According to the statistics an increasing number of Koreans are divorcing or choosing to remain single:

One in four married men are likely to get divorced. The more the highly-educated people are, the less they will likely they are to divorce.

Among married men who left school before finishing their education the proportion is as high as 48 percent. Among men with a high-school diploma the chances drop to 30 percent, and among university graduates to 20 percent.

According to a report by Statistics Korea’s analysis of census and annual marriage data from 1990 to 2010, the chance of divorce among men rose from 10.4 percent in 1990 to 25.1 percent in 2010, up 2.5 times over the last 20 years.

Kim Soo-young at Statistics Korea said, “Although individual circumstances and social values have a big impact, divorce got more common due to the prolonged slump after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.”

The chances of divorce among married women also rose from 9.9 percent to 24.7 percent over the same period.

The number of remarriages has declined. In 1990, more than seven out of 10 couples who divorced chose to remarry, but that dropped to half by 2010.

The number of men and women who choose to stay single also rose. In 1990, only one in 11 men chose to stay single, but that rose to one in every five by 2010. The ratio for women rose from 5.1 percent to 15.1 percent over the same period.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read the rest a the link, but it is believed that more and more Koreans are seeing little benefits in marriage and want to remain single because of the convenience.

Whether or not he illegally entered North Korea doesn’t matter to me because this is the chance anyone visiting North Korea takes for going there in the first place:

South Korea confirmed on Sunday that North Korea detained a South Korean student of New York University, but said it was still unclear whether the 21-year-old New Jersey resident attempted to enter the North illegally.

An official from South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with North Korea, said his department was still trying to gather information on Won Moon Joo’s travels and the circumstances of his arrest.

“Our judgment is that Joo is being held in North Korea, but we are still trying to confirm the details of how he got arrested,” he said on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday that Joo was arrested on April 22 after trying to illegally enter North Korea by crossing the Amnok River from the Chinese border town of Dandong.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

That is what this grandmother writing in the Korea Times believes:

It seems true that 50 percent of marriages end up in divorce. A Korean friend of mine in New York told me that her daughter, 45, is in a divorce suit after 25 years of marriage after having two children who are now in high school. The American husband told his wife that he wanted a divorce because she does not contribute at home while he has to work hard. He thinks it’s not fair.

In Korea too, men are beginning to think that having a wife is quite expensive. And raising children, the product and main purpose of a marriage, is even more expensive. Young men are scared of having a wife and it has pushed many youngsters into marrying later resulting in a low birth rate which Korean and Japanese governments are concerned will mean their countries lose national competitiveness.

Actually it’s not a wife’s responsibility but blame should go to the profit seeking enterprises that first supplied all those kitchen appliances: refrigerator, kimchi fermenting machine, microwave ovens, automatic rice cooker, dishwasher, and so on. Then again there’s the food producers who sell a pantry full of canned foods, instant foods, ramen and instant noodles. The simplified cooking appliances and the factory produced foods have pushed women out of their kitchen.

Now it takes less than 15 minutes to prepare a family dinner and men who were reluctant to lift a finger now can easily do kitchen chores. So too do children who make their lunch or a snack without the help of their mother. Women have lost their status as a housewife.

It wasn’t always like that. When I married 54 years ago, I was the most important member of the family holding full control over the kitchen and laundry affairs. I knew the whole family would starve or wear dirty clothes for a month if I got sick or went on strike. Men didn’t know even know how to fire the hearth, not to mention boil rice without burning it or prepare side dishes.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but I think the biggest reason for a low birth rate is the cost of education in Korea. It is absolutely ridiculous when the costs for hagwons are factored into raising kids.  As far as the divorce rate that has more to do with women not being locked into poor marriage survive anymore.  If their husbands are treating them poorly women now have the option leave and still be able to support themselves without the husband.  I don’t think living without modern appliances is going to do much to lower the divorce rate in Korea, but cooking a home cook meal and having dinner together as a family would definitely help.

A light utility helicopter, the Surion, takes off in the city of Yongin, south of Seoul, on May 1, 2015, as the Army conducts a drill to evacuate emergency patients to its main hospital in the adjoining city of Seongnam. The drill was timed with the launch the same day of the aviation command for the operations, with six of the choppers to be deployed. (Yonhap)

Soldiers take a look at an self-heating lunch box at the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul on April 28, 2015, as they attend a public hearing on the innovation of combat food. (Yonhap)

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

As much as I don’t like the rioters in Baltimore comparing them to ISIS seems inappropriate to me, but that is what the Korea Times cartoonist has done:

.@amazon founder Jeff Bezos' rocket company launches first craft – did it make it to space? http://t.co/pAvEHGQcms pic.twitter.com/Zre9Oz70N2

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) April 30, 2015

Filipino actress Jessy Mendiola tastes kimchi during a publicity event in Seoul on May 1, 2015, to make the traditional fermented Korean dish made of seasoned vegetables in this photo released by food maker Pulmuone. Mendiola, designated as a tourism ambassador for South Korea, represents Korea’s culture through a popular TV program in the Philippines. (Yonhap)