Members of a unified Korean men’s rowing team catch their breath after finishing last in their qualification group in the team’s Asian Games debut at Jakabaring Lake inside Jakabaring Sports City in Palembang, a co-host city of the 2018 Asian Games along with Jakarta, on Aug. 19, 2018. (Yonhap)
A group of activists stages a rally at the city hall in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, on Aug. 16, 2018, to express their opposition to the government’s plans to build a wind power generation complex in the city. (Yonhap)
It looks like the heat wave in South Korea will be ended by this typhoon:
Powerful typhoon Soulik is on course to strike the Korean Peninsula this week, the state weather agency said Sunday, warning people on Jeju Island and in southern coastal areas to prepare.
Soulik, classified as “strong” with maximum gusts of 144 km/h and central pressure of 955 hPs, was 830 kilometers east-north-east of Guam at 9 a.m. Sunday, and was moving northwest at 34 km/h, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).
The typhoon is expected to hit southern Japan on Wednesday and the peninsula’s southern coast on Thursday morning. The southwestern city of Yeosu is expected to bear the brunt of the typhoon. [Korea Times]
Here is an opinion piece from Professor Sung-Yoon Lee of Tufts University, that discusses how ROK President Moon Jae-in did not mention the role of US forces in Korea’s liberation after World War II and instead implicates the US military’s presence at Yongsan Garrison as being a continuation of Japanese colonialism:
Sung-yoon Lee
Consider South Korea’s presidential Liberation Day speeches. Curiously, the causal effect of the sacrifices of U.S. servicemen in vanquishing Imperial Japan and Korean liberation are not only assiduously accorded the silent treatment, but the role of the U.S. in Korea is occasionally frowned upon. President Moon Jae-in, giving his Liberation Day speech today outdoors in the sweltering heat of Yongsan, Seoul, the site of the pre-1945 Japanese military base and post-1945 U.S. military base, did mention the “ROK-U.S. alliance,” but only in the context of the recent relocation of the U.S. base.
Calling the grounds where he stood “the center of exploitation and subjugation,” Moon remarked that Yongsan, having “long been taken away from us,” now has been “returned to the arms of the people after 114 years” and has “finally become an integral part of our territory.” The implication that the U.S. military presence in Korea was an exploitative continuation of Japanese colonialism or, at least, an unwelcome usurpation of Korean sovereignty, was noteworthy. [The Hill]
Like I had previously said, An may have gotten off criminally, but his career is over politically considering 20,000 people were motivated to come out and protest like this:
A protestor holds up a sign of a handcuffed An with the words “guilty” scribbled across his forehead. / Korea Times photo by Park Ji-won
Around 20,000 people rallied in downtown Seoul, Saturday, to protest a court’s recent decision to acquit former South Chungcheong Province Governor An Hee-jung of sexually assaulting and harassing his former secretary.
The public anger over the ruling in favor of the fallen political star in a high-profile #MeToo case signals a critical juncture in the months-long movement. The protest organizer expected only up to 2,000 participants.
The crowd, mostly dressed in black and of varying age groups, chanted slogans such as “A judiciary that protects sex offenders is an accomplice,” while holding placards stating, “No country for women” and “We, the survivors, are all Kim Ji-eun” (the alleged victim in An’s case). [Korea Times]
Here is some interesting facts about the case:
When Kim Ji-eun disclosed the sexual offenses by An in March, he first admitted to the crime on Facebook saying, “My office’s statement it was a consensual sexual relationship was wrong. This is all my fault.” However, he changed his statement after an investigation started, saying they had consensual sex.
The Seoul Western District Court ruled last Tuesday there was “insufficient evidence” that the accused used his position of authority to coerce the victim into having unwanted sex, saying the incident did not involve “the degree of physical force that makes it impossible for the victim to resist.” (…….)
In a letter read out to the protesters through her lawyer, Kim Ji-eun also reiterated this point.
“Do I have to kill myself to be recognized as a true #MeToo victim?” Kim’s letter read. “I was physically and sexually assaulted by An that day; I did everything in my power to show I did not want it to happen; I could not run away because I knew that I would be fired.”
Kim also denounced the court proceedings for not questioning An’s testimony.
“Dear judges: Did you ask An why he said sorry to me; why he first wrote on Facebook it was not a consensual relationship; and why he destroyed his phone before the prosecutors got to him? Why did you not question the perpetrator?” Kim said in the letter.
The protesters also said they were frustrated at the court’s failure to recognize the sexual intercourse between the employer and the employee as a rape only because there was no physical coercion or verbal threats. [Korea Times]
To the hard left, the real tragedy of Korea is that Kim Il-sung was never allowed to extend his chain of gulags all the way to Cheju-do. https://t.co/q7bhhOOMfd
Activists stage a rally in front of a court in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, 200 kilometers south of Seoul, on Aug. 16, 2018, denouncing a Seoul court ruling that found former South Chungcheong Province Gov. An Hee-jung not guilty of sexually abusing his former secretary Kim Ji-eun. The 54-year-old politician was indicted in April on charges of forcing Kim to have sex with him four times and molesting her multiple times between the middle of last year and early this year in Seoul and while on overseas business trips. The Seoul court said that there was not sufficient evidence to prove An used his position to have sexual relations with the plaintiff. (Yonhap)
