Here is a horrible bridge collapse accident in Anseong:
A bridge collapsed at an expressway construction site in Anseong on Tuesday, killing four workers and injuring six others, authorities said.
The accident occurred at around 9:50 a.m. in the city some 65 kilometers south of Seoul during construction on a section of the Seoul-Sejong expressway.
Several slabs placed on a pier fell to the ground, knocking off or burying 10 people working at the site. Of them, four died, five were seriously injured, and one sustained minor injuries, according to the fire authorities.
One of the four killed was pulled out from under the rubble at around 2:20 p.m., after which the authorities ended their rescue work.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
With the high quality of life now being offered on Camp Humphreys it should not be a surprise that accompanied tours in South Korea have been increased:
The Pentagon has tacked a year on the length of a tour of duty for service members who bring their families with them to South Korea. Troops on accompanied tours — those who bring their spouses or dependents with them to South Korea — are now expected to serve 36 months in the country, according to a Feb. 11 memo from Tim Dill, assistant secretary of defense for manpower and reserve affairs. Service members on accompanied tours were previously expected to stay two years and may still be eligible for the shorter term with a waiver from their service branch, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s office.
You can read more at the link.
Things are not looking good for Yoon with the majority of the ROK public wanting his impeachment upheld:
More than half of South Koreans said the Constitutional Court should uphold the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol to remove him from office for his short-lived martial law declaration, a survey showed Monday.
In the same survey, 50.7 percent replied they viewed the Constitutional Court’s impeachment trial process to be “fair,” while 45 percent said it was “unfair.”
According to the survey by Realmeter on 1,006 people aged 18 and older conducted last Thursday and Friday, 52 percent of the respondents said the court should rule to dismiss Yoon, while 45.1 percent said it should reinstate him as president following his impeachment by the National Assembly in December.
You can read more at the link.
Some how I doubt the writers of the 14th Admendment envisioned foreigners from other countries rushing to the U.S. to have a kid in order to avoid military service in their home country. People without legal status in the U.S. should not have their kid given citizenship because this is just another example of how it is abused:
A Seoul court has supported the rejection of an application for dual US-South Korean citizenship because their parent’s residence in the US was for the purpose of their child gaining US citizenship.
The Seoul Administrative Court said Monday that it had ruled in favor of the Seoul Southern Immigration Office, which rejected the plaintiff’s February 2024 application to retain the citizenships of both countries.
South Korea’s Nationality Act states that a child of a citizen obtains citizenship at birth, and the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution grants citizenship to anyone born inside its territories. This means that someone born in the US to parents who are Korean citizens — as in case of the plaintiff — is granted dual citizenships at birth.
Dual citizens at birth are usually allowed to retain the nationality of South Korea and another country by pledging to the government not to exercise the rights of foreign citizenship before the age of 22, or within two years of completing their mandatary military service in the case of men. This is to prevent dual citizens from dodging duties mandated for South Koreans, such military service.
But the immigration office refused to allow dual citizenship to the plaintiff, saying that the plaintiff’s mother is thought to have lived in the US only for the explicit purpose of obtaining US citizenship for her child — sometimes referred to as “birth tourism.” The Nationality Act states that in cases where the parent is “deemed to have resided in a foreign country for the purpose of having the person acquire the nationality of the foreign country,” the child can retain his or her South Korean citizenship only after renouncing the other nationality.
The plaintiff’s mother went to the US in 2003 just before giving birth to the plaintiff, staying in the country for a month and a half.
You can read more at the link.
I wonder if Hong has an immunity deal of some kind in return for his testimony? If so it should be disclosed:
A list of politicians who President Yoon Suk Yeol allegedly ordered to be arrested has been at the center of the president’s impeachment trial this month along with the whistleblower who disclosed it as crucial evidence. Hong Jang-won, one of 16 witnesses summoned in Yoon’s impeachment, which began on Jan. 14, is the only figure who has been called into the Constitutional Court twice.
As a graduate of the 43rd class of the Korea Military Academy, Hong worked as South Korea’s top spy specializing in overseas intelligence and North Korea for over 30 years. (…….)
Hong appeared in court again on Thursday after the president’s legal team raised concerns about the credibility of his testimony. Hong’s testimony given on Feb. 4 drew significant attention as he claimed that Yoon ordered him to arrest key political figures on the night of the short-lived martial law declaration on Dec. 3.
“Take this opportunity to round them (the lawmakers) all up. The NIS will be given counterespionage authority, so for now, assist the Defense Counterintelligence Command (in doing so),” Yoon told him, according to Hong. (……..)
According to Hong, soon after Yoon called him at 10:53 p.m., he received a call from then-DCC chief Yeo In-hyeong, who listed the names of the people to be arrested that night.
“‘Is he insane?’ I thought, and then I stopped writing (people’s names) during the call,” Hong testified in court on Feb. 4, recalling his reaction as he heard the names.
“Lee Jae-myung, Woo Won-shik, Han Dong-hoon, Park Chan-dae, Cho Kook…” Hong listed the names without hesitance when Yoon’s lawyer asked who they were.
However, NIS Director Cho Tae-yong — Hong’s boss — raised strong doubts about the veracity of the alleged note during his own testimony as a witness on Feb. 13.
“I’ve checked the surveillance camera footage,” Cho told the court, adding that Hong was in his office at the time when he claims he was near Cho’s official residence.
Hong on Thursday admitted to a “slight error” in his memory.
You can read more at the link, but how do you have memory lapses with something as significant as this?
According to the latest Gallup poll, the DPK has risen in popularity while the PPP has slide by five points:
The support rating for the ruling People Power Party fell as the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea regained its lead in terms of party affiliation, with the president’s impeachment trial poised to end Tuesday, a poll showed Friday.
According to Gallup Korea’s poll of 1,002 potential South Korean voters conducted in the third week of February, those who identified as supporters of the ruling party amounted to 34 percent, down 5 percentage points from a week prior.
With declining support, the ruling party — whose lawmakers have en masse protested President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment trial procedures — conceded the lead it had held in the previous poll. Those who responded in support of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea rose 2 percentage points to 40 percent. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, putting their numbers just within the margin at opposite extremes.
You can read more at the link.
