The Korean left continues to try and pressure President Yoon to fire the Interior Minister over the Itaewon crowd crush disaster:
The National Assembly passes a motion calling for the dismissal of Interior Minister Lee Sang-min on Dec. 11, 2022. (Yonhap)
The opposition-controlled National Assembly on Sunday passed a motion calling for the dismissal of Interior Minister Lee Sang-min over the bungled government response to the deadly Itaewon crowd crush.
The motion won backing from 182 of the 183 lawmakers who cast ballots, with one vote declared invalid.
Members of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), which has opposed the dismissal motion, boycotted the vote and walked out of the chamber en masse before voting began.
You can read more at the link, but according to the article President Yoon will likely ignore the opposition party’s demands. This is clearly politically motivated to try and put blame on the Yoon administration for the Itaewon tragedy when any fair minded person realizes that this was a failure of crowd control at the local police level.
Constantly threatened by North Korea with 'sea of fire,' South Korea has developed one of the world's most potent artillery systems and they are proving to be a boon for exports https://t.co/t8tINhTivYpic.twitter.com/OkhfDTYxEt
BLACKPINK named TIME’s Entertainer of Year This photo, provided by YG Entertainment on Dec. 6, 2022, shows the cover of TIME featuring South Korean K-pop girl group BLACKPINK, chosen as the Entertainer of the Year by the U.S. magazine. (Yonhap)
People in Korea may have to wait until after the holidays before any relief on the indoor mask mandate happens:
Korea may lift the indoor mask mandate, one of its last Covid restrictions, as early as January.
Still, masks are likely to be required in hospitals and on public transport.
Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Peck Kyong-ran announced Wednesday that the government will ease the indoor mask-wearing rule early next year. The only other major Covid restriction still in force is the mandatory seven-day quarantine for confirmed patients.
You can read more at the link, but what is happening is that the government officials are going to wait until after the holiday travel period and see if another COVID wave happens. If one does then don’t expect to have the mask mandate lifted.
The daughter of former ROK President Roh Tae-woo just received a huge divorce settlement from her ex-husband:
SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, left, and Director of Art Center Nabi Roh Soh-Yeong, right, were separated by divorce Tuesday, marking the end of their 34 years of marriage. Yonhap
The court approved the divorce of SK Chairman Chey Tae-won and his wife, Roh Soh-yeong, director of Art Center Nabi.
If neither side appeals, the high-powered couple will end their 34 years of marriage marked by ups and downs years after Chey’s public acknowledgment that he has been in extramarital relationship with a woman and that they had a child out of wedlock.
Seoul Family Court approved their divorce on Tuesday, ordering Chey to pay alimony of 100 million won ($75,700) and a property settlement of 66.5 billion won ($50.4 million) to Roh.
Chey, the eldest son of the late former SK Chairman Chey Jong-hyun, tied the knot with Roh, the daughter of Korean former President Roh Tae-woo, in 1998 at the Blue House. It is known that both had met while studying in the United States. They have two daughters and one son together.
In 2015, Chey revealed that he had fathered a child out of wedlock and expressed his intention to split up with Roh through a three-page letter sent to Segye Ilbo, a local newspaper.
There's no shortage of grocery stores in South Korea, but every five days locals bring the market out to the streets. Check out this day market outside the gate of @USAGHumphreys! #HowIKoreapic.twitter.com/8h2sSJxRKp
Vietnamese leader visits S. Korea South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol (L) and his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, inspect an honor guard during a welcoming ceremony for the latter’s three-day state visit to South Korea at the presidential office in Seoul on Dec. 5, 2022. Yoon invited Phuc on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Phuc is the first foreign leader to make a state visit to South Korea since Yoon’s inauguration in May. (Yonhap)
This is a really bad situation and I had no idea that South Korea does so little to return children that are abducted:
John Sichi, a U.S. citizen whose children have gone missing in Korea involving an international abduction case of his children by his Korean spouse, stages a treadmill protest in front of Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, Nov. 30. Sichi is demanding the Korean authorities to enforce court orders that the children should be returned to the U.S. under the Hague Convention. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
On a cold Nov. 30 afternoon, when temperatures nosedived to minus seven degrees Celsius in Seoul, bringing with it the nation’s first cold wave alert of the season, John Sichi was walking on a treadmill in front of Dongdaemun Design Plaza in central Seoul. Undeterred by the biting winds, the U.S. citizen walked for nearly four hours.
Near the treadmill stood a placard reading, “Please let me see my children,” and a life-size cardboard cutout of his two kids ― a 5-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl.
People walking by approached him ― some with curiosity and some with empathy ― to see why a man would be walking on a treadmill in freezing weather. A woman handed him 10,000 won, probably assuming it was a fundraising campaign.
Sichi has been staging the treadmill protest since October in various spots in Seoul, in a desperate effort to find his missing children who have been allegedly abducted by his Korean wife.
His demand is simple: The Korean government should enforce court orders from both the U.S. and Korea that the children should be returned to the U.S.
It looks like the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for all DOD service members may soon be coming to an end if this legislation passes and is signed by the President:
Master Sgt. Cherie Gregory, 66th Medical Squadron functional manager, prepares a vaccine during a point of distribution at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., Nov. 9, 2022. (Linda LaBonte Britt/U.S. Air Force)
The final version of the fiscal 2023 defense authorization bill is likely to rescind Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III’s August 2021 memo ordering COVID-19 vaccines for most troops, a source familiar with the matter said Monday.
Ending the requirement, under which service members who aren’t fully vaccinated are subject to discharge, has been a top priority of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other senior Republicans in both chambers. McCarthy raised the issue with President Joe Biden in a meeting last week and reiterated over the weekend that the mandate should be repealed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.
![People wear masks at a book store in Seoul on Thursday as the indoor mask mandate is still in effect, as warned on the sign. [YONHAP]](https://i0.wp.com/koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2022/12/07/6c4ad525-55fe-4480-acbf-93c1a9d9573f.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
