A record shop in Istanbul, run by South Korean owner Lee Seok-woo, remains shuttered on June 20, 2016, after it was attacked on June 17 by an unidentified group of people. They stormed into the shop during a small gathering of music fans and attacked them for drinking alcohol during Ramadan, according to investigators. Lee said he won’t kneel to foolishness and has no intention to close down his business. (Yonhap)
The argument that illegal immigrants in the United States will not self deport is often made to explain why they should just be given amnesty. As the case with South Korea shows illegal immigrants there self deported once they had a viable option to seek legal status:
An amnesty program for overstaying foreigners is having an unexpected consequence: Korea is suddenly short of nannies, restaurant help and construction workers.
In April, the Ministry of Justice announced an amnesty for people who overstayed their visas or illegally immigrated. It said that they could apply for overseas Korean visas, known as F-4, if they left Korea and went home in the next six months.
This was the first time the ministry has promised to allow all overstayers to apply for visas to return to Korea.
The amnesty is working. Over 12,000 foreigners who were in Korea illegally left the country from April to May, twice the 5,300 who left in the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Justice. (…………)
“When I went to Incheon airport at 5 a.m., the third floor was crowded with illegal immigrants waiting to leave,” said Lee Byung-chun, who works for the Han-a administrative agency. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but the big different though with South Korea compared to the US is that there isn’t an entire political party trying to lock in the illegal immigrant vote. This is likely why Korea was able to successfully implement immigration reform and the United States cannot.
North Korea as expected fired off two more Musudan missiles. The first one was considered a failure after it blew up shortly after launch. However, the second launch analysts have not determined if it was successful or not:
North Korea launched what appeared to be two Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) from its east coast early Wednesday morning, with the first test-firing assumed to have been unsuccessful, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
At around 5:58 a.m., North Korea fired off what is presumed to be a Musudan missile from near Wonsan along the east coast, but it seems to have ended in failure, the JCS said, without further details
About two hours later at 8:05 a.m., the North launched another missile presumed to be the same type of IRBM from the same area, the JCS noted.
Whether the second missile’s launch was successful was not immediately known. All previous launches of the missile ended in failure, dealing a blow to the credibility of North Korea’s missile program.
On April 15, North Korea first test-fired the Musudan missile as the country kickstarted its ballistic missile tests and development following North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s much-published orders to accelerate the country’s nuclear and missile sophistication the previous month. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the Joong Ang Ilbo is reporting the first one traveled 150 kilometers before exploding and the second one traveled 400 kilometers:
North Korea launched back-to-back Musudan missiles Wednesday, one of which flew 400 kilometers (250 miles), South Korean military officials said.
While 400 kilometers fell far short of the Musudan’s 3,500-kilometer capability, which puts U.S. military bases in the Pacific within range, South Korea was alarmed at the technological progress shown.
Pyongyang carried out its fifth and sixth intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) tests at 5:58 a.m. and 8:05 a.m. Wednesday from the eastern coast city of Wonsan in Kangwon Province, the Joint Chiefs of Staff reported.
“The first one disappeared after it was detected by radar while the second one flew about 400 kilometers,” said a Joint Chiefs of Staff official who asked not to be named. (……..)
The South Korean military believes the first missile exploded in midair after flying about 150 kilometers. The second missile fired two hours later appeared to have exploded or crashed into the sea after flying 400 kilometers.
The exact causes of the failures are still being determined by Seoul and Washington.
It is possible that North Korea intended its sixth Musudan missile to fall after flying 400 kilometers to prevent it from going over Japan, which would have prompted the country to respond militarily. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I doubt North Korea would try and fly a Musudan over Japan without being very confident that the missile would work. They have fired over Japan before, but never with a missile under development like the Musudan is. I don’t think Kim Jong-un would want to deal with a potential retaliatory military response if a failed missile landed in Japan. It is pretty clear though that Kim Jong-un is committed to testing the Musudan until his scientists perfect the technology. These latest missile tests seem to indicate they are getting closer to that goal.
This is just another example of why South Korea has such a low birthrate, couples are getting married much later in life:
The average age of the first marriage for South Korean men and women rose by over two years over the past decade.
Local matchmaking firm Duo on Tuesday released a report on 15-hundred couples who tied the knot between June 2014 and May this year through its services.
According to the report, the average age for the first marriage for men and women came to 35-point-eight years and 32-point-seven years, both rising two-point-four years from ten years ago.
Twenty-three percent of the men earned 40 to 50 million won a year on average, while 36 percent of the women earned 30 to 40 million won a year on average. [KBS World Radio]
I was actually a little surprised at how high the marriage age number was. However, when one considers the wedding expenses and the costs to buy a home in South Korea couples are going to need more time to save money to afford to get married.
Here is the latest of the North Korea restaurant worker defector case:
Attorneys from the Lawyers for a Democratic Society hold a press conference outside the Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday. [SHIN IN-SEOP]A Seoul court held a hearing Tuesday after a group of lawyers challenged the legitimacy of the South Korean government holding a group of North Korean restaurant workers who defected in April in a state protection facility.
Last month, the Lawyers for a Democratic Society, also referred to as Minbyun, filed a petition with the Seoul Central District Court questioning whether the defectors came to the South out of their own free will, after the country’s top spy agency denied an interview with the defectors.
The defectors themselves did not attend the first hearing at the Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday afternoon, but their legal representatives did. On the same day, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) decided that the 13 North Korean restaurant workers would not be sent to a defector resettlement facility but rather be kept in a protection facility that it operates.
The group of 12 female workers and their male manager who worked at Ryugyong in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, one of Pyongyang’s many overseas restaurants in China, defected to the South in early April. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but I am still suspicious of these progressive lawyers who seem like they are more about representing North Korean interests than the best interests of these defectors.
Hwang In-cheol holds up a sign saying “North Korea…Be Free My Father” at an event to send a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the border city Paju, north of Seoul, on June 17, 2016. His father Hwang Won has been in captivity since December 1969, when a South Korean plane carrying Hwang, a radio producer, and 50 other crew members and passengers was hijacked by a North Korean agent on its way from the eastern South Korean city of Gangneung to Seoul. (Yonhap)
For those interested the story of how Mr. Hwang’s dad was taken hostage can be read at the below link:
A mob of about 20 Turkish nationals attacked a Korean-operated cafe in Istanbul because alcohol was being consumed at fan meeting there.
The store owner was taken to hospital with minor injuries after being beaten at the meeting, which was held to mark the release of rock band Radiohead’s new album.
The fans were drinking beer while enjoying music.
“You should be ashamed for drinking during Ramadan,” said one attacker.
During Ramadan, Muslims worldwide fast for a month during daylight hours to commemorate the first revelation of the Koran to Mohammed.
None of the attackers has been arrested. [Korea Times]
I never understood the need to build another brand new airport outside of Busan considering how many “ghost airports” South Korea already has:
Amid fierce rivalry growing over a new airport in the nation’s southeast region, the government dropped the multitrillion won project on Tuesday and said it would extend the facilities of Gimhae Airport in Busan instead.
After conducting a feasibility study on candidate cities in South Gyeongsang Province, the government has reached a conclusion that extension of the existing Gimhae Airport is “the optimal choice,” rather than choosing to build a new airport on Gadeokdo Island or in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province. [Korea Herald]
