Category: Uncategorized

Korea has to be one of the few places to where the son being a bully costs the father his job:

A prosecutor-turned-lawyer appointed to head the National Office of Investigation offered to resign Saturday, just a day ahead of assuming his post, amid a bullying controversy involving his son at school.

Chung Sun-sin, appointed as the new chief the previous day, found himself in hot water after it was belatedly revealed that his son had verbally abused one of his peers for eight months in high school and was ordered to transfer schools.

“Many have been concerned due to my son’s problem, and I came to the conclusion that I cannot take on such a grave responsibility as the chief of the National Office of Investigation with this flaw,” he said in a release.

“I ask for forgiveness from the victim and his parents once again for what my son did,” he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Japanese Self Defense Force is having its own “Me-Too” moment:

A former Japanese soldier who came forward with her sexual misconduct case said Monday that harassment was as rampant in her army unit as if “part of daily communication.”

Rina Gonoi filed the case last year with the Defense Ministry, but it was dropped. She demanded it to be reinvestigated earlier this year, saying she had suffered multiple assaults by a number of male colleagues, causing her to give up her military career.

In response, Japan’s army in September acknowledged part of the misconduct and apologized, and last week fired five servicemen and punished four others. The Defense Ministry also announced interim results of a rare organization-wide investigation that found over 100 similar complaints and other forms of misconduct totalling more than 1,400.

In announcing the punishments last Thursday, army chief Yoshihide Yoshida repeated his apology to Gonoi and said he felt a strong sense of responsibility over her sorrow and pain. He also said he took the problem seriously and was determined to eradicate such misconduct.

“At a unit I belonged to, sexual harassment was so rampant it was carried out as if a part of communication and there was a loss of sensitivity,” Gonoi told reporters Monday. She said the punishments in her case were “appropriate,” but added that other soldiers who looked the other way should have been also held accountable.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This article correlates with other reports I have read on social media that people at the top of the narrow alleyway adjacent to the Hamilton Hotel started pushing people down. This alleyway slopes uphill this caused a domino effect of people falling downhill on top of those below them:

Witnesses and survivors on Sunday said an overnight stampede that killed at least 151 people occurred after a massive group of people celebrating Halloween surged into a narrow downhill alley and were instantly pushed down by others.

The deadliest stampede in South Korea’s history happened Saturday night in the alley near Hamilton Hotel in the famous nightlife district of Itaewon after tens of thousands of people visited the area for Halloween.

A total of 151 people, including 19 foreigners, have been killed and 82 others injured, fire authorities said, adding the death toll could rise further. 

“People kept pushing down into a downhill club alley, resulting in other people screaming and falling down like dominos,” an unidentified witness wrote on Twitter. “I thought I would be crushed to death too as people kept pushing without realizing there were people falling down at the start of the stampede.”

A woman her 20s said the accident occurred after a massive crowd of people were pushed back and forth for some time, which then led her friend to be pinned down under the crowd.

Another female survivor in her 20s, surnamed Park, said the stampede erupted as people flocked into the small street in a short period of time.

“A short person like me could not even breathe,” Park said. “(I) could survive as I was located on the sideline of the alley. It looks like people in the middle suffered the most.”

Other survivors, meanwhile, blamed the owners of bars and clubs nearby, who allegedly blocked people from escaping from the overcrowded alley.

“It looks like the casualties were more severe as people attempted to escape to nearby stores but were kicked out back to the street because business hours were over,” said the survivor who asked not to be named.

Yonhap

That is pretty horrible that business owners would not allow people to exit the alleyway through their businesses thus further contributing to this disaster. It will be interesting to see if they face any charges of liability.

President Yoon is now at a 32% approval rating which for him is actually an improvement over the 30% he was recently at:

Since mid-August, the presidential office has been undertaking a sweeping reorganization of Yoon’s aides including making changes in the office’s organization chart to optimize aides’ roles. 

Including the first and second secretaries for political affairs, a number of ranking officials were included in the drastic shakeup. 

The reshuffle seemed to have finished as Kim Dae-ki, the presidential chief of staff, presided over an all-staff meeting at the presidential office on Tuesday, explaining the reason for the replacements as well as asking for the staff’s renewed commitment to work. 

