Tag: South Korea

It seems inevitable that the coronavirus is going to infect kids at school and I am surprised it has taken this long for it to happen:

Three infection cases of school kids in Daejeon have sent officials and educators to scurry for measures to curb transmission among young children Wednesday, as they might be the country’s first school transmissions.

Three fifth-graders at Cheondong Elementary School in Daejeon, about 160 kilometers south of Seoul, were confirmed to have tested positive for the new coronavirus, according to city officials.

One is a classmate of the school’s first patient, who was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 on Monday. The two students took classes at the same cram school, but their schedules were found not to have overlapped.

Another student was found to have come into contact with the first patient at a gymnasium. The two students are known to be quite close to each other, visiting each other’s houses frequently.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the infection may have happened outside of the school as well. Bottomline though is that schools just need to have a plan in place in how to deal with infections when they happen because they will.

Here is the latest Moon administration attack on the human rights group that send leaflets into North Korea:

The government is seeking stronger measures against activist and North Korean defectors groups that have been sending anti-North Korea leaflets across the inter-Korean border, stating that their campaigns are not helping to create peace on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea watchers say that the government’s tough stance could lead to the campaigns losing ground here. 

On Monday, the Ministry of Unification held a hearing to give two North Korean defectors’ groups a final opportunity to justify their actions before it makes a decision on whether to revoke their civic group licenses, following their sending of propaganda leaflets, rice and other items across the border. 

“We held a hearing today for Fighters for a Free North Korea and Kuensaem,” the ministry said in a press statement. “After checking whether there are any additional documents they need to submit, we will proceed with the license revocation and other related procedures.”

If their licenses are annulled, they will not be able to hold official fundraisers. Currently, donors for activist groups are eligible for various tax benefits.

“Individuals can donate, but their contribution could be seen as a donation of their property, which means they may have to pay gift taxes,” ministry spokesman Yoh Sang-key said. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but this is the state of affairs in Korea right now. Leaders running human rights groups trying to make change in North Korea will have to pay taxes for donations while leaders of comfort women groups get to embezzle the money and then get appointed to the National Assembly to avoid prosecution.

Will any ROK Heads be rushing to the store to buy this new Kellogg’s cereal?:

Kellogg Korea’s latest release, Chex Green Onion is stirring up the Internet even before hitting the shelves.

Kellogg Korea uploaded a 6-second-long video on June 17 on its YouTube channel, recruiting 50 people to try its newest product before its release. The video showed chopped green onion being sprinkled on chocolate flavored Korean cereal Chex with milk with background music with the lyrics “sorry, sorry, sorry” by trot singer Tae Jin-ah.

Korea Herald

You can read more about the cereal at the link.

It seems the South Korean public understands the reality of the Kim regime better than many elites in South Korea and the U.S.:

Nine out of 10 South Koreans think North Korea will not give up its nuclear weapons, but nearly half think the South should still seek dialogue with the North, according to a recent poll.

In an annual face-to-face survey of 1,003 adults conducted from May 20 through June 10 by the Korea Institute for National Unification, 89.5 percent said Pyongyang will not denuclearize, the highest since 2016.

Only 15.6 percent said they think dialogue and compromise are possible with the North’s Kim Jong-un administration.

Nevertheless, 45.7 percent think Seoul should keep trying — up from the previous survey in November 2019, when 38.1 percent thought so, but down from April 2019, when 51.4 percent did.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The coronavirus response in South Korea continues to battle cluster infections:

The number of South Korea’s daily COVID-19 cases bounced back to over 50 on Saturday amid another outbreak of cluster infections traced to a major church in Seoul.

A total of 51 people tested positive for the new coronavirus, according to data collated during the last 24 hours by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Among them, 31 people contracted the virus via community spread, while 20 cases were imported, it announced.

They included 15 in Seoul, 12 in nearby Gyeonggi Province and two in Daejeon, some 160 kilometers south of the capital.

In particular, nine people were added to the list of COVID-19 patients related to Wangsung Church in the southwestern ward of Gwanak, which has emerged as a source of cluster infections. It is known to have more than 1,700 followers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is what President Moon had to say on the 70th anniversary of the Korean War:

South Korean President Moon Jae-in called on North Korea Thursday to join a bold move to formally end the Korean War in peace overtures, coupled with a clear warning message, commemorating the conflict that started seven decades ago, with the fragile Korea peace process at stake.

