Tag: South Korea

Here is the latest sign of the growing drug problem in South Korea:

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration is assembling a task force to fight the drug trade and the use of drugs, according to a number of administration sources who spoke off the record.    
   
“Preparations for a war on drugs is happening at a fast pace,” a high-ranking presidential official told the JoongAng Ilbo by phone Sunday. “It is a matter of the country protecting its people.”  
   
The initiative comes as Korea faces a flood of illegal substances from overseas and as the use of drugs becomes more widespread in a society once known as essentially drug free.  (…..) 

The “war on drugs” will involve the formation of a pan-governmental joint investigation team with the prosecution and police partnered with related agencies, such as the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Korea Customs Service, the sources said.  
   
Large cities, like Seoul, Busan and Incheon, are expected to be key areas for the crackdown to block the entry of drugs into Korea.    
   
“The prosecution has already started the basic work to crack down on the overseas supply chain,” a member of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) said.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It appears this whole investigation of the fishery official killed by North Korea has turned political. I say this because there is really no way to prove definitively that this guy was trying to defect or not since he left no note or any other evidence stating he was doing so. That left the Moon administration to make an assessment on how this guy ended up in the water. Maybe there assessment was wrong, but it doesn’t mean it was criminal:

Former President Moon Jae-in said the state audit agency’s recent attempt to question him over a South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korea in 2020 is “very rude,” according to Rep. Youn Kun-young, his former aide.

The lawmaker of the main opposition liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) told reporters at the National Assembly, Monday, that Moon said it was “very rude” and improper for the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) to call him and send him an official email regarding the case.

After receiving the email on Sept. 28, the office of Moon’s secretary told the institution two days later that he will not answer any of its questions.

The 47-year-old fisheries official, who was unarmed, was killed in September 2020 by the North Korean military while adrift in the North’s territorial waters and his body was incinerated afterwards. It was initially concluded that he was killed during his attempt to defect to the North. But the story took a drastic turn as the military and police, under the Yoon Suk-yeol government, said there was not sufficient evidence that he was intentionally trying to cross the border. Over the past few months, the prosecution has been looking into who was involved in drawing that conclusion.

“The BAI appears to try to curry favor with the people in power despite its duty to maintain political neutrality. We should find the whole truth behind this,” Youn said.

More than 10 lawmakers, who worked for the previous administration, appeared at the press conference where they vowed to fight against what they described as “political retaliation” by the Yoon administration.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

South Korea has joined with the vast majority of the world to condemn Russia’s attempted annexation of territory within Ukraine:

The South Korean government said Saturday it does not recognize Russia’s recent annexation of Ukrainian territory as legitimate while strongly condemning Moscow’s invasion of the eastern European country.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties to annex four regions in Ukraine, following referendums in the territory late last month.

“The Korean government strongly condemns Russia’s armed invasion against Ukraine as a violation of the principles of the U.N. Charter,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said in a statement.

“The Korean government does not recognize the referenda held in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson and Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian territory as legitimate.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but areas that Russia is claiming in this annexation have already been liberated by Ukraine. This includes Russia’s embarrassing defeat this weekend in the logistical hub of Lyman.

South Korea is taking longer than other countries to drop their COVID protocols, but they appear to be realizing that the protocols are arguably more detrimental to the population than the virus:

The government is expected to speed up the pace of its COVID-19 exit strategy after its decision to lift all outdoor mask mandates starting Monday. 

The next steps are likely to range from ending the post-arrival PCR test to resuming face-to-face visits at nursing hospitals, and it is considering a step-by-step easing of the seven-day quarantine for infected patients. 

Until Sunday, those at outdoor gatherings of 50 or more people, such as sporting events, had to wear masks, but it is no longer required, according to the government.

