For people staying in Korea for longer than 90 days, they will be getting a new ID card:
The Ministry of Justice said Tuesday a new type of identification card will be issued to foreigners staying in South Korea for more than 90 days, starting on Saturday.
This is the first time in 12 years the ministry will introduce a new design for a Residence Card, formerly known as an Alien Registration Card.
A new Residence Card will feature a full-color photo of the holder that is 35 percent larger than the current version. The current design has a black-and-white photo of the holder. Also, the holder’s photo will be moved from the left side to the right.
If you want to be in the upper middle class of Korea a government job is a good way to go. However, I am willing to bet that much of their wealth is tied up in the high real estate prices in Seoul:
About one-third of the ranking public officials at the central government and state-run institutions have more than 2 billion won (US$1.5 million) in personal wealth, an annual government report showed Thursday.
A total of 2,037 senior public officials declared an average of 1.94 billion won in personal assets as of the end of last year, with 31.3 percent holding assets worth over 2 billion won, according to the gazette compiled by the Government Ethics Committee.
It was compiled for the first time after last year’s presidential and local elections.
By amount, 28.8 percent owned assets ranging between 1 to 2 billion won, followed by 18.8 percent whose assets were valued at 500 million won to 1 billion won and 17.1 percent whose assets were between 100-500 million won. Some 3.9 percent declared assets worth below 100 million won.
Seven in 10 officials said their assets increased from a year earlier, mostly due to a rise in property prices.
This is likely the reason Lee Jae-myung sought leadership of the political opposition despite being a failed presidential candidate; so he could claim any charges against him were politically motivated:
Main opposition Democratic Party Chair Lee Jae-myung at the National Assembly in western Seoul on March 22, 2023 (Yonhap)
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) decided Wednesday to allow party leader Lee Jae-myung to retain his position despite his indictment on corruption charges.
Earlier in the day, the prosecution charged him with bribery and breach of trust stemming from his time as mayor of Seongnam, south of Seoul, years ago.
Under Article 80 of the DP charter, the party is supposed to suspend those indicted on corruption charges from duty. But the rule does not apply when the indictment is deemed politically motivated.
The DP’s party affairs committee convened after Lee’s indictment was announced, and made the decision to exempt Lee from suspension, according to DP spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom.
The Korean left has struck back at the Yoon administration which is trying to reel in the violent and pro-North Korean KCTU:
Members of the minor opposition Justice Party celebrate the passage of the so-called ”yellow envelope’ bill during a press conference in front of the National Assembly, Tuesday. Yonhap
Business associations expressed deep concern, Tuesday, over the opposition-led passage of the so-called “yellow envelope” bill, which limits employers’ claims for compensation against losses caused by labor strikes.
Critics say the bill will encourage irresponsible and reckless collective actions by the country’s labor unions.
Korea’s militant labor unions have been and will continue to be the primary and strongest deterrent to foreign investors who otherwise would not hesitate to commit to long-term investments in Korea, the lobby groups said.
The bill will be made into law, if it is tabled and passes with a majority vote during a plenary session.
You can read more at the link, but the opposition parties are likely setting the stage for the KCTU to conduct large strikes in the future to damage the Korean economy. This is likely to put pressure on the Yoon administration to stop the investigations into the KCTU.
It appears same sex couples in Korea can now get the same national health insurance coverage as heterosexual couples:
A press conference is held in front of a court in Seoul after a man won a suit seeking spousal coverage from the insurance program of his male partner’s employer on Feb. 21, 2023.
An appellate court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a same-sex couple demanding the same spousal coverage from the state health insurance program as heterosexual couples.
The Seoul High Court delivered the landmark ruling, overturning a lower court’s decision that marriage in South Korea is considered a union between a man and a woman, and there are no legal grounds to expand the concept to same-sex couples.
The appeals court did not give a specific reason for its decision.
You can read more at the link, but the big difference between spousal and individual health coverage in Korea comes down to the premium. Same sex couples had to previously each pay individual premiums while heterosexual couples were paying the married premium which was cheaper.
It will be interesting to see if this ruling leads to more Russian men trying to seek asylum in South Korea:
A lawyer with the Advocates for Public Interest Law (APIL), the legal representative of two Russian men who filed a complaint calling on the immigration authority to nullify its non-referral decision on their refugee applications, speaks during a press conference held after a court ruling at Incheon District Court, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hyo-jin
A local court on Tuesday ordered the Incheon Immigration Office to review refugee applications submitted by two Russian men who landed in Incheon International Airport last year after fleeing the military draft in their home country.
The Incheon District Court ruled in favor of the Russian men who filed complaints against the immigration authority, but dismissed a complaint filed by another man who was in a similar situation.
The judge did not give a detailed explanation about the ruling during the hearing, saying that a detailed verdict will be issued later.
