Tag: South Korea

Here is another sign of how President Yoon and Prime Minister Kishida are working together on not allowing historical issues derail their bilateral relationship:

President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Sunday paid tribute to South Korean victims of the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombing at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, in a symbolic gesture to transcend the two countries’ historical issues and normalize their ties. 

During a summit that followed, just two weeks after their previous meeting in Seoul, the leaders agreed that their visit was “a courageous act toward the future” and the two countries should cooperate to tackle various global challenges.

“Today, I and Prime Minister Kishida together paid a tribute to the monument,” Yoon said during the summit. “It was about paying condolences to the South Korean victims of the Hiroshima atomic bombing and at the same time will be remembered as the prime minister’s courageous act toward a peaceful future.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is apparently going to be a major topic during President Yoon’s upcoming summit with Prime Minister Trudeau:

The KSS-III Shin Chae-ho / Courtesy of Republic of Korea Navy

A planned summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is prompting speculation over a potential submarine deal between Korea and Canada as Ottawa plans to replace its aging submarines.

Yoon and Trudeau will sit down with each other Wednesday in Seoul to commemorate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Trudeau is the first Canadian prime minister to visit Korea in nine years. 

During their summit, the leaders are expected to discuss the two countries’ cooperation in national defense, including Canada’s submarine replacement program. 

Multiple Canadian news outlets have reported that the Royal Canadian Navy is urging the government to purchase up to 12 new conventionally-powered attack submarines to replace its aging Victoria-class diesel submarines.

Military analysts note that Korea’s KSS-III submarines, Japan’s Taigei-class submarines and Spain’s S-80 Plus class submarines are the perfect fit for the replacement program.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The nursing act that has caused huge protests in South Korea from the health care community against it, has been vetoed by President Yoon:

A Cabinet meeting led by President Yoon Suk Yeol is held at the presidential office in Seoul on May 16, 2023. (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol rejected the opposition-led nursing act Tuesday amid strong protests from doctors and nursing assistants against it, exercising his veto power for the second time since taking office.

The act, which was railroaded by the main opposition Democratic Party last month, is aimed at stipulating the roles and responsibilities of nurses, and improving their working conditions.

“The people’s health cannot be exchanged for anything,” Yoon said during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office, before rejecting the legislation and asking the National Assembly to reconsider it.

Yoon said people’s health comes ahead of anything else, such as politics, foreign policy and economic policy, and can only be properly maintained through cooperation between various groups of medical professionals.

“The nursing act is creating excessive conflict between these related groups, and the move to separate nursing services from medical institutions is causing people to feel anxious about their health,” he said.

Yonhap

Here is why there has been much criticism of the bill:

Doctors and nursing assistants have opposed the bill, arguing the legislation would cause confusion in the medical sector because it could lead to nurses opening their own clinics without doctors’ supervision and that nursing assistants could be discriminated against.

You can read more at the link.

To be fair South Korea is far from the only country with a vulnerability to drone strikes. Militaries around the world are all struggling to develop defenses against this new technology that is being used heavily on the battlefields in Ukraine:

An incursion of South Korean airspace by North Korean drones exposed Seoul’s lack of preparedness in defending against such threats, and it will likely take years for the military to correct its shortcomings, according to a classified U.S. intelligence assessment of the December incident.

The findings, outlined in a leak of U.S. secrets circulated on the Discord messaging platform and obtained by The Washington Post, spotlight the vulnerable state of South Korea’s air defense as its volatile neighbor’s aggressive development of a nuclear arsenal has Seoul and Washington on edge.

South Korea has prioritized its defenses to confront incoming missiles while investing heavily in growing its air and naval forces, but Seoul’s focus has come at the cost of neglecting other air defense needs, experts said — leaving the country vulnerable to a threat responsible for extensive carnage in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I feel horrible for the rental car employee that discovered this seen:

A photo of the Gyeonggi Gwangju Police Station provided by the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency

Four people have been found dead inside a car in an apparent group suicide in the southern outskirts of Seoul, police said Tuesday.

The four — three men in their 30s and a woman in her 20s — were discovered by a car-rental company employee inside the car parked under an overpass in Gwangju, 32 kilometers south of Seoul, at 5:20 p.m. on Monday.

Inside the car, traces suggesting suicides were found, police said, adding there were no signs of intrusion or foul play. Four wrecked mobile phones presumably belonging to the deceased were also found on the scene.

The car was reportedly leased last Friday but was not returned on time, prompting the employee to track its location.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

As low as Yoon’s approval ratings are at 37%, this is actually up from the 27% he was previously at just a month ago. However, his negative rating is 60% which is driven by economic concerns. The impact of the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S. continues to be an issue his critics have been hammering him on since he could not get any concessions from the Biden administration for Korean companies:

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s approval rating stands at 37.5 percent ahead of this week’s first anniversary of his inauguration, a Yonhap News Agency-Yonhap News TV joint survey showed Tuesday.

The survey also showed the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) would win 32 percent and 30 percent of the vote, respectively, if next year’s parliamentary elections were to take place tomorrow.

Seven out of 10 people also said they are worried about South Korea’s security, the survey showed, amid a series of North Korean missile launches, and tensions with Russia over Ukraine and with China over the cross-strait issue.

According to the poll, the positive assessment of Yoon’s performance was 37.5 percent, while the negative assessment came to 60 percent. (……….)

Defense and diplomacy were the factors most cited by respondents in giving positive assessments of Yoon’s performance, followed by science, health care, culture and the economy, the poll showed.

In contrast, the economy was the factor most cited by respondents in giving negative assessments.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is what Japanese Prime Minister Kishida has offered President Yoon during their bilateral summit:

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida took steps Sunday to reciprocate President Yoon Suk Yeol’s commitment to improving bilateral ties, as he accepted a South Korean team’s inspection of the planned release of radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant and acknowledged the past pain of Koreans under Japanese colonial rule.

The water release and Japan’s attitude about its 1910-45 colonial occupation were the main points that were closely watched as Yoon and Kishida held their second summit in less than two months to add momentum to the recent warming of bilateral ties.

The thaw began in March after the Yoon administration decided to compensate Korean victims of Japanese wartime forced labor without the involvement of Japanese firms, a decision Kishida lauded as “courageous.”

Kishida returned the goodwill Sunday by announcing he will accept a visit by a team of South Korean experts to inspect the planned release of the contaminated water.

Amid South Korean calls for a sincere apology, he also acknowledged the pain of forced labor victims.

“My heart aches over the fact that many people had an extremely painful and sad experience in harsh conditions at the time,” he said, before adding he was speaking in a personal capacity.

Critics said the remark still falls short of a direct apology.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but they can add this apology to this ever growing list of apologies that the Korean left is still not happy with.