ICUs near capacity, only 6% of Koreans like Japanese PM, and those strange ‘English’ apartment names in Korea
Newsletter format changes slightly
K-NEWS BITES
Mon 2021-11-15 (KST)
Thank you once again, to all of you who provided lots of valuable feedback via the recent survey about the K-News Bites newsletter! Based on this feedback, and learnings via iterations, starting today, a couple of format changes will be made: i. The section “From the Rest of the World” will be changed to “International Relations,” which shifts the focus more on the actual content, rather than the source of the articles. ii. “TGIF - Food & Events” will be removed as readers are located all over the world! Agree? Disagree? Would you like to see some other changes? Let us know via this form. Thank You!
Urea crisis reveals risks of Korea's supply chain (4 min read)
“South Korea imported more than 3,900 out of 12,586 products, or 31 percent of its total import items, from a handful of countries, such as the United States, Japan and Germany, in the first nine months of this year, according to data by the Korea International Trade Association. South Korea relied on China for imports of 1,850 out of 3,900 items, including several key industrial-use materials, such as magnesium, lithium hydroxide and rare earth elements.” The government is being called upon to diversify import channels and support domestic production of key materials.
South Korean women fight back as disillusioned young men seek to cancel feminism (6 min read)
“Tens of thousands of disenfranchised men, including popular politicians, are joining calls to get rid of gender equality efforts with claims of ‘reverse discrimination.’
As women activists fight against the growing wave of intolerance, they have to contend with harassment, cyberbullying, stalking and physical assault over their views… But the intensification of the women’s movement has sparked a powerful backlash. According to a Realmeter poll from 2018, 76 per cent of men in their 20s declared themselves to be strongly opposed to feminism.”
Assembly Votes to Scrap Forced Shutdown System of PC Games 1 min read)
“Regulators will officially scrap a ban for children under 16 that prohibits them from access to computer games from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. as of January 1… The regulation was put in place in November 2011 in line with the youth act in a bid to cut down the time teenagers spend playing computer games and to increase their sleep. The government apparently decided to revoke the system as it has become virtually pointless given that more teens nowadays play games on smartphones rather than personal computers.”
Living with COVID: ICUs near capacity amid new surge (3 min read)
“The government has said it would be able to stably handle up to 500 critically ill patients who require intensive care treatment such as continuous renal replacement therapy, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, high flow oxygen therapy and being put on a ventilator…. 343 people were undergoing intensive care treatment on Nov. 1. The figure went up to 411 on Nov. 6 and reached 460 on Wednesday. Sunday marked the ninth day in a row the figure has stayed above 400, when the figure reached 483.”
New COVID-19 cases stay over 2,000 for 5th straight day amid relaxed virus curbs (2 min read)
“Throughout the previous day [Saturday 13th Nov], 2,419 new coronavirus cases were confirmed nationwide, raising the total caseload to 395,460, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA)... The country added 20 more deaths from COVID-19, raising the death toll to 3,103. The fatality rate stood at 0.78 percent… The number of fully vaccinated people came to 40.1 million, or 78.1 percent. The KDCA predicts that full vaccination rates will reach 80 percent around mid-December.”
General COVID Information for residents in Korea:
Ministry of Health and Welfare, South Korea
Coronavirus Statistics for South Korea
Korea, Germany share circular economy vision (3 min read)
“With increased interest in a circular economy, as discussed at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), the German Embassy in Korea and the Korean-German Chamber of Commerce (KGCCI) held a conference discussing policies, strategies and practices for a circular economy in Germany and Korea… In the past, circular economy was waste management more or less with implications to the whole economy, but now it's the efficient use of resources at each stage of the economy. ..." said Andreas Jaron, head of the Circular Economy Division at Germany's Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
Only 6 percent of South Koreans have favorable impression of Japanese PM (1 min read)
“According to the opinion poll on the leaders of five neighboring countries including the U.S., Japan, China, Russia and North Korea, conducted of 1,000 adults by local pollster Gallup Korea from Tuesday to Thursday, those who said they had a good impression of Kishida recorded the lowest proportion at 6 percent. About 49 percent of the respondents said that they had a good impression of U.S. President Joe Biden, 19 percent for Russian President Vladimir Putin, 8 percent for Chinese President Xi Jinping and 7 percent for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.”
Kim Jong-un’s prolonged absence from public stokes speculation (2 min read)
“North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been missing from public view for more than a month, fueling speculation over his whereabouts, as it marked his longest absence since 2014… Kim’s disappearances have become more frequent since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. This year alone, he was gone from public view [for] two or more weeks for six times. The Seoul government cautioned against reading too much into the leader’s disappearance.”
UN Extends Sanctions Exemption for Pig Farm Project in N. Korea (1 min read)
“The UN Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee has extended its sanctions exemption by one more year for a project to build a pig farm in North Korea by South Korea's Gyeonggi Province… The project involves constructing pig sheds to enhance the response to African swine fever. Items granted clearance include disinfection equipment and building materials worth some 750-thousand U.S. dollars… It also recently granted a sanctions exemption for a hospital project in Pyongyang requested by the Yoido Full Gospel Missions Foundation.”
Disney+ Streaming Service Lands in S. Korea (1 min read)
“Disney+, the over-the-top(OTT) streaming service arm of U.S. media giant Walt Disney, has landed in South Korea. Starting Friday [Nov 12th], customers can download the app and use the service. Though content will be continually uploaded, its latest theater releases ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ and ‘Jungle Cruise’ are available from day one. Disney+ features films and TV series from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic, among others, including blockbuster franchises such as ‘The Avengers,’ ‘Toy Story’ and ‘Frozen.’ The subscription fee in Korea is nine-thousand-900 won a month or 99-thousand won a year.”
Samsung gearing up for organizational overhaul (2 min read)
“In an internal notice posted this week about the planned change, Samsung implied there would be changes to the employee evaluation and promotion system, while it did not specify the details… This appears to be part of Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong's plan to ‘create a new Samsung,’ which the heir stated marking the first anniversary of the death of his father, late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, on Oct. 25. The new system is expected to be introduced ahead of the company's regular shuffle of major affiliates' CEOs and executives expected early next month.”
[Cityscapes] Ugly names of Korea's high-rise apartment brands (4 min read)
“Construction companies here often use English or other foreign-sounding words for apartment brand names, hoping to ‘exude an upscale, high-end image,’ according to a recent Korea Times article… But can we really call those names ‘English’? It might be easier to argue they're Konglish, like the random gibberish text seen on shirts sold for cheap in markets like Dongdaemun and Namdaemun.” According to the referenced article, in a survey of 1,000 people, only 5.0 percent favored foreign-sounding apartment names… while 45.9 percent couldn't care less and a whopping 49.1 percent would have preferred a Korean-sounding name.
[Us and Them] Why does Korea have such a deep political divide? (4 min read)
“Conservatives and progressives clash in all democracies, but it is particularly acute in Korea. According to a Pew Research Center poll released last month, Korea -- along with the US -- ranked first in political conflict among 17 developed countries. It also topped the list in a June survey of 28 countries by King’s College London… ‘Even though various surveys show 35-40 percent of Koreans tend to be politically neutral, the online venue makes you think that most Koreans are either extremely progressive or conservatives. This is because a few extreme people are vocal and dominant in social media or news comments,’ according to professor Yun Seong-yi of Kyung Hee University’s political science department.
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