Wednesday, November 2, 2022
Round-up of important news from major Korean dailies and from international media today
The Korea Post ( www.koreapost.com )
KHNP, ZE PAK, PGE sign a letter of intent for a nuclear power plant in Poland
The Polish Ministry of State Assets, the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Polish energy companies ZE PAK and PGE, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) have announced that a letter of intent regarding the development plan of a nuclear power plant at the Pątnów site and an MOU between the ministries were concluded on Oct. 31. The CEOs of the three companies of the two countries, Polish private energy group ZE PAK, Polish state-owned public power company PGE and KHNP signed the letter of intent, of which the main point is the three companies intend to push ahead with the development plan of a nuclear power plant in Pątnów location in Poland based on APR1400 technology.
“Uzbek-Korea ties upgraded to Special Strategic Partnership”
Deputy Head of Mission Zokir Saidov of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Seoul said, “As a result of a mutual beneficial cooperation in recent years, Uzbek-Korean relations have been upgraded to the level of Special Strategic Partnership." Then he said, "Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries, 18 meetings have been held at the level of heads of state.” Speaking on behalf of Ambassador Vitaliy Fen whose spouse recently deceased and was unable to attend the meeting at Lotte Hotel on Oct. 21, 2022, DHM Saidov said, “As a result of these meetings we have achieved mutual agreements in developing our relationships in political, economic, trade, cultural and humanitarian fields."
President Yoon places emphasis on protecting the socially underprivileged
President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Oct. 25, "The country's basic duty is to protect the socially underprivileged, who suffer greater hardship amid economic difficulty.” In a speech to the National Assembly in Seoul on next year's fiscal budget, he said, "Our government is pushing for fiscal consolidation while pursuing 'welfare for the underprivileged' to strengthen support for both them and the common people." "Through bipartisan cooperation at the National Assembly, we could securely finalize the supplementary budget in May to support the self-employed and small business owners damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic," he added. "The government's budget proposal after intense deliberation can only be completed if it puts its head together with the National Assembly."
Chosun Ilbo (http://english.chosun.com)
S.Korea, U.S. Start 1st Large-Scale Aerial Drills in 5 Years
South Korea and the U.S. kicked off large-scale aerial drills on Monday, mobilizing some 240 warplanes including stealth fighter jets. The warplanes will make a record 1,600 sorties during the exercises until Friday to send a strong warning to North Korea, which is suspected of planning another nuclear test. About 140 South Korean warplanes will take part including F-35A stealth fighter jets, F-15K and KF-16 fighters and KC-330 Cygnus aerial refueling aircraft, as will 100 U.S. military aircraft such as F-35B stealth vertical takeoff and landing fighter jets, EA-18 Growler electronic warfare aircraft, U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft and KC-135 Stratotanker midair refueling aircraft.
Police Start Investigating Deadly Halloween Stampede
Police have launched an investigation of the deadly Halloween stampede in Seoul's Itaewon entertainment district last Saturday night that left at least 155 mostly young people dead and scores of others injured. Investigators are analyzing footage taken from several CCTV cameras near the scene of the tragedy as well as witness accounts pointing to people who may have pushed the crowd and triggered the crush. Nam Gu-jun at the National Police Agency told reporters that police are analyzing footage from 52 CCTV cameras near Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon and are interviewing dozens of witnesses, including employees of stores in the area and injured partygoers.
Over 1/3 of Korean Households Labor Under Interest Payments
The interest commercial banks charge on housing and credit loans have surpassed seven percent, the highest level in 13 years. Interest rates are expected to rise further as the Bank of Korea battles inflation, raising concerns that the heavy financial burden for households will cripple private consumption. he U.S. Federal Reserve is highly likely to hike the key interest rate by 0.75 percentage point next month, prompting the BOK to follow suit to stay ahead of the curve and prevent a further collapse of the won. Analysts expect interest rates on household loans to rise above eight percent by the end of this year.
Joongang Ilbo (https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com )
Top officials give apologies for tragedy in Itaewon
As public demands grow for someone to take responsibility for the deadly crowd crush in Itaewon, apologies were offered by Korea's police chief, the interior minister, Seoul's mayor and the Yongsan District Office head Tuesday. Yoon Hee-keun, commissioner general of the National Police Agency, admitted that there had been warnings of an impending tragedy and conceded that police response may have been "insufficient." "I feel heavy responsibility for the people who must be in great shock," said Yoon, who bowed his head in his first public apology for the tragedy in a press briefing Tuesday morning at police headquarters in Seodaemun District, central Seoul.
