It is hard to believe that it has already been 10 years since the Sewol ferry sinking. It just doesn’t seem like it has been that long probably because the tragedy has remained in the headlines for so long:

A commemoration ceremony is in progress at Incheon Family Park in Incheon, west of Seoul, on April 16, 2024, marking the 10th anniversary of the deadly sinking of the ferry Sewol. (Yonhap)

Bereaved families and government officials commemorated the victims of the deadly sinking of the ferry Sewol on Tuesday, marking the 10th anniversary of one of the country’s worst maritime disasters.

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min and Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok were among the about 200 people who attended the commemoration ceremony in Incheon Family Park in Incheon, west of Seoul, where the ashes of 44 victims killed in the maritime accident are enshrined.

Including them, a total of 304 people, mostly high school students on a school field trip, were killed as the 6,800-ton ship sank off the southwestern coast on April 16, 2014.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I have to imagine that even the Japanese diplomats in Seoul must get tired of having to justify the Japanese position on Dokdo. The islets are clearly Korean territory and are not going to be given up. The Japanese government continuing their public posturing over Dokdo continues to be an unnecessary thorn in otherwise improving bilateral relations:

Taisuke Mibae, the deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, enters the South Korean foreign ministry building in Seoul on April 16, 2024, after being summoned over Tokyo’s renewed territorial claim to Dokdo. (Yonhap)

South Korea “strongly” protested against Japan on Tuesday after Tokyo issued an annual diplomatic report renewing its territorial claims to the South’s easternmost islets of Dokdo.

To lodge a protest over the report, South Korea’s foreign ministry called in Taisuke Mibae, the deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.

The claim, strongly disputed by South Korea, which has long maintained effective control of Dokdo with the permanent stationing of security personnel there, was included in the 2024 Diplomatic Bluebook that was reported to the Cabinet by Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa.

In this year’s report, Japan continued to claim that Dokdo is Japanese territory historically and under international law, and that South Korea is carrying on with an “illegal occupation” of the area.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is a big incentive for Samsung to build a chip plant in Texas:

The U.S. government announced a plan Monday to award Samsung Electronics up to $6.4 billion in grants to support the Korean tech giant’s chipmaking investment in central Texas, as it strives to strengthen domestic semiconductor production.

The Commerce Department said it has reached a nonbinding preliminary agreement with Samsung to provide the grants under the CHIPS and Science Act to back the company’s expected investment of more than $40 billion, in the establishment of a “leading-edge semiconductor ecosystem” in the state.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if there has ever been a political party formed with its main goal of revenge against a sitting President’s wife?:

Cho Kuk, the leader of the Cho Kuk Innovation Party, which caused a sensation in the April 10 general elections, has continued his “half-yoon” (half-yoon Seok-yeol) stance every day.

On the 15th, CEO Cho said on his social networking service (SNS), “Tensions are rising in the president’s office and within the prosecution over the position of the next Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office,” adding, “Tensions and dark battles are unfolding between high-level prosecutors in Yoon Line.” Loyalty to President Yoon Suk Yeol and his position on handling allegations related to Geom Gun-hee are the key criteria for selection.

“President Yoon is looking for someone who will act as a brazen shield for himself and his spouse, who are destined to become a ‘dead-duck’ soon, and wield a more ruthless sword against his political opponent,” he said. “President Yoon’s interest in running state affairs, which is close to zero, is now all about himself and his spouse.”

On the 11th, Chairman Cho Kuk and proportional winners of the Cho Kuk Innovation Party held a press conference in front of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, and said, “I warn the prosecution for the last time. He also shouted, “Investigate Kim Gun-hee.”

On this day, he voiced his strong voice, saying, “I will propose the Kim Gun-hee Special Prosecutor Act at the 22nd National Assembly.”

Maeil Kyeongchae

You can read more at the link, but ROK heads may remembe that when Cho was the Justice Minister for former President Moon, the then Chief Prosecutor Yoon Suk-yeol indicted Cho’s wife. Cho’s wife was later convicted for document forgery in an effort to get their daughter into medical school. She was sentenced to four years in prison before getting paroled after about 1.5 years in jail. Their daughter would have to later give up her medical degrees as well.

So now Cho Kuk is back with his own political party that performed well in last week’s parlimentary elections. He is using his new political power to go after President Yoon’s wife over the dubious handbag scandal and try and put her in jail.

It is interesting that with all the talk of global warming from the Korean Democratic Party, it is President Yoon from the Korean conservative party who has actually done more to cut carbon emissions. I have always said that any global warming person who doesn’t advocate for the use of nuclear power is not serious in their beliefs and this just proves it:

As the Yoon Suk Yeol government significantly increased the proportion of nuclear power generation, its dependence on fossil fuels fell significantly. Dependence on fossil fuels has become lower than during the Moon Jae In government, which implemented a policy of de-nuclearization to reduce carbon emissions. Attention is focusing on how strongly the Democratic Party of Korea, which won a landslide victory in the general election, will push for the restoration of its policy on denuclearization, which it had promised.

According to the Korea Electric Power Corporation on the 15th, nuclear power accounted for 30.2% of the total power generation in the two years since the inauguration of the Yoon Suk Yeol government until last year. This is an increase of 3.7 percentage points from the previous Moon Jae In administration, which was only 26.5 percent. The share of renewable power generation also rose 2.8 percentage points from 7.6% during the Moon administration to 10.4% during the Yoon administration.

Maeil Kyeongchae

You can read more at the link.

The missile may have failed, but the test is only a failure if the engineers did not learn anything from it. As we have seen in the past, the North Koreans learn from their mistakes and have successfully built a number of capable missile systems:

Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said Sunday that North Korea’s hypersonic missile launched earlier this month was “unsuccessful in its last glide flight” but predicted that the North’s hypersonic missile with an intermediate range could be “successful one day.” 

Shin made the assessment during an interview with public broadcaster KBS after the North claimed it successfully test-fired the Hwasongpho-16B, a new intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.