Here is the latest on the protests outside of the Korea Training Center.  Basically the protesters want to get compensation money for the noise from the range.  If the US pays compensation will people living near Nightmare Range going to be the next to complain about noise and want compensation as well?  What about people who live near US air bases, should they be compensated as well for noise?  What gets me is how this is framed as a US military problem when the ROK military uses the KTC as well.  I have never heard of Koreans protesting against ROK military noise?  It would be an interesting fact to know if the ROK military has ever paid out compensation money for noise.

At sunset on Oct. 28, a group of South Koreans gathered outside the gates of Rodriguez Live Fire Complex at Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, some 24 kilometers from the heavily guarded demilitarized zone.

The numbers swelled into the hundreds, with the mostly middle-aged crowd from adjacent villages starting bonfires, singing songs and watching live dance performances. However, despite the seemingly festive atmosphere, hostility could be felt as villagers were there to hold a rally, calling for an end to what they alleged was excessive noise and danger from the U.S. military complex.

“I came here because I’m a resident here. The kids are so scared (because of the noise from gunshots), they keep waking up at night. I wish the noise could just go away,” said Lim Ga-young, a Vietnamese-Korean mother who accompanied her three children and mother-in-law to the rally.

Just like Lim and hundreds of people who gathered to seek compensation for decades of “living in fear,” villagers from near the U.S. shooting range in Pocheon, including in Yeongpyeong-ri and Yamae-ri, have complained about the noise and flying bullets from military shooting drills for over half a century.

The Rodriquez range, just a stone’s throw from North Korea, carries out live-fire exercises, including the annual Foal Eagle war games jointly conducted by the South Korean and U.S. military.

But flexing the allies’ muscles against the communist neighbor ― which remains technically at war with the South since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an cease-fire and not a treaty ― appears to have had unintentional negative repercussions on the well-being of the villagers.

“Living in this area, we are paying a hefty price because of the environment. Some even had to undergo surgeries for health problems. But there has hardly been any real probe or measures taken for us. They just don’t care, that’s why we decided to take the matter into our own hands,” said 62-year-old Lee Eung-soo.

“Decades have passed, but nothing has changed,” said Lee, who has lived in Pocheon for 60 years and works as a barber in his village. “It is hard for me to move because my entire livelihood is based in the city.” [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.

The Washington Post unsurprisingly glossed over the real issue with its claims of dictatorship coming back to South Korea.  You can claim President Park is a dictator when people begin to disappear to never be seen again or in the case of Kim Dae-jung kidnapped and nearly thrown overboard on a boat before being rescued by a US intervention.  The real issue here is not dictatorship, but Korea’s libel laws.  The libel law has been used for years to shut people up and that is what is going on here.  Heck Kim Jong-un’s own aunt is using South Korea libel laws to try and silence North Korean defectors.  What is going on in South Korea is nothing new and hardly a sign of impending dictatorship:

Hwang Yun-joo couldn’t make it to the huge anti-government protest that rocked central Seoul in the middle of November because he had to work in his woodshop. So he did what he thought was the next best thing: He printed out some posters he found on Facebook and displayed them in his shop window.

“It’s too much! We can’t take it anymore!” one declared. “Dictator’s daughter,” read another, under a picture of President Park Geun-hye, whose father, Park Chung-hee, seized power in a military coup in 1961 and served as president for almost two decades. The word “daughter” was crossed out, suggesting that Park Geun-hye was not just the daughter of a dictator, but one in her own right.

Then, last weekend, a police vehicle pulled up, and at least five officers got out and started taking photos of Hwang’s shop and its posters, Hwang recounted in an interview last week. They came in and told him the posters included false information and libeled the president, he said.

“When an officer took off one of my posters, I got very angry, so I told them to leave,” said Hwang, 44. He said he put up the posters partly because he was angry about Park’s plan to replace the array of history textbooks for middle- and high-school students, written by independent scholars, with one authorized text, as was the practice during her father’s time.