Ohio congressman's niece among those killed in Itaewon crush
Ohio congressman Brad Wenstrup said one of the two Americans who died in central Seoul's Itaewon on Oct. 29 in the Halloween crush was his niece, in a statement on Monday. “Monica and I, and our entire family, are grieving the loss of our niece Anne Marie Gieske. She was a gift from God to our family. We loved her so much,” Wenstrup said. Anne Gieske, 20, of Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, died from the crowd crush in Itaewon on Saturday.
Tumultuous network usage fee debate is clear as mud as public sentiment turns
The network usage fee debate in Korea is just about as baffling as it gets. While the conflicting sides’ horns remain as tightly locked as they have been since 2020, the public sentiment and political views surrounding the issue have taken an unexpected turn in recent months. On the one side, telecoms insist on collecting network maintenance costs from content providers (CPs). On the other, CPs argue that the burden is not theirs to shoulder and doing so will inevitably result in the increase of subscription fees for users.
The Dong-A Ilbo (http://english.donga.com/)
President Yoon: Don’t ask whether there was an organizer
Regarding the "Itaewon Halloween tragedy," President Yoon Suk-yeol said, "People's safety is of the utmost importance than whether or not there is an organizer for the event." He also emphasized, "We need to put an institutional measure for collaboration in advance rather than who is responsible for what between the local government and the police." At a cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, President Yoon is quoted as saying, “When a situation requires action, the situation starts to become out of control. If control measures are put in place only after palpable dangers are found, more often than not, it’s already too late.”
Korea posts trading deficit for seven consecutive months
Korea's exports figure turned negative in two years due to the economic recession triggered by global monetary tightening. Exports for key products such as semiconductors, shipping, steel, and petrochemicals have all declined, resulting in a trading deficit for seven consecutive months. The trading deficit for the months between January and October recorded 35.6 billion U.S. dollars, the largest in the annual accumulative figure, while the trade with China, Korea's largest trading partner, posted the biggest loss in history. Korea's export-driven economy faces many risky signals amid expectations of a global economic downturn next year.
Japanese police manual recommends one-way passages and exits wider than entrances
In 2001, eleven people died due to fireworks crowd surge in Akashi city of Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. In 2002, the Hyogo Prefecture Police Agency drafted a 107-page manual for preventing accidents in crowd surge to prevent any such tragedies in the future. The manual has been used as a national guideline in Japan because it was written by the organization in charge of addressing the disaster on site under a thorough look back on what happened and what the agency did wrong in response.
Maeil Business News Korea (http://www.pulsenews.co.kr/)
Korea’s top 5 financial groups to inject $67 bn to ease market volatility
South Korea’s top five financial holding companies will inject 95 trillion won ($67 billion) into the country’s money and bond markets by the year-end to help ease liquidity pressure on businesses. The measures were vowed by leaders of top financial groups ? KB, Hana, Shinhan, Woori, and NH ? in a meeting between Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Kim Joo-hyun on Tuesday. Of the committed funds, 73 trillion won will be used to expand liquidity and 12 trillion won will go to the country’s bond and securities market stabilization funds, and supply 10 trillion won to banks and other units under the holding companies.
Korea moves step closer to winning $29 bn nuclear power plant project in Poland
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power signed a letter of intent with Poland’s Ze Pak and PGE to jointly build a nuclear power plant using South Korea’s APR1400 technology, a project that is estimated to be worth more than 42 trillion won ($29 billion). The three companies aim to sign a definitive contract a year later after they conduct analysis on geotechnical, seismic and environmental conditions, develop an estimated budget for preparatory work, project financing plans and come up with other details of the project that will be built at a site in Patnow, about 240 kilometers west of Warsaw.
Korea’s exports fall in Oct for first time in 2 yrs, with bigger trade deficit
South Korea’s exports fall in Oct for first time in 2 yrs, trade deficit streak extends to 7 mosnd to the seventh month in a row and swell bigger after global demand for the country’s mainstay export items chip and petrochemical products plunged amid growing recession fears from runaway inflation. The country’s exports in October totaled at $52.48 billion, shrinking 5.7 percent compared to the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy data released on Tuesday. It is the first year-on-year decline in exports since October 2020.
HanKyoReh Shinmun (http://english.hani.co.kr)
Families recount dreams of Itaewon crowd victims, cut down in prime
“Two of his friends managed to get out, but the other three died together where they were standing. Their bodies were suspended there in the press, unable to fall to the ground.” When 55-year-old Kim Yeong-jo saw a news bulletin about the crowd crush that occurred in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 29, she thought of her 25-year-old son. “He got a job straight out of high school, which really took a load off his dad and me,” Kim recalled.
