South Korea’s Danuri captures Vikram lander Photograph:(Twitter)
The Indian Embassy in South Korea recently shared an exciting development – South Korea’s lunar orbiter, Danuri, captured images of the Vikram lander’s landing site on the Moon’s surface. The images were taken at the landing site of Chandrayaan-3, known as the ‘Shiv Shakti Point,’ situated on the Moon’s South Pole. The embassy wrote on X social media platform, “Sharing the wonderful snap taken by South Korea’s lunar orbiter Danuri of ‘Shiv Shakti point’- the landing site of Chandrayaan-3 on the South Pole of Moon’s surface.”
Sharing the wonderful snap taken by South Korea’s lunar orbiter Danuri of ‘Shiv Shakti point’- the landing site of Chandrayaan-3 on the South Pole of Moon’s surface👇#indiarokat50#chandrayaan3
The Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea also marked this occasion by sharing the images, celebrating India’s successful landing on the lunar south pole, a first in the history of humankind. In a post, the ministry wrote, “Commemorating India’s successful landing on the lunar south pole for the first time in humanity’s history, Korea’s lunar orbiter #Danuri sent photos of #Chandrayaan-3’s landing site on August 28th.”
Captured from lunar orbit
Danuri, orbiting the Moon at an altitude of approximately 100 kilometers, successfully photographed Chandrayaan-3’s landing site, offering a bird’s-eye view of the lunar surface. This landing site, ‘Shiv Shakti Point,’ is located approximately 600 kilometers from the Moon’s South Pole.
Chandrayaan-3, India’s lunar exploration mission, achieved a historic landing on the lunar surface on August 23.
The rover has been diligently conducting extensive research and data collection, with a primary focus on analysing the composition of the Moon’s soil and atmosphere.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission commenced on July 14, lifting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. It successfully entered lunar orbit on August 5th, and on August 17th, the lander module separated from the propulsion module.
The death of a teacher who was bullied by parents has sparked weeks of protests in Seoul
On 5 June, Lee Min-so* described in her diary the fear that overtook her body as she entered her classroom to teach: “My chest feels too tight. I feel like I’m going to fall somewhere. I don’t even know where I am.”
On 3 July the primary school teacher wrote that she had become so overwhelmed by the craziness of work she “wanted to let go”.
Two weeks later, the 23-year-old was found dead in her classroom store cupboard by her colleagues. She had taken her own life.
This tragedy has unleashed a wave of anger from primary school teachers across South Korea.
Tens of thousands of them went on strike on Monday to demand better protection at work. They say they’re frequently harassed by overbearing parents, who call them all hours of the day and weekends, incessantly and unfairly complaining.
Min-so’s cousin, Park Du-yong, struggles not to cry as he straightens out her small, empty apartment, now home to just her goldfish. Her bed is unmade, and beside it sits a pile of drawings from her first-grade students, telling her how much they loved her. Underneath is a stack of library books on how to cope with depression.
Park says his cousin had been teaching for little over a year, fulfilling her childhood dream by following her mother into the profession. She had adored the kids, he says.
So in the days after his cousin’s death, which police quickly pinned on a recent breakup, Park assumed the role of detective. He unearthed hundreds of diary entries, work logs and text messages.
They revealed that in the months leading up to her suicide, Min-so had been bombarded by complaints from parents. Most recently, one of her pupils had slashed another child’s head with a pencil, and she’d been embroiled in heated late phone calls and messages with the parents.
People pay respects at the primary school where a 23-year-old teacher took her own life
For the past six weeks, tens of thousands of teachers have rallied in Seoul, claiming they are now so scared of being called child abusers, they are unable to discipline their students or intervene as they attack each other.
They accuse parents of exploiting a child welfare law, passed in 2014, which dictates that teachers who are accused of child abuse are automatically suspended.
Teachers can be reported for child abuse for restraining a violent child, while a telling off is frequently labelled as emotional abuse. Such accusations can see teachers immediately removed from their jobs.
One teacher received a complaint after denying a parent’s request to wake their child up with a phone call each morning. Another was reported for emotional abuse after taking reward stickers off a boy who had cut his classmate with scissors.
Japan has started dumping the water from the Fukushima nuclear plant north of Tokyo into the sea.
South Korean people chant slogans during a protest against Japan’s discharge of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, in Seoul, South Korea, Aug 26, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Kim Hong-ji)
SEOUL: Protesters gathered in the capital of South Korea on Saturday (Aug 26) to demand that the government take steps to avoid what they fear is a looming disaster from Japan’s release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Japan began dumping the water from the plant north of Tokyo into the sea on Thursday despite objections both at home and abroad from fishing communities and others worried about the environmental impact.
