Tag: South Korea

This really isn’t anything surprising that the new USFK commander is signaling to North Korea that he would like to resume dialogue in regards to any armistice issues like has been done in the past:

The new commander of the United States military forces in South Korea said Thursday he expects resumption of talks and coordination with North Korea during his first visit to the frontline region separating the two sides.

The Joint Security Area (JSA), the inter-Korean truce village where South and North Korean soldiers are standing face-to-face, was the choice for Gen. Vincent Brooks’ first field inspection as the top commander of the 28,000-strong U.S. Forces Korea.

“Each time I come back (here), it reminds me of how quickly things can change on the Korean Peninsula and why it is that we must be ready all the time and remain strong,” Brooks, who took command last month, said in front of an observation post inside the JSA. The officer had served in South Korea in the past during his long military career.

“It also reminds me that as we are in the military armistice controlled areas, there’s a need to continue dialogue and coordination (with North Korea),” the general, clad in a combat uniform, noted.

“We look forward to the time that (talks) can resume again,” he said, expressing hopes on talks with the North on the context of the armistice which ended the 1950-53 Korean War. [Yonhap]

Anything that goes beyond Armistice talks would fall within the purview of the State Department which has made it clear that talks will only happen when North Korea is serious about denuclearization.

Gusts of Popular Feeling has a translation of this Joong Ang Ilbo article about a 20 year old man found guilty of prostitution with a 13-year old run away girl in Uijongbu:

Korean love hotel image via Flickr user For 91 Days.

A man in his twenties who even received the motel fee from a 13-year-old schoolgirl found guilty of prostitution

A man in his twenties who met a 13-year-old runaway schoolgirl for sex but argued he wasn’t guilty and said that “The schoolgirl paid more of the motel fee so it wasn’t prostitution” was found guilty.

Seoul Eastern District Court announced on the 16th that is that it [sentenced] Mr. Lee (22), who had been charged with contravening the Law for Sexual Protection of Children and Youth, to a one-year sentence suspended for two years and ordered him to attend 40 hours of sexual assault treatment classes.

Mr. Lee came to know A (13) on June 10, 2015 via a smartphone chatting application. Learning that A had run away and needed a place to sleep he promised, “If you come to my house, I can put you up,” and the next morning he called her out to the Uijeongbu Station area.

When he met A, Lee said, “It’s hot right now, so let’s go and rest,” and took A to a nearby motel. The motel fee was 20,000 won but Lee had only 8000 won in his pocket. Lee asked A, “Can you pay a little bit?” and got 10,000 won from her and, after getting a 2000 won discount, paid the motel fee.

After they had sex, Lee said, “My parents came home early so I can’t put you put you up,” and left A and returned home.

In court Lee claimed that “Since I had never promised to put her up at my house and I paid 8000 won of the motel fee but A paid 10,000 won, it wasn’t buying sex.”

Subsequently he protested that “Since A looked 20ish in her chatting program profile photo, in which she was wearing makeup, I didn’t think she was a minor.”

However, the court said, “It doesn’t make any sense that you saw her face and didn’t know she was 13.” “Seeming to offer to put up a runaway victim at your house and meeting [her], you acted to buy sex to satisfy your sexual desire, and the fact that even after that you left her and ignored the fact that she was penniless because of you makes the nature of the crime very bad.”

It added, “Because she expected that the defendant would give him a place to stay afterwards, she readily gave 10,000 won.” “The defendant fully acknowledged the fact that he promised to provide payment for things like a place to stay and that, expecting this, A acceded to sex.”

A court official said, “The amount of money when providing payment for prostitution does not matter; if it’s true that payment is provided, then [the fact of] prostitution is established.”  [Gusts of Popular Feeling]

I guess the moral of this story is that if you are going to trick a thirteen year old runaway girl to have sex with you make sure she pays for the entire hotel bill.  That is because as Gusts of Popular Feeling discusses in his article the age of consent in South Korea is 13 years old.  Read the rest of the article to better understand why the age of consent is so low.

Considering the Chinese embassy in Seoul was able to get away with organizing riots and assaulting and beating Korean nationals in Seoul, getting a Falun Gong dance performance cancelled should come as no surprise:

In recent months, incidents of Communist Party restrictions on free expression extending beyond China’s borders have occurred across Asia. Now South Korea, a leading democracy in the region, has joined this disturbing trend.

On May 4, a court in Seoul issued a last-minute ruling canceling a series of classical Chinese dance and music shows by Shen Yun Performing Arts, scheduled to take place at KBS Hall over the weekend. The ruling explicitly cites threats by the Chinese embassy aimed at the theater owner, including implicit references to financial reprisals if the shows go on as planned.

