You would think she would be keeping a very low profile after the fall out from her first altercation, but here we go again:
The wife of the Belgian ambassador to South Korea, who faced assault charges in Seoul earlier this year, was involved in an altercation with a street sweeper in the city Monday morning, police said.
Police said Xiang Xueqiu, the spouse of Ambassador Peter Lescouhier, got into a fight with the cleaner in a park in central Seoul after the cleaner’s broom touched Xiang.
Police said the two apparently traded blows, but when officers arrived on the scene, neither wanted the other punished.
Xiang was taken to a nearby hospital after the cleaner shoved her to the ground. The cleaner later visited a police precinct to report that Xiang had slapped the sweeper in the face, and sought help on pressing charges.
You can read more at the link, but I can only imagine the phone call the Belgium ambassador must have received from his Foreign Ministry after this latest incident.
If you are an international student at the University of Seoul expect to pay double the current tuition rate:
Controversy has arisen over the University of Seoul’s plan to nearly double the tuition fees paid by foreign students starting next year.
Some students and members of the general public say the sudden hike is unfair and taking advantage of a minority group at the school. However, others say the school’s tuition fees are kept artificially low through subsidies from taxpayers and it is improper to provide such a benefit to foreign students who do not pay taxes.
You can read more at the link, but according to the article students at the University of Seoul have their tuition cut in half with the subsidy from taxpayers. Tuition is roughly $906 a semester with the subsidy meaning international students will pay twice that rate which is still extremely affordable compared to tuition rates in many U.S. universities.
Firefighters in protective gear examine a restroom at a shipyard in the southeastern city of Busan on June 26, 2021, in the photo provided by fire authorities there.
Two workers have died after inhaling toxic gas in a bathroom at a shipyard in the southeastern city of Busan, police said Sunday.
The two, one of them 48 years old and the other 28, were found unconscious in the restroom at 11:04 a.m. on Saturday before being taken to a hospital.
The 48-year-old died less than an hour later and the other died Sunday.
Police said the two were believed to have inhaled hydrogen sulfide and ammonia in the bathroom.
Tests have shown that hydrogen sulfide levels there were 250 parts per million at the time, more than 16 times higher than the maximum safety level of 15 ppm, they said.
I am not sure why this is such big news when it has never been claimed the COVID vaccines were 100% effective:
South Korea has confirmed 44 cases of the so-called vaccine “breakthrough” COVID-19 infections, health authorities said Monday, as the country speeds up its inoculation campaign.
As of last Thursday, a total of 44 people had tested positive for the novel coronavirus even after being fully vaccinated, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
A “breakthrough case” refers to when a person is diagnosed with COVID-19 two weeks after being administered with the full-dose regimen.
Among the 44 cases, 26 patients had received the Pfizer vaccine, while 18 were administered with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
You can read more at the link, but according to the article 4.6 million Koreans have two shots of the vaccine. 44 people getting infected with COVID out of 4.6 million is pretty good odds. Plus what is not mentioned in the article is how sick these people got. Were they asymptomatic? This seems like important information to share to further help people decide if they want to take the vaccine or not.
Moon found #KimJongUn “very honest…very enthusiastic [and] one with strong determination…But…this is the same man who murdered his uncle and half brother in cold blood…For many [NK] watchers, Moon’s steadfast defense of Kim is verging on delusional."https://t.co/CuRy2Ome0z
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.
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.
Closed-circuit video footage of a building collapse in Gwangju, on June 9, 2021 (Yonhap)
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.
Here is the latest on the Korean wartime forced labor lawsuits against Japanese business firms:
South Korean victims of wartime forced labor in Japan speak to reporters after attending a hearing at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul on May 28, 2021. (Yonhap)
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.
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.
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.
