A ship that sunk off of Ulleungdo in 1905 that had previously fought in the Russo-Japanese has been discovered by Korean treasure hunters:
The wreckage of the ship. / Courtesy of Shinil Group
A Russian battleship that sank 113 years ago in waters off South Korea’s Ulleung Island ― allegedly carrying tons of gold coins and bars ― has been located.
The rusty hull of the Dmitri Donskoii was found on the seabed a kilometer from the island’s Jeodong-ri and 434 meters underwater, said Shinil Group, a South Korean company which has endeavored to find the ship for years.
“We found the body of the Dmitrii Donskoi 434 meters deep in seas 1.3 kilometers off Ulleung Island at around 9:50 a.m., Sunday,” Shinil Group said.
The vessel’s shape and details were “confirmed to be identical with the Dmitri Donskoii,” the company said. It inspected the wreckage with two manned submarines on Saturday. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but the ship was rumored to be filled with gold worth $133 billion today. The treasure hunters are in the process of trying to lift the ship to look for the gold. If a billions in gold is discovered, I think it may pose an interesting legal challenge from the Russians because it is technically their property.
Another example of USFK soldiers helping a Korean civilian injured in a traffic related accident:
From left to right: Army Spc. Won Seok Kim, command group driver, Col. Editha Ruiz, deputy commander for nursing, and 1st Lt. Alexander Seawright, nurse, pose at the Brian Allgood Army Community Hospital in South Korea, Monday, July 16, 2018. WILLIAM WIGHT/U.S ARMY
Three American medical soldiers were in the “right place at the right time” on Friday the 13th.
Two Army nurses and a command driver were headed from the main U.S. military hospital at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul to a meeting at Camp Humphreys when they saw a woman injured in an accident on the highway near Osan, about 30 miles south of Seoul.
The trio, assigned to the Brian Allgood Army Community Hospital, stopped to help.
Col. Editha Ruiz, deputy commander for nursing, and 1st Lt. Alexander Seawright, a nurse, performed first aid while Spc. Won Seok Kim, the command driver, translated and helped keep others on the scene calm until an ambulance arrived. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but for those not familiar with Korea it is not uncommon to see other Koreans not assist other injured people due to concerns of liability lawsuits.
Condolences to the families and friends affected by this tragic helicopter crash:
This photo provided by the Marine Corps on July 17, 2018, shows the MUH-1 helicopter, the Marine version of the KUH-1 Surion. Dubbed Marineon, one MUH-1 chopper crashed at a military airport in Pohang, about 370 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on July 17, 2018. (Yonhap)
A Marine Corps helicopter crashed at a military airport in the southeastern city of Pohang on Tuesday, killing five of the six Marines aboard and injuring the other, officials said.
The helicopter was on a test flight in Pohang, some 370 kilometers southeast of Seoul, after repair when it went down from a height of about 10 meters around 4:46 p.m. and caught fire, Marine Corps officials said. [Yonhap]
It looks like reality has set in for the Moon administration’s attempt to raise the minimum wage even further in South Korea:
Moon Jae-in
President Moon Jae-in admitted Monday he won’t fulfill his campaign pledge to raise the minimum wage to 10,000 won ($8.86) by 2020, after anguished protests about rising labor costs from small business owners and concerns voiced by at least one top member of his administration.
“As a result of the decision by the Minimum Wage Commission, it became difficult to achieve the target of raising the minimum wage to 10,000 won by 2020,” Moon said during a meeting with his senior secretaries at the Blue House on Monday. “I offer my apologies for being unable to keep my pledge.”
The president added that he respects the decision by the commission to keep next year’s minimum wage hike lower than expected and said the government will do its best to realize a 10,000 won minimum wage as early as possible.
Moon’s five-year term ends in May 2022. Moon expressed his appreciation to the commission for raising next year’s minimum wage by more than 10 percent. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
It looks like the Moon administration has found another avenue to go after their political enemies with:
A special team of military prosecutors will launch an investigation Monday into revelations that the military’s intelligence unit reviewed the possibility of imposing martial law last year in response to protests calling for then President Park Geun-hye’s ousting.
President Moon Jae-in ordered the investigation after the disclosure of a Defense Security Command (DSC) document that showed the military considered imposing martial law and mobilizing forces to quell candlelight protests against Park.
The military has since formed a special investigation team comprising about 30 prosecutors and investigators from the Navy and the Air Force. The team will complete the necessary preparations on Sunday and launch an investigation on Monday, officials said.
“We’re going to conduct a fair and thorough investigation according to law and principle,” an official said.