“We cannot commemorate the Korean War in a genuine manner yet. That is because the War has yet to come to an end,” he said during a speech at the war anniversary event held at Seoul Air Base, a military compound just southeast of Seoul. 

He was pointing out that the three-year war finished in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty, which has left the two Koreas technically at war and repeatedly facing sharp military tensions.

Moon expressed hope that the North will “boldly embark on an endeavor to end the most sorrowful war in world history.”

“If we are going to talk about unification, we have to achieve peace first, and only after peace has continued for a long time will we be able to finally see the door to unification,” he stressed, addressing the nighttime ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the war.

He reaffirmed that South Korea has no intention to force its system on the communist neighbor and emphasized the importance of building peace first.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it doesn’t matter that President Moon does not want to impose the South’s system on the North. This is because the Kim regime still wants to impose their system on South Korea. This has always been their ultimate goal. Kim Jong-un has never come out and stated otherwise. This is because the democratic system in the South is a direct ideological threat to the Kim regime and must be opposed at all costs. This will never change as long as the Kim regime remains in power in North Korea.

Here is the latest on the recent North Korean manufactured “crisis”:

North Korea was seen removing multiple propaganda loudspeakers reinstalled recently along the border with South Korea, officials said Wednesday, after leader Kim Jong-un ordered the suspension of military action plans against the South.

The North recently set up around 20 to 30 loudspeakers in border areas after threatening to take military action against what it called “the enemy” in anger over Seoul’s failure to stop defectors from sending anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border.

“North Korea is taking down those newly installed loudspeakers from earlier today,” a military source said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the most obvious question likely no one in the media will ask, is what did the Moon administration promise the Kim regime in return for reducing tensions?

The difference between the propaganda leaflets war now going on is that in South Korea people would just laugh at North Korean propaganda while in North Korea, the activists that launch their propaganda balloons is a threat to state stability:

The North’s Korean Central News Agency website showed pictures of North Korean workers sorting printed propaganda flyers in piles. One of them showed pictures of President Moon Jae-in with dirty cigarette butts in a plastic bag.

“It is very regrettable that North Korea unveiled via a media outlet its plan to send massive anti-South Korea leaflets, and we demand its immediate halt,” the ministry said in a statement. 

“Such acts by North Korea are a clear violation of the inter-Korean agreement, a step that does not resolve wrong practices between the two Koreas but rather exacerbates them,” it said, stressing that it does no good for inter-Korean relations or the peace process on the Korean Peninsula. 

It also said the government has vowed to sternly deal with anti-Pyongyang leafleting by some civic groups and stepped up control near the border towns to crack down on the activities.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the coronavirus spread in South Korea:

South Korea’s virus fight is dragging on, with a steady rise in new virus cases and untraceable infections, along with a spike in imported cases. Health authorities warned that another possible wave of infections and “hidden” virus spreaders across the country may strain the country’s containment efforts.

The country added 49 new cases on Friday, including 32 local infections, raising the total caseload to 12,306, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

The number of new daily COVID-19 cases marks a slight slowdown from a three-week high of 59 a day earlier.

Of the locally transmitted cases, 26 were reported in the densely populated Seoul and nearby metropolitan areas, around half of the country’s 50-million population lives.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but something never mentioned in these articles is if the infection level is such that the hospitals can’t keep up. It appears that the hospitals are doing fine considering the death toll right now is 280 people:

Health authorities said that the country may roll back to strict distancing in daily life if the number of new cases falls back to single digits.

There were no additional deaths, keeping the total death toll to 280.

The fatality rate came to 2.27 percent, but it shot up to 25.65 percent for those aged 80 and above.

Health authorities said it is worrisome that South Korea has been experiencing a hike in the portion of elderly among new patients.

Patients aged 50 and above accounted for a whopping 55 percent of new infections in the first two weeks of June, marking a drastic rise from only 12 percent posted a month earlier.

It seems to me this will just be the new normal until herd immunity happens and the virus runs its course. The key will be making sure the hospitals are not overwhelmed so the most critical patients can be treated which the numbers are showing South Korea is doing a great job of.