The 2 Koreas Test Ballistic Missiles, Typhoon Chanthu Approaches, and is Korea bending the COVID vaccine rules?
Wed 2021-09-16
K-NEWS BITES
Wed 2021-09-16
National News
Seoul City Will Not Extend Public Transport Hours during Chuseok (1 min read)
The Seoul Metropolitan Government has decided not to extend operations of public transportation during the Chuseok holiday in an effort to curb movement and prevent a possible spike in new COVID-19 infections. Operations will be maintained at regular holiday hours, but services provided by nighttime buses and taxis will remain available as usual for essential travel. [article extract; minor edits made].
Gov't Triggers Emergency Mode as Typhoon Chanthu Approaches (1 min read)
The government has ordered the nation's disaster control tower to launch Level One emergency operation[s] as Typhoon Chanthu was forecast to pour up to 80 millimeters of rain per hour along the southern coast and Jeju Island.
The Interior Ministry on Wednesday also raised the crisis alert level from the lowest "attention" to "caution." Typhoon Chanthu is forecast to travel slowly northward at up to nine kilometers per hour towards southwest of Jeju Island's Seogwipo until Thursday. It is then expected to shift northeast to inch closer just south of Jeju on Friday. [article extract; minor edits made].
Coronavirus
Is Korea bending rules in vaccine sprint? (4 min read)
South Korea is close to reaching the COVID-19 vaccination milestone of a 70 percent first-dose rate sometime this week. But in the race to clear the vaccine target, some key recommendations are being loosely observed, experts point out, raising safety and other concerns. AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccinations, both of which are recommended for people aged over 50 years here [due to the] the risk of a rare but serious blood clotting side effect called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS. Starting Aug. 13, however, people in their 30s and 40s have been allowed to take “leftover” doses -- extra doses resulting from “no-shows” or canceled appointments -- of the AstraZeneca vaccine to minimize vaccines going unused. In an Aug. 25 phone call, a director within the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s COVID-19 vaccination council admitted that no risk assessment was carried out before letting people under 50 get the AstraZeneca vaccine again against current advice. He reaffirmed the AstraZeneca age cutoff would stay fixed at 50. [article extract; minor edits made].
New virus cases top 2,000 as infections in capital area surge to record high (2 min read)
The country added 2,080 COVID-19 cases, including 2,057 local infections, raising the total caseload to 277,989, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).The latest caseload was sharply up from 1,497 cases the previous day and topped the 2,000 mark for the first time in six days. It is also the fourth-largest daily figure since the country began to suffer from COVID-19 last year. The country added 13 more deaths from COVID-19, raising the death toll to 2,380. The fatality rate was 0.86 percent. [article extract; minor edits made].
From The Rest of the World
Both North and South Korea fire ballistic missiles as tensions rise on peninsula (4 min read)
Both North and South Korea tested ballistic missiles on Wednesday, ratcheting up tensions exponentially in what was already one of the most volatile regions on the planet. Pyongyang fired the first missiles on Wednesday, sending two into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula five minutes apart, at 12:38 p.m. and 12:43 p.m. local time (11:38 p.m. and 11:43 p.m. ET), according to Japan's Coast Guard. Seoul followed that test less than three hours later, firing a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from the submerged 3,700-ton submarine. South Korea's weapons development, including its missile capabilities, has been picking up speed as the country tries to become less dependent on the United States and more wary of the growing missile program in North Korea. A 1 min 28 sec long video on a recent North Korean midnight military parade is included in the article.[article extract; minor edits made].
‘Designed to fly under the radar’: North Korea’s new long-range cruise missile (3 min read)
North Korea carried out successful tests of a new long-range cruise missile over the weekend, state media said on Monday, seen by analysts as possibly the country’s first such weapon with a nuclear capability. North Korea’s cruise missiles usually generate less interest than ballistic missiles because they are not explicitly banned under UN Nations Security Council Resolutions. Photos of previous missile tests are included in the article. [article extract; minor edits made].
North Korea
North Korea ups tension with ballistic missile launches (3 min read)
North Korea on Wednesday fired a pair of ballistic missiles into the East Sea, following a cruise missile test that took place less than a week ago. According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, two short-range ballistic missiles were fired from the central county of Yangdok at 12:34 p.m. and 12:39 p.m. and flew around 800 kilometers at a maximum altitude of around 60 kilometers. Observers say the North is seeking to win leverage in the stalled nuclear talks with the US amid a flurry of diplomacy between Seoul and Washington on resuming the almost collapsed diplomacy with the reclusive regime.
[article extract; minor edits made]
NK media slams US for meddling in Taiwan issues, voices support for 'One China policy (1 min read)
A North Korean state media outlet on Wednesday denounced the United States for meddling in Taiwan issues and voiced its support for Beijing's "One China policy" amid the deepening Sino-US rivalry. The Korean Central News Agency issued the criticism in an opinion piece… "Recently the US has openly intervened in the Taiwan issue as part of its anti-China pressure offensive, thereby threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China… The Korean people reject the US moves for interference in the internal affairs and division and will always stand with the Chinese people on the road for defending the socialist cause," the KCNA said. [article extract; minor edits made]
Sci-Tech
South Korea passes ‘Anti-Google law’ bill to curb Google, Apple in-app payment commission (1 min read)
After a number of delays, South Korea’s National Assembly today voted to approve the passage of its “Anti-Google law.” Nicknamed after the search giant but more wide-ranging, the law will prevent Google and Apple from forcing developers to use their in-app billing systems when building apps for their two market-dominating app stores.This is the first time globally that a government has intervened to prevent Google and Apple from imposing their own payment rails on in-app purchases. Many will be looking to see if the move in South Korea becomes a tipping point, where the two might be subjected to similar measures in other countries.
[article extract; minor edits made]
South Korean online secondhand marketplace Danggeun Market raises $162M at a $2.7B valuation (3 min read)
Danggeun Market, the publisher of South Korea’s hyperlocal community app Karrot, announced it has raised $162 million in a Series D round of funding with a valuation of $2.7 billion. (Danggeun means carrot in Korean.). “Danggeun Market plans to focus on accelerating further overseas market expansion for the next two years after closing Series D funding, and in South Korea, we will diversify our business, aiming to be a super app,” co-founder and co-CEO Gary Kim said. Danggeun Market currently operates the Karrot app in 72 local communities in four countries: the U.K., the U.S., Canada and Japan. The company plan[s] to strengthen its capabilities in local commerce with Danggeun Pay, or Karrot Pay, which is set to launch this year. Danggeun Market now claims its total registered users exceed 21 million (South Korea has a total of 20.92 million households) and has consistently experienced over 300 % year-on-year growth since 2018. An infographic of Karrot is included in the article. [article extract; minor edits made].