This reorganization is anticipated to have contributed to the recent slight recovery in Yoon’s support rate. A survey by Realmeter showed that Yoon’s job approval rating inched up to 32.6 percent in the first week of September, up 0.3 percentage points from a week earlier. An official at the polling agency attributed it to Yoon’s improved efforts to come up with measures to prevent severe damage from Typhoon Hinnamnor. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I am surprised this NCO was even able to get on his motorcycle much less drive it with a .323 blood alcohol level:

A United States Forces Korea (USFK) service member is under investigation by local police for allegedly causing an accident while driving a motorcycle under the influence of alcohol, according to the law enforcement authorities, Tuesday. 

Pyeongtaek Police Station in Gyeonggi Province said a 37-year-old male sergeant, whose identity has been withheld, is accused of driving under the influence at the time of the accident. He crashed his motorcycle into a Kia Sorento at a three-way intersection near Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek at around 7:40 p.m., Sunday. 

The sergeant left the scene of the collision, leaving his motorcycle behind. The Sorento driver reportedly suffered minor injuries. 

After police arrived on the scene, they tracked the owner of the motorcycle through the license plate number and found that the vehicle belonged to a person on Osan Air Base. 

The sergeant turned himself in at around midnight, shortly after local police launched a joint investigation with U.S. military police. His blood alcohol level at the time he turned himself in was 0.323 percent, well above 0.08 percent, which would qualify for the revocation of a driver’s license.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is one of these only in Korea stories. There are not many countries that would have pop stars completing mandatory military service like Korea does:

K-pop idol Kang Young-hyun, best known as Young K to fans of his group Day6, is a winner in the Eighth Army’s Best Warriors competition in South Korea.

There’s a lot to sort out there, so let’s take things a step at a time and decode that sentence.

Forty-nine U.S. and Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army, or KATUSA, soldiers participated in a six-day competition that included events like an eight-mile march, small arms qualification, land navigation, water survival, obstacle courses, knot-tying and overall military knowledge.

The Eighth crowned winners in categories like best soldier, best noncommissioned officer, best officer and best warrant officer.

Military.com

You can read more at the link, but Kang won the KATUSA category of the Best Warrior competition. The next level of competition is at U.S. Army Pacific in Hawaii. According to the article it is unclear if Yang will compete in this competition. Regardless it is great to see Yang not trying to dodge service like some other celebrities have been able to do. It is also awesome to see him taking his service seriously and pushing himself like he did to win this competition.

The North Koreans are claiming that they are restarting their space launch program by launching a reconnaissance satellite:

North Korea conducted an “important test” of a “reconnaissance satellite” to verify the capabilities of its high-definition photographing and data-transmission systems, its state-run news agency said Monday. 

The country’s aerospace and military science organizations conducted the test, according to the Korean Central News Agency. KCNA’s report did not include photographs of the launch but had pictures of Earth from space that it said were taken by cameras “loaded on the reconnaissance satellite.”

“The test is of great significance in developing the reconnaissance satellite,” KCNA claimed in its report.

The communist regime on Sunday launched what South Korea’s military believes was a ballistic missile off its eastern coast around 7:52 a.m. The missile, according to the South’s military, flew about 186 miles at a peak altitude of 385 miles. The Japan Coast Guard also confirmed the launch and its specifications.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest from President Moon on the full invasion the Russians have launched on Ukraine:

 President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that South Korea will join international sanctions against Russia as he expressed regret over Russia’s attack on Ukraine, saying any use of armed force causing human casualties cannot be justified.

Moon also instructed the government to do everything possible to ensure the safety of South Korean nationals in Ukraine after he was briefed on the crisis in the wake of Russia’s attack, said Park Soo-hyun, senior presidential secretary for public communication.

“The use of armed forces causing human casualties cannot be justified under any circumstances. Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence must be guaranteed. Any dispute between countries should be resolved not through war but through dialogue and negotiation,” Moon was quoted as saying.

“As a responsible member of the international community, the Republic of Korea expresses support for international efforts, including economic sanctions, aimed at curbing armed invasion and resolving the situation peacefully, and will take part in them,” he said, referring to South Korea’s official name.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.