“We will not be immediately seeing disasters like detecting radioactive materials in seafood but it seems inevitable that this discharge would pose a risk on the local fishing industry and the government needs to come up with solutions,” said Choi Kyoungsook of the Korea Radiation Watch group that organised the rally.
About 50,000 people joined the protest, according to the organisers.
Japan and scientific organisations say the water, distilled after being contaminated by contact with fuel rods when the reactor was destroyed in a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, is safe.
South Korean people take part in a protest against Japan’s discharge of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, in Seoul, South Korea, August 26, 2023. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
The utility responsible for the plant, Tokyo Electric Power has been filtering it to remove isotopes, leaving only tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate.
Japan’s fisheries agency said on Saturday fish tested in waters around the plant did not contain detectable levels of tritium, Kyodo news service reported.
South Korea has said it sees no scientific problems with the water release but environmental activists argue that all possible impacts have not been studied.
President Joe Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea agreed Friday to expand security and economic ties at a historic summit at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David, cementing a new agreement with the allies that are on an increasingly tense ledge in relations with China and North Korea.
Biden said the nations would establish a communications hotline to discuss responses to threats. He announced the agreements, including what the leaders termed the “Camp David Principles,” at the close of his talks with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“Our countries are stronger and the world will be safer as we stand together. And I know this is a belief that all three share,” Biden said
“The purpose of our trilateral security cooperation is and will remain to promote and enhance peace and stability throughout the region,” the leaders said in a joint statement.
Biden maintained, as have US, South Korean and Japanese officials, that the summit “was not about China” but was focused on broader security issues. Yet, the leaders in their joint summit concluding statement noted China’s “dangerous and aggressive” action in the South China Sea and said they “strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the waters of the Indo-Pacific.”
Yoon noted in particular the threat posed by North Korea, saying the three leaders had agreed to improve “our joint response capabilities to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, which have become sophisticated more than ever.”
He said as the three appeared before reporters that “today will be remembered as a historic day, where we established a firm institutional basis and commitments to the trilateral partnership.”
Japan’s Kishida said before the private talks that “the fact that we, the three leaders, have got together in this way, I believe means that we are indeed making a new history as of today. The international community is at a turning point in history.”
The visitors spoke in their home languages, their comments repeated by a translator.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea agreed to a new “duty to consult” security pledge committing them to speak with each other in the event of a security crisis or threat in the Pacific.
The pledge is intended to acknowledge that they share “fundamentally interlinked security environments” and that a threat to one is “a threat to all,” according to a senior Biden administration official. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the announcement.
Under the pledge, the three countries agree to consult, share information and align their messaging with each other in the face of a threat or crisis, the official said.
The Camp David retreat, 65 miles (104.6 kilometers) from the White House, was where President Jimmy Carter brought together Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978 for talks that established a framework for a historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in March 1979. In the midst of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at the retreat — then known as Shangri-La — to plan the Italian campaign that would knock Benito Mussolini out of the war.
Kishida and Yoon were mindful of Camp David’s place in U.S. and world history, making repeated references to its past and now their place in it during their comments at the news conference after the meeting with Biden. The leaders arrived in Washington on Thursday and, as guests of Biden, on Friday were flown separately to Camp David on U.S. military helicopters like the ones Biden uses.
Biden’s focus for the gathering was to nu dge the United States’ two closest Asian allies to further tighten security and economic cooperation with each other. The historic rivals have been divided by differing views of World War II history and Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
But under Kishida and Yoon, the two countries have begun a rapprochement as the two conservative leaders grapple with shared security challenges posed by North Korea and China. Both leaders have been upset by the stepped-up cadence of North Korea’s ballistic missile tests and Chinese military exercises near Taiwan, the self-ruled island that is claimed by Beijing as part of its territory, and other aggressive action.
US President Joe Biden (far left) will be hosting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (centre) and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at Camp David on Friday. Photo: AFP
China is said to be on “high alert” as US President Joe Biden hosts the leaders of Japan and South Korea at Camp David this week to deepen technological and defence ties – building what some observers have called a “de facto Asian Nato” on China’s doorstep.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be joining Biden on Friday at the US presidential retreat in rural Maryland for the first three-way summit of its kind.
They are expected to announce plans for expanded cooperation on ballistic missile defence systems and technology development, senior US officials told Reuters.
They are likely to also agree to set up a new three-way crisis hotline and gather annually in the future, Reuters quoted the officials as saying.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China was opposed to “the cobbling together of various small circles by the countries concerned”.
“[China] also opposes practices that exacerbate confrontation and jeopardise the strategic security of other countries,” Wang said.
“The countries concerned should follow the trend of the times and do more that is conducive to regional peace, stability and prosperity.”
Lu Chao, dean of the Institute of American and East Asian Studies at Liaoning University in northeastern China, said Friday’s meeting could lead to a trilateral military alliance that would hit a nerve in Beijing.
