If the New York Times wants to criticize President Park I have no issues with that, but at least provide all the facts so readers can at least make up their own minds instead of selectively publishing information to support the anti-President Park narrative:
South Koreans can be as proud of their country’s emergence from dictatorship into a vibrant democracy as they are of the rags-to-riches development that made their country a global industrial powerhouse. So it is alarming that President Park Geun-hye appears intent on backtracking on the democratic freedoms that have made South Korea as different from North Korea’s puppet regime as day is from night.
Last weekend, tens of thousands of South Koreans took to the streets to protest two repressive government initiatives. One would replace the independently selected history textbooks now available to South Korea’s educators with government-issued textbooks. The other would change labor laws to make it easier for South Korea’s family-controlled business conglomerates to fire workers. [New York Times]
Normally I say read the rest at the link, but don’t bother because it is more of the copy paste Park Geun-hye is daughter of former dictator and trying to squash dissent like her father nonsense. First of all the current textbooks were mostly written by leftists that are used by teachers who promote pro-North Korean ideology in the classroom. That is the driving factor of why the government is changing the textbooks. Secondly the textbooks have not even been written. I would be more sympathetic to textbook protests if one of these books had even been written that showed slanted history. Right now we don’t know what will be in them. Maybe they will be as bad as predicted, but maybe they won’t.
As far as the changing of labor laws the Park administration is trying to make it easier for corporations to layoff older workers in order to open slots for younger workers. South Korea has a large youth unemployment problem. Will this work? I have no idea, but the issue is not as simple as the New York Times makes it out to be. The New York Times should at least provide both sides of the issue to inform readers.
Soldiers affiliated with the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division push a cart filled with coal briquettes in the city of Dongducheon, northeast of Seoul, on Nov. 17, 2015, to deliver them to impoverished residents. The briquettes are used both for cooking and heating traditional Korean homes. The division and the Gyeonggi provincial government delivered 5,000 briquettes to those residents in the city. (Yonhap)
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would definitely have the highest profile of any of the ROK Presidential candidates if he did decide to run:
Ban Ki-moon
Speculation of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s presidential bid in South Korea has resurfaced after news reports on his possible visit to North Korea.
Ban’s spokesman said earlier this week that discussions are under way regarding a constructive role he might play in the Korean Peninsula situation and that talks are under way to set up what would be the secretary general’s first visit to the North.
Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, has been voted as one of the most popular possible contenders, though he has disavowed rumors that he has interest in running in the 2017 presidential election.
He has repeatedly said he is not interested in South Korean politics, noting that he wants to spend time taking care of his grandchildren after his retirement. [The Korea Times]
It looks like the new regulations put in place by the ROK government to better police international marriage licenses is working as intended:
The number of international marriages of a Korean and foreign spouse is on a steady decrease, along with falling divorce and childbirth rates among multicultural families, the state-run statistics agency said Thursday.
According to a multicultural family report compiled by Statistics Korea, the number of international marriages stood at 24,387 in 2014, the lowest since 2003. It fell 9.5 percent from a year earlier, showing a steady annual decline since 2008.
The steady decline has been attributed to government efforts to sort out unlicensed marriage agencies and insincere marriage deals to prevent marital violence and marriage fraud.
The number of husbands at least 10 years senior to their wives made up 37.5 percent, down from 44.8 percent in 2012 and 41.7 percent in 2013. [Korea Herald]
This photo released on Nov. 17, 2015, shows the exterior of what will be South Korea’s first museum that chronicles Japan’s mobilization of forced labor. Built in the southeastern port city of Busan, the six-storied museum, set to open on World Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, exhibits documents and other material related to Koreans who were coerced to work for Japan who colonized Korea from 1910-45. Busan was where most of these Koreans were gathered before being shipped abroad. (Yonhap)
If true, this demand to remove the comfort woman statue in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul causes me to wonder how sincere Prime Minister Abe is about settling the matter with the ROK. It would be political suicide for anyone in the ROK government to move the statue without first the Korean public feeling the issue has been settled, not before:
President Park Geun-hye (right, back row) talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (left, back row) as they stand for a photo session at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila, the Philippines, Thursday. (Yonhap)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has demanded the removal of a statue of a teenage Korean girl, a symbol of Korean victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery, as a condition for settling the issue involving the victims, according to a news report Thursday.
Citing a Tokyo official, the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun reported that Abe made the demand during his first-ever bilateral summit with South Korean President Park Geun-hye at Cheong Wa Dae on Nov. 2.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said the report was “different from the truth.”
“We would like to refrain from divulging the content of the summit,” ministry spokesperson Cho June-hyuck told reporters. “We express regrets over the fact that there have been reports from Japan that are not true or distorted.”
According to the report, Abe called for the removal of the statue in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul and reiterated that the issue of the Korean victims — euphemistically called comfort women — has already been settled through the 1965 treaty that normalized bilateral ties.
The report also said that Tokyo is considering establishing a follow-up to the botched Asian Women’s Fund that Japan set up in 1995 for Asian victims, many of whom were Korean. It has also considered sending a letter from the prime minister to each of the victims, the report said. [Korea Herald]
It doesn’t sound like this Indonesian recently arrested in South Korea for ISIS ties was much of a threat, but it is good to see that authorities are taking threats seriously considering that ISIS has declared South Korea as part of the “Crusader Alliance” and eligible for terrorist attacks. If anyone is wondering South Korea has reportedly had 200 Syrian refugees arrive at its airport.
The news that police are questioning an Indonesian national in Korea about his ties with a terrorist group linked to al-Qaida brought home the message that the country may not be completely safe from terrorist attacks.
According to the National Police Agency, the 32-year-old man arrested at his house in South Chungcheong Province on charges of violating immigration laws and forging documents, is suspected of supporting the Nusra Front, a Syrian branch of al-Qaida. The police found a model M16 rifle, a bowie knife and several books on Islamic fundamentalism at the man’s home.
The man, who entered the country on a forged passport in 2007, uploaded a video clip of himself waving a Nusra Front flag on Bukhansan Mountain on a social media site in April. Last month, he uploaded a picture of himself wearing a cap featuring the terrorist group’s logo standing in front of Gyeongbokgung Palace, the police said.
The recent National Intelligence Service report that about 10 people in Korea have publicly expressed support for the Islamic State and two Korean nationals attempting to join the IS have had their passports canceled is a cause for concern about potential terrorist activities in the country by Korean and foreign nationals alike. Also a reminder that the country needs to stay vigilant about potential terrorists entering country is the revelation that 48 people who were either affiliated with international terrorist groups or categorized as security risks have been arrested and deported since 2010. [Korea Herald]
