According to the article more South Korean women are foregoing marriage and having kids which is contributing to a population decline:

Baeck Ha-na works in accounting during the week. On weekends, she’s a YouTube star in South Korea, promoting the “live-alone life.”

Baeck, whose YouTube channel in English is called “Solo-darity,” objects to being called a “mi-hon” — someone who is not yet married. She’s part of a growing and determined group of Korean women rejecting marriage and motherhood.

Such decisions are intensifying demographic and economic challenges for the government as the country faces one of the world’s lowest birth rates and a shortfall in pension funding that is getting harder to close with fewer workers joining the labor force.

“Society made me feel like a failure for being in my 30’s and not yet a wife or a mother,” Baeck said. “Instead of belonging to someone, I now have a more ambitious future for myself.”

Bloomberg

You can read more at the link.

This is a really good program that the South Korean government puts on every year:

South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs hosted Munson and more than 100 other veterans and family members from 16 nations to express the South’s appreciation for the sacrifices made during the three-year war.

During the six-day revisit program that began Tuesday, the vets participated in numerous cultural events and tours, including a trip to the truce village of Panmunjom and other sites in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone.

They also laid white flowers on the headstones of fallen servicemembers at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in the southern city of Busan.

They were welcomed with a standing ovation and honored during the annual United Nations Forces participation day ceremony in Seoul, which was broadcast on national TV.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Moon's son-in-law bought a house in Seoul in 2010. #MoonJaein & his wife move in 2012-16. Moon moves in 2016 to another house. The son-in-law gives the house to his wife, Moon Da-hye, also Moon's daughter. 3 months later, Da-hye sells the house. Why such complex transactions? https://t.co/eBzbJBypsH

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) December 29, 2018

It looks like it is still a tough job market for younger and even middle aged Koreans. More part time work to older people and retirees is contributing to the the tight job market:

Korea has been losing its economic vitality as the Moon Jae-in administration’s efforts to boost employment have led to more part-time jobs for retirees and fewer full-time positions for young jobseekers, according to economists here and overseas, last Friday. 

Criticizing the government for its short-sighted labor policies, the economists urged the administration to devise long-term strategies for the country’s sustainable growth.

“The government’s labor policy is more like a measure to help senior citizens maintain their incomes,” said Lee Phil-sang, an economics professor at Seoul National University. “The economy lacks the ability to create jobs. It has lost the ability since the nation’s key industries have lost their global competitiveness.”

According to Statistics Korea, the number of employees in their 30s and 40s in June 2019 dropped by 32,000 and 182,000 respectively from a year earlier. The number of workers aged between 15 and 29 also decreased, by 4,000.

In addition, 66,000 people lost manufacturing jobs ― the number of workers in the sector has fallen for 15 straight months.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is just bizarre and creepy that a four star general would do something like this if true:

U.S. Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten’s chances of being confirmed as the military’s second-highest officer may come down to one thing next week: whether senators believe an Army colonel’s charges that he sexually assaulted her while she was under his command — accusations he denies.

Col. Kathryn Spletstoser has accused Hyten, who is currently responsible for the country’s nuclear arsenal as the head of U.S. Strategic Command, of making unwanted sexual contact with her on several occasions in 2017 while the two were traveling for work.

Both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee maintain that her account is plausible, but some members have also said they are wary of taking her uncorroborated word over the categorical denials of a decorated four-star Air Force general endorsed by high-ranking colleagues. (…………..)

Spletstoser’s public remarks would probably mirror much of what she has told the panel in private and alleged in a Washington Post interview: that Hyten had taken a liking to her when he took over U.S. Strategic Command in November 2016, picking her to be his “point person,” but that two months in, he started making overt and unwelcome advances during official overnight trips.

The first time was in January 2017, she alleges, when Hyten grabbed her left hand as she was exiting a work meeting in his hotel room in Palo Alto, California, pulling it in toward his groin so she could feel his erection before she moved her hand away. In June 2017, Spletstoser said that Hyten interrupted another work meeting in his Washington, D.C., hotel room to fondle her breasts and kiss her — and that she pushed him away and admonished him. That prompted Hyten to panic, she said, and ask her through tears: “Are you going to tell on me?” Though she felt he had clearly “crossed a line,” she assured him she would not, she said.

Yet it was during the Reagan National Defense Forum in December 2017 that Spletstoser said Hyten made his most aggressive move, arriving uninvited at her hotel room in workout clothes carrying a binder, and claiming he wanted to discuss work matters. Within minutes, Spletstoser said, Hyten had pinned her against him and begun “grinding on me hard, like he wants to take my clothes off and have sex . . . and then I realize, he’s ejaculating.”

Washington Post

You can read more at the link, but what complicates this issue is that Col. Spletstoser was given a letter of reprimand from investigators for toxic leadership behavior. She was also given a negative officer evaluation report from General Hyten which she was appealing when he was nominated for the Vice Chairman job and she then made the complaint against him.

Interestingly no one else has come forward to say they saw anything inappropriate. This turns this into a he said, she said situation and it will be interesting to see what happens because in this #metoo environment those accused of sexual misconduct are guilty until proven innocent.

Who knows what and where this green roofed building is?:

2019 KOREA FINDER LEADERS BOARD

1. Comfortable Chairs – 3
2. Smokes – 1, BMW – 1, Chickenhead – 1, MTB Rider – 1

#MoonJaein admin to transfer $8M to #NorthKorea via WFP next week. Meanwhile, NK rejected SK rice aid, shot off more missiles, & warned SK, the day after Chinese & Russian military aircraft intruded KADIZ & a RU aircraft violated SK airspace. Priorities.https://t.co/6EN5QK1GCd

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) July 26, 2019

It looks like more gas stations in Korea are going to become more like their counterparts in the U.S.:

Gas stations are soon to become something very different, as charging units and hydrogen compressors are added across the land. But there’s more, as operators in the business look to diversify and make the outlets more profitable.

They are adding a wide range of goods and services, including maintenance centers, convenience stores, fast food restaurants and even coffee shops. Parcel delivery is also on the list.

Such changes come as gas stations struggle under intense competition. On average, 170 of them are driven out of business annually, forcing the adoption of new strategies to survive.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.