Tag: South Korea

This is pretty concerning that doctors currently do not know how the latest Korean to contract the coronavirus became infected with it:

The 30th case of the new coronavirus in Korea was confirmed Monday as the wife of Patient No. 29, an 82-year-old Korean man who had been volunteering with low-income senior citizens and spent days visiting several medical clinics and pharmacies before his diagnosis.  

Patient No. 30, a 68-year-old Korean woman, tested positive for the virus the previous day, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). Her husband, Patient No. 29, who had not traveled overseas in recent months nor come into contact with any known coronavirus patients, was confirmed as having tested positive for the new coronavirus earlier Sunday.  

How the elderly couple, who are residents of Jongno District, central Seoul, contracted the virus is still unclear. Authorities are scrambling to trace all the people they came in contact with in the past two weeks amid heightened concerns of secondary and tertiary infections.  

Patient No. 29 had a pre-existing heart condition and visited two different local clinics and two pharmacies prior to going to Korea University Anam Hospital’s emergency room in Seongbuk District, central Seoul, Saturday morning, with complaints of chest pains. The doctor there discovered through a CT scan that the man had symptoms of pneumonia and tested him for the coronavirus. The couple is being treated at Seoul National University Hospital in central Seoul, one of the state-designated facilities for the virus, officially called Covid-19, since Sunday, and they are both in a stable condition with mild fevers. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but if they cannot put this man in proximity of other coronavirus patients that likely means there are people infected in Seoul with the virus that don’t know it.

The ruling left-wing Democratic Party of Korea is trying to silence a liberal university professor critical of their recent actions:

Lim, a professor at Korea University’s Center for Korean History, contributed a column to the Kyunghyang Shinmun on Jan. 29, urging the public to vote for parties other than the DP to hold it accountable for the current political tumult. 

Citing an internal power struggle in the criminal justice system and political strife between the ruling and opposition parties, Lim wrote that public loathing of politics is deepening. 

“The Liberty Korea Party [LKP] is somewhat responsible, but the DP is more responsible,” she wrote, “because it is serving the administration’s interests rather than the people’s desires, although it proudly defines itself as an administration backed by candlelight protesters.” 

At the end of her column, Lim urged voters to “tame the political parties” in the upcoming April general elections. “Let’s create political parties that are trying to satisfy the people,” she wrote. “I, therefore, propose, ‘Let’s vote for parties except for the DP.’” 

On Feb. 5, the DP asked the prosecution to investigate Lim and two Kyunghyang Shinmun officials, saying the column violated election laws. While the DP did not publicize that action, Lim said on Facebook Thursday that she was the subject of a criminal complaint.

“I recently got a phone call from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office that a complaint was submitted against me,” Lim said in an exclusive interview with the JoongAng Ilbo on Thursday. “I was accused of conducting illegal campaign activity before the official campaign period and violating a ban on encouraging the voters to cast ballots [for a specific political party]. The complainant was DP Chairman Lee.” 

Lim, a modern history professor who specializes in student activism, did not hide her disappointment at the DP. “I am baffled,” she said. “The DP won power through a democratization movement. The key to democratization movements is freedom of speech. They used to fight for such freedoms, but they demanded a probe against me because I criticized them. It is shameful that the DP is using the word democratic in its name.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

Considering the Moon administration has put journalists in jail for reporting accurate information, why Professor Lim be surprised she had a complaint made against her? The only reason the complaint is being dropped is because she is a left-wing activist. If she was a conservative professor I doubt the complaint would have been dropped.

I do have to wonder if Professor Lim will come out in support of the journalists that were jailed?

It figures that the Moon administration would bring up the GSOMIA issue again before April’s parliamentary elections in order to promote anti-Japanese sentiment:

Controversy is resurfacing over the possible termination of a military intelligence sharing agreement with Japan, ahead of the March 1 Independence Day and the April 15 general election. 

Speculation is mounting that the government could ultimately terminate the General Security of Information Sharing Agreement (GSOMIA), given the absence of any significant outcome from bilateral negotiations to remove Japan’s trade restrictions imposed on certain Korean companies last summer. In response to the restrictions, the government announced the termination of the agreement, but held off on this in November to show its commitment to bilateral negotiations to settle the trade dispute. (……)

During a recent press conference, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said that Korea could still consider terminating the GSOMIA depending on what is deemed best for the “national interest.” “There have been talks between the export authorities, but we have still not returned to the situation before July 1 [when Japan imposed the exports ban],” Kang said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear how important April’s vote is for the Blue House. They have changed election laws that will increase the number of unelected left wing parliament seats, covered up the investigations into Blue House corruption, fired the head of Statistics Korea to get better economic stats, has not reached a cost sharing deal with the U.S., and now threatening to cancel the GSOMIA pact again.

