Tag: South Korea

Basically these international marriage brokers are using socially awkward people from the lower economic class in Korea to make money by setting up marriages that have no chance of succeeding.  Additionally many of these women appear to be using many of the same tricks that juicy girls in the ville use to fleece money out of soldiers:

Ahn argued that the government fails to protect its own citizens from illegal brokers, who he claimed deliberately approached those who are socially marginalized.

“The government should illegalize all private international marriage agencies,” he said.

South Korea in 2010 introduced a new law on international marriage agencies with a strengthened screening process. All brokers are now required to translate their clients’ certified documents of legal marital status, health conditions and criminal records and provide them to their potential spouses.

The number of such couples has dropped since then, from 35,098 in 2010 to 24,387 in 2014 — the lowest since 2003. The proportion of Korean men who were at least 10 years senior to their foreign wives has also dropped. In 2014 they made up 37.5 percent of the total, down from 44.8 percent in 2012.

Still, Korean men who married foreign brides through brokers took up 25 percent of all international marriages as of 2012, according to the latest Gender Equality Ministry data. Notably, 75.7 percent of those who married Cambodian women, and 65.8 percent of Korean husbands who married Vietnamese wives, and 40 percent of those who married women from Uzbekistan met their wives through matchmaking agencies. Over 85 percent of marriage migrants here are women, as of 2014.

Statistics also show that international marriages ended more in divorce here. Korean couples on average stayed together for 14.3 years in 2014, compared to an average of 6.4 years among international couples. Half of the divorced Korean husbands said their foreign wives ran away from home, thereby ending the marriage, according to a 2012 government report.  [Korea Herald]

You can read much more at the link.

This file photo dated Jan. 12, 2016 shows the landscape of the Jeongseon Alpine Center, a venue for the technical event of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, in Jeongseon in the northeastern province of Gangwon. The Jeongseon Alpine Centre, the venue for the International Ski Federation Alpine Skiing World Cup on Feb. 6-7, was declared ready for the competition in an opening ceremony on Jan. 22, 2016. (Yonhap)

I actually remember the last time it got this cold in Korea back in January 2001 because I was out in the field during that time freezing in a bradley turret:

South Korea on Sunday experienced the coldest weather this winter with temperatures dropping to record lows.

The temperature in Seoul fell to minus 18 degrees Celsius, the lowest since Jan. 15, 2001, when the mercury dropped to minus 18.6 degrees, the Korea Meteorological Administration said.

On Saturday, the agency issued a cold wave warning for Seoul for the first time in five years. Such a warning is issued if the morning low drops at least 15 degrees from the previous day and at least 3 degrees compared with the average year, or if the temperature remains below minus 15 degrees for two or more days.

Other parts of the country, including Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, near Seoul, were also subject to the warnings.  [Yonhap]

You can read more about the weather closures in South Korea at the link.

It looks like a lot of Korean women are willing to put up with sexual harassment for various reasons:

Nearly half of women tend not to raise the alarm when they are subjected to sexual harassment because they fear the consequences, a survey suggests.

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea polled 450 working women and 350 female university students.

Some 40.2 percent of respondents said they would not raise the issue when they are sexually harassed. Fear of the complaints rebounding on their own reputation was the biggest reason with 20.8 percent of the group, and fear of a negative impact on their career came second with 14.4 percent.

Fear of more emotional distress came in third with 13.8 percent, while 10.2 percent said they would find the prospect of having to face the aggressor too difficult.  [Chosun Ilbo]

It seems like there is some bitterness in Japan over the backtracking in the ROK over the recent comfort women deal:

In this year’s policy speech, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described South Korea as Japan’s “most important neighbor that shares our strategic interests.” Just like last year, though, he omitted “fundamental values” from this sentence.“At the end of last year, Japan and South Korea brought to an end a long-standing issue with our final and irreversible settlement on the issue of the comfort women,” Abe said during the speech, which he delivered to a joint session of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, on Jan. 22. “Since South Korea is our most important neighbor that shares our strategic interests, we will build a cooperative relationship for a new era in order to ensure peace and stability in East Asia.”  […………]

Abe’s decision to describe South Korea as a country that only shares “strategic interests” and not “fundamental values” appears to reflect unpleasant feelings that still remain even after the Dec. 28 settlement of the comfort women issue. In other words, Abe views South Korea not as a friend that shares values but as just a business partner that he must work with in regard to the issues of China’s rise and North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read the rest at the link.

