Tag: South Korea

I always wondered if the various tombs in South Korea still had cultural relics left in them and apparently some of them still do:

Authorities said Tuesday that they had rounded up four people who illegally excavated two ancient burial sites in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang.

According to the Gyeongsan Police Precinct, those arrested include a 65-year-old antique dealer surnamed Park, who is alleged to have stolen artifacts from the two graves. They are questioning three others employed by Park for the project.

“We suspect that they began digging near the burial sites in January last year to make a hole large enough for a man to crawl in,” said a police officer. “They dug the hole gradually at night over two months.”

Police added that the burial mounds were surrounded by dense woods before being recently refurbished.

Investigators confiscated 38 artifacts from the graves, including golden earrings, silver swords, crowns and belts, though they believe the suspects made away with more artifacts.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

The Korea Observer has a video posted of a Korean man beating a woman on the street.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKLvQ7P4mc4

This incident shows a cultural difference in Korea many Americans may not realize.  In the US people would likely intervene to stop what was going on, however in Korea intervening and getting into an altercation could lead to a lawsuit.  That is why I recommend to foreign visitors and residents in Korea to not intervene in situations like this unless there are a whole bunch of Korean friends to act as witnesses.  The foreigner’s word against a Korean’s usually does not turn out well at the police station.  It is best to call the police and take video to give to the police like the Canadian that took this video did.

A mounted archer shoots an arrow during an international horseback archery competition in Sokcho on South Korea’s east coast on Oct. 2, 2015. (Yonhap)

Why would anyone want the immigration problems that Sweden has?:

A world renowned scholar has called for gender equality improvements in South Korea, saying it lags behind the country’s economic advancement.

In an interview with KBS on Saturday, Swedish medical doctor and statistician Hans Rosling said United Nations’ data proves that South Korea has become an advanced nation comparable to countries like Japan or Sweden.

However, he said that in the area of gender equality, such as birth rate or the percentage of women politicians, South Korea lags behind Sweden by about 50 years.

He said the traditional thinking that women are in charge of childcare and household chores has not caught up with the nation’s economic development.

Rosling also said that accepting immigrants could be a solution to South Korea’s low birth rate and pointed out that more immigrants not only boosts population but also expands social diversity.  [KBS World Radio]

Here is what this Swedish scholar wishes to impose on Korea:

Sweden takes in more refugees per capita than any other European country, and immigrants – mainly from the Middle East and Africa – now make up about 16 per cent of the population. The main political parties, as well as the mainstream media, support the status quo. Questioning the consensus is regarded as xenophobic and hateful. Now all of Europe is being urged to be as generous as Sweden.

So how are things working out in the most immigration-friendly country on the planet?

Not so well, says Tino Sanandaji. Mr. Sanandaji is himself an immigrant, a Kurdish-Swedish economist who was born in Iran and moved to Sweden when he was 10. He has a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago and specializes in immigration issues. This week I spoke with him by Skype.

“There has been a lack of integration among non-European refugees,” he told me. Forty-eight per cent of immigrants of working age don’t work, he said. Even after 15 years in Sweden, their employment rates reach only about 60 per cent. Sweden has the biggest employment gap in Europe between natives and non-natives.

In Sweden, where equality is revered, inequality is now entrenched. Forty-two per cent of the long-term unemployed are immigrants, Mr. Sanandaji said. Fifty-eight per cent of welfare payments go to immigrants. Forty-five per cent of children with low test scores are immigrants. Immigrants on average earn less than 40 per cent of Swedes. The majority of people charged with murder, rape and robbery are either first- or second-generation immigrants. “Since the 1980s, Sweden has had the largest increase in inequality of any country in the OECD,” Mr. Sanandaji said.  [Globe and Mail]

Why would anyone in Korea want to sign up for this?

