Category: Korea-General Topics

People on the Internet want to further cancel the Lee twins:

Lee Da-yeong, a professional volleyball player who was suspended for bullying her teammates during her middle school days, along with her twin sister, Lee Jae-yeong, has faced criticism over news about her plans to transfer to the Greek league. 

Public criticism is mounting that it is irresponsible for her to “run away” from the scandal and keep enjoying star athlete status, without even fully apologizing to the victims.

Turkish sports agency CAAN recently announced on its website that Lee Da-yeong signed a contract with PAOK Thessaloniki Greece, and she would become the first Korean player to play in the Greek league.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Lee twins have already been suspended from their professional team in Korea and from the national Olympic team. All this for bullying that allegedly happened in middle school. Yes you heard that right middle school!

Someone still has their feeling hurt from middle school which has greatly impacted the lives of these two athletes. People change a lot from middle school to adulthood; it seems to me an apology and leading an anti-bullying campaign would be sufficient response to this instead of the suspensions they received. Additionally I believe they have a right to earn a living and apparently Greece is an option one of the twins wants to take to do just that; so she should be allowed to do that.

This is a horrible tragedy over in Gwangju:

A building collapsed during demolition in the southwestern city of Gwangju on Wednesday, leaving at least nine people dead and eight others seriously injured, fire officials said.

They received a report at 4:22 p.m. that the 5-story building had collapsed and fell onto a bus that was stopped at a station near the construction site. 

As of 8:40 p.m., nine people were confirmed dead and eight others were seriously injured and taken to nearby hospitals. All of them are bus passengers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the Korean wartime forced labor lawsuits against Japanese business firms:

 A local court on Monday dismissed a damages suit launched by 85 South Korean victims of wartime forced labor in Japan and their families against 16 Japanese companies, saying the plaintiffs don’t have litigation rights.

The Seoul Central District Court said South Korean wartime forced laborers cannot claim individual legal rights to damages from Japan, while deciding to reject their collective suit.

The 85 forced labor victims and their families started their damages suit against 16 Japanese companies, including Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., Nissan Chemical Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., in 2015.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is interesting how this ruling is the complete opposite of what the Korean Supreme Court ruled for in favor of compensation for a different lawsuit a couple of years ago.

South Korea like many other nation’s in the world has issues with COVID vaccine hesitancy:

Contrary to health authorities’ expectations for high turnouts, there was a great deal of hesitancy about getting the shots, largely driven by safety concerns over AstraZeneca (AZ) jabs — the bulk of which the country has procured for its 51.3 million citizens.

“Rumors and unfounded arguments about AZ side effects circulated through mainstream and social media,” Chun Eun-mi, a professor at Ewha Womans University Medical Center, said. “The deaths and severe abnormal reaction cases, like the 40-something nurse who suffered quadriplegic symptoms, added to the fears,” she said. 

An April survey by Hankook Research conducted on 1,000 adults showed that 61.4 percent of the respondents said they were willing to get vaccinated, down 6.6 percentage points from its March survey. More than 84 percent of them cited the fears about abnormal reactions.

Yonhap News

You can read more at the link, but according to the article the South Korean public is beginning to become more willing to get the vaccine.

It is surprising how much of a jolt President Moon got from his summit with President Biden:

President Moon Jae-in’s job approval rating rebounded to above 40 percent for the first time in seven weeks thanks to positive reaction toward his recent summit deal with U.S. President Joe Biden, according to a new poll released Thursday.

In the survey conducted jointly by four polling agencies on 1,008 people over the age of 18 from Monday to Wednesday, Moon’s job approval rating stood at 42 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The U.S. went through this same problem of trying to avoid vaccine doses going to waste through missed appointments:

 South Korea on Thursday launched an innovative pilot program to help non-priority people receive AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines made available from canceled appointments, but the so-called leftover vaccines can hardly be found in reality, many citizens said.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) began the test operation of the search and reservation system for AstraZeneca vaccines available from appointment no-shows through the country’s largest web portal Naver and top mobile messenger KakaoTalk at 1 p.m.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like South Korea is having the same problem many other countries are having with vaccine hesitancy:

Deaths following Pfizer jabs are exceeding those after AstraZeneca shots, although experts say that many of the casualties were over the age of 74, with weaker immune systems and pre-existing medical conditions.  

Since the vaccination program began on Feb. 26, a total of 153 cases of death after inoculation had been reported as of Monday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Pfizer accounted for 93 cases and AstraZeneca 60.  (……….)  

Enthusiasm for the shots isn’t high. As of Monday, the booking rate for Covid-19 vaccinations — the percentage of people in an age group who have made reservations — was only 55.9 percent among people aged 60 to 74, who are eligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine. The booking rate for people between the ages of 60 to 64 was only 47.4 percent.  (……….)

Health authorities, however, explained that none of the deaths reported so far are related to the vaccinations.  

“On the elderly without underlying diseases who died after inoculation, we could find the causes of death through an autopsy, such as cardiac infarction, heart rupture or pulmonary embolism,” an official from the KDCA told the Korea JoongAng Daily.  

“We don’t think there is a meaningful difference [between AstraZeneca and Pfizer in terms of deaths] seeing the situations abroad,” the official added.  

The death rate per 100,000 vaccinated people was similar between Pfizer (2.71 per 100,000 people) and AstraZeneca (2.62 per 100,000 people), and those results were similar to other countries, according to the KDCA.  

For example, in the U.K. where a larger number of inoculations have being done, there were 3.19 deaths per 100,000 people for Pfizer, and 3.29 for AstraZeneca. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

You may soon be able to walk outdoors in South Korea without a mask if you are vaccinated. Really why wait until July 1st, why not just drop the mask mandate for vaccinated people now?:

South Korea announced Wednesday that people who have received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine will no longer be required to wear masks outdoors starting in July, as part of incentives for those participating in the public vaccine campaign.

The incentive program announced at a daily interagency coronavirus response meeting also included a plan to lift the gathering ban for direct family members who have had their first vaccine dose.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but governments are finally realizing that the mask mandates after getting a vaccine is a disincentive to getting the vaccine.

Apparently expats do not have a high opinion of living in South Korea and a lot of has to do with making friends and settling in. From a U.S. military perspective there are so many KATUSAs and other to make friends with on base that this is really not an issue. Additionally it is easier to settle in on base as well when you don’t have to worry about getting cheated by landlords:

Korea ranked 47th out of 59 countries in an index based on a survey to determine the favorability of the living environment and conditions for expats. In the Expats Insider 2021 index released by InterNations, the world’s largest expat community with around 4 million members, those in Korea had difficulty settling in, finding friends and feeling at home.

The community conducted the annual survey in January on 12,420 expat respondents, representing 174 nationalities and living in 186 countries or territories, regarding their satisfaction in areas including quality of life, ease of settling in, working life, personal finance and cost of living.

Korea ranked 13th in general living conditions among 61 countries in 2014, but its ranking fell to 55th in 2019. It bounced back slightly to 54th in 2020 and 47th this year.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is something good that is happening for South Korea’s school age kids:

Parents and educators are showing mixed responses to the education ministry’s plan to resume fully in-person classes at schools in the second semester.

Supporters of the plan say the quality of education has deteriorated and that a learning gap between children has widened due to online classes conducted over the past year, while opponents say that the full-fledged resumption of in-person classes should be decided carefully as there is still a risk of virus transmissions inside classrooms.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.