Here is another area impacted by the current trade dispute between Korea and Japan, the hiring of South Koreans in Japan:

Song Min-su, a Japanese major in his final year at Hannam University, south of Seoul, has watched in dismay as a dispute between South Korea and Japan over wartime forced labor has spiraled into a damaging political and economic row.

Song, 25, has been pursuing his dream of working in Japan. With historic labor shortages in Japan, he had been confident he would avoid the tough job search many of his peers faced at home in South Korea, where youth unemployment is growing.

But curbs in Japan on the exports of high-tech materials to South Korea have escalated a bitter diplomatic feud between the neighbors, sparking boycotts that have hit the sales of Japanese cars, beer and other goods in South Korea, as well as travel to Japan.

“It will not only get harder to find a job in Japan, but the current sentiment will also make things more difficult to find a job in Korea with the use of my Japanese major,” Song said.

South Korea’s relations with former colonial ruler Japan have long been testy, with Tokyo having cited a dispute over court rulings related to forced wartime labor during World War II as a factor that led to tighter export controls implemented in July.

South Korea responded by stripping Japan of favored trading nation status and scrapping an intelligence-sharing pact.

The dispute has derailed a surge in the hiring of highly educated South Korean graduates by Japanese companies in recent years, forcing job seekers, employment consultants and the Seoul government to rethink Japan as a place to work. (………..)

With unemployment at a 26-year-low, Japan was the most popular overseas place to work for Koreans in 2014 and 2016-2018, figures from Human Resources Development Service of Korea show. Japan was the destination for nearly one-third of 5,783 South Korean graduates who found jobs overseas last year under government programs, more than triple the number seen in 2013.

But last month, the Labor Ministry canceled a job fair focused on Japan and Southeast Asia for late September that would have been the largest organized by the government, blaming the strained ties.

Another job expo held by the Korea-Japan Cooperation Foundation for Industry and Technology in mid-July, also with a focus on jobs in Japan, received 20 percent fewer participants than its previous fairs, an official said.

South Korea’s Labor Ministry is planning the second of its biannual global job fairs in November, but instead of focusing on jobs in Japan, as it did last year, it plans to broaden the list of countries.

Japan Times

You can read more at the link, but with already high youth unemployment in South Korea, it seems like the Korean government would rather have people unemployed than working in Japan.

Here is the latest on Typhoon Lingling:

 At least three South Koreans were reported killed Saturday as Typhoon Lingling made landfall here, bringing heavy rains and strong winds that caused hundreds of minor accidents throughout the nation.

A woman in her 70s died after she was knocked over by strong winds gusting at 39 meters per second, or 140 kph, in Boryeong, some 150 kilometers southwest of Seoul, according to rescue officials there.

In Incheon, 40 kilometers west of the capital, a bus driver was crushed to death after a wall at a hospital parking lot collapsed.

Later in the day in Paju, north of Seoul, a 61-year-old man was killed after being struck in the head by a roof panel at a golf driving range. Rescue officials said the man had been working on the roof when a sudden gust of wind blew the piece of panel toward him.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Notice how the family members of U.S. POW’s used as forced laborers in Japan are not launching lawsuits, demanding compensation, and wanting normalization treaties with Japan thrown away:

The daughter of a Marine Corps veteran got an apology from Mitsubishi Materials Corp. during a visit Wednesday to the site of a mine where the veteran worked as a prisoner during World War II.

George Burlage, a member of the 4th Marine Regiment, was captured on Corregidor in May 1942 and spent time in prisoner of war camps in the Philippines and Taiwan before traveling to Japan in a “hell ship” prisoner transport.

The Visalia, Calif., native ended the war working at a lead and zinc mine operated by Mitsubishi Mining in northeast Japan, according to his biography provided by the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society.

This week, his daughter Georgianne Burlage, 64, of Denton, Texas, traveled to her dad’s old POW camp, now a tourist attraction called Hosokura Mine Park in Sendai, as part of a trip for eight children of American POWs arranged by the Japanese government.

Some 27,000 U.S. troops were captured by Japan during the war and suffered in hellacious conditions at the hands of their Japanese captors: torture, starvation, disease, exposure and the continual deaths of their brothers in arms. About 40% percent of the POWs perished — 1,115 of them after being sent to Japan to work as forced laborers at more than 100 camps run by approximately 60 companies. (………)

“Officials from Mitsubishi met us and formally apologized to me for what happened to my father,” she said in a phone interview Thursday. “That meant a lot to me. They were very gracious.” (…….)

Despite his ordeal, her father hadn’t expressed animosity toward the Japanese people and remained philosophical about his time in captivity, she said.

“They were mistreated but he always said it was 40 months of his life. He didn’t let it ruin the rest of his life,” she said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on Japan’s other island dispute:

Japan plans to bolster defenses around its disputed southern island chain by creating a specialized police force that will respond to any incursions in the East China Sea.

The news was first reported Monday by Japan public broadcaster NHK, which cited police sources. The Okinawa-based law enforcement unit will be trained in border security tactics and deployed in the next Japanese fiscal year, which begins in April.

