The IAEA analysis supports the best of bad options on how to dispose of radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant:

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), speaks about the results of the IAEA’s review of Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water stored at the Fukushima nuclear power station into the sea during a press conference in Tokyo on July 4, 2023. (Yonhap)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Tuesday Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water stored at the Fukushima nuclear power station into the sea is consistent with its safety standards.

After a two-year review, the U.N. nuclear watchdog also said that the discharges of the water treated by the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), the plant’s custom purification system, would have a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment.

The results of the review are likely to add new momentum to Japan’s push to start discharging the water from the plant — damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 – some time around this summer despite lingering opposition from neighboring countries, including South Korea and China.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

According to the article Chinese nationals make up 56% of the suspicious property transactions currently being investigated. Americans make up 21%, Taiwanese 8%, and Canadians 6.6% of the additional suspicious real estate cases:

A view of apartment complexes seen in Jamsil in southern Seoul [YONHAP]

The Korean government detected over 400 suspicious land transactions made by foreigners between 2017 and 2022, with more than half of the cases linked with Chinese nationals.    
   
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport reported 437 land acquisitions deemed illegal to related investigation agencies following its large-scale nationwide investigation conducted from February through to June. Out of a total of 14,938 foreign land transactions between 2017 and 2022, the investigation then focused on 920 suspicious cases, in which individuals involved were asked to provide supporting documents for further examination.  (…..)

The investigation identified various violations, with the most common being the manipulation of reported transaction amounts and contract dates, with 419 cases of misreported contracts. Additionally, 61 cases were suspected of tax evasion through expedient gifting, and 35 cases raised suspicions of illegally imported funds from overseas.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

President Yoon gave some blunt advice to some new vice-governmental ministers:

Yoon gave the instruction during lunch with 13 new vice minister-level officials after presenting them with certificates of appointment, according to Lee Do-woon.

“Fight ruthlessly against cartels with vested interests,” Yoon was quoted as saying, repeating a mission he gave to several presidential secretaries last week after they were nominated as vice ministers.

“Our government is an anti-cartel government,” he said. “What topples a democratic society from the outside is totalitarianism and socialism, but what topples it from the inside is corrupt cartels.”

Yoon called on the new vice ministers to be loyal to the spirit of the Constitution, saying both domestic and foreign affairs should be conducted in the spirit of the liberal democratic Constitution.

“Be loyal to the state, the nation and the constitutional system,” he said. “I am not saying you should switch horses, but that you should ride your horses properly in the spirit of the Constitution.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The four remaining families say they don’t want to take the compensation unless it comes straight from the Japanese government:

Lawyer Lim Jae-sung, right, who represents some of the forced labor victims who sued Japanese companies for compensations for their forced labor, speaks with the press just outside the Foreign Ministry building in Seoul on Monday to protest the ministry’s decision to make public deposits of third-party compensation money that four out of 15 plaintiffs refused to accept. [YONHAP]

The Foreign Ministry will deposit at local courts compensation money for victims of wartime Japanese forced labor and their relatives who have so far refused to accept the government’s compensation scheme.  
   
Some of the money will also go to parties who have been unable to receive compensation due to personal circumstances.  
   
As of Monday, 11 out of 15 plaintiffs who sued Japanese companies for compensation of their forced labor during the 1910-45 Japanese annexation of Korea have received third-party compensation, mostly from Korean corporate donations.

For the remaining four plaintiffs, two of whom are surviving victims and the rest relatives of victims who had already passed away, the Foreign Ministry announced it was depositing the compensation money so that they could choose to take it from a local court close to where they live “whenever they wish.”  
   
“This decision was reached so that any of the plaintiffs who change their mind and decide to take on the compensation can do so at their leisure,” said a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official in speaking with the press in Seoul on Monday. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This horrible and the couple said they killed the newborn because they were struggling financially:

A couple was arrested Sunday on charges of strangling their newborn baby to death and abandoning his body in the southern city of Geoje, police said, the latest in a series of child abuse cases involving unregistered babies.

A woman in her 30s and her partner in his 20s were charged with strangling the baby to death and burying his body on a mountain after the child died in their home in Geoje, 331 kilometers south of Seoul, five days after he was born in September last year. 

The two had initially claimed they found the baby dead on the morning of Sept. 9 and buried his body on a mountain the following day, but later confessed that they killed him and abandoned the body in a stream, officials said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The ROK Navy recently fielded new submarines that are large enough to house separate living areas for female sailors:

One of the United States’ closest military allies has selected its first group of enlisted women to serve aboard submarines starting next year.

Seven female noncommissioned officers were chosen from more than 20 applicants to undergo training for submarine service, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press release Monday.

Training is expected to last until January or February and is required for all submariners, a South Korean navy spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday.

Two commissioned naval officers selected last month to serve on a submarine are also undergoing training, the spokesman added.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.