People play the “Pokemon Go” mobile game on July 22, 2016, at Ganjeol Cape, the point on the coast of Ulsan in southeastern South Korea where the new year’s sunrise can be viewed the earliest on the Korean Peninsula. (Yonhap)
Korean workers’ annual salary rose to 32.81 million won ($28,880) on average last year, up 470,000 won, or 1.5 percent from 2014, the Federation of Korean Industries reported.
Median yearly income from wages was 25 million won, while the average yearly salary of the top-10 percent of workers reached 64.32 million won. The FKI has made its analysis of annual salary by income class by using the data of the Ministry of Employment and Labor.
According to the analysis, the annual salary of the top-20 percent of workers was 46.25 million won or more, the top-30 percent was 36.40 million won or more, the top-40 percent was 30 million won or more and the top-50 percent was 25 million won or more.
The average yearly income of regular workers at large businesses came to 65.44 million won, putting them in the top 9.5 percent of the income class. That of regular workers at small to midsize businesses was 33.63 million won, putting them in the top 34.1 percent.
The number of workers who received 100 million won or higher a year totaled 390,000, or 2.7 percent of the total number of workers, those who made 80 million to 100 million won came to 410,000 (2.8 percent), 60 to 80 million won, 960,000 (6.5 percent), 40 to 60 million won, 2.03 million (13.8 percent), 20 to 40 million won, 5.54 million (37.7 percent), and less than 20 million won, 5.35 million (36.5 percent). [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but seems like it would be tough to get by on $28,880 a year for someone living in Seoul unless they are living with relatives or in a dual income family.
Here is the latest on the THAAD protesting front. Only getting 2,000 protesters in Seoul to include people that were bused in from Seongju is not very impressive. This is not a good sign for the Korean left if they think the anti-THAAD issue is something that can evolve into another 2008 US beef crisis:
About 2,000 people rallied outside the main train station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 21, 2016. Wearing yellow capes and waving banners that said “No THAAD,” they called on the government to reverse its decision to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system in Seongju. KIM GAMEL/STARS AND STRIPES
Protesters, especially residents of the farming region of Seongju, fear the system’s powerful radar will be harmful to their health as well as the environment and the economy despite insistence by U.S. and South Korean officials that it is safe. Many also accuse the government of a lack of transparency in making the decision.
About 2,000 people, including many bused in from Seongju, rallied outside the main train station in the capital, Seoul, on Thursday. Wearing yellow capes and waving banners that said “No THAAD,” they called on the government to reverse its decision. Many protesters refused to talk to the media.
A small group of THAAD supporters gathered nearby. “This is very important for the national security,” said Jaechul Ahn, chairman of the World Peace Freedom United group. “We should know that North Korea never changes their goal of the colonization of the whole peninsula.” [Stars & Stripes]
This photo, captured from China’s top social networking service Weibo on July 22, 2016, shows a North Korean Air Koryo jet bound for Beijing from Pyongyang parked on the tarmac of an airport in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang after making an emergency landing there due to a fire. (Yonhap)
Why isn’t the Korean left busy protesting this radar and claiming it will make people sick and cause crop failures?:
A U.S. Patriot missile battery in Japan has been brought to South Korea for a joint exercise amid growing concerns about additional provocations from North Korea, an official of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said, Friday.
The Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 interceptor unit of the U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ), stationed at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, arrived in Busan on July 13 and is now participating in a drill with South Korean military in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province.
The Patriot unit is made up of 120 troops, with a launch vehicle and radar.
It is the first time a Japan-based U.S. Patriot battery has been sent to South Korea.
“The PAC-3 unit is currently training with South Korean troops,” the USFK official told reporters. “The unit will return to Japan after completing the training scheduled to last two weeks.” [Korea Times]
The US and ROK militaries have a number of Patriot sites in South Korea and the Korean left does not protest them because there is no political advantage in doing so like there is with the planned deployment of the THAAD battery to Korea. The Patriots have been South Korea for decades and no one is getting sick or having their crops fail. The same will eventually be true with the THAAD battery as well.
