With the amount of money this guy was able to fraud people out of, it seems it would be really easy for him to bribe people to fake his death:
The purported death of Cho Hee-pal, the mastermind behind South Korea’s largest-ever fraud case, returned to the spotlight as his close aide was arrested in China last week, with fresh testimonies suggesting he is actually still alive.
Cho is one of the most-wanted conmen in South Korea, having allegedly scammed up to 50,000 people out of an estimated 4 trillion won ($3.5 billion) in a pyramid marketing scheme.
The purported death of Cho Hee-pal, the mastermind behind South Korea’s largest-ever fraud case, returned to the spotlight as his close aide was arrested in China last week, with fresh testimonies suggesting he is actually still alive.
Cho is one of the most-wanted conmen in South Korea, having allegedly scammed up to 50,000 people out of an estimated 4 trillion won ($3.5 billion) in a pyramid marketing scheme. [Korea Herald]
You can read the rest at the link, but just think the $3.5 billion this guy swindled people out of is nothing compared to the $18 billion Bernie Madoff swindle people out of the in the US. At least Madoff is sitting in jail unlike Cho who likely still living freely in China.
This persistent disease continues to afflict one Korean who is the last known MERS case in South Korea:
The patient once thought to be the last South Korean with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has been rediagnosed with the viral disease, officials said Monday.
The 35-year-old patient, who had tested negative for the MERS virus in two tests on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, has been infected again, the Health Ministry said.
Earlier in the day, the ministry said the patient had been admitted to Seoul National University Hospital with a high fever. Doctors and relatives who had come in contact with the patient, 61 individuals in total, were quarantined.
After the patient had tested negative, the government was to officially declare the end of the MERS outbreak on Oct. 29, 28 days after the test results became available.
No additional cases or fatalities from MERS had been reported since July until Monday. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but this year a total of 36 people died of MERS in South Korea which had a mortality rate of 19.4%.
This is a pretty amazing coincidence that these two separated sisters were able to find each other after meeting at the same Florida hospital they both were working at:
Two Korean women who were separately adopted by American families when they were children miraculously reunited as they happened to work on the same floor of an American hospital, The Herald Tribune reported Saturday.
Meagan Hughes and Holly Hoyle O’Brien, who started working at Doctors Hospital of Sarasota, Florida, earlier this year, have discovered through DNA tests that they are blood-related sisters. [Korea Times]
It looks like the South Korean government is looking to increase taxes even further on imported cars:
Taxes on luxury imported cars are likely to go up, with lawmakers and the government seeking a law revision to impose taxes based on prices instead of engine displacement.
Rep. Shim Jae-chul from the ruling Saenuri Party proposed a revision of the law earlier this week, saying the current system was unfair and did not reflect technology advances.
“The current volume-based tax system could be unfair,” he said. “With the development of technology, car owners with lower engine displacement, higher performance and higher price pay less tax than drivers with lower priced, low-performance cars.”
According to the current law, 80 won per cubic centimeter (cc) is imposed for cars with displacement less than 1,000 cc, 140 won for cars with displacement between 1,000 and 1,600 cc, and 200 won for cars with displacement over 1,600 cc.
For example, BMW 520d owners pay almost the same amount of vehicle taxes as those driving such local brands as Hyundai Motor’s Sonata midsize as they are in the same segment in terms of engine displacement. The price of the German vehicle is about three times higher than the Korean car.
Also, many lavish cars nowadays are designed with smaller displacements to burn less fuel or run a hybrid engine. Shim said a growing number of electronic cars are another factor to consider. [Korea Times]
Being a big fan of South Park I found the below video interesting, but it seems that it would be difficult for a South Korean to understand the comedy without being aware of US pop culture and current events that drive the satire:
I guess we will see if these family reunions happen or not, but I think the Kim regime is hoping these reunions will open the door to the South Korean government reopening the Kumgang Resort on the North Korean side of the DMZ. This resort was a good source of foreign currency for the regime before South Korea discontinued the joint venture after a North Korean soldier shot a South Korean tourist in the back:
South and North Korea Thursday exchanged the final list of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War to join the upcoming reunions, the Unification Ministry said.