Here is another sign of increased ROK and Japanese military cooperation which will hopefully continue to build trust between the two nations.  For those that don’t know DSP satellites have infrared sensors that can detect heat from missile launches or nuclear detonations:

South Korea plans to set up a new military network to share text and imagery information on North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missiles with the United States and Japan this year, the Defense Ministry said Friday.

The military plans to install a Link16 data link, connecting its interface control cell with that of the United States Forces Korea, both in Osan, south of Seoul, showed the ministry’s 2016 policy plan reported to President Park Geun-hye earlier in the day.

The military tactical data exchange network will allow the allies to share text and imagery intelligence on North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities nearly on a real-time basis.

With the data link, South Korea will be able to gain access to U.S. information collected from its Defense Support Program reconnaissance satellite over the Korean Peninsula.

The move practically means South Korea will have the real-time military data link also with Japan, given the USFK’s Link16 connection with the Japanese military.

“Despite the U.S.-Japan linkage, information sharing will not take place without the agreement from each side and, even if it takes place, it will be confined to subjects on North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles,” a defense official said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The CSIS report favors deploying the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea.  I think it is pretty clear that there is no debate left on the military utility of deploying the THAAD system to Korea, it is strictly a political issue at this point:

A Congress-commissioned study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has recommended deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) anti-ballistic missile system in South Korea in light of the growing missile threat from Pyongyang.

The Thaad system provides a “valuable capability” for South Korea, the Washington-based think tank said in its January report reviewing U.S. defense strategy in the Asia-Pacific region.

However, it added, “Chinese demarches have made the potential U.S. deployment of Thaad on the Korean Peninsula a sensitive issue for Seoul, despite the fact that South Korea has no area defense capabilities against North Korean ballistic missiles.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read much more at the link.

It looks like unless the KTU gets rid of the fired teachers that it maintains on its rolls it will not be recognized by the government as a legitimate union.  For those unfamiliar with KTU the government decided to take action against the union due to its anti-Park government and pro-North Korean agenda that led to teacher firings.  ROK Heads may also remember that the KTU has a long history of teaching anti-Americanism in the classroom as well:

The Seoul High Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the government’s decision to outlaw a progressive teachers’ union, dealing a blow to the group’s two-year legal battle to stay alive.

The appellate court’s decision to uphold a lower court’s ruling to outlaw the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (KTU) effectively removed the legal rights the group has enjoyed since September 2014, when the Seoul High Court issued an injunction to suspend the government’s decision to outlaw the group.

The high court’s decision was expected given a Constitutional Court ruling last year that Article 2 of the Teachers’ Labor Union Law, which bans dismissed teachers from having union memberships, was constitutional. That was the issue that led to the government’s outlawing of the KTU. The KTU argued that the article violated the basic rights of teachers.

“In accordance with the ruling by the Constitutional Court, a claim by the plaintiff that Article 2 of the Teachers’ Labor Union Law was unconstitutional cannot be legally accepted,” said the court Thursday.

The court said the KTU was required to comply with the article that prohibits it from allowing fired teachers to be members.

“As it is apparent that the KTU has been accepting non-education workers as its members, the labor ministry’s notice to outlaw the group is not against the law,” the court added.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

This photo, released by the Environment Ministry on Jan. 17, 2016, shows a type of bat with golden-yellow fur that researchers from the Korea National Park Service have found on Mount Odae in the northeast province of Gangwon. They also found the endangered species, also known as the golden bat, on Mount Wolak in the central province of North Chungcheong. (Yonhap)

Everyone in Korea get ready to bundle up:

The nation will likely experience its coldest weather conditions so far on the weekend.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said on Wednesday that the cold wave will abate temporarily on Thursday and Friday, but a severe cold spell will grip the nation from Saturday to Monday.

The weather agency forecast that many parts of the nation will have the coldest weather on Sunday.

The cold wave is expected to begin easing up starting next Tuesday.  [KBS World Radio]