It looks like the South Korean government is looking to increase taxes even further on imported cars:
Taxes on luxury imported cars are likely to go up, with lawmakers and the government seeking a law revision to impose taxes based on prices instead of engine displacement.
Rep. Shim Jae-chul from the ruling Saenuri Party proposed a revision of the law earlier this week, saying the current system was unfair and did not reflect technology advances.
“The current volume-based tax system could be unfair,” he said. “With the development of technology, car owners with lower engine displacement, higher performance and higher price pay less tax than drivers with lower priced, low-performance cars.”
According to the current law, 80 won per cubic centimeter (cc) is imposed for cars with displacement less than 1,000 cc, 140 won for cars with displacement between 1,000 and 1,600 cc, and 200 won for cars with displacement over 1,600 cc.
For example, BMW 520d owners pay almost the same amount of vehicle taxes as those driving such local brands as Hyundai Motor’s Sonata midsize as they are in the same segment in terms of engine displacement. The price of the German vehicle is about three times higher than the Korean car.
Also, many lavish cars nowadays are designed with smaller displacements to burn less fuel or run a hybrid engine. Shim said a growing number of electronic cars are another factor to consider. [Korea Times]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (R) holds hands with Liu Yunshan, the Chinese Communist Party’s fifth-ranked leader, as they respond to the crowd during a large-scale military parade at Pyongyang’s Kim Il-sung Square on Oct. 10, 2015, to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, in this image captured from the North’s Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station. (Yonhap)
Being a big fan of South Park I found the below video interesting, but it seems that it would be difficult for a South Korean to understand the comedy without being aware of US pop culture and current events that drive the satire:
In this image captured from the North’s Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station on Oct. 8, 2015, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (front) visits the northern free-trade city of Rason, which has been devastated by a flood caused by Typhoon Goni. The broadcaster did not report when he made the visit. Among Kim’s entourage was Ma Won-chun, director of the design department at the North’s powerful National Defense Commission in his first public appearance in a year to quell rumors of his purge. Kim reportedly purged Ma, who spearheaded the construction of a new airport terminal in Pyongyang which opened in July. (Yonhap)
I guess we will see if these family reunions happen or not, but I think the Kim regime is hoping these reunions will open the door to the South Korean government reopening the Kumgang Resort on the North Korean side of the DMZ. This resort was a good source of foreign currency for the regime before South Korea discontinued the joint venture after a North Korean soldier shot a South Korean tourist in the back:
South and North Korea Thursday exchanged the final list of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War to join the upcoming reunions, the Unification Ministry said.
South Korea’s Red Cross handed over a list of 90 South Koreans hoping to meet their relatives living in the North, the ministry said. In return, North Korea delivered a list of 97 North Korean family members to the South.
Last month, South and North Korea agreed to hold the reunions for 100 separated family members from each side on Oct. 20-26 at a scenic resort on Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast.
But the actual number of people to join the reunions will be less than 100 as living separated families, mostly in their 80s and older, suffer from health problems or their beloved ones living across the border have already died.
The upcoming event is the outcome of the two Koreas’ landmark deal that was reached on Aug. 25 to ease military tension and follow through with the family reunions. [Yonhap]
The problem the South Korean government is trying to address with leftist history textbooks being used to teach students could have unattended consequences. At some point the Korean left is going to regain the presidency and this will set the precedent that will allow them to put their own mandated changes in the history textbooks:
A civic group stages a rally in front of the Education Ministry in Sejong City on Wednesday to protest the government’s plan to take back control over history textbooks.[NEWSIS]The presidential office and the ruling party continued on Wednesday to push a plan for the government to take control of history textbooks from private publishers, which the opposition vowed to oppose.
“President Park Geun-hye has openly showed concerns about the overall problems in Korean history education,” an official at the Blue House said on Wednesday.
He said Park issued an order to the Ministry of Education February last year to come up with a way to end distortions of historical fact and ideological biases in classrooms, including the development of new history textbooks with balanced views.
The ruling Saenuri Party announced its support for the government to take control over history textbooks for middle and high school students from private publishers.
“Current history textbooks are pushing the students deeper into a sense of defeat and making them citizens who blame everything on the society and the country,” Saenuri Chairman Kim Moo-sung said Wednesday in his speech at the World Korean Community Leaders Convention. “The most important mission for us is guiding the future generation to challenge the world with positive minds and creative thinking and develop Korea into the world’s 10th largest economy. To realize this goal, history textbooks must be published by the government.”
Currently, eight publishers develop and supply Korean history textbooks for middle and high schools. The ruling party complained over the past few years that seven of them were leaning far too left, giving biased history to the nation’s youngsters.
During a Saenuri Party senior leaders’ meeting Wednesday morning, the need to change the current history textbook system was addressed by several participants.
“History textbooks for middle and high schools, regardless of their publishers, are written consistently with an anti-Korean view that denies our history,” Chairman Kim said. “It appears to be an attempt to teach people’s revolution to the students based on a leftist world view.”
Kim also criticized specific textbooks, saying they justify the Juche, or self-reliance, ideology of the late North Korean founder Kim Il Sung(1912-1994). [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but the glorifying of North Korea in these textbooks if true needs to stop. These textbooks are hold overs from the Sunshine Policy years where leftist teachers were able to get pro-North Korean textbooks into the schools. Today the Sunshine Policy and its leftist supporters have been greatly discredited, but the books still remain in the schools which is what the Park administration is trying to address now.
