If you find yourself in trouble in Hongdae there may be a foreigner on patrol with the police to assist you:
Mapo-gu Office Head Yoo Dong-gyun, second from left, patrols around the Hondae area with foreigners recently picked for volunteer patrol company program in the town, last Friday. Courtesy of Mapo-gu Office
Amid a rising number of foreign residents, tourists and multiracial families here, Mapo-gu Office in western Seoul has launched a patrol unit comprised of foreigners, to offer help to foreign residents and tourists in the areas around Hongik University Station.
The district office said, Monday, that it held a welcome ceremony for the unit, Friday, consisting of 20 volunteers including foreign residents from Nigeria and China.
The move follows an influx of more and more foreigners in the district.
According to the population and housing census in 2017, the number of multiracial family members living in Mapo-gu was 5,585. Also, the Hongdae area is one of the most popular tourist destinations visited by many foreigners and local residents, together with Yeonnam-dong next door which has gained popularity recently.
The unit members will patrol twice a week for four hours. The patrol course will include Yeonnam-dong and the area near the university, known colloquially as Hongdae. Their main jobs are to provide translation to tourists and listen to their complaints as well as solve conflicts among foreign residents.
Unfortunately it looks like some foreign students in Seoul had to deal with a creepy ajushi:
A building superintendent has been booked for allegedly sexually harassing foreign residents in Seodaemun, northwestern Seoul, Seodaemun police said.
The suspect, in his 40s, allegedly verbally and physically harassed foreign women, most of whom are studying or on a temporary stay in Korea. The building is used as a dormitory for foreign students of a nearby university.
Police began their investigation after one of the alleged victims complained.
Police allege the suspect has been harassing foreign residents for a long time. The victims said they did not know how to deal with it.
“He tried to kiss me twice and grab my butt,” one victim told a local news outlet. “He would also ask me to sleep with him.”
Another ruling party and Moon administration official caught up in a scandal:
A two-story building purchased by presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom last July. The building, located inside the redevelopment zone of Heukseok-dong, Dongjak District, in southern Seoul, was worth 2.57 billion won (＄2.26 million). [YONHAP]
A real estate investment by presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom has prompted accusations that he is guilty of real estate speculation – which the administration has done its best to crack down on.
On Thursday, the Government Ethics Committee’s Public Service Ethics Program released this year’s report on assets of senior public servants, including Blue House aides and cabinet ministers. According to the report, Kim purchased a building in Heukseok-dong, southern Seoul’s Dongjak District, for 2.57 billion won ($2.26 million won) last July, just weeks before the government announced strong antispeculation measures that applied to that neighborhood.
“Throughout the morning meeting, we discussed concerns over Kim’s purchase,” an official of the Blue House told the JoongAng Ilbo on Thursday. “We wonder if the public will accept the fact that he borrowed 1.6 billion won to make an investment in a redevelopment zone when the government was strongly pushing its policy to stabilize the real estate market.”
To purchase the building, Kim borrowed over 1.02 billion won from Kookmin Bank. He borrowed another 360 million won from individuals. In total, he took out over 1.6 billion won in loans to purchase the building.
The property is located inside the Heukseok 9 redevelopment district, one of the hottest redevelopment projects in Seoul. Lotte Engineering and Construction will redevelop the area to build 11 buildings that will house 1,536 apartments under the name Heukseok Signature Castle. A realtor in the neighborhood said the project is considered to be highly profitable to investors depending on when they got in. (…..)
“It is common sense among ordinary people that you shouldn’t take out a huge loan and invest unless you are certain that the building will soon be redeveloped,” said another Blue House official. “If accusations are made that Kim used information he obtained as the presidential spokesman and made the investment, the situation can be uncontrollable.”
S. Korean first lady with Belgian queenSouth Korean first lady Kim Jung-sook (R) and Queen Mathilde of Belgium visit a campus of Korea National University of Arts in Seoul on March 26, 2019. The queen has been in Seoul to accompany King Philippe of Belgium on his state visit to South Korea. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s capital city, Seoul, ranks as the seventh most expensive city in the world to live in this year, a survey showed Saturday.