Those subject to the investigation are expected to include the then DSC commander, Cho Hyun-chun, then-Defense Minister Han Min-koo and Kim Kwan-jin, chief of the presidential National Security Office at the time. Then-Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and jailed former President Park Geun-hye could also face an investigation.
Incumbent Defense Minister Song Young-moon is also expected to face an investigation. Song has come under fire for doing nothing even after he was briefed about the DSC document in March this year. Some opposition lawmakers have called for his resignation. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but this issue is nothing new. The Korean leftwing politicians disclosed planning for martial law if needed all the way back in 2016. Now there is a document that shows that planning did occur. South Korea has a long history of martial law during past military dictatorships which makes it a very politically sensitive issue, however it is not illegal:
Under the law, the President has the right to declare martial law when it is considered necessary to maintain public order and security. And the head of state is required immediately to inform the National Assembly of the decision with details, including concrete reasons, a scope of territory and what will be subject to the emergency law. The National Assembly has the right to ask the President to lift the law and, if the latter refuses, the Assembly can start an impeachment process. [Korea Times]
Former President Park obviously made no decision to impose martial law so I don’t see what case the Moon administration can make that anyone in the Park administration broke the law. They can however play this out to further discredit and embarrass political conservatives in South Korea. It may also give them the excuse to clean house of top military leadership accusing them of plotting a coup in order to replace them with more ideologically friendly officers. I guess we will see how this plays out.
I think these mom and pop stores have a valid complaint because big businesses can respond to the wage increase by cutting jobs or hours and then automating where necessary. Mom and pop stores may not have the capital available to automate like a bigger business:
Owners of mom-and-pop stores on Friday called on the government to freeze the minimum wage in 2019, claiming rising labor costs will seriously impact their profitability.
If the government moves to raise the minimum hourly wage from the current 7,530 won, the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME) won’t accept it, a KFME official said.
The Minimum Wage Commission is required to set the guidelines for next year’s minimum wage level by Saturday. Representatives for labor are demanding a 43 percent increase in the wage to 10,790 won, but small businesses have made it clear that such a step is unacceptable.
Mom-and-pop stores and other modestly sized firms account for 86 percent of the country’s enterprises and hire 36 percent of its total workforce, according to Statistics Korea.
The country’s minimum wage shot up this year, and the Moon Jae-in government is pushing to raise the hourly base to 10,000 won within three years to achieve “income-led growth.”
But local businesses are lukewarm to the idea. There has been a move to let go of workers due to rising costs, with people in their 20s and 30s facing greater difficulties landing jobs. [Yonhap]
Two Russian military planes on Friday violated South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) four times and flew away following warnings, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
The JCS said that the aircraft first entered the KADIZ north of the eastern island of Ulleungdo at 2:08 p.m. and flew out of it 74 kilometers southeast of Pohang at 2:35 p.m. They re-entered the KADIZ at 3:21 p.m. from the east and then left from the northwest of Jeju Island at 3:45 p.m.
At 4:08 p.m., the planes entered the KADIZ northwest of Jeju and flew out of it at 4:32 p.m. At 5:36, they re-entered the KADIZ from the east of the Dokdo islets and left at 5:53 p.m.
South Korea deployed its aircraft to send warnings to the planes, the JCS explained. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the Russians do these flights through US and Japanese ADIZ’s as well likely to assess the response times of ground alert aircraft.
Some how I doubt the radical Islamists will try and exploit this Koran burning by a wacko Korean feminist group compared to when a wacko US preacher throated to burn the Koran and it landed him as number two on Al Qaida’s hit list:
WOMAD, a radical feminist group, has claimed one of its members burned a copy of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam.
The person who posted a picture of the burning Quran Wednesday said, “Muslim cockroaches and Korean men should be eliminated.”
It is unclear whether she actually burned the text and, if so, how she obtained it.
This came just a day after another member posted a photo of a Catholic sacramental wafer scribbled with foul language in red ink.
Following the news, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK) denounced the posting as a serious insult to the Catholic Church and vowed to take action in response.
“In accordance with Catholic regulations, the CBCK is preparing the process to notify the Vatican through the Vatican ambassador in Seoul,” said priest Ahn Bong-hwan, spokesman of the CBCK.
Under the motto, “We hate all men,” WOMAD has gained notoriety for bashing religions and men since its 2016 inception. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but the wacko US preacher who threatened to burn Korans, worked as a Uber driver. Clearly his 15 minutes of fame is over.
This photo provided by Asan Medical Center in Seoul on July 12, 2018, shows Sarang, who was born at 302 grams, the lowest weight of any newborn in South Korea, in January. She gained weight to over 3 kilograms by the end of June with the help of medical staff at the hospital. (Yonhap)
