The Korea Times has an article about two British expats in Seoul who have a very successful Youtube channel where they conduct short documentary like interviews of random Korean people:

His understanding of Korea and Korean culture is reflected in the roughly 150 videos uploaded to his YouTube channel. Teaming up with his business partner Joel Bennet, they explore Korea to shoot mukbang, have casual discussions about Korea-related topics and create short documentary-style videos. Those videos aim to show the real Korea, starring Bright’s neighbors and other ordinary people he meets. As of Thursday, “Dan and Joel” has some 272,000 subscribers. 

Korea Times

You can read much more at the link, but I started browsing through their videos today. One of the videos I watched that was featured with the article was of them interviewing one of Korea’s ubiquitous cardboard collecting ladies. Definitely a tough life for the elderly people doing that job.

Companies pay these parcel workers by each delivery they complete and not by the hour which is the issue at the center of this strike. Likely they are paid this way to encourage quick completion of each delivery to make more money. Pay by the hour would actually encourage working slower to accumulate more hours to be paid:

 Some 4,000 parcel delivery workers will refuse to sort parcels in protest of heavy workloads ahead of the Chuseok holiday, a civic advocacy group said Thursday.

The civic task force working for the rights of delivery workers and associated with the progressive Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) said that the parcel delivery workers will stop sorting out parcels starting from Monday if their demand for additional manpower goes unmet.

“Sorting parcels is the primary reason for their long working hours,” the group said during a press conference at the KCTU headquarters in Seoul. “Half of their working hours of 13-16 hours a day focus only on sorting parcels with no additional pay.” (…….)

The group argued that the workers are paid per delivery and that their time-consuming sorting job goes unpaid.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It would be surprising if Prime Minister Suga does not continue to be an advocate of expanding Japan’s military capabilities and strengthening the alliance with the United States:

Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, is likely to adhere to his predecessor’s defense policies, which experts say will benefit the Pentagon’s interests.

Suga, previously the chief cabinet secretary, took over as prime minister on Wednesday following elections by the governing Liberal Democratic Party. His predecessor, Shinzo Abe, stepped down due to poor health. Suga had been Japan’s longest-serving chief cabinet secretary, working under Abe from 2012-20.

Because of his long partnership with Abe, Japanese media has labeled Suga a “continuity candidate” expected to carry on the former prime minister’s work.

Abe advocated strengthening U.S.-Japan relations, bolstering the Japan Self-Defense Force and supporting U.S. troops in Japan, said Michael Cucek, assistant professor of Asian Studies at Temple University’s Japan campus.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It appears the Korean government wants to push sex education down into elementary classrooms:

In Korea, the word conservative isn’t quite enough to describe the social ban on the mention of sex especially in the public sphere. Even sex education only lightly touches on the details. Parents complain to schools for teaching students how to use condoms, never mind giving condoms out or showing educational videos about sex.

Last month, seven children’s books on sex and gender education among 199 books that were distributed to schools by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family were recalled after they were criticized by the conservative party for being inappropriate for children. Conservative parents and Christian media alike criticized the books for their “promiscuity” even though many of them have been used to teach children all over the world for decades and recognized for their educational purposes.  

While it has mostly been taken for granted in Korea that sex education is lacking, the recent controversy surrounding these books has reignited the debate on whether something should be done about this status quo. (……..)

On Aug. 25, Rep. Kim Byeong-wook from the opposition People Power Party singled out seven books from the list during an Education Committee meeting held at the National Assembly in Seoul for their “inadequacy” as children’s education books. He claimed the books were “too sexual,” “caused early sexualization” and “beautified homosexuality.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Did you know Koreans can be charged with breaking a domestic law even if it was committed overseas?:

Police said Tuesday they are investigating two members of a popular K-pop boy band for their alleged involvement in illegal overseas gambling.

Two members of SUPERNOVA have been booked for allegedly playing baccarat, a type of gambling, one or two times in the Philippines from 2016 to 2018 with stakes up to 50 million won (US$42,297), according to the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency.

They are also suspected of having participated in illegal online gambling in South Korea.

The boy band members, however, have claimed they did not go to the Philippines for the purpose of gambling and just happened to gamble by chance, according to the police.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I hope no one is surprised by so few people coronavirus antibodies when virus suppression has been the main strategy in South Korea:

Only one in 1,440 Koreans in a second round of serology tests has coronavirus antibodies, if the test conducted by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention proves reliable. That translates into just 0.07 percent. 

The second round of tests was conducted between June 10 and Aug. 13 on subjects in 13 cities to see if they might have had symptomatic infections. 

Given 20 percent of COVID-19 infections over the last couple of weeks were not traceable, health officials have believed that quite a number of people would show antibodies. 

The KCDC announced the results of its first serology test on July 9 which showed only one out of 3,055 test cases had coronavirus antibodies (0.03 percent).

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but to put this into perspective back in June Sweden reported that 10% of Stockholm residents had the COVID-19 antibody. Sweden is well known for not instituting lockdowns like most other countries have and that led to an initially high death rate. However, for the month of August the daily death rate has dropped significantly into the low single digits with some days with no deaths.

It is still too early to tell which strategy will work and much of it will be determined by if a workable vaccine is actually developed.