Category: Seoul

It is going to be interesting to learn in the future if all this yellow dust is going to have adverse health affects on Koreans:

Seoul was hit by a record-high level of ultrafine dust, known as a class one carcinogen, on Monday, as most of South Korea was blanketed by extraordinarily heavy levels of choking dust particles for the fourth consecutive day.
The Ministry of Environment has decided to extend a set of emergency measures aimed at reducing fine dust in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province through Tuesday. It would be the first time for the government to implement the system in the metropolitan area, which has around 20 million residents, for three consecutive days.
Under the step, vehicles with license plates ending in even numbers and used by public offices, will be restricted from operating on Tuesday. And the operation of 2.5-ton diesel cars or bigger ones, registered with metropolitan governments before 2005, will be limited.
The daily average level of ultrafine particles, smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, in Seoul surged to 118 micrograms per cubic meter as of 3 p.m., the highest figure since the government began taking such measurements in 2015, according to the state-run National Institute of Environmental Research.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The more the native English-speaking waygook thinks these (admittedly horrible) slogans are horrible the more it’s apparent the waygook in question doesn’t know what he’s talking about, because he obviously thinks that if it’s in English he’s the target audience. https://t.co/RJYm35kr6n

— the oranckay (@oranckay) January 3, 2019

On the 80th anniversary of the Munich Agreement, may I say: It was a good thing that Neville Chamberlain had the good grace not to hoist a giant picture of Adolf Hitler on London's City Hall in 1938. https://t.co/4Lr9On1Y4K

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) September 29, 2018

More apartment construction is coming to the greater Seoul area:

The government named 17 sites where 35,000 apartment units will be built in the greater Seoul area, one of its attempts to cool off the overheated real estate market.

This is the first batch of sites the government announced. An additional 13 sites and 265,000 units will be announced later, including four to five “new cities” to be built next to the first generation of new cities such as Ilsan and Bundang in Gyeonggi.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Friday said it plans to supply 10,000 apartment units in Seoul on 11 sites. However only two areas in Seoul were disclosed as it is still working with the Seoul city government. The ministry said the Seoul government will announce the nine remaining sites.

The ones that were disclosed were Songpa District, southeastern Seoul, where the relocated Seongdong Detention Center used to stand, and Gaepo-dong, Gangnam District, southern Seoul. The two sites that were named are located on the edge of the nation’s capital, contrary to previous speculation that they would be located in the center of the city.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but Uijongbu has been selected as a suburb of Seoul that will also have more apartments constructed.  The government has not released where the apartments will be built, but with the closure of Camp Red Cloud in the near future, the old USFK military base could become yet another area in Korea covered in apartments.

Fortunately this happened when no kids where in school:

A kindergarten building in southern Seoul has tilted after a retaining wall at a nearby construction site collapsed. No casualties were reported but the incident led to the evacuation of some 50 people at one point.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.

Report: According to local authorities, the three-story Sangdo Kindergarten in the southern district of Dongjak tilted about ten degrees after the wall designed to prevent subsidence caved in at around 11:20 p.m. Thursday.

There were no casualties as the building was empty at the time but some 50 local residents had to evacuate and take shelter at a community center and hotel on Thursday night before returning home on Friday morning.   [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link.

There is so little green space around Seoul as it is and it appears there may soon be even less:

The Korean government is mulling the option of developing regions in Seoul designated as greenbelt areas to increase apartment supply in the city.

According to local media reports in Korea, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Infrastructure is looking into securing land in Seoul that could be developed into residential areas. Options on the table for the Land Ministry includes greenbelt areas with relatively less conservation value compared to other areas as well as abandoned land in the city.

Greenbelt zones are protected areas of land where building is not permitted to protect the environment.

Lawmakers and top officials, including ruling Democratic Party Chairman Lee Hae-chan and Blue House policy chief Jang Ha-sung, have said that the government wants to significantly increase the supply of apartments in Seoul. The stance indicates an about-face in the government’s real estate policy.

As recently as last week, top officials, including Land Minister Kim Hyun-mee, said that the supply of housing in Korea is sufficient. Up until now, government measures focused on tight control over speculation on existing apartments.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but does anyone still think that all of Yongsan Garrison once it is vacated will become a city park?

People cross the Han River during an event in Seoul on Aug. 10, 2018, in a boat made of corrugated cardboard, plastic wrap and adhesive tape. (Yonhap)

It is hot out there right now in South Korea:

Wednesday was the hottest day ever recorded in Seoul.

The temperature in the city peaked at 39.6 degrees Celsius (103.3 degrees Fahrenheit) at 3:36 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). It broke the record from the summer of 1994, when the mercury hit 38.4 degrees Celsius.

The temperature in Seoul Wednesday set the record for the highest temperature in the city since the KMA started to keep record of temperatures from 1907.

Wednesday was also the day Korea’s highest temperature ever was recorded: The temperature in Hongcheon, Gangwon, hit 41 degrees Celsius, breaking the record of highest temperature recorded in Korea, which was 40 degrees Celsius in Daegu in 1942.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Annual LGBT Fest Soon to Open Amid Strong Opposition https://t.co/rH5QxoPAxU

— JamesTurnbull (@JamesTurnbull) July 12, 2018

This was very lucky that no one was at home at the time of the collapse and the businesses were closed or this could have been quite a tragedy:

Residents of a four-story building that collapsed in central Seoul on Sunday are blaming the Yongsan District Office for ignoring their complaints about cracks in the foundation that they called a recipe for disaster.

The building, which consisted of restaurants on the first and second floors and living quarters on the third and fourth, collapsed at 12:35 p.m. A 68-year-old woman living on the top floor sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to police. The other residents were not at home, and the restaurants were all closed, which prevented further casualties.

Authorities have yet to identify the precise cause of the accident. Because the building was completed in 1966, police and firefighters believe it was the outcome of progressive deterioration.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but of course government authorities are alleged to have blown off reports from the residents of crack they seen forming in the building.  This appears to be another example of the poor safety culture in South Korea.