mosque in a residential district of Daegu, the nation’s third-largest city located in the southeastern region of the country. 

Some residents, worried that the mosque would lead to stronger Islamic influence in the area, have been strongly opposing the construction, whereas the Islamic community and civic groups supporting it believe the mosque should be built to guarantee the freedom of religion.

The construction of the place of worship in Daehyeon-dong, Buk District, was launched in December 2020 by the local Islamic community, mainly consisting of international students studying at Kyungpook National University in Daegu. They received a construction permit from the local district office in September of that year. 

But it was met with heavy backlash among some residents and members of conservative Protestant groups in the area. They staged rallies in front of the construction site and filed multiple petitions with the district office calling for a halt to the construction, citing loud noise and infringement of property rights. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is a bit surprising how slow the roll out for the vaccine has been in South Korea:

South Korea’s daily coronavirus cases dropped under 1,800 on Sunday as health authorities try to stem virus infections ahead of a major holiday amid persistent infections in the greater Seoul area. 

The number of fully vaccinated people surpassed the 20 million mark, representing 39 percent of the population, with a nationwide effort to boost vaccination rates.

Yonhap

Meanwhile in Japan despite their initial slow start, they have reached a 50% vaccination rate:

Japan’s government says more than 50% of the population has been fully vaccinated.

Japan’s vaccine rollouts began in mid-February, months behind many wealthy countries due to its lengthy clinical testing requirement and approval process. Inoculations for elderly patients, which started in April, were also slowed by supply shortages of imported vaccines, but the pace picked up in late May and has since achieved 1 million doses per day.

Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of COVID-19 measures, told NHK public television’s weekly talk show Sunday that about 60% of the population is expected to be fully vaccinated by the end of September, on par with current levels in Europe.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the links.

These fake news laws are slippery slope because who defines what is fake news?:

The International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of editors, executives and journalists dedicated to the protection and promotion of media freedom, has called for the withdrawal of a bill being pushed by the liberal ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) to punish media outlets producing alleged “fake news,” noting that many such laws are promulgated in “authoritarian countries.” 

“In recent years, there has been a rapid growth of so-called fake news laws around the world. Many of these laws have been passed in authoritarian countries,” Scott Griffen, deputy director of the IPI, said in a recent email interview with The Korea Times.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is kind of basic medicine to make sure doses of vaccines are not expired which these people screwed up:

Over 100 people were given Pfizer vaccines that had passed their recommended usage dates at a general hospital in Gyeonggi Province last week, health officials said Sunday.

Pyeongtaek St. Mary’s Hospital in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, gave Pfizer vaccines to a total of 104 people on Thursday and Friday that exceeded their expiration date of Wednesday, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. 

The latest incident comes after one hospital in Seoul and another in the southeastern city of Ulsan gave Pfizer vaccine doses nearing their expiration dates or exceeding them to over 230 people last week.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but hopefully these people are not physically harmed by this.

Here is some gender wage gap information from the ROK government:

Male workers in listed firms in South Korea earned 1.6 times higher wages than their female colleagues last year, a government survey showed Thursday.

Men were paid an average 79.8 million won (US$68,800) in 2020, while their women counterparts received 51.1 million won, according to the study on 2,149 listed firms by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

The gender wage gap, referring to the rate of men’s average pay to that of women, reached 35.9 percent last year, far higher than 12.8 percent, the latest average of the Organization for the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released by British weekly The Economist, according to the ministry.

It is the first time the South Korean government had unveiled the average earnings by gender in local listed firms.

Yonhap

So why is the ROK government revealing this for the first time? Could it be because of the ROK presidential election within a year where the ruling party can claim only they can save women from gender discrimination?

Anyway if people are wondering why there is a wage gap here is part of the reason:

The average length of corporate service was 12.2 years for male workers and 8.2 years for female workers last year. The difference in their career length marked 32.6 percent in 2020, down 2.6 percentage points from 35.2 percent tallied the previous year.

The ministry said the wage gap tends to be in line with the disparity in workers’ length of service. It hits 28.7 percent when both genders have worked the same length of time, but the gap hikes to 46.1 percent when men’s length of service is 50 percent longer than that of women’s.

Time in service plays a major role in the gap which makes sense. What the article does not say is what is the difference in hours worked? Are the male workers putting in more overtime than female employees? This could further explain the wage gap as well.

It was inevitable that South Korea was going to have to issue booster shots to deal with variants of the coronavirus:

South Korea’s daily new coronavirus cases fell below 1,500 on Monday due to fewer tests over the weekend, with the country planning to offer booster shots to those who have been fully vaccinated in the fourth quarter to cope with the variant strains. 

The country added 1,487 more COVID-19 cases, including 1,426 local infections, raising the total caseload to 250,051, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

Monday’s tally marked a drop from 1,793 on Saturday and 1,619 on Sunday. The number of patients normally falls over the weekend and rises later in the week as more people get tested.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Pretty soon there are going to be surveillance cameras everywhere. If this bill passes you won’t even be able to get a colonoscopy without a camera looking up your rear end:

Doctors are strongly protesting a contentious bill that will mandate the installation of surveillance cameras in operating rooms as a part of measures to prevent medical malpractice.

Citing the possibility of the surveillance affecting doctors’ surgical procedures and the leakage of video recordings, the nation’s largest doctors’ group said it will seek a constitutional petition if the bill is approved.

Their protest came after the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee passed the revision bill to the Medical Service Act, Monday. The Assembly plans to approve it at a plenary session on Wednesday.

According to the bill, hospitals must video-record medical procedures upon the patient’s or guardian’s request when an operation is conducted while the patient is unconscious such as under anesthesia. They have to save the recording for more than 30 days for future reference in case of legal disputes, and viewing the recording will be allowed upon request by an investigative body or a court, or when the patient and the hospital agree.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The small business community in Korea continues to feel the brunt of the COVID restrictions:

The government’s decision to extend the current social distancing measures has drawn controversy, as many believe that such measures will not help curb the virus spread while only driving more self-employed up against the wall.

Along with the extension, the government also tightened the curfew on eateries and cafes, and expanded incentives offered to people who have been fully vaccinated for the coronavirus.

Small business owners criticized the strengthened limit on operating hours as excessive, while medical experts viewed that the “vaccine incentives” would have limited effects on boosting consumption.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.