The Worldwide Cost of Living (WCL) Survey, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), measures the prices of more than 150 items in 133 cities across the globe, with the index for New York set as a benchmark of 100.
According to the latest WCL poll, Seoul ranked seventh, on a par with New York, down one notch from the previous survey.
Singapore, Paris and Hong Kong are the joint most expensive cities in the world with an index of 107, followed by Zurich of Switzerland with 106, and its sister Geneva and Japan’s Osaka coming next with 101 each.
Memorial tents for Sewol victims removedTents set up in downtown Seoul by families of the victims of the Sewol ferry sinking are dismantled on March 18, 2019, as their removal begins. The tents were set up as a memorial for the victims and to demand a full investigation into the Sewol disaster, which killed 304 people on April 16, 2014. Most of the victims were high school students on an excursion. The families agreed to withdraw the tents they installed in July in the year of the tragedy. (Yonhap)
Seoul International MarathonKenyan marathoner Thomas Rono finishes first at the 2019 Seoul International Marathon held in the capital city on March 17, 2019. (Yonhap)
Via a reader tip comes this interesting CBS News report about an English teacher murdered in Seoul back in 1988 and how her alleged killer is free back in the US:
Wanda Abel holds one of the last pictures taken of her sister, Carolyn. CBS News/Wanda Abel
Imagine a loved one brutally murdered in a foreign country — allegedly by another American. Correspondent Peter Van Sant and his team have investigated the disturbing 1988 murder of Carolyn Abel, an American teacher in South Korea, and the loophole in U.S. laws at the time that mean the suspected killer may never face trial.
For writer and author Nancy Bercaw, flying to South Korea last winter reopened a painful chapter in her life: one of murder, loss and fear.
You can read the whole thing at the link, but the suspected killer of Carolyn Abel was her boss at the English school she worked at named Kathy Patrick. Patrick was gay and supposedly was angered when Abel rejected her advances and decided to kill her. After killing her Patrick then flew home to Washington State. Since there was no extradition treaty between the US and Korea at the time, US authorities could not arrest her for murder.
Since the murder Patrick has lived as a free woman in Washington state and she actually currently works at Western Washington University advising students.
So much for the free market deciding winners and losers. This decision would be like the DVD rental industry complaining about online streaming services and the government only allowing them to stream at certain times:
Democratic Party Lawmaker Jeon Hyun-heui, third from left, who led the ruling party’s task force to resolve the carpool issue, Kakao Mobility CEO Jung Joo-hwan and representatives of the taxi industry pose for a photo at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Thursday. After months of discussions, they finally reached an agreement in a meeting Thursday to allow carpooling services with limits on operating hours. [YONHAP]
The government, Kakao’s mobile transportation service affiliate and the taxi industry clinched a breakthrough agreement on Thursday to allow Kakao Mobility’s carpool service to operate at limited times.
The successful conclusion of the three-way discussions ends months of bitter disputes that led to the suspension of a beta service and immolations by three taxi drivers, two of whom died as a result.
Kakao’s new service will be available only during weekday commuting hours between 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. It will not operate on weekends or public holidays.
You can read more at the link, but judging by the above picture the Kakao Mobility CEO Jung Joo-hwan does not look happy about this agreement. I fully expect this fight between Kakao and the taxi driver union will come up again in the future.
This reeks of “were doing something” when the Moon administration knows as long as China continues to pump out pollution there is really nothing they can do:
Fine dust in Seoul this week.
President Moon Jae-in ordered the government on Tuesday to take extraordinary measures to fight fine dust pollution that has choked the country for days. Moon received an urgent briefing from Environment Minister Cho Myung-rae on particulate matter problems for about 50 minutes, a presidential spokesman said. Moon called for interagency efforts to curb the pollution and reduce damage, including the installation of high-capacity air purifiers in more daycare centers and schools. “The government should respond immediately, rather than clinging to long-term responses, to people’s demand when it explosively increases,” he was quoted as saying by spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.
You can read more at the link, but the measures include having more government meetings to discuss the problem and asking China to please stop polluting. Good luck with that.
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