Tag: South Korea

Welcome to South Korea:

Zenani Mandela-Dlamini, the daughter of former South African President Nelson Mandela, has been appointed as her country’s ambassador to Seoul.

Mandela-Dlamini, who arrived at Seoul early this month, visited the Foreign Ministry here on Thursday for a meeting with officials. 

“We’ve got great bilateral relations, and I’ll continue to work to strengthen them,” she told reporters. “We’ve got great trade relations with Korea and I look forward to strengthen them during my tenure.”

Zenani (60) was the first child of Nelson and his second wife and political partner Winnie. She was four years old when her father was imprisoned in 1964 for treason over his resistance to the apartheid

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

There are claims being made that the Trump administration is pressuring the Blue House to buy F-35B’s:

Shortly after the Korea-U.S. presidential summit in April, the Blue House asked the military to consider the possible procurement of F-35Bs, a more expensive version of the stealth fighter jets Korea earlier purchased, an opposition lawmaker told the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday.

Rep. Baek Seung-joo of the Liberty Korea Party, who once served as vice defense minister, said the National Security Office of the Blue House discussed the purchase plan with an Air Force official on April 18. The summit between President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump took place on April 11 in Washington. 

In 2014, the Air Force finalized the first phase of a next-generation fighter jet project and confirmed the purchase of 40 F-35As, the most common version of the fighter jet built by Lockheed Martin. The deliveries are scheduled to be completed in 2021. 

The second phase of the project will start in 2021. The military is to spend a total of 4 trillion won ($3.35 billion) for five years to purchase 20 additional stealth fighter jets. Speculation was high in the military that Korea would buy more F-35As. 

Although F-35Bs have short takeoff and vertical landing features, which would allow deployment on a light aircraft carrier Korea is planning to build starting next year, military sources said the Air Force prefers F35-As. They said F-35Bs have limited weapons capabilities, operational scope and mobility compared to F-35As. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but I think the fact that the Japanese announced in August they were buying F-35B’s to put on their helicopter carriers is the more likely reason. This could just simply be a case of keeping up with the Jones’s.

It looks like the ROK is trying to play nice with Japan. I guess we will see if leads to any positive developments:

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon is scheduled to visit Tokyo next week to attend the Japanese emperor’s enthronement event, his office said Sunday, in what is seen as a move to mend soured relations between the two neighbors.

Lee will visit Japan from Oct. 22-24 for the ceremony, according to a statement by the prime minister’s office. His itinerary includes the enthronement event on Oct. 22 followed by a banquet hosted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Oct. 23.

The prime minister’s office also said Lee will meet with “key officials in Japan’s political and business circles” and will host a meeting with Korean residents and immigrants in the country.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Condolences to the friends and families of everyone tragically killed by this strong typhoon:

Ten people were killed and four others went missing as Typhoon Mitag lashed the southern and eastern regions of South Korea with heavy rain and strong winds, authorities said Thursday.

A 65-year-old female owner of a small restaurant was found dead at around 4 p.m., about seven hours after being buried in a landslide in the southeastern port city of Busan.

Fire officials in Busan said a son of an old couple was also found dead after he was buried in the landslide along with his parents at their home.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Latest polls: South Koreans are more wary of Japan than of North Korea. Meanwhile, 80% of respondents trust US. pic.twitter.com/R9Rv0hcpOg

— William Kim 김영권 (@NKMESSENGER) September 25, 2019

Farmers hold protest in front of parliament

Farmers denounce the government’s inability to improve the livelihoods of rural agricultural communities by symbolically burning a funeral bier, streamers and mourning clothes in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on Sept. 25, 2019. The protesters earlier held a national farmers gathering before marching to parliament to make known their numerous grievances. (Yonhap)

It is pretty clear that domestic political concerns are more important for the Moon administration than security concerns:

U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe noted the importance of trilateral security cooperation with South Korea during their talks in New York Wednesday, the White House said. On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Trump and Abe discussed issues of mutual interest and signed a preliminary bilateral trade agreement. The White House did not elaborate on the discussions on South Korea, but the two leaders are likely to have touched on Seoul’s decision to pull out of a military intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Another effect of the current poor economic conditions in South Korea:

Korea’s suicide rate and number of people committing suicide, which had fallen since 2013, rose by nearly 10 percent last year amid a prolonged business downturn, data showed Tuesday.

According to Statistics Korea, the suicide rate has risen by 9.5 percent, amid tougher economic circumstances.

The suicide rate is calculated as the number of deaths by suicide per 100,000 people.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the gender wars in South Korea:

On the same street corner in Seoul where 10,000 South Korean women rallied last October to demand an end to spy cameras and sexual violence, the leader of a new activist group addressed a small group of angry young men.

“We are a group for legal justice, anti-hate, and true gender equality,” Moon Sung-ho boomed into a microphone to a crowd of a few dozen men waving placards.

As feminist issues come to the fore in deeply patriarchal South Korea, there’s a growing discontent among young men that they’re being left behind. Moon, who leads Dang Dang We, a group “fighting for justice for men,” is one of them.

He started his group last year after a 39-year-old business owner was sentenced to six months in prison for grabbing a woman’s buttocks in a Korean soup restaurant. The case provoked outrage that a man could be convicted on no evidence beyond the victim’s claims.

CNN

You can read more at the link.