It will be interesting to see if more schools in South Korea turn towards AI robots instead of hiring foreign English teachers:

Seoul Education Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon speaks during a press briefing held at the Seoul Metropolitan Education Office of Education in central Seoul, Wednesday. (Yonhap)

Robots powered by artificial intelligence will aid English education in five elementary and middle schools in Seoul starting in March 2024, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Wednesday.

The English tutoring robots will aid students in brushing up their English language knowledge, conversation skills and pronunciation. For students struggling academically, the robots will provide a customized education service, enabling them to learn the language at their own pace.

The education office also said it would provide schools with a chatbot app, which allows users to practice conversations via mobile phones. The app enables students to engage in conversations and discussions with the robot based on a topic selected by the user.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Unlike those that have avoided the mandatory military service obligation in Korea, I definitely have respect for the BTS members who are putting their lives on hold to serve their country:

The remaining four members of K-pop megastar BTS — RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook — will begin their mandatory military service next month, music industry sources said Wednesday.

According to the sources well informed of the matter, RM and V will enlist on Dec. 11, followed by Jimin and Jungkook the next day.

In South Korea, all able-bodied men are required to serve in the military for about two years. The members were allowed to postpone their military service until the end of the year when they turn 30, under a conscription law revised in 2020.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is incredibly sad for the parents to lose their teenage daughter like this, but their decision on organ donations is giving extended life to people from five other families:

This photo shows Lee Ye-won (right) and her younger sister. (Korea Organ Donation Agency)

The state-run organ donation agency on Monday revealed the story of a 15-year-old middle school student, whose post-mortem donation of her vital organs gave five people a new lease on life.

Lee Ye-won, who passed away last year on May 11 after extensive damage to her brain from a cerebral hemorrhage, had her heart, lungs, liver and both kidneys donated to five individuals, said the Korea Organ Donation Agency, an affiliate of the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The child collapsed on April 26 of the same year after suffering an acute headache and failed to regain consciousness after surgery. She was pronounced brain-dead.

Lee’s parents decided on organ donation, saying that considering their daughter had always been a kind and helpful person, she would have wanted to do something meaningful for the world.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This is what I have been saying, that North Korea’s claims of having all this amazing imagery of U.S. military installations is likely just propaganda unless the Russians went and built them their own satellite:

But South Korean military officials are voicing doubts about the satellite’s reconnaissance capabilities.

“Compared to previous attempts, it seems that the new satellite achieved its own technological progress to some extent,” a military official said.

“The North claims that it photographed U.S. aircraft carriers and naval bases in Hawaii just 10 hours after the launch. That is not impossible, but a proper operation of a military satellite requires months of testing, verification and correction. Given this, (the recent KCNA news reports) appear to be propaganda.”

The official said that the military had analyzed the debris of a satellite that the North failed to put in orbit in May, and it had limited operational capabilities and provided very poor resolution images. “It is highly questionable whether North Korea addressed these limitations in a short period,” the official added.

Shin Jong-woo, a senior researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, a think tank, assumed that the satellite would be an entry-level optical one, based on KCNA’s description.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Saudi money overcame what was clearly a better Expo site in Busan. Who is excited to go to Riyadh?:

South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo shakes hands with a Saudi official after the final presentation for South Korea’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo at the 173rd general assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions held at the Palais des Congres in Paris before its members their vote for the host city on Nov. 28, 2023. (Yonhap)

 South Korea’s Busan came up short in its bid to host the 2030 World Expo on Tuesday as Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh won a resounding victory over Busan and Italy’s Rome without a runoff vote.

Members of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the body responsible for overseeing the international fair with the potential to generate economic benefits and stimulate job creation, held a ballot in Paris after representatives from the three candidates made final presentations of their proposals.

In the first round of voting, the Saudi capital won 119 votes against Busan’s 29 votes and Rome’s 17 votes. Riyadh’s votes were more than a two-thirds majority needed for a candidate to win without a runoff.

The Saudi delegation celebrated as the results were displayed on an electronic board, concluding the anonymous voting held in Issy-les-Moulineaux, the southwestern suburban area of the French capital.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.