Critics say that does not allow for multiple interpretations of South Korea’s recent past, and some allege it is an attempt to rewrite history, including the draconian period during which Park’s father brutally suppressed dissent while bringing about the astonishingly fast industrialization of South Korea.

“I’m frustrated with the immaturity of democracy in South Korea,” he said.  [Washington Post]

You can read the rest at the link.

This seems to happen to every national health insurance program, at some point taxes have to be raised to make up for increased costs which is difficult politically for politicians to do.  Thus they begin to run into deficits:

Picture via BusanMike Flickr page.

Major forms of social insurance in South Korea are threatened with unsustainability. Health insurance finances in particular are set to run out in ten years without an increase in premiums or cuts to payouts. On this basis, the administration has argued for raising premiums and reducing benefits – an approach it is billing as “the right cost, the right payout.”But with income and generational differences poised to generate conflict over any social insurance changes, no matter how badly needed, the issue is now likely to be a key concern on the upcoming political calendar, and the 2016 parliamentary and 2017 presidential elections in particular.

On Dec. 4, the administration published a report on South Korea’s long-term financial prospects through the year 2060. The analysis focused on the future financial situation based on the current economic growth rate and changes in the population structure, assuming no or only minor changes in the social insurance system. It marks the first time an administration has ever published financial predictions for a date so many decades away.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read the rest at the link.

https://twitter.com/dramafever/status/673244213526396928

I don’t really see the purpose of a glass bridge but the city of Chuncheon is about to spend a bunch of money to make one anyway:

Chuncheon City will build the country’s largest skywalk in order to enable visitors the opportunity to stroll above the water.

The city in Gangwon Province plans to spend six-point-eight billion won to construct the Soyang Skywalk near the Statue of Soyang River Maiden at the waterfront of Lake Euiam.

The 174-meter facility will stretch to the heart of the lake, with the 140-meter section being a glass walkway.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read the rest at the link.

Here is the latest in the never ending Samsung versus Apple patent infringement case.  This likely won’t be the last you hear of the as Samsung plans to further appeal the payout amount:

Samsung Electronics Co. agreed to pay Apple Inc. the $548 million a court ordered but that doesn’t mean they’ve come to a final resolution of their long-running patent battle over smartphones.

Samsung said in a court filing Thursday that it’s only paying the money because an appeals court refused to block a judgment ordering it to pay.

The South Korean device maker said it will pursue reimbursement for at least some of the money if the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office invalidates the patents and if the U.S. Supreme Court takes up its request for review.
It’s been almost five years since Apple first accused Samsung of “slavishly” copying the iPhone, setting off a global patent battle that has shrunk in size but not in vitriol. The two tech behemoths have dropped all non-U.S. cases, leaving two main disputes that still have a way to go in court.  [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.

It is good to see the anti-government protests this weekend did not turn violent like the last ones.  I do have to chuckle in regards to the opinion of how many people showed up.  The protesters say they had 50,000 while the police say there was 14,000.  At least the discrepancy isn’t as bad as all the million man marches in the US where there is only a few thousand people actually there:

Tens of thousands of protesters held a massive rally Saturday to protest the government’s move to adopt state history textbooks and push for labor reform and it ended without any clashes with police.

The rally, the second of its kind in three weeks, brought together about 14,000 participants who gathered at Seoul Plaza in central Seoul and marched peacefully, according to police. Organizers put the number at some 50,000.

The focal point of the rally was whether the rally would turn violent as some participants at the Nov. 14 one brandished metal pipes, clashing with police who fired water cannons at them.

A farmer still remains in critical condition after being knocked down by a police water cannon.

Organizers vowed to hold Saturday’s rally in a peaceful manner, while police also warned that they will take stern action if the rally turns violent.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

https://twitter.com/KoreanTravel/status/670069785514897408

Heavy snow has covered Jeonju Hanok Village in North Jeolla Province in Thursday morning. / Yonhap