None of this should be surprising to people who have lived for a while in South Korea; always check your receipts and make sure the taxi drivers turn on the meter:

Foreign tourists to Korea are least happy with its shopping and taxi riding experience, a Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) report showed Sunday.

The KTO said its Tourist Complaint Center received 902 complaints last year, seeing a significant increase compared to 288 in 2022.

It said the number of complaints decreased between 2020 and 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic but hiked last year as the tourism industry recovered.

Of the complaints, 808 (89.6 percent) were made by foreign visitors.

The highest number of complaints (215) was related to shopping, including price gouging, tax refunds and refund and exchange policies.

“I bought a set of 10 foot masks after viewing the price at 8,000 won in combine, but later realized that I was charged 80,000 won. When I asked for cancellation, the seller told me to come back the next day because the store manager wasn’t present,” a Japanese tourist was quoted as saying by the KTO.

Taxi service was the second-greatest inconvenience for foreign tourists, taking up 18.8 percent of the complaints (170). Problems included overcharging and refusing to turn on meters, drivers not being courteous with customers and deliberately taking longer routes for higher fares.

The Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Police Agency said Thursday it caught a taxi driver who tried to charge a Chinese tourist an exorbitant fare for a ride from Jeju International Airport to a hotel near Hamdeok Beach.

The police said the taxi driver received 200,000 won when the taxi fare should have been 23,000 won and ordered him to return 177,000 won.

Complaints concerning accommodations came in third.

Among 142 reported cases, those related to poor facilities and hygiene accounted for 31.7 percent.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Ozone alert issued

This photo shows a view of Seoul from Namsan Park on May 4, 2024, as an ozone alert was issued in 14 districts in Seoul. (Yonhap)

With all the cyber threats that South Korea faces this is probably a good exercise for them to take part in:

South Korea’s Cyber Operations Command will participate in a U.S.-led multinational cyber exercise this week to strengthen its capabilities to counter malicious cyber activities, Seoul’s defense ministry said Sunday, amid growing security threats from North Korea.

Nine personnel from the South’s military will join the Cyber Flag exercise to be held from Sunday through Saturday (local time) in the U.S. state of Virginia, according to the defense ministry.

The online exercise is designed to hone skills for multinational cooperation in countering cyberthreats and share intelligence against enemies’ cyber activities.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the doctor strike is slowly defeating the will of the Korean government to take action against them to get them back to work:

This photo taken April 30, 2024, shows a hospital in Daegu, 237 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)

The government appears to have shelved a plan to take punitive measures against a protracted walkout by trainee doctors and have pulled back slightly from its plan to increase medical school admission quotas amid a standoff with major doctors’ associations, according to officials Sunday.

Still, the doctors’ associations remained adamant over the issue and renewed their call for the government to revisit the medical reform from scratch, despite some signs of an internal split.

During a media briefing last week, Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said the government has decided to grant local universities autonomy in deciding their medical school quota by a range of 50 to 100 percent for the 2025 academic year in a bid to break the monthslong deadlock, according to officials.

Additionally, the government has delayed the suspension of licenses for doctors who have been inactive for months under its “flexible disposition” policy since late March.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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

Not that anyone really cares or will do anything, but Russia is openly violating U.N. sanctions with their exports of petroleum to North Korea:

Russia delivered more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to North Korea in March alone, a White House official said Thursday, noting its shipments thus far have already exceeded Pyongyang’s annual import cap mandated by the U.N. Security Council (UNSC).

National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby made the remarks as Washington is working in tandem with South Korea, Japan and other partners to roll out new sanctions this month against those aiding in transfers of weapons and refined petroleum between the North and Russia.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The big thing with this agreed to bill is that the special investgation cannot issue warrants:

The ruling and main opposition parties agreed Wednesday to revise a special bill mandating a new investigation into the 2022 Itaewon tragedy that claimed 159 lives, both sides said.

The bill, which was initially railroaded by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) in January but vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol, calls for the formation of an investigation committee to look into the root cause of the tragedy, which took place amid a crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon district during Halloween weekend in 2022.

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the DPK agreed on the committee’s makeup, period of operation and method of investigation, and will reflect the agreements in a revised bill before passing it through a plenary parliamentary session Thursday, they said.

Under the deal, the committee will not have the authority to conduct investigations ex officio or seek warrants, operate for up to a year with the possibility of extending its term by up to three months, and comprise a chair who will be chosen following consultations between the rival parties and four members recommended by each party.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.