The mission of the New York–based performance group is to revive China’s five-millennia-old traditional culture, which has been largely destroyed under decades of Communist rule. Shen Yun’s performers practice Falun Gong, a meditation and spiritual discipline whose practitioners are persecuted in China today; some company members have themselves fled religious persecution or have family members imprisoned in China still.

Alongside dances portraying scenes from imperial dynasties and literary classics, some of the show’s pieces also depict the story of what Falun Gong practitioners face in China today or attacks on Buddhist temples during the Cultural Revolution. An overarching theme throughout the Shen Yun performance is the traditional Chinese concept of a connection between Heaven, Earth, and humankind. [The Diplomat]

You can read more at the link.

Soldiers remove broken vinyl greenhouses in Goseong County, Gangwon Province, on May 8, 2016. Some 540 of the total 772 greenhouses in the region were damaged by strong winds that struck the region on Wednesday. The Army’s 22nd Division has deployed some 700 troops to help get rid of the damaged greenhouses. (Yonhap)

Here is something to think about for anyone thinking of living long term and raising a family in South Korea:

The number of South Korean babies with birth defects has increased significantly since the early 1990s, likely due to traffic-related air pollutants and endocrine disruptors, a study showed Monday.  The report, by Inha University’s Social and Preventive Medicine department, researched the national health insurance data of 403,250 infants aged 0-1 living in Korea’s seven metropolitan areas between 2009 and 2010. It found that 5.5 percent of all infants researched during the period had birth defects, an increase from the 3.3 percent of those born between 1993 and 1994.

Among all birth defects reported in the period of 2009-2010, hypospadias — a birth defect of the urethra where the urinary opening is not on the head of the male genital — had the highest increase rate of all birth defects from 1993-2010. The prevalence rate of the abnormality increased from 0.7 per 10,000 in 1993-1994 to 9.9 per 10,000 in 2009-2010. Meanwhile, the number of cases of cryptorchidism, the absence of one or both testes from the scrotum, also increased significantly from 2.6 per 10,000 to 29.1 per 10,000.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but I always wondered what long term exposure to the yellow dust polluted with heavy metals from China would do to people over the long term.

In this photo provided by Daegu Metropolitan City, a Korean woman shows a group of foreign tourists the way to pack herbal medicines in paper during the 2016 Daegu Yangnyeongsi Herbal Medicine Festival on May 8, 2016. (Yonhap)

I would have to think that alcohol probably had something to do with this tragic accident:

A couple fell to their death while kissing on a rooftop in Itaewon on Sunday.

According to the Yongsan police, at around 2 a.m., a 31-year-old man from the United States and a 26-year-old woman from South Africa accidentally fell from a three-story building while kissing precariously close to the banister.

Witnesses have reported that the woman fell first and the man, while attempting to catch her, fell after her.

The two were taken to the hospital but did not survive due to head injuries.  [Korea Herald]

I don’t think there is much the ROK government could do about this if they wanted considering the award is from a private foundation:

A prestigious human rights award that commemorates one of Korea’s defining democratic moments has angered an Asian government – because it honors one of its dissidents.

Late last month, Nguyen Dan Que, 74, a pro-democracy activist in Vietnam, was named this year’s recipient of the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, along with Bersih, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations in Malaysia that fights for fair elections.

The committee responsible for naming the award winners declared on Thursday that the Vietnamese government has demanded a retraction and is pushing Korean authorities to “take all necessary actions” to ensure that the award be withdrawn. Hanoi threatened strained diplomatic relations if Seoul fails to follow through.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Visitors to Gyeongbok Palace in downtown Seoul wear protective masks after fine dust warnings were issued across South Korea on May 7, 2016. (Yonhap)

This is horrible way to lose a son, to a toxic humidifier:

A South Korean father who claims to have lost his son to a harmful Oxy Reckitt Benckiser humidifier sterilizer said Saturday he will file a compensation suit against the British company later this month.

Kim Deok-jong, 40, said he decided to file the damage suit against the British company after CEO Rakesh Kapoor refused his demand to visit South Korea to make an apology in front of the sterilizer’s victims. His 5-year-old son died in 2009 after battling a respiratory disease.

His legal representative will notify Oxy of his intention to file for a compensation claim next week, a preliminary process needed to proceed with a formal suit.  (………)

A criminal suit will be possible after South Korean prosecutors announce its investigation results, which would provide the legal grounds that Oxy headquarters approved sales of the harmful product in the Korean market.  (…………)

The humidifier disinfectant case, one of the worst scandals involving a consumer product using chemicals, came to light after four pregnant women died of lung problems for unknown reasons in 2011. A government-led investigation confirmed a connection between more than 100 people who died of lung problems and the chemicals used to clean household humidifiers.

The focus of the investigation will be on whether the company’s high-ranking executives approved the sales of its disinfectants while knowing the health risks.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.