Tag: South Korea

With all the negative press that Japan constantly gets beaten with over historical issues it is actually a bit surprising that Japan is not only the most favorably viewed nation in Asia by other Asian nations, but by a wide margin over #2 China.  I was surprised to see China at #2 considering the various territorial land grab schemes they have going on with various neighboring countries:

The coming decades promise to be the Asian Century, when the most populous region, with some of the world’s fastest growing economies, is likely to become the global nexus of commercial, cultural and geopolitical activity. For this reason, how people in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, see each other and their leaders is of growing importance.

Overall, despite historical and territorial frictions, Asia-Pacific publics tend to view their regional neighbors in a positive light, with Japan judged most favorably. But these same publics also express limited confidence in the region’s most prominent national leaders when it comes to their handling of international issues. These are some of the findings from a new Pew Research Center survey of 15,313 people in 10 Asia-Pacific nations and the U.S. conducted from April 6 to May 27, 2015.

No Leader Has Majority’s ConfidenceA median of 71% in the region have a favorable view of Japan, with positive views exceeding negative sentiment by more than five-to-one.1 A median of 57% voice a favorable opinion of China. Roughly half (51%) see India in a positive light. And just under half (47%) give South Korea a thumbs-up, in part due to a higher proportion of those surveyed who express no opinion. Nevertheless, favorable views of South Korea outweigh negative sentiment by two-to-one.  [Pew Research Center]

You can read more at the link, but something else of interest from the poll is that 61% of South Koreans have a favorable view of China and only 25% have a favorable view of Japan.  This shows the power the media and the political class have had in South Korea in shaping public opinion about Japan.  China is the nation with its own territorial squabble with South Korea, tried by military force to destroy the Republic of Korea, responsible for the killing of more Koreans during the Korean War than Imperial Japan ever committed, continues to enable the Kim regime committed to destroying the ROK, interferes in ROK internal affairs, and maintains a modern day comfort women system of Korean women.  This is all overlooked by the ROK public because of the constant sensationalism given to Dokdo and historical issues with Japan that pail in comparison to what the Chinese have done to Korea more recently.

A China hard-landing would be devastating for South Korea, finance minister tells WSJ @Kwanwoo http://t.co/WAZ6y2KFiz pic.twitter.com/Efi2aRT20l

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) September 4, 2015

While Maxim here in the U.S. has done well to rejuvenate its image, Maxim Korea is headed 100 mph in the wrong direction with this disturbing cover. The cover depicts a man casually enjoying a cigarette while a woman’s dead body is stuffed in the trunk of his car. The image is for Maxim Korea‘s September issue, which has a “bad guy” theme, and features an actor notorious for playing villains, Kim Byung-ok. Next to Byung-ok is the copy, “So girls like ‘bad guys’? This is what a bad guy looks like. Dying for him, right?”

Unsurprisingly, the offensive cover has prompted an online petition that calls for Maxim Korea to pull the magazine from newsstands, Cosmopolitan UK reports.  [Yahoo News via reader tip]

Half of Korean College Graduates Live with Parents http://t.co/7wDw07qTCn

— The Grand Narrative (@JamesTurnbull) September 1, 2015

I am sure this news is probably not surprising to most people who are familiar with South Korea.  I am also sure most people in Korea know the hyper competitiveness is what is causing the high suicide rate, but little will probably be done to correct it:

An average of 29.1 people per 100,000 in South Korea committed suicides in 2012, exceeding the OECD average of 12, according to the OECD Health Data 2015.

The countries of Hungary followed next with 19.4 people per 100,000 taking their own lives and then Japan with 18.7 percent.

Korea has been posting a sharp increase in its suicide rate since 2000. While suicide rate in Japan remains high, it has been on the decline since 2010.

Suicide is a major concern in the nation; it is also cited as the top cause of death among teens and young people in 2013. [Korea Times]

An elderly woman spreads out harvested red peppers and sesame on the ground to dry them in the sun in the city of Chuncheon, northeast of Seoul, on Aug. 27, 2015. Sun-dried hot peppers, known as “taeyangcho” in Korean, are considered to be of the highest quality and fetch high prices at local markets. (Yonhap)

Dog cosmeticians trim the hair of pet dogs during an international dog show, organized by the Korea Kennel Federation, at the Korea International Exhibition Center in the city of Goyang, west of Seoul, on Aug. 28, 2015. (Yonhap)

I wonder if the Chinese Communist Party will take credit for the fighting that the Nationalists primarily carried out fighting Japan during World War II?:

Seoul’s presidential office has officially announced that President Park Geun-hye will visit China from September 2 to 4 to attend Victory Day events marking the end of World War II.

Along with the main commemoration ceremony on Thursday next week, the South Korean president will also attend a military parade in Tiananmen Square, featuring 12-thousand troops and conventional and nuclear missiles.

Presidential Spokesman Min Kyung-wook told reporters Wednesday that Park decided to attend the event in consideration of South Korea’s friendly and cooperative ties with China, and its hope for the country’s role in the unification of the two Koreas.

A day ahead of the Victory Day celebration, President Park and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a summit. On the last day of her visit, Park will be in Shanghai to attend the reopening ceremony of the historic building where the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was located during Japan’s colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula.   [KBS World Radio]

Like I suspected the ROK offered the North Koreans some significant financial rewards if they apologized for the landmine attack.  basically what his comes down to is that two ROK soldiers had to have their legs blown off so the ROK could pay off the North Koreans to apologize.  This is another example of why the North Koreans commit provocations, because they work:

A landmark inter-Korean deal to resolve heightened cross-border tensions could give fresh momentum to bilateral economic cooperation that has been stalled due to strained relations between the archrivals, analysts said Tuesday.

The agreement, reached early Tuesday after marathon negotiations, defused the military standoff triggered by a land-mine explosion that maimed two South Korean soldiers on Aug. 4, and an artillery exchange on Thursday.

Excluding the joint industrial complex in Kaesong North Korea, inter-Korean economic projects have been in limbo since South Korea imposed a blanket ban on economic cooperation and personnel exchanges in March 2010, in retaliation for the North’s sinking of a South Korean naval vessel near the western maritime border.

Observers said the overnight breakthrough could make it possible for the two sides to restart negotiations on suspended economic cooperation projects and possibly lifting the sanctions.

The latest deal does not mention lifting Seoul’s comprehensive sanctions although it calls for high-level talks to take place as soon as possible which can touch on broader outstanding issues.

North Korea watchers speculated that Pyongyang raised the issue of lifting sanctions and the resumption of tours to the Mount Kumgang resort on its southeast coast, which were halted in July 2008 when a South Korean female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier.

Seoul demanded Pyongyang allow a renewed on-site probe into the death of the tourist and take measures to ensure the safety of its citizens. Pyongyang, however, claimed it had done everything it could, including a verbal promise by then leader Kim Jong-il to make sure no such tragedy would happen again.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the answer to the question, a lot:

The number of undocumented immigrants from South Korea in the U.S. has increased eightfold in 25 years to an estimated 190,000, according to a new report by the Migration Policy Institute.

South Korean undocumented immigrants now number eighth in population, overall estimated to be about 11 million.

According to MPI, about 9,000 South Korean undocumented immigrants — or about 20 percent of the 44,000 eligible for deferred action of childhood arrivals — have applied for the program.

Undocumented immigrants from Mexico top the list in population, at 6.2 million, followed by Guatemala, El Salvador, the Honduras, China, India and the Philippines.  [Korea Times]