Defense chief meets U.S. congressional group

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik (4th from L, front row) poses for a photo with a U.S. delegation of six senators, including Kirsten Gillibrand (4th from R, front row), and a representative at the defense ministry in Seoul on March 29, 2024, in this photo provided by the ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

It appears the strike by Korean doctors to stop President Yoon from expanding medical school students is beginning to work. The Korean public may want to have more doctors, but the current strike denying them care now is impacting the ruling party in election polls:

President Yoon Suk Yeol reaffirmed his determination to expand the admissions quota for medical schools, Monday, urging the public to support the scheme, which he believes is crucial for safeguarding public safety.

However, at the same time, he left room for dialogue, saying doctors should come up with a unified alternative proposal if they want to reduce the number of new slots. This appears to be an effort to address the ruling People Power Party’s (PPP) demand for the president to display greater flexibility on the issue, which is impacting support for the ruling bloc ahead of the April 10 general elections.

In a televised 51-minute address to the nation, Yoon outlined his rationale for adding 2,000 new slots and criticized doctors for walking off their jobs for nearly 50 days to protest the government plan.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but if the doctors want to cut a deal with President Yoon they better do it before the election. Whether Yoon’s ruling party wins or not; after the election he will have no incentive to strike a deal to end the strike.

To be fair a growing number of students may be overweight, but compared to U.S. obesity levels South Korea is doing way better:

The percentage of South Korean students who are overweight or obese inched down in 2023 compared to the year before, but a growing percentage of students were categorized as heavy drinkers, a government report showed Thursday.

Some 29.6 percent of elementary, middle and high school students across the country fell into the overweight or obese categories, according to the joint report by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. This figure marked a slight decrease of 0.9 percentage points from the year before, and of 1.2 percentage points compared to 2021.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Kim Jong-un’s new BFF has done him a solid by blocking UN enforcement of sanctions against North Korea:

A veto Thursday by Russia ended monitoring of U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program, prompting Western accusations that Moscow is seeking to avoid scrutiny as it allegedly violates the sanctions to buy weapons from Pyongyang for its war in Ukraine.

Russia’s turnaround on the U.N. monitoring reflects how Moscow’s growing animosity with the U.S. and its Western allies since the start of the Ukraine war has made it difficult to reach consensus on even issues where there has been longstanding agreement.

The veto came during a vote on a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have extended the mandate of a panel of experts monitoring sanctions on North Korea for a year, but which will now halt its operation when its current mandate expires at the end of April.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

With how small cameras are getting today this guy wasn’t trying very hard to hide his spy cameras with something this obvious:

This photo shows a spy camera found at an early voting polling station in Yangsan, 301 kilometers southeast of Seoul, provided by the South Gyeongsang Province police authority on March 29, 2024.

Police said Saturday they have requested an arrest warrant for a YouTuber suspected of installing spy cameras at some 40 early voting stations ahead of the April 10 parliamentary elections.

Officials at Incheon Nonhyeon Police Station said the suspect, a man in his 40s, allegedly placed hidden cameras at about 40 early polling stations in major cities, including Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Ulsan and Daegu.

The interior ministry earlier said spy cameras had been found at 26 early voting stations as of Friday.

The suspect reportedly told the police that he wanted to monitor the National Election Commission’s manipulation of turnout rates for early voting.

The man is also under suspicion of having installed hidden cameras in polling stations during the 2022 presidential election and the by-election for the mayorship of Gangseo District in Seoul in October, according to officials.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I have seen the Yale, National Geographic, and Discovery apparel in Korea, but never CNN or BBC. Lockheed Martin has got to be the weirdest fashion branding. Has anyone else seen any other weird fashion branding in South Korea?:

On Seoul’s streets today, seeing someone clad in a CNN hoodie, Kodak pants, Yale socks, a Discovery jacket, a National Geographic backpack and a BBC Earth baseball cap may not seem out of the ordinary.

The presence of logos from global non-fashion brands, spanning academia, media and sports, in Korean everyday wear seems to be only growing, now including unexpected entrants like arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin. (…..)

In the case of Yale, its apparel line was launched by the Korean fashion company Words Corporation in 2020 through such a licensing deal. The same goes for the recently launched Lockheed Martin streetwear collections, manufactured by the local firm Doojin Yanghang Corp.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but basically clothing manufacturers license logos from corporations that have brand appeal in South Korea. They find putting them on clothing sells in the Korean market. When it comes to Lockheed Martin they are the manufacturer for both the F-35 and THAAD which explains why they have brand recognition in South Korea.

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