Tag: Busan

The Japanese government has responded to the installation of a comfort woman statue in front of their consulate in Busan:

South Korea expressed “strong regret” over steps taken by Japan on Friday, including recalling its ambassador, in protest against a statue recently set up in front of its consulate office to shed light on its wartime atrocities of forcing women into sexual slavery.

“We express our strong regret over the action taken by Japan with regard to the statue,” the foreign ministry said in a comment issued in the name of its spokesman.

“The government wants to make it clear again that both countries should keep advancing their bilateral ties based on trust regardless of any challenging issues,” it added.

Earlier, Japan decided to temporarily call in Yasumasa Nagamine, its ambassador to South Korea, in protest against the statue installed at the end of last year by a civic group in front of its Consulate General building in the southern port city of Busan. He will likely return to Japan next week.

Tokyo also announced a halt to the ongoing negotiation on a currency swap agreement between the two countries — an emergeny channel of and the postponement of a high-level economic cooperation meeting.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but I am still waiting for the installation of a statue in front of the Chinese embassy in protest of all the modern day Korean comfort women in that country that these activist groups don’t care about.

As I have said before, the installation of this statue is needlessly provocative against Japan which has apologized an offered compensation multiple times for its past wartime activities.  If these activist groups really cared about sexual slavery then they would be putting up a statue in front of the Chinese embassy in Seoul in protest of the modern day sexual slavery of North Korean women in China.  However, that would take real courage because China will retaliate unlike Japan that these activists know will just continue to take it:

A civic group installed a statue of a girl symbolizing the victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery in front of the Japanese Consulate in South Korea’s largest port city of Busan on Friday after the Dong Ward municipality gave its approval.

The ward municipality agreed earlier in the day to let the civic group install the statue on the sidewalk about 40 meters away from the consulate’s back door.

It marked the second of its kind established in front of Japan’s overseas diplomatic missions after one was installed in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.

“We will not stop the civic group from installing the statue in front of the consulate if they wish to do so,” Park Sam-seok, chief of the municipality, said at a press conference.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Installing this statue outside the Japanese consulate in Busan seems needlessly provocative to me.  If these activist groups are so concerned about sexual slavery then they should be putting up statues in front of the Chinese embassy in Seoul in protest of the modern day sexual slavery of North Korean women in China:

Dozens of members from a civic group without authorization attempted to install a statue of a girl symbolizing the victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery in South Korea’s largest port city of Busan, but the attempt was foiled due to opposition from officials and police.

The group tried to set up the statue on the sidewalk in front of the back door of the Japanese Consulate shortly after a weekly rally around 12:30 p.m. calling for the Japanese government to offer an apology and compensation for its wartime sexual enslavement of Asian women, many of whom were Korean.

As many as 150 activists from the group staged the rally to protest a Seoul-Tokyo landmark deal in December last year in which Tokyo apologized for its colonial-era atrocities and agreed to provide 1 billion yen (US$9.4 million) for the creation of a foundation aimed at supporting the victims, euphemistically called comfort women.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

An American teacher working at an elementary school in Busan and her family have been selected to receive a community service award from the city of Busan for helping to clean up Gwangalli Beach after Typhoon Chaba struck the city:

An American family who voluntarily cleaned Busan’s Gwangalli Beach that was wrecked by deadly typhoon “Chaba” this month will receive an award for their service to the community.

The city’s Suyeong-gu District Office said on Monday that it would present Deanna Rupert, 38, and her two daughters, Fiona, 11, and Stella, 5, with an “award certificate for foreign residents” to honor what they did.

The three Americans — who live near the beach — and a group of Koreans cleaned up the beach for more than four hours on Oct. 5. They had brought their own equipment.

“Fiona told me the beach was our neighborhood, and that it was our duty to clean it up and protect its environment,” said her mother, according to Yonhap news agency. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

There is a lesson to be learned here, don’t except drinks from strange people you just met:

Police have arrested a man for allegedly drugging a Uzbekistani women and dragging her to a Busan motel to rob her.

Police said that on Sept 13, the man, surnamed Kang, 35, approached the victim at a bus station in Oncheon-dong. He had a vending machine coffee that contained zolpidem, a sedative primarily used for insomnia.

He introduced himself to the woman as a Japanese living in Korea. Kang told police he talked with her for about an hour before giving her the coffee. After the woman fell asleep, he dragged her to a nearby hotel and stole her belongings, including a gold bracelet, police said.

Kang also allegedly stole about 10 million won ($9,060) from 12 other victims using a similar method.

Police arrested Kang at a motel in the area after going through security camera footage. [Korea Times]

The people behind these scams are criminals that should be punished, but I am always amazed by how people keep falling for these email scams that are obviously fake:

A mother and her daughter from the United States, who are part of an international group that carries out various inheritance and investment-related email scams, were arrested for fraud by Busan police on Thursday.

The mother, 67, and her daughter, 46, took 97 million won ($87,080) from a 32-year-old Sakhalin Korean, a Russian of Korean descent from Sakhalin Island, surnamed Kim. The money was taken through a total of 16 occasions from March to August of this year in Haeundae District in Busan.

The scam started when Kim received an email in March from who appeared to be a U.S. bank employee. The email read, “One of your distant relatives had passed away and has left 12 billion won to you.” At first, Kim was skeptical but ended up believing the email because the relative’s name written on the email seemed familiar.

Kim replied to the email, “How can I receive the inheritance?”

Soon after, the supposed U.S. bank employee sent another email, recommending Kim a lawyer. When Kim contacted the lawyer from the email, she explained how to receive the money and asked for a commission. Each time the lawyer asked for her payment, Kim wired the fee to a certain bank account in the U.S. Kim received a receipt and an authentication certificate whenever he transferred the fee.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Busan One Asia Festival to be Held in October https://t.co/CjWRNfXegs #Korea #kpop #hallyu #busan #music pic.twitter.com/1tjrvvtN4n

— Haps Magazine (@hapsmagazine) August 17, 2016

This American definitely put his life at risk to save someone who just tried to kill themselve:

An American saved a man who jumped off a bridge into a river to commit suicide in Busan Wednesday.

According to police, the American, 27, saw a man in his 60s jump from a bridge that connects Suyeong-gu and Haeundae-gu around 9:30 p.m.

He immediately jumped into the river with a life buoy and pulled the man to safety.

The man showed symptoms of hypothermia but refused to go to hospital.

Police handed him over to his family at the police station.

The man allegedly tried to commit suicide after suffering depression

The unidentified American also refused treatment and returned home. [Korea Times]

Visitors crowd Haeundae Beach in Busan on July 10, 2016, with a heat wave sweeping South Korea. (Yonhap)

The food scene in Busan is one for the books, namely for its large selection of restaurants and various cuisines.https://t.co/sltLlZzGcG

— 10 Magazine Korea (@10_Magazine) July 5, 2016