Interior and safety minister’s unacceptable sidestepping remarks
On Monday, South Korean Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min stuck to his stance that there was nothing wrong about the small police presence for Halloween festivities in the Seoul neighborhood of Itaewon, the site of a deadly crowd crush this past Saturday. Lee also cautioned against “jumping to conclusions” and “making inflammatory political claims.” Far from apologizing for an incident that left 303 people dead or wounded, the head of the very government body responsible for overseeing disaster safety is busy avoiding responsibility.
News of Itaewon made them call their children in Korea — but police answered instead
“My daughter really loved Korea. When she told me she wanted to go, I didn’t oppose it. I told her to have a good time.” Ayumu Tomikawa, a 60-year-old resident of Nemuro on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, found out about the Halloween crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood while watching the news on Sunday morning. After recovering from the shock, he went to call his daughter Mei, 26, who had traveled to Seoul for a language study program four months earlier. There was no answer.
The KyungHyangShinmun (http://english.khan.co.kr/)
A Country That Cannot Protect the Lives of Its Citizens: Government Evading Responsibility While More Voices Call for State Responsibility
The debate on who is responsible for the Halloween tragedy in Itaewon is pointing towards the government and local government for failing to ensure public safety. The government has been trying to evade responsibility by mentioning the crowd of 100,000 people that day, blaming the people there to celebrate Halloween, and claiming, “There was no way to prevent the incident with the police officers and firefighters available.” And such an attitude from the government has ignited public anger. Experts criticized the government and said, “The government, which should protect the people, did not fulfill the basic responsibility of the state.”
Government Employees Instructed to Wear Black Ribbons Without the Word, “Condolences”
“I’ve worn many ribbons expressing condolences, but this is a first. Why do we have to do this?” Civil servants nationwide pinned black ribbons to their chest on October 31, when the government set up memorial centers to remember the victims of the Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon. But a closer look revealed that the black ribbons were not marked with the Chinese characters for “condolences (謹弔, pronounced ‘geunjo’ in Korean),” mourning the victims.
“Pushing, Holding on... Screaming, the People Fell Like Dominoes”
“I heard someone from behind say, ‘Push.’ People in front tried to move back, and the people from behind pushed, so the people in the middle screamed, ‘Help!’ In less than 2-3 minutes, the people fell like dominoes.” This was how Gim (35), who was in Itaewon, Yongsan-gu, Seoul on October 29, described the accident he had witnessed. He said he was watching the crowd that had flooded into the alley from a bar located on the second floor of a building near the site of the accident. The narrow alley--4 meters wide and 45 meters long--that sloped down next to the Hamilton Hotel, was abuzz with the party atmosphere, but soon everything turned to chaos.
KBS(http://world.kbs.co.kr/service)
N. Korea Warns S. Korea, US will Pay Horrible Price for Use of Force
North Korea has warned that South Korea and the United States could "pay the most horrible price in history" for their ongoing large-scale military drills. Pak Jong-chon, secretary of the Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party, issued the warning in a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday. Park warned that if the U.S. and South Korea fearlessly attempt to use military force against North Korea, the special means of the North’s armed forces will immediately carry out their strategic mission and the allies will face a terrible situation and pay the most horrible price in history.
US Pentagon: Vigilant Storm is Defensive, Long Planned Exercise
The U.S. Department of Defense said that the ongoing Vigilant Storm air drills between the U.S. and South Korea are a defensive and long planned exercise, after North Korea accused the allies of carrying out a military provocation against the regime. In a press briefing on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the exercise “is a long-planned exercise focused on enhancing interoperability of our forces to work together to defend the Republic of Korea and our allies in the region.”
US Remains Concerned about N. Korea's Potential Nuclear Test, Warns of Profound Consequences
The White House remains concerned about a potential nuclear test by North Korea but cannot predict precisely what may trigger leader Kim Jong-un to conduct the provocation. John Kirby, spokesperson of the National Security Council(NSC), made the remarks on Tuesday during a telephonic press briefing when asked about the possibility of North Korea conducting a nuclear test during the Group of 20 summit set for November 15 and 16 in Bali, Indonesia.
