South Korea news and discussions

[wjfox]

South Korea signs Artemis Accords, aims for moon by 2030

By Andrew Jones
1 day ago

South Korea has joined NASA's moon-exploration coalition.

South Korea became the 10th country to sign the Artemis Accords, a set of principles laying out the responsible exploration of the moon, on May 24 during a ceremony in Seoul. The Accords take their name from NASA's Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustainable human presence on and around the moon by the end of the 2020s.

"I am thrilled the Republic of Korea has committed to the Artemis Accords. Their signature demonstrates the strong momentum worldwide in supporting our moon-to-Mars exploration approach," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.

The United States, Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates had all earlier signed the Accords, while South Korea became the first country to sign up during the administration of President Joe Biden.

South Korea's interest in the moon has grown greatly in recent months, with South Korean president Moon Jae-in declaring in March that the East Asian nation aims to send its own lander to the moon by 2030.

https://www.space.com/south-korea-artem ... xploration

[wjfox]

Why This Korean Stadium Will Be A Game Changer For Football


(this channel is a bit strict about embedding their content)

[weatheriscool]

Conservative candidate squeaks to victory in South Korean election
Source: The Guardian

Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative former prosecutor, declared victory in South Korea’s presidential election on Thursday after his liberal rival conceded defeat following a bitter battle in the politically divided nation.

Yoon, from the main opposition People Power Party, edged out the ruling Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung with 48.6% of the vote to 47.8%, with more than 98% of the ballots counted as of 4.20am on Thursday (7.20pm GMT on Wednesday).
...
The unusually bitter election campaign was marred by scandals and smears, but the policy stakes are high for the country of 52 million.
...
Yoon, who was hoping to benefit from public anger over rising house prices in Seoul, income inequality and youth unemployment, said during the campaign that he would address mounting economic problems with a dose of fiscal conservatism, including a cut in the minimum wage and the removal of limits on working hours.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... outh-korea

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

[caltrek]

It sucks that a radically anti-feminist political leader is also being identified as strongly pro-U.S. As an individual sympathetic to the advancement of women, I would have preferred to see some one more sympathetic to the feminist cause. As a citizen of the U.S. and a person who favors democracy over dictatorships, I suppose it is good to see a leader who tilts toward the U.S. as opposed to China or other such dictatorial regimes. Of course, that is providing that such a leader is not so rabidly ant-China (and/or rabidly anti-North Korea) that he provokes needless tensions and conflicts in that regard.

The following article is an interesting review of the orientation of the new South Korean leader.

Yoon Suk-yeol’s Presidential Victory in South Korea May Also be a Win for Washington
by Denny Roy
March 15, 2022

https://www.eurasiareview.com/15032022- ... -analysis/

Introduction:

(Eurasian Review) After a hard-fought election that some media compared to the brutal series “Squid Game,” inexperienced conservative Yoon Suk-yeol has earned the right to a single five-year term as South Korea’s next president starting May 10. Based on Yoon’s previous statements, we can expect him to favor bringing South Korea’s foreign policy into closer alignment with US preferences in four important areas.

Seoul’s relationship with Washington

As with most ideologically liberal Korean politicians, outgoing President Moon Jae-in’s support for the US-Korean alliance was lukewarm. Many observers assessed that his foreign policy aimed for equidistance between Washington and Beijing. In contrast, Yoon is strongly supportive of the alliance, saying it should be the “central axis of Seoul’s foreign policy.”

He also backs the idea of South Korean participation in the Quad, a dialogue group—with core members India, Australia, Japan and the USA—that Beijing frowns upon. Yoon even said he favored the idea of the United States deploying nuclear weapons in South Korea, a policy Washington is not advocating.

Denuclearizing North Korea

A second area of convergence is policy toward North Korea. Washington’s priority is denuclearization, but with few other options available to pressure Pyongyang, the US government relies on economic sanctions. Moon, however, appeared committed to almost unconditional economic engagement with North Korea, even to the point of advocating sanctions relief prior to the North taking any meaningful steps toward giving up its nuclear weapons program.

Yoon disparaged Moon for being “subservient” to North Korea. His vision, similar to Washington’s, is that Pyongyang should first declare the full extent of its nuclear weapons program , after which sanctions could be gradually removed as Pyongyang takes concurrent “verifiable and irreversible steps . . . toward denuclearization.” He also contends that South Korean military readiness has declined and that part of the solution is robust joint military exercises with US forces, even though Pyongyang strongly objects to these exercises.

[Yuli Ban]

Innovation is key for a country to remain competitive on the global stage. A country’s innovation includes its government, fiscal policies, education policies, and innovation environment (innovation inputs) as well as its patents, technology, business performance, and economic growth (innovation outputs). Innovation is a major factor in determining which countries are the most technologically advanced countries in the world. Which countries are the most innovative? The annual Bloomberg Innovation Index analyzes 60 nations using dozens of criteria grouped into seven metrics: research and development, gross value added by manufacturing, productivity, high-tech company density, researcher concentration, tertiary efficiency, and patent activity. While the Bloomberg analysis is ostensibly focused upon the innovation of a nation's economy, the categories are so broad and comprehensive—and economies are so deeply entwined in most other aspects of life—that the analysis is often interpreted as a measure of not merely economic innovation, but innovation as a whole.

