Category: Korea-General Topics

This reads like a story you would read on a news satire site, but it is actually happening in South Korea:

Gyms in the capital area may need a new instrument in the fight against COVID-19 — a metronome.

As of Monday, the government has banned gyms in the greater Seoul area from playing music faster than 120 beats per minute (bpm) during group exercises.

That’s to prevent people from breathing heavily and accidentally getting saliva on each other — an extra precaution amid a record-breaking surge in COVID-19 cases in the country.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Both business and the labor unions are unhappy with the rise:

The country’s hourly minimum wage for 2022 has been set at 9,160 won ($7.98), a 5.1 percent increase from the current 8,720 won, which did not satisfy either the union or business sectors. 

Unions expressed anger over President Moon Jae-in’s unfulfilled campaign pledge to hike the minimum wage to 10,000 won per hour during his five-year-term, as this year’s negotiations were the last to be held during his term. 

Representatives from business were equally unsatisfied, as they had been calling for a virtual freeze of the minimum wage considering the problems facing small- and medium-sized enterprises due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around midnight, Monday, the 27-member Minimum Wage Commission, a trilateral panel composed of nine members each from the union, business and public sectors, voted on the new wage during its final plenary session held at the Government Complex Sejong. 

Only 14 members participated in the vote as all nine members from the business sector and four union representatives left the room in protest against the proposed wage hike. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If there is actually a bear on the lose I hope it gets far away from the horrible conditions it is being held in based on the pictures of these cages:

It has been a week since two Asian black bears escaped from a breeding farm in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, but authorities are still searching for one of them after the other was killed. 

Earlier on July 6, the owner of a bear breeding farm in Yongin reported to the city government that two three-year-old male bears, weighing 60 kilograms each, disappeared at around 10:30 a.m. Workers from the city’s wild animal control department and the Ministry of Environment conducted a search operation of nearby mountainous areas and killed one of them after finding it near a house about a kilometer from the farm.

But the authorities suspended the search two days later as no trace of the other bear had been found. The city government said it would lure the bear to the farm and attempt to capture it rather than killing it following protests from animal rights groups. It installed three unmanned traps and three thermal imaging cameras near the farm.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but according to the article the owner of the farm may be lying about there being two bears escaped and it could have only been the one that was shot.

It looks like Koreans may see reduced restaurant hours due to the current coronavirus wave:

 Owners of mom-and-pop restaurants and cafes in the greater Seoul area are considering scaling back operating hours for two weeks, as the country went into a semi-lockdown Monday and most people are expected to cancel dinner appointments and stay at home.

The government imposed the most stringent social distancing rules in the area, effective until July 25, since coronavirus cases have been surging to record levels, with a majority of the cases breaking out in the capital and its surrounding region.

Gatherings of three people or more in restaurants and cafes are banned after 6 p.m., and most public and private companies ordered their employees to work from home to bring the rapid spread of the coronavirus under control.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It appears the Japanese government does not want to do President Moon any favors before he leaves office which will likely influence whether he visits the Olympics or not:

President Moon Jae-in has a hard decision to make on whether to visit Japan on the occasion of the Tokyo Olympics as the envisaged trip is drawing a mixed response. 

Advocates for the President’s participation in the opening ceremony of the quadrennial sporting event, which kicks off July 23, insist that he needs to go in order to break a deadlock in strained bilateral ties, but those critical of this say he should not travel to Tokyo as Japan is taking a lukewarm attitude toward a summit and not showing much resolve in addressing various disputes between the two countries.

Moon is making a last-ditch effort to normalize Korea’s relations with Japan before his term ends in May 2022, as this could enhance trilateral cooperation with the United States. In that sense, the two neighboring countries have been in talks over Moon’s attendance at the opening ceremony, which would lead to his first summit with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and a discussion about pending bilateral issues, according to the foreign ministry here.

