Police adopt new weapons, N Korean sentenced to death for smuggling ‘Squid Game’, and childlike sex dolls banned
Happy Thanksgiving!
K-NEWS BITES
Fri 2021-11-26 (KST)
Korea to guarantee undocumented children more rights (2 min read)
Undocumented children of foreign national parents, who are mostly staying here as illegal aliens, will be guaranteed more rights in education, healthcare and other welfare programs… The measures follow calls to improve the situations of such children, as they are denied basic rights and social services…” The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) and other relevant civic groups believe that there are an estimated 20,000 unregistered children in Korea.
Police to adopt new weapons to cope better with violence amid criticism over botched violence response (1 min read)
“The new stun gun allows three consecutive shots and logs records of time and location of the use, while the less lethal gun uses special bullets with one-tenth of the killing power of ordinary pistols, according to the officials... Police will officially use the upgraded stun gun after 100 police officers conduct a six-month trial starting in January and the alternative gun after they submit a safety test report to the National Assembly. The gun's safety is currently being tested at a university research institute.”
South Korea raises rates amid household debt, inflation concerns (2 min read)
“As widely expected, South Korea’s central bank raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 1 percent, and revised its inflation outlook from 1.5 percent to 2 percent on Thursday, as concerns about rising household debt and prices pointed to further policy tightening next year… After raising interest rates in August for the first time in nearly three years, consumer inflation… accelerated to a near-decade high in October… Analysts now see the interest rate reaching 1.25 percent in the first quarter and 1.5 percent by the end of 2022.” However, the recent spike in daily COVID-19 cases may complicate this.
S. Korea reports first COVID-19 fetal death (1 min read)
“... The mother’s gestation period was 24 weeks and she was not vaccinated against COVID-19. The fetus was found to have died on Monday, four days after the mother tested positive.The case is the first known stillbirth caused by coronavirus in Korea, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier said that the risk of stillbirth more than doubles in women who have COVID-19.”
Daily cases fall below 4,000; critical cases, deaths at record highs (1 min read)
“South Korea's new coronavirus cases fell below 4,000 on Thursday, a day after hitting an all time-high of 4,115. But critical cases and deaths climbed to fresh highs, fueling worries about the virus spread ahead of another pandemic winter. The country reported 3,938 new COVID-19 cases... raising the total caseload to 429,002. Critically ill patients hit an all-time high of 612, up 26 from the previous record set a day earlier. The country added 39 more deaths from COVID-19, the highest number since the start of the fourth wave of the pandemic in July, bringing the death toll to 3,401, with the fatality rate standing at 0.79 percent.”
General COVID Information for residents in Korea:
Ministry of Health and Welfare, South Korea
Coronavirus Statistics for South Korea
Korea faces growing pressure to join stand against China (3 min read)
“Korea ― along with Australia, India, South Africa and countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ― has been invited to the G7 foreign ministers' meeting, scheduled for next month in Liverpool…[The] longtime allies are seemingly engaged in boosting bilateral cooperation across the board, but many believe that the United States is once again urging Korea to choose Washington in its unfolding superpower rivalry with Beijing. Korea is… regarded as the weakest link among the Washington-Seoul-Tokyo security structure to contain China because Beijing is Korea's largest trading partner.”
China to join oil reserve release ‘based on its own needs’ after US, UK, Japan, South Korea and India commit (5 min read)
“China’s second release from its state oil reserves in two months could amount to 7.38 million barrels following a 50 million barrel commitment from US President Joe Biden. Britain, Japan, South Korea and India have also already committed to releasing state reserves in an attempt to cool high energy prices… [however markets] deemed the overall release of the strategic oil reserves to be too small to ease the demand-supply imbalance.” “Current market fundamentals” indicate we’re far from a “state emergency” as OPEC+ are still planning to raise output and are yet to actually reduce supply.
“The reclusive country has sentenced a man who smuggled and sold the dystopian drama to death by firing squad, while a high-schooler who bought a drive containing the show received a life sentence… Another six high-schoolers who [watched] the series have also been sentenced to five years of hard labor… Their supervisors have also been punished, with teachers and school administrators fired. They may be banished to work in remote mines… One of the students got off the hook thanks to rich parents who paid a $3,000 bribe....”
The Life of Diplomats in North Korea (6 min read)
“.. [hauling] sacks of cash from Moscow and Beijing to cover its expenses and pay staff salaries, because Western banks wouldn’t approve bank transactions...” Russian and Chinese accounts of the hardships endured by their diplomats in North Korea directly conflict with that of their Western counterparts, who were able to find workarounds easily. “These exchanges were drawn from a trove of thousands of pages of confidential internal documents from the U.N.’s North Korea panel of experts, including travel schedules and interviews with foreign diplomats, experts, and aid workers… [The] documents also provide a rare snapshot into the lives of some 300 foreign diplomats posted in North Korea…”
Samsung will build a $17 billion semiconductor factory in Texas (1 min read)
“The Korean tech giant will be investing $17 billion into the new facility, which will manufacture high-end and advanced chips for smartphones, 5G and artificial intelligence, among other applications… Samsung scouted locations in Arizona, New York and Florida for the new project and also considered Austin, where it has an existing factory. It ultimately chose Taylor, Texas for this new facility due to the generous tax breaks and incentives it offered, as well as the city's capability to do rolling blackouts and providing electricity to certain facilities in the case of power outage.“
US-China tech war: Beijing’s semiconductor ambition faces fresh headwinds as Washington adds pressure on SK Hynix (4 min read)
SK Hynix, a South Korean semiconductor giant, had planned to install some of its new extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines produced by Dutch firm ASML in its factory in Wuxi, Jiangsu province. However, this was thwarted after Washington barred it from shipping the equipment to China…” which is believed to be due to US national security concerns. “China still lacks the ability to make EUV machines despite years of effort dedicated to development of the technology… Although there isn’t any semiconductor production line in China that requires EUV now… over the long run, the US ban could hurt China’s position in the global semiconductor supply chain...”
Supreme Court rules imports of childlike sex dolls should be banned (1 min read)
“The Supreme Court ruled Thursday imports of childlike sex dolls should be banned, because they could lead to the perception of children as sexual objects and increase the danger of potential sex crimes against minors. The ruling overturned lower courts' decisions that imports of child sex dolls should be allowed, like those of adult dolls. In 2019, the top court allowed imports of adult sex dolls on grounds that they are sex toys used in private life, an area in which the state should not interfere.”
South Korea: cult whose leader ‘heals’ by poking eyes at centre of Covid outbreak (2 min read)
“In a tiny, rural church in a town of 427 residents in Cheonan city, south of Seoul, at least 241 people linked to the religious community tested positive for coronavirus, a city official told Reuters on Wednesday… About 90% of the religious community are unvaccinated and the majority are in close contact through communal living… The religion is not officially registered as a sect, however the ritual act the pastor performs is known as the so called “imposition of hands on eyes, a practice of poking two eyes to rid the person of secular desire...”
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