Top 10 Most Innovative Countries in the World - Bloomberg 2021

• South Korea
• Singapore
• Switzerland
• Germany
• Sweden
• Denmark
• Israel
• Finland
• Netherlands
• Austria

[wjfox]

South Korea records world's lowest fertility rate again

By Frances Mao
BBC News

1 hour ago

South Korea has again recorded the world's lowest fertility rate with the number sinking to a new low.

The rate in the country first dropped lower than one child per woman in 2018.

But on Wednesday, figures released by the government showed the figure had dropped to 0.81 - down three points from the previous year, and a sixth consecutive decline.

In comparison, the average rate across the world's most advanced economies is 1.6 children.

Countries need at least two children per couple - a 2.1 rate - to keep their population at the same size, without migration.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-62670717

[Yuli Ban]

South Korea to declare war on drugs, administration sources say

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.

"President Yoon Suk-yeol is already aware of the seriousness of the drug problem. We will come up with the most intensive countermeasures," another aide told the JoongAng Ilbo.

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.

[Yuli Ban]

[weatheriscool]

Many feared dead in South Korea Halloween crush
Source: BBC

A number of people are feared to have died after crushes among huge Halloween crowds in a popular nightlife area of South Korea's capital.

Emergency officials said dozens were in cardiac arrest after revellers thronged Seoul's Itaewon district.

Videos from the scene show body bags on the streets, emergency workers performing CPR, and rescuers trying to pull people trapped beneath others.
...
There were reportedly 100,000 revellers in the area celebrating the first outdoor no-mask Halloween event since the pandemic.

Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63440849

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

South Korea's parliament endorses landmark legislation outlawing dog meat industry

JANUARY 9, 20242:21 AM ET


SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's parliament on Tuesday endorsed landmark legislation outlawing the country's dwindling dog meat industry, as public calls for the ban have grown sharply amid animal rights campaigns and worries about the country's international image.

Some angry dog farmers said they plan to file a constitutional appeal and launch rallies in protest, a suggestion that heated debate over the ban would continue.

Dog meat consumption, a centuries-old practice on the Korean Peninsula, is neither explicitly banned nor legalized in South Korea. Recent surveys show more people want its ban and a majority of South Koreans don't eat dog meat any longer. But the surveys also indicated one in every three South Koreans still oppose the ban even though they don't eat dog meat.

On Tuesday, the National Assembly passed the bill by a 208-0 vote Tuesday. President Yoon Suk Yeol's government supports the ban, so the subsequent steps to make it law are considered formality.

"This law is aimed at contributing to realizing the values of animal rights, which pursue respect for life and a harmonious co-existence between humans and animals," the legislation reads.

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/09/12236249 ... t-industry

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Young Men Are Swinging Hard Right in Korea
by Catherine Kim
July 1, 2024

Introduction:

(Politico) Around the world, from the United States to China to the U.K. to Germany to Tunisia, in chat rooms and in the streets, the gender divide is widening as Gen Zers split along political lines: Young women are increasingly swinging to the left, while young men are moving to the right — negating conventional wisdom that young people as a whole are more progressive than the generation before them. “Gen Z,” observed data journalist John Burn-Murdoch, who tracked this trend for the Financial Times, “is two generations, not one.”

The United States in particular saw this growing partisan gender split during the 2022 midterms, when far more women voters between the ages of 18 and 29 stood beside Democratic candidates than their male counterparts.

But nowhere is this divide more evident than it is in Korea, where the ideological gap between young men and women is growing wider than anywhere else — altering the country’s politics and fully taking over Korean society.

In Korea, arguably the world’s most wired country, online forums have become battlegrounds over dating violence, the gaming industry and systemic sexism. And in the country’s 2022 presidential race, a populist candidate stoked political polarization between the two genders to his advantage.

At the start of his campaign, Yoon Suk Yeol, the conservative candidate (for president) and an avowed “anti-feminist,” declared, “structural discrimination based on gender” does not exist. It was a message that Korea’s young men really wanted to hear — even if it wasn’t true. When it comes to gender parity, Korea consistently ranks near the bottom of most developed nations. But Yoon knew what he was doing: He was speaking directly to young men who felt left behind by a tough economy and who were unhappy with the rapid push for gender equality.

Read more here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine ... -00155207

[Powers]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womad_(website)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilbe_Storehouse

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

https://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0101_202412040135157140

How is this legal?

Thankfully the rank and file are heading out.

https://www.chosun.com/politics/politic ... utType=amp

[wjfox]