Tag: South Korea

It will be interesting to see what the results of this survey are, but expect that it will likely show the majority of the population in South Korea has been infected with COVID:

The results of an on-going large-scale COVID-19 antibody survey, the first of its kind since the outbreak of the pandemic, are expected in early September.

The antibody positivity rate survey, launched last Tuesday, will be conducted on some 10-thousand South Korean citizens over the age of five across 17 cities and provinces nationwide.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, along with the Korean Society of Epidemiology, are currently selecting a demographic group based on age, region and case prevalence that is representative of the nation.

Health authorities hope the survey results will become the stepping stone to a more accurate and scientific COVID-19 policy by finding the scale of “hidden infections” that were excluded from official statistics.

The survey aims to find viral antibodies that were developed through natural infections, not those acquired through vaccinations, which would yield an estimated scale of infections excluded from government statistics.

KBS World News

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see how many claims get submitted to this compensation center:

Korea opened a Covid-19 vaccine injury compensation center on Tuesday as access to fourth vaccine doses was widened amid a new wave of the virus.  
   
Previously, compensation for vaccine side effects was managed by the Covid-19 vaccination task force team under the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).    
   
The newly-created Compensation & Support Center for Covid-19 Vaccine Injury will take over, the KDCA announced Tuesday. It vowed to increase the number of personnel and build the center’s expertise. 

Apart from deciding compensation, the center will also provide counseling to patients with post-vaccine reactions.  
   
Health authorities also announced they will expand financial support for vaccination side effects that were difficult to prove were caused by the jabs.  
   
The KDCA said Tuesday that people with diseases that are suspected to be related to Covid vaccination — but haven’t been proved — can receive up to 50 million won ($38,150), up from the previous 30 million won.  
   
Compensation for post-vaccine deaths that couldn’t be proved was raised from 50 million won to 100 million won.  
   
In addition, the government will give 10 million won to survivors of people who died within 42 days of receiving a Covid vaccine even if the cause of death was not established by a post mortem examination. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This is a tricky issue that the Yoon administration is likely not going to win any domestic political points from even if they come up with a resolution. This issue is just too easy for the political opposition to demagogue:

The top diplomats of South Korea and Japan agreed Monday on the need for an early resolution of the long-running dispute over Korean victims of wartime forced labor.

Foreign Minister Park Jin and his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, held talks in Tokyo to discuss ways to mend soured bilateral ties and settle historical feuds stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea. Park arrived earlier in the day in his first official visit to Japan since taking office in May. 

During the talks, Park said the Seoul government will make efforts to draw “a reasonable solution” related to the force labor issue and the two sides shared the view that the issue needs to be promptly resolved, Seoul’s ministry said in a release. (….)

Possible solutions suggested by observers include the creation of a fund with contributions from Korean and Japanese firms or the South Korean government compensating the victims on behalf of the Japanese companies.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Interesting posting over at ROK Drop favorite, Dr. B.R. Myers site about how many students who go into Korean Studies lose interest in it after a year or two:

Many a university here has learned this the hard way. I assume that a higher proportion of Westerners are willing to pay their own money to learn about China or Japan, because such a degree promises enhanced access to a much bigger economy, therefore better job prospects. I doubt if Hallyu fandom and demand for Korea-related courses are even a reliable indicator of an all-surpassing interest in this country. One can be crazy about BTS, and even crazier about Japanese anime.

The question is whether the measures Prof. King proposes will help incentivize young Westerners to pursue a Korean studies degree. Although not in a Korean studies department I have some relevant experience. About a third of my students are from foreign countries. Some stay in Korea for one semester, some for four years, and some settle down here, usually in an enclave of their countryfolk. Most seem to lose interest in studying the host language and culture within a year or two.

Funding is not a factor. Virtually all of my foreign students get at least half their tuition paid for; some are on full scholarships. They tend to become disaffected with the study of Korea because they become disaffected with Korea itself, and its perceived nationalism or xenophobia in particular. To give just one anecdote: recently some of my best foreign students, including one in an advanced stage of pregnancy, were asked to leave a coffee shop lest their alienness unsettle local patrons worried about COVID.

B.R. Myers

You can read more at the link.

Here is another example of South Korea’s growing space program:

Korea on Tuesday started transporting the country’s first lunar orbiter to the United States ahead of next month’s launch using a SpaceX rocket, officials said.

