Tag: South Korea

Just another example of why the Kim regime cannot be trusted to keep to agreements:

North Korea breached the recently scrapped 2018 inter-Korean military accord approximately 3,600 times, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.

The number of violations by North Korea, counted from the time the deal was reached six years ago, was announced following three consecutive days of North Korean provocations along the sea boundary.

The JCS in Seoul told the press that due to North Korea’s firing of artillery shells near South Korean border islands over the past three days, there are now no areas where military measures are halted.

“Rather than reacting to the enemy actions on a case-by-case basis, our troops will be carrying out drills according to our own plans in the northwestern islands,” it said.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Even this recent deadly earthquake in Japan cannot stop the Dokdo madness:

Seoul’s foreign ministry expressed a strong protest against Tokyo on Tuesday as Japan’s weather agency included South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo in a tsunami advisory issued after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Japan.

In a map showing tsunami alerts on the Japan Meteorological Agency’s website, the rocky islets were highlighted in yellow, along with other regions on Japan’s west coast, indicating tsunami advisories were issued for the areas. 

The powerful quake struck the Noto Peninsula and surrounding areas in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture on New Year’s Day, reportedly killing several people and causing tsunamis on South Korea’s east coast.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this is really an issue that President Yoon needs to work with Japan to resolve to further improve bilateral relations.

This is horrible and hopefully Lee Jae-myung is able to fully recover from this attack:

 Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was attacked during a visit to the southeastern port city of Busan on Tuesday and taken to a hospital while conscious.

Lee, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, was attacked on the left side of his neck by an unidentified man at 10:27 a.m. during a question and answer session with reporters after touring the construction site of a new airport on Busan’s Gadeok Island.

Lee was transferred to Pusan National University Hospital approximately 20 minutes after the attack.

At the time of the transfer, Lee remained conscious, but the bleeding continued.

The male suspect, pretending to be one of Lee’s supporters, approached the politician asking for an autograph and then carried out the attack with an unidentified weapon approximately 20-30 centimeters in length, according to eyewitnesses. 

He was arrested at the scene.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this is not the first time political violence like this has happened in South Korea. Park Geun-hye was slashed in the face in 2006 and U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert’s face and neck back in 2015. Hopefully the man that committed this latest political violence spends a long time in jail.

Considering all the criticism past elections have been receiving that is impacting public confidence in elections, hand counts verifid by a machine count I think is the most effective way of maintaining election creditability which is what Korea plans to do:

The National Election Commission (NEC) said Wednesday it will introduce a manual ballot counting system for general elections in April in an effort to ensure transparency and prevent potential election rigging.

Currently, machines are used to sort out and count votes. 

Under the envisioned new system, however, ballots will first be sorted out by machines, and election staff will manually check all of them before putting them into the counting machines.

“It is meant to boost transparency and credibility over the course of the elections to prevent vote-rigging suspicions,” the commission said, adding that repeated suspicions over election fraud have “hampered national unity and fostered the boycott of election results.”

It is expected to take longer for the commission to confirm election results under the new system, and the commission will significantly beef up personnel for the process.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The 2010 sinking of the Cheonan and other provocations by North Korea in the Yellow Sea have never had a proper response from the ROK. For example after the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle that saw six ROK sailors dead the North Koreans celebrated the aftermath while the ROK did nothing in response. In fact the ROK President did not attend the memorial ceremony and surviving family members were treated poorly in an effort to downplay the provocation. With the new ROK defense chief it looks like any future provocations will have a serious response:

South Korea’s defense chief on Tuesday instructed Navy officials to mercilessly bury North Korean sailors at sea in the event of another North Korean provocation.

Defense Minister Shin Won-sik made the remark as he inspected the new 2,800-ton ROKS Cheonan frigate, which was deployed for operations to the headquarters of the Navy’s Second Fleet in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, on Saturday.

Shin told Navy officials and sailors to “mercilessly bury (the enemy) at sea if the enemy stages yet another provocation” after he paid tribute to 46 fallen sailors at the memorial monument at the headquarters of the Navy’s Second Fleet.

In 2010, North Korea torpedoed the 1,200-ton-class Cheonan corvette near the western Northern Limit Line, the de facto inter-Korean sea border, killing 46 South Korean sailors. A Seoul-led multinational investigation concluded that Pyongyang torpedoed the Cheonan warship, but the North has denied its involvement in the incident.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This would be a big loss for Korean companies if the new Polish prime minister decides to cancel these contracts. I guess the new Prime Minister wants to get on the Uncle Sam defense gravy train like the rest of Europe:

South Korea is in talks with Poland to ensure the multiple arms contracts signed between Korean companies and the Polish government will be carried out as agreed despite the change of the leadership in Warsaw, a Seoul official said Tuesday. 

Concerns are growing as the new Polish government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, signaled a revision to some of the arms contracts inked under the preceding government, citing overspending of the budget. 

South Korean defense firms have clinched about US$13-14 billion worth of arms sales contracts with Poland this year, which include plans for deliveries of rocket launchers, fighter jets, tanks and self-propelled howitzers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This predictably did not go over well:

A team led by Andrew, comprising James, Chris and Lisa, engages in lively conversations about work while addressing each other by their first names.

This atmosphere is something that some Korean companies are trying to emulate by mandating all employees to use their preferred English name while at work.

The rationale is that they need to move away from the Korean language’s emphasis on honorifics, position titles and other formalities, to facilitate horizontal communication. The thinking is that, by ditching Korean names and the complex honorifics system attached to them in the Korean language, employees should be able to engage in more open and effective communication, encouraging innovation.

But does it actually work?

Predictable resistance

As one can imagine, not all employees welcome mandatory name-change policies with open arms.

At Kyobo Life Insurance, skepticism hangs over the company’s four-month-old English-name policy.

“It’s ridiculous,” said one employee who requested anonymity.

“Communication hasn’t improved, and some colleagues can’t even pronounce the English names, so we’ve had to post Korean pronunciations next to them on our company’s intranet.”

Korea Herald

You can read about all the examples of how this policy worked out at the link. It appears the younger the workforce is the more likely this policy will have better results.

For my readers in South Korea, bundle up because it is cold out there:

An icy cold wave that spread frigid winds over the weekend is expected to continue throughout the week, meteorologists said Sunday, urging caution over slippery roads, freezing and bursting water meters and other damage.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) issued cold wave advisories and warnings for most parts of the country, saying the ongoing cold spell is caused by a southward inflow of cold air from Siberia. 

Midday highs remained at around minus 8 degrees Celsius across the country on Sunday. On Monday, morning lows in Seoul are forecast to be minus 11 degrees and midday highs minus 2 degrees. (…….)

Amid the cold weather, the Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) reported damage to a Mokpo Station-bound KTX carrying 788 passengers, saying that windows on the bullet train were cracked at around 10:10 p.m. on Saturday. 

KTX train windows are double-glazed, and this time the outer parts of the windows cracked, according to the company. The accident caused no injuries or disruptions to operation of other trains.

“While outside parts of the windows of the train have become weak due to the cold weather, some of them were cracked after they were hit by pebbles,” a KORAIL official said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.