Yonhap (http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr)
Yoon enraged by police inaction on calls on night of Itaewon tragedy: official
President Yoon Suk-yeol was enraged after learning that police took no action even after receiving 11 calls about the dangerous level of crowds on the night of the Itaewon tragedy, according to a presidential official. Yoon received a list of the calls made to the 112 police hotline Saturday evening, shortly before presiding over a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, and ordered the circumstances be determined "thoroughly without a trace of doubt" and that those responsible be "handled strictly in accordance with the law and principles," the official told Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday.
N. Korea says S. Korea, U.S. will pay 'terrible price' if they use force
North Korea on Wednesday said the U.S. and South Korea will pay a terrible price should they decide to attack the North, arguing the allies' ongoing joint military drills are aimed at preparing for a potential invasion. Pak Jong-chon, secretary of the Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party, also called on Seoul and Washington to halt what he claimed to be military provocation against Pyongyang.
N. Korea says S. Korea, U.S. will pay 'terrible price' if they use force
North Korea on Wednesday said the U.S. and South Korea will pay a terrible price should they decide to attack the North, arguing the allies' ongoing joint military drills are aimed at preparing for a potential invasion. Pak Jong-chon, secretary of the Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party, also called on Seoul and Washington to halt what he claimed to be military provocation against Pyongyang. "If the U.S. and South Korea attempt to use armed forces against the DPRK without any fear, the special means of the DPRK's armed forces will carry out their strategic mission without delay and the U.S. and South Korea will have to face a terrible case and pay the most horrible price in history,"
The Korea Herald (http://www.koreaherald.com)
Seoul mayor apologizes over Itaewon disaster
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon apologized Tuesday over the Halloween crowd crush that killed at least 156 people. "As the mayor of Seoul who is responsible for the lives and safety of citizens, I feel infinite responsibility for the accident and express my deepest apologies," Oh said in a tearful voice during a news conference at his office. "The Seoul city government will do its best to mobilize all its administrative power until all funeral procedures are completed and the bereaved families, the injured and all citizens who feel sorrow from this accident can return to their daily lives."
Banking giants to inject W95tr to ease liquidity strain
The leaders of South Korea’s five banking giants on Tuesday agreed to provide 95 trillion won ($67 billion) in liquidity by year-end to shore up local financial markets, rocked by a recent credit default, in what many see as a response to the government’s request for the financial groups’ support. Early in October, a state-backed local developer missed a bond payment, freezing bond and short-term money markets in a blow to market expectations for a government guarantee. The government scrambled to roll out an emergency liquidity program worth at least 50 trillion won, saying help from market participants, like the major lenders, would make the relief matter more.
Police accelerate probe into Itaewon disaster
Police are looking into all possibilities and allegations raised surrounding the Itaewon disaster, the National Police Agency chief said Tuesday, while admitting to mishandling police reports filed before the incident. At a press conference held Tuesday, National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun said that there were several 112 reports before the crowd surge happened. “The action of the police was insufficient. To clarify the circumstance and responsibilities, intense internal inspection will be conducted, without exceptions,” said Yoon.
The Korea Times (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr)
N. Korea says S. Korea, US will pay 'terrible price' if they use force
North Korea on Wednesday said the U.S. and South Korea will pay a terrible price should they decide to attack the North, arguing the allies' ongoing joint military drills are aimed at preparing for a potential invasion. Pak Jong-chon, secretary of the Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party, also called on Seoul and Washington to halt what he claimed to be military provocation against Pyongyang. "If the U.S. and South Korea attempt to use armed forces against the DPRK without any fear, the special means of the DPRK's armed forces will carry out their strategic mission without delay and the U.S. and South Korea will have to face a terrible case and pay the most horrible price in history,"
'US stands with Korea to overcome tragic times,' says ambassador
U.S. ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg said Tuesday that Washington will stand with Seoul to overcome the tragedy of the Itaewon crowd crush last weekend, adding deep and close relations between the two countries' peoples can be a source of comfort. Goldberg made the remarks during separate meetings with the heads of South Korea's rival parties. The U.S. envoy said legislative engagement is the key element of multidimensional cooperation between the allies, and added that the U.S. is working to resolve South Korea's concerns on the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act "in a way that befits the alliance."
Top 5 financial groups to supply $67 bil. to stabilize market
Five major financial groups here have decided to provide ample liquidity worth 95 trillion won ($67 billion) by the end of this year in a bid to ease a bond market crunch and stabilize local financial markets. During a meeting with Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Kim Joo-hyun on Tuesday morning, the chairmen of the five groups pledged to inject a total of 73 trillion won into financial markets, while pooling another 12 trillion won into a bond market stabilization fund and another 10 trillion won for their group subsidiaries.
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