Tag: South Korea

This would be a very interesting summit if it ever happened. I wonder if they would do it if China said North Korea has to attend as well?:

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida talk during a visit to the Raj Ghat memorial in New Delhi on Sept. 10, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed Sunday to work toward realizing a trilateral summit with China, the presidential office said.

The two held talks on the margins of a Group of 20 summit in New Delhi, expressing their pleasure at meeting a total of six times since March, when Yoon traveled to Tokyo to mend bilateral relations badly frayed over historical disputes.

“The president said the two countries should continue active meetings in the second half of the year and smoothly implement the process to hold a South Korea-Japan-China summit,” the presidential office said in a press release. “Prime Minister Kishida said he would actively respond.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see how hard the Democratic Party of Korea fights this move:

The Korea Military Academy said Thursday it will remove the bust of revered independence fighter Hong Beom-do from its grounds following a heated debate over the defense ministry’s push for the relocation.

The decision came as the ministry has recently been considering relocating the busts of Hong from the academy and its headquarters, both in Seoul, citing his past record of collaborating with Soviet communist forces.

“By considering the academy’s identity and honoring (Hong) as an independence fighter, the bust of General Hong Beom-do will be relocated to an appropriate location outside the academy, where his independence movement achievements can be well displayed,” the academy said in a statement.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The protesters don’t care about facts like this, they only care about push anti-Japanese narratives and bashing the Yoon administration:

This image provided by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries on Aug. 27, 2023, shows locations, marked by dots, in South Korea’s territorial waters where radiation tests are being or will be conducted by Seoul, as Japan began to release radioactive water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. (Yonhap)

The radiation levels in the waters near South Korea remain well below the standards for drinkable water defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), Seoul’s oceans ministry said Sunday.

It was the first such test conducted on 15 locations in three areas of South Korea’s territorial waters after Japan began to release radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean last Thursday.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said it released the results of the radiation tests, carried out Friday, on five locations in the southeastern waters, and plans to disclose the rest of the test results on 10 other locations as soon as they are available.

In the latest result, the concentration levels of cesium-135 and cesium-137 stood at 0.067-0.094 and 0.077-0.098 becquerel per liter, respectively, compared with the WHO’s 10 becquerel per liter for drinking water.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I don’t know if this is really a fight worth having for the Yoon administration:

The government is considering relocating a bust of revered independence fighter Hong Beom-do from outside the defense ministry headquarters due to his past record of collaborating with Soviet communist forces, officials said Monday.

Earlier, the defense ministry said it is considering relocating the busts of five Korean independence fighters, including Hong’s, from the Korea Military Academy in northern Seoul, sparking protest from opposition parties and the Heritage of Korean Independence, an association representing the independence fighters and their descendants.

The move is seen as being in line with the Yoon administration’s push to align closer with the United States and Japan in the face of growing cooperation among North Korea, China and Russia.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but of course the opposition party is backing keeping the busts of communist supporters in place.

The opposition party and these protesters do not care about the saving the oceans, if they did they would be protesting the stopping of dumping of waste water from Korea’s nuclear plants as well. Better yet they need to protest hospitals that give out CT scans which is more dangerous than the waste water being released. This is all about politics and sliming the Yoon administration:

Korean public sentiment over Japan’s release of wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is deteriorating rapidly, with the opposition bloc spearheading protests on Tokyo’s “irresponsible behavior.”

Despite the worsening public sentiment, President Yoon Suk Yeol remains silent on the matter, having Prime Minister Han Duck-soo speak for the government on the matter. 

Reps. Woo Won-shik and Yang Yi Won-young of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Rep. Kang Eun-mi from the minor opposition Justice Party and independent lawmaker Rep. Yang Jung-suk participated in a protest organized by Japan’s Social Democratic Party and a number of civic groups in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture. 

“This protest is not about a fight between Korea and Japan, it is about taking action to protect the ocean and the future generation,” DPK Rep. Woo Won-shik said during the protest. 

“The most appropriate way of recovering Japan’s reputation is an immediate stop of the release. Through solidarity between the two countries, Japanese people should fix the problems of the Fumio Kishida administration and Koreans should fix that of the Yoon administration.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Just like their buddies in North Korea, Iran has plenty of money for humanitarian purposes they just choose to use it to fund a burgeoning nuclear program, ballistic missiles, terrorism groups, etc. The real reason these funds were released was because Iran released five American hostages showing that kidnapping and terrorism do work:

State department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel is seen answering questions during a daily press briefing at the department in Washington on Aug. 14, 2023 in this captured image. (Yonhap)

The Iranian funds currently held in South Korea can only be used for humanitarian purposes while the United States will continue to hold Iran accountable for any destabilizing actions, a state department spokesperson said Monday.

Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the state department, also emphasized that the money had always been available to Iran for humanitarian use.

“Allowing Iran to use such funds for humanitarian purposes is consistent with long standing U.S. policy to ensure that our sanctions do not prevent humanitarian goods and services from flowing to ordinary people, no matter how objectionable or problematic their government is,” the department spokesperson told a daily press briefing.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Great job by these ROK firefighters who undoubtedly gained some valuable forest fire experience to bring back with them to Korea:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks in front of Korean firefighters on their way back to Korea from Ottawa, Wednesday. Screenshot from X

anadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday tweeted a video clip of himself expressing gratitude to a Korean emergency firefighting team who helped his country deal with raging wildfires.

“This morning in Ottawa, I got to send off an incredible group of people. They came from Korea and spent the last few weeks battling wildfires in Quebec,” Trudeau said in the video message posted on social media. “On behalf of all Canadians ― I thanked them for their heroic work.”

The Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT), comprised of 151 personnel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Korea Forest Service, the National Fire Agency and the medical sector, arrived in Lebel-sur-Quevillon, Quebec, on July 2. Two days later, they began a month-long mission fighting the natural disaster that prompted the Quebec provincial government to declare a state of emergency. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Thank goodness this was only another small earthquake, I can only imagine how much damaged would be caused in South Korea if ever hit by a large earthquake:

A 3.5 magnitude earthquake struck northern Jangsu, 216 km south of Seoul, on Saturday, South Korea’s weather agency reported, with no casualties or damage being immediately reported.

The quake occurred in the region in North Jeolla Province at 7:07 p.m. according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). The KMA initially reported the earthquake was a magnitude 4.1 but shortly revised it down.

The depth was estimated at 6 km.

It was the third-strongest quake to occur on the Korean Peninsula or waters around it so far this year. 

The province’s fire authorities have confirmed receiving around 40 reports related to the earthquake, but no damages have been reported so far.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.