There are two more Russian men ― college student Vladimir Maraktaev and former football player Dzhashar Khubiev ― who are still stuck inside the airport waiting for their next hearing scheduled for late February.
Apparently the family waited too long to file a claim after the Korean Supreme Court issued their initial ruling of compensation for forced labor victims back in 2012:
A lawyer and a civic group official supporting victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor speak to reporters after a ruling by the Seoul Central District Court in the capital on Feb. 14, 2023. (Yonhap)
A Seoul court on Tuesday ruled against the family of a man enslaved to work for Japan during World War II in a damages suit they filed against a Japanese company.
The man, surnamed Kim, was mobilized to work at a construction site operated by Japanese company Nishimatsu Construction in North Hamgyong Province in what is now North Korea in 1942 while the entire Korean peninsula was under Japan’s colonial rule, his family said.
Kim died two years later while working at the construction site, and a South Korean government committee in 2006 recognized him as a victim of Japan’s wartime forced labor.
Five family members of Kim filed the civil suit against Nishimatsu in 2019 on behalf of him, seeking about 70 million won (US$55,183) in compensation.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled the statute of limitations on the case already expired as it concluded the damages case against the plaintiffs.
You can read more at the link, but this is definitely an issue that needs to be resolved before bilateral relations between the ROK and Japan can move forward more collaboratively. Expect all the DPRK and PRC agitators to do all they can to stoke this issue with the Korean public in order to prevent Japan and the ROK from moving forward with bilateral relations.
It is refreshing to hear a Korean president speak the truth about why the Japanese are increasing their military capabilities instead of demagoguing the issue for political benefit:
President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks at a joint policy briefing from the foreign ministry and the defense ministry at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Jan. 11, 2023, in this photo provided by the presidential office.
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday that Japan’s moves to bolster its defense capabilities are hard to stop in the face of the threat of North Korea’s missiles.
Yoon made the remark during a joint policy briefing from the foreign and defense ministers, referring to Japan’s recent increase in its defense budget and its inclusion of the “counterstrike” concept in its revised security documents.
“We can wonder how a country adopting a pacifist constitution can do such things, but if there are missiles flying over their heads and the possibility of a nuclear strike, it’s not easy to stop,” he said during the meeting at the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae.
“Japan increased its defense budget because there are IRBMs flying over their heads, and decided to include the so-called ‘counterstrike’ concept in its defense plan,” he said, referring to intermediate-range ballistic missiles that North Korea fired over Japan. “How can anyone take issue with that?”
You can read more at the link, but DPRK apologists in the Korean left will take issue with anything the Japan does to defend themselves. At least the current Korean President is not one of them.
The Korean left continues to try and pressure President Yoon to fire the Interior Minister over the Itaewon crowd crush disaster:
The National Assembly passes a motion calling for the dismissal of Interior Minister Lee Sang-min on Dec. 11, 2022. (Yonhap)
The opposition-controlled National Assembly on Sunday passed a motion calling for the dismissal of Interior Minister Lee Sang-min over the bungled government response to the deadly Itaewon crowd crush.
The motion won backing from 182 of the 183 lawmakers who cast ballots, with one vote declared invalid.
Members of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), which has opposed the dismissal motion, boycotted the vote and walked out of the chamber en masse before voting began.
You can read more at the link, but according to the article President Yoon will likely ignore the opposition party’s demands. This is clearly politically motivated to try and put blame on the Yoon administration for the Itaewon tragedy when any fair minded person realizes that this was a failure of crowd control at the local police level.
This poll seems pretty biased when people who face losing their jobs are being surveyed:
Members of the Korean Government Employees’ Union hold a press conference on Nov. 15, 2022, in Seoul’s Yongsan district. (Yonhap)
More than 83 percent of unionized civil servants support punishing and sacking Interior Minister Lee Sang-min for the bungled emergency response to the deadly crowd crush in Seoul’s neighborhood, their union said Monday.
The results came in a poll conducted among members of the Korean Government Employees’ Union from Tuesday through Thursday, asking civil servants to rate the Yoon Suk-yeol government’s policies in a seven-point questionnaire. About 38,000 of the union’s 120,000 took part in the survey.
Of those who responded, 83.4 percent said the interior minister should be fired and punished as one responsible for the deadly crowd crush on Oct. 29, the union said.
Nearly 93 percent opposed the government’s workforce downsizing plan, while its push to privatize some public service sectors drew objections from 87.9 percent. Almost 90 percent objected to the government pushes to expand work hours and have differentiated minimum wages for different business sectors.
You can read more at the link, but it is in my opinion nothing more than virtue signaling to fire the Interior Minister for failed crowd control measures. So every time there is a festival, concert, etc. in Korea in the future, the Interior Minister has to show up and direct crowd control to avoid be held responsible for it going wrong?
