Considering President Yoon’s very low approval rating, being seen with the ousted former President Park Guen-hye probably won’t help:

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday praised late President Park Chung-hee as he met with Park’s daughter at a memorial ceremony, a symbolic gesture amid calls for more unity among conservatives ahead of next year’s general elections.

It marked the first time that a sitting president attended the memorial ceremony for Park Chung-hee, whose legacy remains a subject of controversy in South Korea.

Yoon said that former President Park is recorded as promoting industrialization and rallying the nation under the slogan “it can be done.”

“He achieved a historic global accomplishment known as the miracle on the Han River,” Yoon said in his address at the ceremony at Seoul National Cemetery in southern Seoul, referring to South Korea’s economic rise from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Yonhap

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On a topic that everyone in Korea can agree on, the opposition party has go out and lie in an attempt to smear President Yoon by claiming he may give up Dokdo to Japan:

The ruling and the main opposition parties denounced Japan’s territorial claims over South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo on Wednesday as they marked “Dokdo Day.”

“While the reestablishment of a future-oriented relationship between South Korea and Japan has opened discussions for cooperation in fields such as security and economy, the territorial dispute issue is an independent matter,” Rep. Park Jeong-ha, chief spokesperson of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), said.

Park said the government and the PPP will make legal and legislative efforts to protect the islets, and urged Japan to stop its “thoughtless words and wrongful claims” over Dokdo.

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) also denounced Japan’s claims over Dokdo, but it also accused the government of President Yoon Suk Yeol of making too many concessions to Tokyo, including consenting to Tokyo’s release of radioactive water into the ocean.

“People are concerned that the government might even give up Dokdo. We urged President Yoon to become a president who safeguards the territory and national interests of South Korea,” Rep. Kwon Chil-seung, the DP’s chief spokesperson, said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is kind of funny, but I have to wonder where in Texas did they purchase jerseys from a Scottish professional soccer team?:

STAYC was seen wearing the wrong “Rangers” uniform during the girl group’s concert held in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday as part of its world tour.[JUN.DY]

STAYC was seen wearing the wrong “Rangers” uniform during the girl group’s concert held in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday as part of its world tour. 
  
Instead of wearing jerseys for the Texas Rangers baseball team — a Major League Baseball team — the group’s members wore uniforms of Rangers Football Club, a Scottish professional soccer club based in Glasgow, Scotland, during the performance, leaving fans to wonder whether the agency didn’t know they are two different teams. 
  
“We had a bit of a mix-up as we were purchasing the uniforms,” STAYC’s agency, Highup Entertainment told the Korea JoongAng Daily on Wednesday, admitting there was a mistake.

Joong Ang Ilbo

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I am actually surprised there has not been another Korean President that has ever visited Qatar considering all the past business deals ROK businesses have completed in the Middle East:

President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, speaks with Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at a ceremony for signing memorandums of understanding during their bilateral summit at the Amiri Diwan palace in Doha on Wednesday. This marks the first state visit by a Korean president to Qatar. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Korea and Qatar signed deals amounting to some $4.6 billion during President Yoon Suk Yeol’s bilateral summit with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha on Wednesday. 
  
Yoon was greeted in an official welcoming ceremony, followed by bilateral talks, a ceremony to sign memorandums of understanding (MOU) and a state luncheon, according to the presidential office. 
  
Yoon is the first Korean president to make a state visit to Qatar.

The two sides discussed expanding cooperation beyond energy and construction to investment, defense, agriculture, culture and people-to-people exchanges.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting politicla appointment within the ruling PPP, a descendant of a missionary family who is now a prestigious doctor in Seoul that considers himself a country boy from Jeolla:

Ihn Yo-han, chairman of the innovation committee of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), speaks to reporters during his way to the office at the party’s headquarters in Seoul’s Yeouido, Tuesday. Yonhap

A fresh face has emerged in Korean politics. Ihn Yo-han, a naturalized Korean physician, has come to the rescue for the ruling People Power Party (PPP) as the conservative bloc gears up for a momentous change in preparation for the general elections slated for April next year.

Ihn, also known as John Linton, was appointed as chairman of the PPP’s innovation committee, Monday. He is tasked with leading the reform of the ruling party as it strives to regain voters’ trust ahead of the parliamentary elections.

Political commentators viewed that the PPP’s appointment of Ihn shows its commitment to drastic change, but said it remains to be seen how big a role the physician will play. 

“By appointing Ihn as the innovation committee chief, the PPP has succeeded in grabbing public attention and delivering a message that things are going to change,” said Shin Yul, a professor of political science at Myongji University.

“It also sends a positive message that people of diverse backgrounds are playing a major role in Korean politics.” 

Ihn is the first special naturalized Korean citizen, earning the status in 2012 thanks to his contributions to the country, such as the development of an ambulance customized for Korea in 1992. 

He is currently the director at the International Health Care Center of Yonsei University Severance Hospital. 

The 64-year-old doctor comes from a family with a long history of contributions to Korea.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I did not take this viral video for me to realize the need to avoid Chinese food products:

Fears of Chinese-made food products are spreading among Korean consumers, once again, after a video went viral last week showing a worker at a Tsingtao beer factory urinating into a tank believed to contain raw ingredients.

The video, which has received tens of millions of views on social media worldwide since being uploaded last Thursday, purportedly shows a worker dressed in a uniform clambering into a high-walled container and urinating inside it.

The clip is believed to have been recorded at Tsingtao Brewery No. 3, according to a statement released on Friday by Tsingtao, one of China’s top beer producers and exporters. The company said in the statement that it had contacted the police to investigate the incident.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.