Tag: South Korea

It is things like South Korea claiming they are a developing country that gives weight to President Trump’s frequent criticisms of how these international organizations are unfair to American workers:

South Korea’s new agriculture minister has ruled out the possibility of abandoning the country’s special and differential treatment under the World Trade Organization regime, despite growing U.S. pressure to reform the global trade body.

In a recent brief comment to Yonhap News Agency, Kim Hyeon-soo said that South Korea has no plan to give up developing country status, underscoring the country’s efforts to keep the status intact, mainly to protect its sensitive agriculture industry, especially rice.

Currently, Asia’s fourth-largest economy imposes a 513 percent tariff on imported rice. Government data showed 54 percent of the 1 million South Korean farming households grow rice, a staple food for Koreans.

Yonhap

South Korea is one of the most developed and maybe even the most technologically advanced country I have ever been to and to claim they are a developing nation is ridiculous. President Trump is threatening to unilaterally consider South Korea and other nations in the WTO as developed nations if the WTO does not change its developing nation criteria.

If someone created a fictional character–a corrupt millionaire financier, anti-free speech "liberal" socialist, self-absorbed law professor who failed the Bar masquerading as an arbiter of justice/rights aspiring to be Justice Minister–would you laugh or cry? #Life crushes #Art

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) September 6, 2019

Here is another area impacted by the current trade dispute between Korea and Japan, the hiring of South Koreans in Japan:

Song Min-su, a Japanese major in his final year at Hannam University, south of Seoul, has watched in dismay as a dispute between South Korea and Japan over wartime forced labor has spiraled into a damaging political and economic row.

Song, 25, has been pursuing his dream of working in Japan. With historic labor shortages in Japan, he had been confident he would avoid the tough job search many of his peers faced at home in South Korea, where youth unemployment is growing.

But curbs in Japan on the exports of high-tech materials to South Korea have escalated a bitter diplomatic feud between the neighbors, sparking boycotts that have hit the sales of Japanese cars, beer and other goods in South Korea, as well as travel to Japan.

“It will not only get harder to find a job in Japan, but the current sentiment will also make things more difficult to find a job in Korea with the use of my Japanese major,” Song said.

South Korea’s relations with former colonial ruler Japan have long been testy, with Tokyo having cited a dispute over court rulings related to forced wartime labor during World War II as a factor that led to tighter export controls implemented in July.

South Korea responded by stripping Japan of favored trading nation status and scrapping an intelligence-sharing pact.

The dispute has derailed a surge in the hiring of highly educated South Korean graduates by Japanese companies in recent years, forcing job seekers, employment consultants and the Seoul government to rethink Japan as a place to work. (………..)

With unemployment at a 26-year-low, Japan was the most popular overseas place to work for Koreans in 2014 and 2016-2018, figures from Human Resources Development Service of Korea show. Japan was the destination for nearly one-third of 5,783 South Korean graduates who found jobs overseas last year under government programs, more than triple the number seen in 2013.

But last month, the Labor Ministry canceled a job fair focused on Japan and Southeast Asia for late September that would have been the largest organized by the government, blaming the strained ties.

Another job expo held by the Korea-Japan Cooperation Foundation for Industry and Technology in mid-July, also with a focus on jobs in Japan, received 20 percent fewer participants than its previous fairs, an official said.

South Korea’s Labor Ministry is planning the second of its biannual global job fairs in November, but instead of focusing on jobs in Japan, as it did last year, it plans to broaden the list of countries.

Japan Times

You can read more at the link, but with already high youth unemployment in South Korea, it seems like the Korean government would rather have people unemployed than working in Japan.

Here is the latest on Typhoon Lingling:

 At least three South Koreans were reported killed Saturday as Typhoon Lingling made landfall here, bringing heavy rains and strong winds that caused hundreds of minor accidents throughout the nation.

A woman in her 70s died after she was knocked over by strong winds gusting at 39 meters per second, or 140 kph, in Boryeong, some 150 kilometers southwest of Seoul, according to rescue officials there.

In Incheon, 40 kilometers west of the capital, a bus driver was crushed to death after a wall at a hospital parking lot collapsed.

Later in the day in Paju, north of Seoul, a 61-year-old man was killed after being struck in the head by a roof panel at a golf driving range. Rescue officials said the man had been working on the roof when a sudden gust of wind blew the piece of panel toward him.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Like the U.S., South Korea now has its own typhoon to prepare for as well:

A powerful typhoon is quickly moving northward to South Korea, with rain and strong winds seen on the country’s southern island of Jeju Friday. 

Typhoon Lingling, this year’s 13th typhoon, passed over seas 330 kilometers southwest of Jeju at a speed of 43 kph as of 6 p.m., according to the Korea Meteorological Association.

Its central pressure was 950 hectopascals, and the maximum wind speed near its center was 43 meters per second, or 155 kph. Strong gusts like this can topple cars and ships, and uproot trees.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

#ROK governing party members visit #Dokdo 8/31 & declaim: "The Abe gov't has weaponized economics & declared war on us…We will prevail over Japan's economic provocation with the spirit of independence." #Patriotism #Propaganda #Agitationhttps://t.co/oIFVEyP0SO

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) August 31, 2019

Here is the latest on the return of closed out U.S. military bases in South Korea:

Cheong Wa Dae said Friday it will redouble efforts for the early return of more than two dozen U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) bases.

It was briefing media on the results of a weekly meeting of the National Security Council’s (NSC) standing committee.

The USFK has been moving its bases nationwide mainly to a refurbished garrison in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul. It’s named Camp Humphreys.

The process of South Korea regaining the sites of the affected bases has been going slowly, however, partly due to handling of polluted soil.

In the session, presided over by Chung Eui-yong, director of Cheong Wa Dae’s national security office, the NSC panel members agreed to “push actively for an early return” of the sites of 26 USFK bases, which will be vacant or have already been, according to Cheong Wa Dae.

“In particular, (they) agreed to begin the return process on the Yongsan base (in central Seoul) within this year,” it said.

Top security officials, including the defense minister, especially decided to seek the return of four bases at the earliest possible date, it added.

They are Camp Long and Camp Eagle in Wonju, Gangwon Province, as well as Camp Market in Incheon and Camp Hovey in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province.

Those who reside in nearby areas have suffered economic troubles because of a long delay in the return of the bases, the NSC officials noted.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I guess the Moon administration does not like hearing the truth:

South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Sei-young on Wednesday asked the United States to refrain from public messaging against Seoul’s recent decision to terminate a military information-sharing pact with Japan, a source here said.

Cho met with U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris to make the request as Washington has repeatedly expressed disappointment and concerns in a rare public rebuke of Seoul’s decision to end the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but remember that Ambassador Harris was the former INDOPACOM commander and the GSOMIA was a major accomplishment during that timeframe that INDOPACOM is a facilitator of.