However, Tokyo is seemingly unwilling to commit to a meeting, repeatedly leaking information on the negotiations to the media that deprecates a possible summit. Some media reported that any talks between Moon and Suga may last only 15 minutes due to time constraints.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting way to power a building:

Using a toilet can pay for your coffee or buy you bananas at a university in South Korea, where human waste is being used to help power a building.

Cho Jae-weon, an urban and environmental engineering professor at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), has designed an eco-friendly toilet connected to a laboratory that uses excrement to produce biogas and manure.

The BeeVi toilet – a portmanteau of the words bee and vision – uses a vacuum pump to send faeces into an underground tank, reducing water use. There, microorganisms break down the waste to methane, which becomes a source of energy for the building, powering a gas stove, hot-water boiler and solid oxide fuel cell.

Channel News Asia via a reader tip

You can read more at the link.

As COVID cases increase the Korean government is implementing stricter restrictions on the public:

South Korea’s daily new COVID-19 cases rose above 1,300 for the third straight day Sunday, as health authorities were set to impose the toughest virus curbs in the greater Seoul area to bring the fourth wave of the outbreak under control. 

The country recorded 1,324 more COVID-19 cases, including 1,280 local infections, raising the total caseload to 168,046, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

It is the first time that the nation’s daily infections have risen above 1,300 for three straight days since the beginning of the pandemic. Sunday’s figure compares with 1,275 on Thursday, 1,316 on Friday and 1,378 on Saturday. (……….)

Under the Level 4 rules, private gatherings of three or more people will be banned after 6 p.m. and in-person classes will be closed. Weddings and funerals can only be joined by relatives. Entertainment establishments, including night clubs and bars, will be ordered to shut down, while restaurants will be allowed to have dine-in customers until 10 p.m.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It may be easier soon to do late night video gaming in South Korea:

The Ministry of Gender, Equality and Family has agreed to review the controversial “shutdown law” that bans minors from playing PC games after 12 a.m.  
   
Effective since November 2011, the law bans teens younger than 16 from playing computer games between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. The aim was to forcibly prevent teenagers from late-night gaming — an activity seen by the ministry as causing sleep deprivation, health damage and potentially, game addiction.  
   
Since it took effect, the law has been attacked by players, game companies and even lawmakers that questioned its effectiveness, especially after smartphones replaced desktops as the dominant medium for games. Facing those criticism, the Ministry of Gender, Equality and Family has always refused to abolish the law.  
   
Its Tuesday statement, however, strikes a softer tone, suggesting the ministry is now willing to consider a change.  
   
“The gaming environment has shifted and multiple bills were proposed to the National Assembly in regard to this law, including abolition,” the statement said. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

A former Korea Herald chairman appears to have had enough of COVID protocols in Korea:

Hong Jung-wook, a former chairman of the Korea Herald and ex-lawmaker, who is now chairman of the food company Organica, has caused a stir after calling Korea’s COVID-19 control measures “totalitarian” while praising the speed of the U.S.’s vaccination drive and return to normal daily life in his latest Facebook post.

Hong wrote July 5 that it took him less than five minutes at customs upon arriving in New York to check his health regarding COVID-19 and that wearing a mask was optional.

“The country that has seen the world’s highest number of casualties due to COVID-19 is now returning to daily life quickly,” he said. “On the other hand, it takes about an hour to enter Korea. For even vaccinated people like me, they have me write in an app, call me and send me text messages every day, only to hear me say, ‘no symptoms.'”

Hong, who served in the National Assembly from 2008-2012, said that Korea’s disease control authorities should put more effort into vaccinating citizens instead of into trying to control them. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like people in Seoul can probably expect new restrictions in the coming days:

South Korea confirmed over 1,000 new coronavirus cases Tuesday for the first time in six months amid a resurgence in the Seoul metropolitan area, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The country reported 1,006 more COVID-19 cases from 12 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the number is expected to further rise when the daily total is announced Wednesday morning.

The figure shot up to over 1,000 for the first time since Jan. 3 when the nation was undergoing a third wave of the pandemic, raising concerns over the fourth wave hitting in the summer.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.