Korea plans to launch the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, also known as Danuri, aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 8:24 a.m. on Aug. 3 (Korean Time).

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, Danuri was sent from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, to Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, in a specially designed container.

The orbiter will be flown to Orlando International Airport and arrive at the Floridian space center Thursday. It will later undergo maintenance, assembly and other pre-launch preparations for about a month before launch.

Danuri will begin circling around the moon in December and conduct a yearlong mission to observe it using an array of instruments, including cameras and magnetometers. It will also identify potential landing sites for future lunar missions.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The Joong Ang Ilbo has article published about the difficulties that African students are having in South Korea:

Karen, Lanre and Fatima are all black students from Africa living in Korea and studying at different Korean universities. They have asked to withhold their identities as they worry that they could face a backlash after speaking out about their experience of studying in Korea.  All three students agree that just being black in Korea attracts a lot of attention and discomfort.  
   
“When I ride the subway, people look at me and never want to sit next to me unless it is the last seat available,” Karen said.    
   
Lanre described how once, while he was out walking, “a little girl saw me and then went to hide behind her parents while looking at me as if I wanted to hurt her.”   
   
This kind of reaction seems to be common and could come from a lack of education on racial issues.  
   
Fatima also noted that some cultural features like braids, which are worn by some Korean rappers for a hip-hop look, are appropriated, and used in a different way than their original meaning.  
   
“Before doing it, you try to learn what is behind it and why these people are doing this, you don’t just do it for the style” said Fatima.    
   
Lanre also said that some of his classmates in Suwon kept repeating that Africa was very poor, and even asked questions like, “Do you have cars?” This type of behavior can continue to convey a lot of clichés, prejudices and preconceived notions about African people.  
 
The issue is not only a lack of education on racial issues, but also seems to extend to the culture in some schools and universities.  
   
Karen arrived in Korea in 2014 and went to study in a Korean high school once she finished learning Korean. On her very first day in school she sat in the front row and, “the teacher came up to me, took my hand, and asked me if I was dirty or if I was just black.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The numbers may be rising above 10,000 but it is no where near the peak of 620,000 cases a day Korea had back in March:

 South Korea’s new coronavirus cases stayed above 10,000 for the second consecutive day Sunday as the daily cases seemed to be rising again after months of subsiding.

The country added 10,059 COVID-19 infections, including 191 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,389,611, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. 

The country reported eight COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 24,570. The fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

An Inter-Korean agreement from 2009 stated that the North Koreans are supposed to notify the South when they release flood waters from their dam so they can warn residents along the Imjim River. Here is yet another agreement the Kim regime has decided to not abide by:

North Korea appears to have released water from a dam near the inter-Korean border, while remaining unresponsive to Seoul’s request for prior notice, a South Korean government official Thursday.

“It is presumed that North Korea has recently opened the floodgates of Hwanggang Dam,” the unification ministry official told reporters amid reports that the impoverished North is suffering torrential rains in many parts of the country.

It is regrettable that the North did not give any prior notice before releasing dam water near the inter-Korean border despite Seoul’s request for such notice, the official added.

Earlier in the day, an informed military source said the reclusive neighbor appears to have discharged dam water, while authorities here have been on high alert. The North has discharged dam water without notifying the South in advance in the past, endangering the safety of local residents. 

The source, however, added the water levels of the Imjin River are currently stable, staying below 3 meters. 

It usually takes four to five hours for water released from the dam located at the upper part of the Imjin River to reach the Gunnam Dam in the South’s border town of Yeoncheon, 62 kilometers north of Seoul. The distance between the two dams is around 56 kilometers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This sounds like a positive encounter between President Yoon and Prime Minister Kishida:

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol talked briefly with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a gala dinner for NATO summit participants in Madrid on Tuesday and expressed hope for the future-oriented development of relations between the two countries, officials said.

The encounter, which lasted three to four minutes at the dinner party hosted by Spain’s King Felipe VI, began as Kishida offered greetings to Yoon with congratulations on his inauguration and the local election victory of Yoon’s ruling party, according to Yoon’s office.

Yoon said in response that he wishes Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party good results in Japan’s upcoming upper house elections.

“After the upper house elections, I and my aides plan to resolve pending issues between Korea and Japan as early as possible and move forward in a future-oriented manner,” Yoon was quoted as telling Kishida.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.