Tag: South Korea

South Koreans Call for President’s Impeachment Over Influence Scandal https://t.co/0IOMI6jClk pic.twitter.com/wGqe8ddm8M

— The Diplomat (@Diplomat_APAC) October 28, 2016

Quartz.com has a long, but interesting read about the growing gender war in South Korea.  Of course the Gangnam murder case is brought up of evidence of growing misogyny against women in South Korea without providing the context that the murder was by a schizophrenic homeless man who was in and out of mental hospitals.  Regardless I think most people would agree there is room for improvement in South Korea in regards to the treatment of women.  However, one group Megalia is accused of being a radical feminist group that is further dividing the sexes in South Korea with its various activities.  The group’s logo in fact makes light of how small male penises are in South Korea.

In response to the growing feminist movement in Korea Korean men are now complaining they are being discriminated against and one guy even jumped off a bridge to promote the idea:

Speaking up for men’s rights isn’t a fringe idea in Korea—it has become mainstream. “What’s striking about the current situation is the extent to which… men seem to be feeling very comfortable in saying that women’s demands for greater rights or greater protection are misguided,” says Koo Se-woong, a former university teacher and managing editor of liberal news site Korea Expose.

In one extreme display of men’s rights, in 2013, the heavily indebted founder of men’s activism group Man of Korea (link in Korean), Song Jae-gi, decided to jump off a bridge to raise money for his group. TV cameras were present as he readied to throw himself into the Han River. Among the goals of Man of Korea was the abolishment of the government’s agency the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and compensation for Korean men who served in the military (all Korean men must serve two years in the army). His body was found a few days later.  [Quartz.com]

Anyway for those that have 15 minutes to spare I recommend reading the whole article.

Here is another drunk woman in trouble story:

A reportedly drunken woman was injured when she fell into a car parking lift in Busan at 1:50 a.m. Saturday.

The woman, surnamed Kim, was apparently in a hurry to use the bathroom.

She ran into the lift to relieve herself where she could not be seen, but she fell two meters through a 60 centimeter gap between the lift and a wall, according to police. She broke her pelvis.

Firefighters rescued her, and she was taken to hospital.

Police are investigating why the parking lift was open and unstaffed, allowing anyone to enter. [Korea Times]

8 Great Korean Restaurant Franchises (and bad ones) https://t.co/a9evV3MRgc

— ZenKimchi (@ZenKimchi) October 24, 2016

This seems to be much to do about nothing and simply partisan politics:

President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday apologized to the nation over a leak of dozens of presidential speeches to an acqaintance who has been at the center of an escalating corruption scandal that has roiled politics over the past month.

“Regardless of the reasons involved, I am sorry that (the scandal) has caused national concerns,” she said. “I deeply apologize to the people.”

Park’s apology came a day after local broadcaster JTBC revealed that Choi Soon-sil had received dozens of presidential speeches, including Park’s election campaign remarks, before they were delivered by the president.

The broadcaster said it found the speeches from about 200 files obtained from a computer that was left to be thrown away in Choi’s office in southern Seoul. Among the speeches was Park’s so-called Dresden address on reunification delivered in Germany in March 2014.

The president acknowledged that Choi had helped her prepare for public speeches during her presidential election campaign and the early part of her presidency.

“During the last presidential election campaign, she (Choi) has offered me personal comments about my campaign activities, mostly speeches and publicity efforts,” Park said.

“For some period of time after my inauguration, I had asked for her opinion over some materials, but after the secretarial staff at Cheong Wa Dae was fully established, I stopped (asking for her help).”  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but Park’s political opposition wants her cabinet ministers who gave Choi the speeches to resign and possibly face prosecution.  According to the legal experts quoted in the article the speeches were drafts and thus not official Presidential correspondence thus no legal ramifications.

I wonder if in the US there are any legal ramifications for giving the text of a Presidential speech to someone to look at before it is given?

This is just another example of why these sexual assault cases are so hard to litigate and not as cut and dry as the activists and politicians want people to believe:

The Seoul High Court upheld Tuesday a lower court ruling that acquitted a former Korean soldier of raping a female American soldier, saying sexual relations between the two did not involve a physical attack or threats.

The Korean soldier, 22, whose name was withheld, was serving as a sergeant in the Korean Augmentation Troops to the United States Army (KATUSA) in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, when he allegedly raped the U.S. soldier, 19, in December.

He was in charge of educating American soldiers new to Korea, and he and his accuser began seeing each other frequently and engaged in sexual relations from last October. However, on one occasion, while kissing at his barracks, the man told her he wanted to have sex and she refused. He then said he would not let her leave the room, and forcibly had sex with her anyway.

During sex, he asked her if it was rape, and as she said yes, he then stopped, and knelt down to apologize. She accepted his apology but later reported it as rape to the military police.

Even though the assailant partially admitted it was rape during the investigation, the lower and high courts did not recognize it as such.

“Although sexual intercourse occurred against the woman’s will, she said there was no physical attack, swearing or anything threatening,” the high court said. “She did not call for help or resist, but rather she undressed on her own volition,” it added. [Korea Times]

Should this be considered rape even though there was no physical attack and she did not resist in any way?  The Korean courts don’t think so, I wonder what a US court would have ruled on this?  I also wonder why the ROK Army did not try this case and instead gave it to a ROK civilian court?

Personally I kind of like the Korean Presidential system to where it cycles out leaders quicker.  I think leadership changes are a good thing that brings renewed energy and ideas to the Presidency:

South Korean President Park Geun Hye on Monday (Oct 24) called for constitutional reform that could allow future presidents to serve two terms – a sensitive issue for a country tainted by memories of long-term, autocratic rule.

While its Constitution grants enormous power to the executive, South Korea is one of the only economically advanced liberal democracies to restrict the presidency to a single five-year term, with no possibility of re-election.

The limit was set back in 1987 as South Korea transitioned to democracy after decades of military rule, and sought to preempt any return to extended periods of authoritarian control.  [The Strait Times via a reader tip]

You can read the rest at the link, but President Park says that the Constitutional change would not apply to her presidency.  This is definitely a wise move because if she tried to run for reelection the Korean left would be claiming she is trying to begin a dictatorship just like her father Park Chung-hee.  Speaking of dictatorships has there even ever been one in modern times led by a female?

Wrapped squids are displayed at an outlet in Seoul on Oct. 21, 2016. The squid producer price posted 40,000 won (US$35.21) per 8-kilogram box as of Oct. 21, up 30 percent on-year, due to a sharp drop in catch despite the squid season. Chinese fishermen’s overfishing in the East Sea is the cause of the drop, fisherman said. (Yonhap)

If you have the think that there is a lot of elderly taxi cab drivers in South Korea you would be right:

The advanced age of taxi drivers in Seoul has recently become a hot issue after a number of them breathed their last behind the wheel.

According to the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, 19.5 percent of all taxi drivers in the nation were 65 or older at the end of last year, and in Seoul 51 percent are over 60.

According to a 2013 study by the KTSA, a whopping 73.1 percent of cab drivers over 65 who had driven taxis for more than 25 years were involved in car accidents in the previous three years, compared to only 7.5 percent who had driven taxis for less than five years.

That means elderly drivers are 10 times more likely to get into accidents than younger ones. [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

A Chinese boat carrying the North Korean flag enters the dock of the Korean Coast Guard in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Oct. 18, 2016. The boat was seized by the coast guard the previous day, while catching fish illegally after crossing a western inter-Korean maritime border into the South Korean side. Cash-strapped North Korea has reportedly sold the rights to its western territorial waters to Chinese fishermen. Chinese illegal fishing is a chronic headache to South Korea. (Yonhap)