Tag: South Korea

Statues symbolizing comfort women are temporarily set up in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Oct. 2, 2017, prior to their transportation to regional towns to signify their homecoming for the Chuseok holiday. Donga, a bus company, has been operating five buses since mid-August that carry the statues symbolizing Korean women who were sexually enslaved by Japanese soldiers during World War II. The statues will be taken to different towns, including Suwon, Daejeon and Jeonju, on the occasion of World Comfort Women’s Day. (Yonhap)

I am really not surprised by this at all considering how littering still does not seem to have much social stigma attach to it yet in Korea:

The crowd at the 2017 Seoul International Fireworks Festival on Saturday were treated to breathtaking blooms of fire-flowers, as they are called in Korean.

Teams representing the US, Italy and Korea took turns showing their best-coordinated fireworks.

Unfortunately, as events like this attract large crowds, the following morning showed the not-so-beautiful side to the show.

In the area street cleaners faced mounds of garbage haphazardly thrown away by the 1 million-strong crowd that attended the event.

In order to prevent this, Hanwha, who organized the event, had precautionary measures in place on the night of the event; plastic refuse bags were handed out and warnings were issued to only dispose of waste at designated zones. However, it seems the effort largely went ignored.  [Korea Herald]

It seems many people’s attitude is why walk over to a garbage can when I can just throw it on the ground for someone else to pick up after me.

This is an example of how the ROK government during the Sunshine Policy years helped to fund North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and the leftists running the country at the time thought the North Koreans would actually pay them back.  Despite all this the current Moon Jae-in administration in South Korea wants to give them even more money they will likely never pay back:

North Korea seems unwilling to repay loans it received from South Korea when inter-Korean relations were good in the 2000s, an opposition lawmaker claimed Thursday.

Citing data from the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) and the National Assembly Budget Office, Rep. Shim Jae-cheol of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) said the North’s outstanding liabilities are 161.4 billion won ($142.5 million) as of July, out of accumulated loans of 1.05 trillion won ($932 million).

“North Korea has not paid back a penny since 2012 but the government has yet to come up with any countermeasure,” Shim said.

“The amount of redemption must have been used in nuclear and missile development. The government should do its utmost not to lose the entire 1.05 trillion won, which is the people’s tax money.”

According to the National Assembly data, the Kim Dae-jung government offered loans worth 369 billion won ($327 million) and the Roh Moo-hyun administration provided as much as 683.7 billion won ($650 million) in the form of food, material and equipment.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

People best think twice before sharing any images or videos of ex-lovers while living in South Korea:

The government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea will push ahead with legislation to toughen penalties on revenge porn.

If the National Assembly passes the new law, which it is very likely to, those who attempt to humiliate ex-lovers by sharing images online or videos of their naked bodies, won’t just be slapped on the wrist with a fine as many of them are currently. Instead, they may face up to five years in prison without the option of a fine.

Under the current law, such criminals face up to five years in prison or a maximum fine of 10 million won ($8,800), and most end up with the fine.

Hong Nam-ki, head of the Office of Government Policy Coordination, announced a package of measures Tuesday to better protect people from the crime, which has become a social issue in recent years.

Those who commercially use such images or videos could face up to seven years in prison.

The new law will also require offenders to pay the costs of removing the contents online.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Deployment of U.S. strategic assets to begin late this year: Moon's security advisor https://t.co/HZk4FtuTN1

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) September 27, 2017

Well-dressed dogs strut the catwalk during a pet fashion show at a park in the southeastern port city of Busan on Sept. 24, 2017. (Yonhap)

Paris Baguette is about to get hit with a huge fine if it doesn’t directly hire 5,400 bakers in 25 days:

Paris Baguette is facing its biggest crisis in its history as it has been ordered by the government to hire 5,400 patissiers directly, placing a heavier financial burden on Korea’s largest bakery franchise.

Currently, most patissiers working at Paris Baguette franchisees are dispatched by the firm’s 11 partner firms, but are trained and supervised by the bakery.

The Ministry of Labor and Employment is calling the practice illegal because patissiers are not one of 32 occupations allowed to be outsourced under the law, ordering the bakery to directly hire them.

The ministry said Paris Baguette opts to have its small business partners hire workers and send them to work for it, which costs less than directly hiring them as regular employees.

However, Paris Baguette said it shouldn’t be obliged to hire patissiers, adding they do not work for the franchise headquarters. The bakery said patissiers work at franchisees, stressing it trains and supervises them on behalf of franchised store owners.

The company said it is considering filing an administrative litigation against labor ministry’s order to directly hire bakers dispatched by its partner firms.

The ministry concluded Thursday that Paris Baguette has directly supervised bakers dispatched by its partner companies, violating the legal dispatch code of the labor law. The ministry ordered it to directly hire all of the 5,378 bakers who are working at its 3,396 franchise stores.

If Paris Baguette does not comply with the order within 25 days after receiving the official document, it would face a fine of up to 53 billion won ($46.5 million).  [Korea Times via reader link]

You can read more at the link, but I don’t see any evidence in the article of the bakers being mistreated by the franchisees that hired them.  I think there is probably more to this story than what is published in the article.

I feel so bad for the victim’s parents that this murderer was only sentenced to 20 years for this horrible crime:

The Incheon District Court on Friday sentenced the suspect who murdered an 8-year-old girl and dismembered her body to 20 years in prison, and doled out a life sentence for the accomplice. The court also said the two must wear ankle monitors for 30 years.

“Kim very carefully planned the crime,” the court said. “And Park was in a close relationship with Kim and she was her accomplice through the act.”

The suspect is a 17-year-old female student surnamed Kim. Her accomplice is an 18-year-old female student surnamed Park.

The Juvenile Act prevents anyone under 18 from receiving a life sentence or death penalty for murder or other serious crimes. The act says a minor convicted of murder can receive a sentence of up to 15 years. But Kim was sentenced to 20 years after the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes was applied to her case.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

The US embassy in South Korea cannot win.  First they get criticized for having unpaid internship positions and now they get criticized for getting rid of the internship program:

A college student, who requested to be identified as Park, was supposed to start an internship at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul this December.

After receiving a letter of acceptance July 21, she was preparing for the program — finding a residence in Seoul and buying work clothes — while dreaming of a future career after the internship.

On Sept. 6, however, she learned the program was suspended. She received an email from the embassy, which read “The U.S. Embassy will not be moving forward with our Winter Internship at this time.”

Explanations from the embassy frustrated her.

“The embassy staff simply repeated the answer that the decision was made due to personnel affairs in the organization,” Park told The Korea Times.

The cancellation of the internship program was more devastating for Park because the winter program was her last chance to work there before her graduation. “I even gave up a full-time paid job which gave me a final acceptance notification to do the internship, because the latter was only allowed for university students,” Park said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but this is what happens when interns complain about not getting paid.

Gordon Ramsay appearing in Cass beer commercials-INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily https://t.co/lWmCk1tGLU

— ZenKimchi (@ZenKimchi) September 17, 2017