Tag: South Korea

If the US-North Korea summit is held at Panmunjom it would make sense to have President Moon attend as well:

President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday that North Korea’s separate summits with the South and the U.S. could possibly lead to a three-way meeting of the countries.

Moon said, “Depending on the venue, the summits may be more dramatic. Depending on the circumstances, they could lead to a three-way summit between North and South Korea and the U.S.”

He made the remarks at the summit preparation committee’s second meeting at Cheong Wa Dae.

The inter-Korean summit will take place at the truce village of Panmunjeom in late April. The venue for the Pyongyang-Washington summit has not yet been decided, but Panmunjeom is one feasible candidate. Moon was implying if the summit was held there, South Korea could join without much difficulty, enabling a three-way meeting.

“Through the upcoming summits and those that will follow, we must put an end to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula,” the President said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

I guess we will see how strictly this new law is enforced:

South Korea’s agriculture ministry said Wednesday it will implement a revised animal safety law to require dogs to wear a leash in public places, but it withheld a controversial plan to give cash rewards to those who report violators amid a backlash from animal lovers.

Starting from Thursday, dogs will be required to have a leash no longer than 2 meters in public places, and potentially dangerous breeds — pit bulls, Rottweilers, American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers and Staffordshire bull terriers — will have to wear muzzles as well.

Dog owners who fail to abide by the rules will be subject to penalties up to 500,000 won (US$466.40), which has been raised from the current 100,000 won.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I have to wonder if this is the oldest guy ever convicted of attempted murder?:

   

A 99-year-old man has been sentenced to four years’ jail for stabbing his wife.

Jeju District Court on Thursday found the man, identified only by his surname Moon, guilty of attempted murder.

He had stabbed his wife, 87, three times in an argument at their eldest son’s house in September.

The court was told that Moon became enraged when his wife told not him to come back.

The wife recovered from the stab wound.

The court heard that in July, the wife had punched Moon during an argument, so he then went to live with his son.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Japan says South Korea's Moon promised help to resolve North Korea abduction issue https://t.co/5mFYWdoz5G

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) March 17, 2018

If half of the corruption allegations against former President Lee Myung-bak are true, then it looks like he may be in some serious trouble:

Troubled shipbuilder Sungdong Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering was the source of bribes former President Lee Myung-bak allegedly accepted from a banker, sources from the prosecution said Friday.

Lee, who was in office from 2008 to 2013, is being investigated over various corruption accusations. Of the 20 charges he is facing, one is an allegation that he had accepted a total of 2.25 billion won ($2.12 million) from Lee Pal-sung, then-chairman of Woori Financial Group, from 2007 until 2011. The banker allegedly paid the money to keep his job during Lee’s presidency.

According to prosecution sources, a memo was found in Lee Pal-sung’s home during a raid last month. It detailed his payments to Lee’s family, including the former president’s son-in-law.

The money came from Sungdong Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, which was in serious financial trouble at the time, the prosecution sources said. The midsize shipbuilder was established in 2003 but its financial situation deteriorated in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial meltdown. Up to now, the firm received 9.3 trillion won in bailouts, but has not been turned around. The government decided earlier this month to let the company file for court receivership.

Lawyers of the former president said Friday that Lee told the prosecution during questioning earlier this week that he had no knowledge of the bribery.

The JoongAng Ilbo reported Friday that the prosecution has secured testimony from a former CEO of auto component maker DAS that former President Lee accepted large amounts of secret funds from the company for years.

According to sources from the legal community, the prosecution suspects that Lee had took about 3.5 billion won from DAS. The auto parts maker is technically owned by Lee’s elder brother, but prosecutors believe that Lee is the actual owner.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

In addition to being an odd story, I am some what surprised he actually received 7 years in jail for rape:

A Korean man was sentenced to seven years in prison for raping the sister of his Filipino wife. The man, 39, surnamed Jeon, was also ordered to receive 120 hours of sex-crime prevention education.

An appellate court in Gwangju handed down the ruling on Wednesday, overturning a lower court’s acquittal.

“The accused raped his sister-in-law who came from the Philippines to attend his wedding ceremony. It’s really a bad crime,” wrote Judge Lee Jae-kwon in a ruling statement. “The victim experienced a great deal of humiliation, shame and mental shock, which caused serious depression, stress-driven emotional disorder and chronic insomnia.”

According to court documents, the incident happened on Feb. 15 last year, three days before the wedding ceremony. The groom-to-be raped his sister-in-law after they went out together to buy gifts for wedding guests.

A lower court acquitted him based on circumstantial and tangible evidence, with which it presumed the two to be in a romantic relationship.  [Korea Times]

As is often the case, in an effort to save money increased costs were pushed on to servicemembers and their families:

The Defense Commissary Agency has saved tens of millions of dollars shipping produce to the Pacific since 2015. However, a recent inspector general report says the agency failed to provide effective oversight of its new contracts, leaving customers paying significantly more for fresh fruits and vegetables.

In the past, DeCA subsidized contractors’ produce shipments to commissaries in Japan and South Korea, costing the agency about $114.6 million from 2013 to 2015, the IG report said. When contracts were renegotiated in 2015, DeCA stopped paying for shipping, instead aiming to purchase more locally grown produce and having suppliers foot those costs.

Since then, DeCA has saved about $38 million per year.

After the deal was made, prices for fresh produce climbed at Pacific commissaries, according to the report. Between November 2015 and April 2017, customers in mainland Japan paid 20.9 percent more for produce. Over the same period, Okinawa customers saw an increase of 23.6 percent while those in South Korea paid 31.5 percent more.

The report’s findings were based on a review of prices for 239 unique fresh produce items in mainland Japan, 237 on Okinawa and 231 in South Korea.

The 2015 contract’s aim was to keep the quality and cost of produce on base comparable to what they were before the contract, but the IG report says those expectations were not met. It blamed DeCA for the price hike, saying the agency’s “market research did not adequately evaluate the feasibility of obtaining fresh produce items from in-country for DeCA commissaries in the Pacific theater.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

No entry for Indians at restaurant in Andhra? ‘Only for South Koreans,’ claims staff https://t.co/5kcgWVLD9p

— KingSejong (@KingSejong) March 16, 2018

Judging by past history the odds are that the South Korean businesses involved with these joint projects will lose out on their investments, but I guess they are hoping things will be different this time:

South Korea is considering a resumption of economic projects with North Korea, but officials are choosing their words carefully since Pyongyang is still subject to international sanctions and the U.S. is still insisting on “maximum pressure.”

With detente seemingly setting in on the peninsula, Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon hinted that the ministry has some plans for economic cooperation with the North. “I think of the issue, but it is not appropriate to [speak] about this now because the president asked us to deal with North Korean affairs very carefully, like handling a fragile glass cup,” Kim told reporters.

Seoul appears concerned about crossing lines set by the United Nations. Most recently, in December, a Security Council resolution limited the supply of crude oil and refined petroleum products to the North, while also banning the country from exporting its food and agricultural products.

But there are also rumblings that South Korea and its state enterprises are eyeing joint projects. Local media reported on Thursday that state-run Korea Expressway Corp. wants to build a highway connecting the South Korean border city of Munsan and Kaesong, a North Korean border city where the neighbors ran a joint industrial complex until 2016.  [Nikkei Asian Review]

You can read more at the link.

South Korea’s Jung Seung-won throws a stone at a wheelchair curling match of the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics against Germany on March 12, 2018, in Gangneung, east of Seoul. South Korea lost the game 4-3, ending its four-match winning streak in the round-robin preliminaries. (Yonhap)