South Korea’s Red Cross handed over a list of 90 South Koreans hoping to meet their relatives living in the North, the ministry said. In return, North Korea delivered a list of 97 North Korean family members to the South.
Last month, South and North Korea agreed to hold the reunions for 100 separated family members from each side on Oct. 20-26 at a scenic resort on Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast.
But the actual number of people to join the reunions will be less than 100 as living separated families, mostly in their 80s and older, suffer from health problems or their beloved ones living across the border have already died.
The upcoming event is the outcome of the two Koreas’ landmark deal that was reached on Aug. 25 to ease military tension and follow through with the family reunions. [Yonhap]
The problem the South Korean government is trying to address with leftist history textbooks being used to teach students could have unattended consequences. At some point the Korean left is going to regain the presidency and this will set the precedent that will allow them to put their own mandated changes in the history textbooks:
A civic group stages a rally in front of the Education Ministry in Sejong City on Wednesday to protest the government’s plan to take back control over history textbooks.[NEWSIS]The presidential office and the ruling party continued on Wednesday to push a plan for the government to take control of history textbooks from private publishers, which the opposition vowed to oppose.
“President Park Geun-hye has openly showed concerns about the overall problems in Korean history education,” an official at the Blue House said on Wednesday.
He said Park issued an order to the Ministry of Education February last year to come up with a way to end distortions of historical fact and ideological biases in classrooms, including the development of new history textbooks with balanced views.
The ruling Saenuri Party announced its support for the government to take control over history textbooks for middle and high school students from private publishers.
“Current history textbooks are pushing the students deeper into a sense of defeat and making them citizens who blame everything on the society and the country,” Saenuri Chairman Kim Moo-sung said Wednesday in his speech at the World Korean Community Leaders Convention. “The most important mission for us is guiding the future generation to challenge the world with positive minds and creative thinking and develop Korea into the world’s 10th largest economy. To realize this goal, history textbooks must be published by the government.”
Currently, eight publishers develop and supply Korean history textbooks for middle and high schools. The ruling party complained over the past few years that seven of them were leaning far too left, giving biased history to the nation’s youngsters.
During a Saenuri Party senior leaders’ meeting Wednesday morning, the need to change the current history textbook system was addressed by several participants.
“History textbooks for middle and high schools, regardless of their publishers, are written consistently with an anti-Korean view that denies our history,” Chairman Kim said. “It appears to be an attempt to teach people’s revolution to the students based on a leftist world view.”
Kim also criticized specific textbooks, saying they justify the Juche, or self-reliance, ideology of the late North Korean founder Kim Il Sung(1912-1994). [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but the glorifying of North Korea in these textbooks if true needs to stop. These textbooks are hold overs from the Sunshine Policy years where leftist teachers were able to get pro-North Korean textbooks into the schools. Today the Sunshine Policy and its leftist supporters have been greatly discredited, but the books still remain in the schools which is what the Park administration is trying to address now.
Rescue workers take part in a drill at a peak of Mount Bukhan in northern Seoul on Oct. 8, 2015, simulating a victim hit by a mountain climbing-related accident. (Yonhap)
South Korea loses Division (-) size element of Soldiers every year to people giving up their citizenship to avoid mandatory ROK military service:
More than 16,000 South Korean men have relinquished their nationality to avoid the mandatory military service in recent years, an opposition lawmaker said Monday.
A total of 4,386 men opted for foreign citizenship in 2014, up from 3,470 men in 2011, said Rep. Jin Sung-joon of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, citing data of the Military Manpower Administration submitted to the National Assembly for an annual audit.
In the first seven months of this year, 2,374 men gave up their nationality to avoid the military service, Jin said.
By nationality, most men became citizens of the United States, followed by Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Jin said. [Korea Observer]
You can read the rest at the link, but it was an interesting statistic that 10% of Koreans in public service successfully avoided completing their military service obligation.