It looks like firing the person in charge of gathering economic statistics in South Korea has worked for the Moon administration:

Employment growth hit a five-and-a-half-year high last month, with the most notable turnaround in manufacturing jobs.

Optimism is tempered however as the momentum could stall with the Wuhan coronavirus still threatening the economy.

In January, 568,000 new jobs were added compared to the same month the previous year. That is the most since 670,000 new jobs were added in August 2014.

January was the second consecutive month in which more than 500,000 jobs were created. 

The big news was in manufacturing, where jobs were added for the first time in almost two years. Totals have been dropping since 2018. In January, 8,000 manufacturing jobs were added.

Most of the jobs created since last year have been in health and social welfare and added with the help of government spending.

Last month, 189,000 health and welfare jobs were added, the most of any category. A total of 92,000 transportation and storage jobs were added, followed by lodging and restaurant positions, at 86,000.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but notice that the major source of jobs is not organic job creation, but instead the government handing out jobs. Even more interesting is that the majority of the government jobs are going to the elderly who tend to vote more than younger people. Does anyone think that this is just a coincidence that is happening right before April’s parliamentary elections?

Here is the latest on the attempted scuttling of suspected corruption within the Moon administration by its new Justice Minister:

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae’s unprecedented decision to stop full disclosure of indictments of allies of President Moon Jae-in in an election-meddling scandal touched off an uproar on Wednesday. 

“We’ve reached a conclusion that a wrongful custom must no longer be repeated,” Choo told reporters Wednesday morning on her way to the office. “Until now, we have seen a wrongful routine where lawmakers demanded indictment documents, and the media released their entire texts. Due to this practice, the people’s right to a trial was violated, and various fundamental rights were infringed upon during the criminal justice process.” 

Choo was responding to a public uproar after the Ministry of Justice on Tuesday rejected the National Assembly’s request for indictment documents for 13 suspects linked to the 2018 Ulsan mayoral election scandal. The ministry said it withheld the information because it could violate the defendants’ right to a fair trial and privacy. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

She is going after any leakers of these indictment documents as well:

She also ordered an investigation into how the Dong-A Ilbo obtained the indictment documents and reported the details. “We need to check how it was leaked,” Choo said.

The Dong-A Ilbo published Wednesday a series of exclusive reports based on the indictment papers, without revealing the source. According to the newspaper, Song Cheol-ho had a dinner with Ulsan police chief Hwang on Sept. 20, 2017, and asked him to conduct a “more aggressive, concentrated probe” into his rival Kim. 

ROK Heads may remember that the prior Justice Minister, Cho Kuk had to step down due to public protests over the corruption surrounding him and his family. It is pretty obvious that Choo Mi-ae has been brought in to scuttle and silence as much has possible on going corruption probes into Moon administration officials as much as possible before the April 15th parliamentary elections.

What makes the political aspects of this even more obvious is that during the corruption trials of figures in the former Park Geun-hye presidential administration, the indictment documents were all released by the Moon administration. Now that their people are being investigated for corruption, all efforts are being made to scuttle and silence them.

It is not even safe to visit Thailand now:

South Korea on Tuesday confirmed its 16th case of the novel coronavirus infection, with the latest patient having recently visited Thailand, as more stringent quarantine measures are being taken to stem the spread of the virus.

The patient, a 42-year-old South Korean woman, returned from a trip to Thailand on Jan. 19 and started feeling chills on Jan. 25, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Her condition did not improve despite receiving treatment for several days, so she was tested at a general hospital in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, on Monday, with the test results coming back positive. Thailand has reported 19 cases of virus infections.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Hopefully the number of people infected doesn’t get any worse:

South Korean disease control authorities say 28 people are being monitored for suspected coronavirus infection, but there have been no additional cases since the country’s fourth patient was confirmed Monday. As the disease rapidly spreads in China, top diplomats from Seoul and Beijing discussed ways to fight the outbreak together, including the evacuation of Koreans from Wuhan, the epicenter of the crisis.
Our Kim Bum-soo wraps up the latest. 

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link, but one of the people in South Korea infected is from Pyeongtaek which is near Osan Airbase and Camp Humphreys. Just another reason to practice good hygiene in South Korea.