Tag: Seoul

I have driven on this expressway many times and it is amazing that apparently an accident with a garbage truck caused a fire this big:

At least five people were killed and 37 others injured, three of them seriously, Thursday in a noise-barrier tunnel fire along an expressway in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, fire authorities said. 

The blaze was reported to have occurred at 1:49 p.m. inside the noise tunnel in Gwacheon along the Second Gyeongin Expressway that connects the western port city of Incheon to Seongnam City, the authorities said.

Fire authorities initially announced the fire started after a collision between a bus and a garbage truck but later said they would need further investigation to determine the exact cause, leaving open the possibility that the truck alone may have been responsible for the deadly blaze.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It should come as know surprise that the secret Chinese police base is being run out of a restaurant in the same building housing China’s state broadcaster CCTV:

A Chinese restaurant in southern Seoul suspected of being operated as a base for a secret Chinese police station in Korea was found to have opened another branch office right in front of the National Assembly building in Yeouido, western Seoul.  
   
The company opened the office in a nine-story building located on a road directly in front of the National Assembly building in December 2020, according to a certificate of registry information on the restaurant’s operator obtained by the JoongAng Ilbo.  
   
A total of seven businesses were in operation in the building, the JoongAng Ilbo confirmed Friday. 

wo Chinese media-related companies were located in the building: a Chinese media-related office and the Seoul bureau office of China Central Television (CCTV) were on the ninth floor. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It has been a cold December in South Korea:

The Han River in Seoul was declared frozen by South Korea’s state weather agency for the first time this winter Sunday, as a cold snap has continued for days.

The first freeze of the river was observed on the river running through the capital city more than two weeks earlier than previous years, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).

According to the KMA, the river is officially frozen when it has thick ice in a 100-meter-long area between the Han River Bridge’s second and fourth piers. The bridge links Yongsan Ward and Dongjak Ward

In previous winters, the first freeze on the river was declared around Jan. 10. Last winter, the Han River never officially froze.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This drunken idiot gets to experience the full extent of the Korean court system:

A member of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) has been arrested after beating up a taxi driver so badly that the victim could not work for a number of days, according to the police in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province on Sunday.

The aggressor’s attack was recorded by a black-box video camera installed inside the taxi at about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 27. He threw punches at the victim, who is 58 years old, using both arms as the driver took the beating whilst trying to guard his head with his hands.

The American then returned to Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, right across the road from where the incident happened. The aggressor left his wallet on the back seat of the taxi, where his identification card was found. Officers from Seongnam Sujeong Police Station arrived at the scene after the soldier fled the scene. The authorities said that they will call in the aggressor to the police station for questioning.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the assault happened after the Soldiers credit card was declined for payment. The driver for his part is smartly playing up his injuries as much as possible trying to get as much money from the U.S. military as he can.

Even more police officers and other officials are being charged for not doing their jobs properly the night of the Itaewon crowd crush disaster:

A total of nine police officers and government officials were additionally booked Wednesday for an investigation into the bungled response to the crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood, police said.

Among those on the list are Park Sung-min, a superintendent general, and Song Byung-joo, a former emergency monitoring officer at Yongsan Police Station, as well as four other intelligence officers, they said. 

Park is under suspicion of ordering the deletion of an internal intelligence report giving prior warnings of a possible safety accident during the Halloween period in a suspected attempt to cover up inaction. A superintendent general is the fourth-highest rank in the police.

Also on Wednesday, Song, who was in charge of the police’s 112 emergency hotline in Yongsan Ward covering the Itaewon district, was quizzed by a special investigation team earlier in the day on whether he had promptly reported the situation to Lee Im-jae, who formerly headed the station.

Lee earlier testified during a parliamentary audit that he learned of the accident at around 11 p.m., around 45 minutes after the incident first erupted, claiming the emergency hotline chief had earlier reported to him that nothing unusual was going on.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.