Category: Korea-General Topics

PETA is was recently protesting the Thai embassy in the Yongsan district of Seoul because apparently farmers in Thailand use monkeys to help pick coconuts and keep them in very poor conditions:

A performer, dressed in a monkey costume with a chain around his neck, pushes a cart piled high with coconuts in front of the Royal Thai Embassy in Yongsan District, Seoul, Friday afternoon. After taking several steps forward, he suddenly empties the cart, leaving dozens of coconuts precariously tumbling down the road, before picking up a sign.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it is interesting that PETA is having this protest at the same time that abuses of migrant workers in South Korea is making headlines.

South Korea’s Employment Permit System is coming under scrutiny by the foreign media which is likening its migrant agriculture workers as modern day slaves:

The Employment Permit System was launched in 2004, to replace a 1990s industrial trainee system notorious for exposing migrant workers to horrific working conditions. It was meant to afford migrant workers the same basic legal rights as Koreans. But critics say the current system is even more exploitative and traps workers into a form of servitude.

Migrant farm workers are more vulnerable than factory workers since rules about working hours, breaks and time off don’t apply to agriculture. The country’s Labor Standards Act doesn’t apply at all to workplaces with four or less employees, which is typical of many farms.

Choi Jung Kyu, a human rights lawyer, says workers at these farms are virtually unprotected against unjust firings or wage theft, uncompensated for workplace injuries and have scant access to health care. They often must pay $90-$270 a month to stay in miserable makeshift dormitories that often are just shipping containers equipped with propane tanks for cooking. Such temporary structures usually only have portable toilets.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link, but many of these elderly farm owners likely grew up in the same rough conditions these migrant workers find themselves in. It doesn’t make it right, but in their minds this is probably how they justify the conditions they have their workers living in.

Condolences to the friends and family of Byun Hee-soo:

Byun hee-soo, a 23-year-old transgender former soldier forced to discharge from the Army last year, was found dead at her home, police said Wednesday.

The Army made the discharge decision in January last year after judging that Byun’s loss of male genitals belongs to the Level 3 physical disability under the military laws.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but according to this report Byun tried to commit suicide three months ago and was seeing a mental health counselor.

I don’t play these games, but based off of what I am reading this does appear to be a form of gambling. Does anyone that plays these games want to comment on this proposed legislation?

A loot box is a common feature in both PC and mobile games. Users pay to draw game items like weapons or armor from a loot box. The prize may be worth several times what they paid for the draw — or worth close to nothing at all.  
   
The problem occurs when players start drawing multiple times to get their hands on items they want, which some say becomes a form of gambling. Although game publishers officially ban the practice, rare items are often traded online in exchange for cash.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This will be a big accomplishment by South Korea’s aerospace industry once complete:

A nearly completed prototype of Korea’s first indigenous fighter jet was unveiled to the media in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang on Wednesday ahead of its official rollout in April.  
   
Jung Kwang-sun, chief of the Korea Fighter Experimental (KF-X) project of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), said the first domestically produced fighter jet will be a “landmark moment” for the country and its aerospace industry. 
   
Aimed at replacing the Air Force’s dated McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and Northrop F-5 fighter jets, the 92-percent-completed KF-X prototype is the first fruit of a development project that began in 2015, led by Korea’s sole aircraft manufacturer, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest attempt by the Moon administration to reduce the power of prosecutors in South Korea:

 Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol strongly criticized a recent move by the ruling party to create another state investigative agency to limit the power of the prosecution service.

“Taking investigative power away from the prosecution amounts to regression of democracy and destruction of the spirits of the Constitution,” the top prosecutor said in an interview with Kookmin Daily published Tuesday.

“I am willing to stake my position for the 100th time if I could stop it,” he said.

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) is seeking to establish yet another agency tasked with investigating six types of serious crimes, including abuse of power and corruption, under the Ministry of Justice, which will strip the prosecution service of investigative power into those crimes and leave it only with the power to prosecute.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this issue really comes down to is who would control this new investigating agency? If it is controlled by the Blue House with the potential to be used to settle political scores then I can understand the concern of setting up this new agency.

Here is the latest anti-Japanese colonialism effort by the ROK government:

The South Korean government has started a legal challenge to confiscate 11 land properties from descendants of four Japanese collaborators, the Ministry of Justice said Monday.

The ministry said it filed complaints with the Seoul Central District Court and the Seoul Western District Court on Friday to take back 85,094 square meters of land valued at 2.68 billion won ($2.4 million) from descendants of those on the list of pro-Japan collaborators announced in 2007.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Here is a though experiment for everyone. What would happen in the U.S. if the government tried to confiscate property from the descendants of people that swindled Native-Americans out of their land?

It looks like some messy driving conditions on the Donghae Expressway:

Hundreds of cars were trapped on some parts of a highway along the east coast Monday as heavy snowfall caused a traffic gridlock, the road authority said.

   Gangwon Province received about 10 centimeters of snowfall earlier in the day, which caused many cars returning from a three-day holiday to be stuck on the snow-covered Donghae Expressway, according to Korea Expressway Corp. (KEC)’s regional office.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The start of vaccinating health care workers in South Korea against COVID-19 has begun:

About 18,500 people received a vaccination for COVID-19 in South Korea on the launch day of the nation’s public vaccination campaign against the pandemic, a government agency said Saturday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.