“We are clearly overcoming the hurdle of the recent resurgence of the coronavirus,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said during a government meeting at the Government Complex in Sejong, Friday. The government plans to map out a new set of low-risk quarantine measures to solve the public’s inconveniences based on feedback from experts, the prime minister said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I expect we will still see many Koreans masked up outdoors even with the dropping of this mandate.

As long as the COVID virus continues to mutate herd immunity to it will continue to be a fantasy despite such a high level of antibodies in the Korean population:

While a recent government study found that almost all Koreans have developed antibodies against the coronavirus either by vaccination or natural infection, this finding does not mean that the population has achieved herd immunity, according to health officials.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) unveiled on Friday the results of its latest study, which showed that 97.4 percent of those surveyed had antibodies against the spike protein (S) of the coronavirus. The survey, co-organized with the Korea National Institute of Health (NIH), involved some 10,000 people aged five and above living in 17 cities and provinces. 

A COVID-19 antibody test checks whether an individual has developed S-antibodies or nucleocapsid protein (N)-antibodies. S-antibodies are produced either through natural infection or vaccination, while the N-antibodies are formed only through natural infection. 

Although the vast majority of the population has developed antibodies against the coronavirus, people should still remain vigilant and receive an updated booster shot, health officials warn. (……)

He also said that the latest study has only confirmed the presence of antibodies for the original COVID-19 virus, not for the Omicron variant and its subvariants.

“Antibodies diminish over time and the possible emergence of new variants may weaken the protection offered by antibodies from a previous variant,” he said, explaining that inoculation via a booster shot is essential after four months or longer following either infection or vaccination.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but calling for more booster shots is probably going to fall on deaf ears for most people at this point.

This would make for a great Dog the Bounty Hunter episode hunting this guy down:

South Korean prosecutors said Sunday that Do Kwon, the wanted founder of Terraform Labs accused of fraud following the massive collapse of the firm’s cryptocurrencies in May, is “obviously on the run” and not cooperating with the investigation.

The remarks came in response to Kwon’s claim in a tweet that “I am not ‘on the run’ or anything similar — for any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide.”

On Saturday, Singapore police’s statement said the Terraform founder and CEO is no longer in Singapore.

The blockchain firm has been under investigation for alleged fraud and tax evasion after investors in its cryptocurrencies — TerraUSD and Luna — filed complaints against Kwon in May, accusing him of a Ponzi scheme over the loss of billions of won following the crash of both coins earlier that month.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It will definitely be a sign of improving relations if South Korea takes the Japanese up on this offer of joining their fleet review. Considering that the Yoon administration will probably get hammered domestically for joining this fleet review, hopefully the Japanese offer something equal in value in return for ROK participation:

South Korea’s Defense Ministry is considering an invitation from Japan to stage a naval fleet review together, but old enmities and unresolved disputes stand in the way, according to South Korea’s defense minister.

South Korea is determined to build “future-oriented” ties with Japan and their military relationship “should be improved” if mutual cooperation, along with that of the United States, can boost security in the region, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup told Yonhap News on Wednesday.

“Japan-[South Korea] defense cooperation is under the influence of the overall relations between Japan and South Korea,” he said. “The conditions to improve Japan-[South Korea] ties are currently being set.”

But cooperation between the two countries have been hampered by long-standing territorial and historical differences, Lee said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It has been five years and the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan is back conducting exercises with the ROK Navy in response to a North Korean provocation:

The USS Ronald Reagan, the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered supercarrier, will arrive at the southeastern port city of Busan later this week for joint military drills with South Korea amid mounting nuclear threats from North Korea. 

According to military sources Sunday, the Nimitz-class supercarrier will take part in combined exercises with the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy in the East Sea this month for the first time since 2017, when Pyongyang conducted its sixth nuclear weapons test.

The move comes immediately after the two allies issued a joint statement Friday (local time), after holding a meeting in Washington to denounce the North for passing a law earlier this month to grant its military the right to use nuclear weapons preemptively. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also called the nation’s nuclear status “irreversible,” leaving no room for negotiation on the issue.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.