The Sunshiners are back and they just cannot bring themselves to admit that they wrong.  All the Sunshine Policy did was keep one of the world’s worst governments in power with money and food aid that in turn was used to develop ballistic missiles and a nuclear program that are now a threat to the rest of the world:

At symposium, participants argue that if conciliatory policies had been continued, inter-Korean relations wouldn’t have deteriorated

At an academic conference to mark the eighth anniversary of the October 4 North-South Declaration, several voices called for a restoration of the Sunshine Policy and other initiatives to improve inter-Korean relations. On Oct. 2, the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, Korea Peace Forum and Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs) co-hosted an international symposium for the eighth anniversary of the October 4 declaration at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in central Seoul.

At the symposium, James Hoare, a Chatham House fellow who was charge d’affaires and HM Consul-General at the British Embassy in Pyongyang, said that what South and North need right now is a return to the Sunshine Policy initiatives enacted by Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun from 1997 to 2007. He added that if Lee Myung-bak had continued such initiatives instead of abandoning the October 4 Declaration, it would have helped inter-Korean relations immensely.　Moon Jae-in, leader of the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, claimed that if the initiatives of the October 4 declaration had continued, the lives of 70 million people would now be “brimming with hope and prosperity,” while the Korean Peninsula “reached out to the international community as a whole.” “The past eight years of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, however, have thrown inter-Korean relations back to the dark ages,” he added, adding that if measures such as the special zone of peace and cooperation in the West (Yellow) Sea and economic reunification had been properly implemented, the nation could have focused its efforts on conquering problems like stagnant growth, the decline of the middle class, and youth unemployment. The October 4 declaration included agreements to establish a “special zone of peace and cooperation” in the West Sea, including the city of Haeju and the surrounding maritime region, as well as the launch of joint fishing areas and peace districts.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link.

In this photo taken on Oct. 1, 2015, a monument to the 1943 Cairo Declaration on Japan’s unconditional surrender and Korea’s independence stands at the Mena House Hotel in the Egyptian capital after it was unveiled during a ceremony, organized by the South Korean Embassy there. The monument has a central part of the declaration, issued by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek, inscribed that reads, “Korea shall become free and independent.” The embassy held the event to mark the 20th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between South Korea and Egypt, and the 70th anniversary of Korea’s independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. It also turned a spotlight on the declaration’s historic value. (Yonhap)

If you are traveling to Korea for work, the government has now implemented a three month waiting period to qualify for health insurance:

Foreigners entering Korea for employment purposes will have to wait three months to get health insurance, as will overseas Koreans.

In the past, foreigners and overseas Koreans could register for health insurance on the first day they entered the country, but from Oct. 1 they will have to wait.

The Health Ministry says the relevant law has been amended to prevent people from entering country under false pretenses to enjoy health insurance benefits and leave soon afterward.   [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Fans of Apple products in Korea will soon be able to purchase the company’s newest product the iPhone 6S:

Korean consumers waiting for Apple’s new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus will not be able to get hold of them until the end of next month at the earliest.

Apple on Monday said the new iPhone series will hit the market on Oct. 9 and 10 in 40 countries including Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and Taiwan but not in Korea.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

This aerial photo shows an expressway running parallel to fields of ripe rice in the southwestern city of Jeongeup on Sept. 29, 2015, the last day of the Chuseok holiday that started on Sept. 26. Chuseok, which fell on Sept. 27 this year, is the season for family reunions, with Koreans traditionally offering a ritual feast to their ancestors on Aug. 15 of the lunar calendar. (Yonhap)

It looks like whatever team the US military put together for the international military Olympics currently being held in South Korea wasn’t very good:

The K-league football club Sangju Sangmu has defeated the United States 7-0 in its opening match of 2015 CISM World Games Korea, an international sports event for military service members.

Sangmu, the sports division of South Korea’s military, overwhelmed the American team in the first Group A match of football on Wednesday in Moongyeong, North Gyeongsang Province.

Forward Cho Don-gun and midfielder Lee Seung-ki scored two goals each for the host team.

The 2015 CISM World Games officially kick off on Friday and continue until October 11. About 73-hundred soldiers from some 120 countries will participate in the international sports event, which will be held in eight cities and counties.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read the rest at the link.