The move marks the first time Japanese police will be called to respond to territorial incursions near the Senkaku islands. The uninhabited, resource-rich chain between Okinawa and Taiwan are controlled by Japan but claimed by Taiwan and China, which refers to them as Diaoyu. (…….)

“The National Police Agency believes that there should be some police expertise to respond to [incursions] and they decided to place a unit in Okinawa,” the report said. “The [unit’s] members will be carrying sub-machine guns and are highly trained in case the trespassers are armed.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Like the U.S., South Korea now has its own typhoon to prepare for as well:

A powerful typhoon is quickly moving northward to South Korea, with rain and strong winds seen on the country’s southern island of Jeju Friday. 

Typhoon Lingling, this year’s 13th typhoon, passed over seas 330 kilometers southwest of Jeju at a speed of 43 kph as of 6 p.m., according to the Korea Meteorological Association.

Its central pressure was 950 hectopascals, and the maximum wind speed near its center was 43 meters per second, or 155 kph. Strong gusts like this can topple cars and ships, and uproot trees.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is what came out of the ROK Justice Minister confirmation hearings. He essentially denied all the corruption claims and if any did happen they were his wife’s fault:

Justice Minister nominee Cho Kuk denied he had any part in alleged corruption involving his family during a confirmation hearing Friday, as political parties wrangled over his suitability for the post.

Cho repeatedly apologized to the public for the allegations that have caused public disappointment and uproar, but he also expressed his unwavering commitment to carrying out reform of the prosecution.

“For the reform, I think that a proper candidate for justice minister should have no experience serving as a prosecutor. If not, the person cannot help representing interests of the prosecution,” Cho told lawmakers.

Cho, a former senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, was bombarded with questions by lawmakers over his supposed ethical lapses linked to suspected corruption involving his family.

Yonhap

Here is where new allegations have surfaced and he blamed his wife:

During the hearing, lawmakers mainly bickered over fresh allegations that Cho’s spouse may have fabricated a school award for her daughter.

Cho’s wife, a Dongyang University professor surnamed Chung, faces allegations that she may have forged the dean’s award certificate in 2012 to help the daughter enter the PNU medical school in 2014.

The award was allegedly given in recognition of volunteer work at the school’s English education center for children from rural villages in Yeongju, 230 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Chung later became the chief of the center.

Dongyang University Dean Choi Sung-hae said Thursday that Chung asked him to say he had entrusted her with the authority to issue the dean’s award certificate. His remarks spawned speculation that Chung may have attempted to destroy evidence.

Choi told Yonhap News Agency that Chung put her husband on the phone with him and he was pressed by Cho to make a false statement on the forgery allegations against Chung.

Cho acknowledged that he spoke by phone with Choi, but dismissed claims that he might have exerted pressure on the chief.

“I told Choi that I am sorry (about the row) and asked him to reveal the truth as it is,” Cho said.

“If my wife committed (the alleged forgery), she should have to take legal responsibility, as everybody is equal before law,” he noted.

Look how brazen Cho is that he knows he is under intense scrutiny, but still gets on the phone to pressure a witness before his confirmation hearing and then blames his wife for anything illegal that may have happened.

He knows just like other corrupt Moon administration officials that he will get appointed and the public flogging he is taking now will be quickly forgotten by a largely Blue House controlled news media.

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Mr. Hwang reports now >60% ROK ppl are against Cho Kuk appointed as justice minister. Even Moon's main supporters, housewives, are against Cho. But, Moon still plan to appoint Cho this week. https://t.co/mMJZUB6pbO

— bmk218 (@bmk218) September 4, 2019

Here is what Chung Jae-jeong, professor emeritus at the University of Seoul has to say about the current trade dispute between Korea and Japan.

Q: Since the Supreme Court ruling, has Seoul given the impression that it may be disregarding the 1965 pact?

A: There is a high possibility that Japan takes this view. Seoul says that it is addressing the insufficiencies of the 1965 pact, but from Japan’s point of view, all issues regarding compensation were completely resolved with the deal. The Korean government has only said it respects the ruling, and has not given clear explanations about the discrepancy between the 1965 pact and the Supreme Court ruling. There has not been any statement from the foreign minister or the President declaring once and for all that Seoul does not deny the pact. If this position was declared through an official channel, it could help to assuage the considerable level of concern Japan has. This will facilitate negotiations on how to resolve the current disputes. Abe and the Japanese foreign minister have continued to demand Korea “keep state-to-state promises and treaties.”

Q: If the President were to make such a declaration, the Korean public may see it as a humiliation and get the impression that we are succumbing to Japan’s demands. 

A: I think we as a country have passed a stage where we approach state-to-state conflicts emotionally. They should be handled with professional judgment and knowledge. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Professor Chung recommends that a third party arbitrator be used to resolve this issue, but this is whole is issue is about driving anti-Japanese sentiment for future elections not resolving it, so the Moon administration will continue to down play the 1965 Treaty.