“The [likely] mechanism of regular meetings among heads of state and the fixed mechanism of cooperation in the military aspect amount to the de facto formation of a three-way military alliance,” Lu said.
While North Korea is expected to top the agenda, Beijing will be watching for specific references to Taiwan in the joint statement expected to be issued at the end of the summit, observers in mainland China said.
Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province to be eventually reunited, by force if needs be. While most countries, including the US, Japan and South Korea, do not recognise self-ruled Taiwan as an independent state, but oppose any attempt to take the island by force.
“China is on high alert for the summit, especially if the Taiwan issue is to be mentioned,” Lu said.
“If they raise the Taiwan issue publicly at the summit, it would be seen as a strong provocation to China and will be a dangerous move for stability in the Asia-Pacific.”
[1/3] Participants play with a ball at the camping site for the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Buan, South Korea, August 4, 2023. REUTERS/Kim Hong-JiTens of thousands of youngsters will be evacuated from the campsite of the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea to get them out of the path of a looming typhoon, organisers said on Monday, days after hundreds fell ill amid soaring temperatures.
The storm on top of the country’s worst heatwave in years has piled pressure on organisers who have faced mounting complaints from parents and the withdrawal of the U.S. and British contingents.
India prevailed over defending champions South Korea 3-2 in their fourth round-robin fixture of the Asian Champions Trophy in Chennai on Monday
The India-Korea match in progress
Their semifinals spot guaranteed, India prevailed over defending champions South Korea 3-2 in their fourth round-robin fixture of the Asian Champions Trophy in Chennai on Monday, maintaining their unbeaten run in the continental hockey tournament. Even before the action got underway at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium, India had sealed their place in the semi-finals, following Japan’s loss to Malaysia earlier in the day. Both teams began the match on a fast-paced note, playing mainly possession-based hockey.
In the sixth minute, the deadlock was broken by the hosts, as Nilakanta Sharma tapped the ball in after Sukhjeet Singh dribbled the ball past a couple of defenders.
Unfazed by the goal, Korea came up with a couple of chances of their own but the Indian defence was up to the task.
However, the Koreans did not take much time to equalise as Sunghyun Kim hammered it in after Manjae Jung’s low pass, in the 12th minute.
In the second quarter, it was all about India as they came up with as many as four chances and scored their second goal in the 23rd minute through a penalty corner.
The PC was successfully converted by Harmanpreet Singh, who hit the ball low to the right of the goalkeeper before beating him.
The Indians followed that up with more attacks, including a PC, but to no avail, as they maintained their slim 1-0 lead at half-time.
After the restart, Korea squandered a PC earned through video referral, even as Amit Rohidas was green-carded.
However, India came up with an attacking move and it resulted in a field goal by Mandeep Singh, as Shamsher Singh’s assist allowed the former to collect it comfortably and fire it in.
Korea received another PC but skipper Jonghyun Jang’s shot went wide. It was followed by three chances for India, with Karthi Selvam and Mandeep Singh coming close, as the game moved into the fourth quarter.
Just two minutes into the final quarter, India earned a PC, which ultimately resulted in a penalty stroke. But, Harmanpreet’s attempt to go low towards the keeper’s right saw his effort being denied.
A minute later, a video referral allowed Korea to gain a PC, which resulted in it earning three more straight PCs. However, Jang failed to convert either of them.
India continued with their attacking intent, with a double save coming from the Korean goalie in the 50th minute off Mandeep and Sukhjeet’s shots.
It was followed by another series of PCs for Korea, while they also opted for a review for a possible PC, only to lose it.
Finally, in the 58th minute, Jihun Yang found the back of the net through a field goal, keeping the Indians on their toes.
Even as the Koreans looked for the equaliser, the Indian defence managed to hold on to the one-goal lead.
India will next be up against arch-rival Pakistan on Wednesday, while Korea, who remain in the top-four race, face Malaysia.
British Scouts have started arriving at a hotel in Seoul after being taken by coach from the campsite
UK Scouts are being moved to hotels in Seoul after an international event in South Korea was hit by extreme heat.
Hundreds have fallen ill at the outdoor World Scout Jamboree, which is attended by more than 40,000 young people from around the world, amid 35C (95F) heat.
The British group of 4,500, the largest in attendance, is moving from a camp site at Saemangeum to Seoul, the Scout Association confirmed.
The US and Singaporean teams are also pulling their members out of the event.
South Korea’s government said it was sending 60 more medics and 700 service workers to maintain the toilets and showers, with many countries staying at the site for the next week.
The jamboree, described as the world’s largest youth camp, gathers Scouts from around the world every four years, each time in a different country.
Most of those attending are aged between 14 and 18, and 155 countries are represented in South Korea.
This is the first jamboree since the pandemic and is due to run until 12 August.
Coaches of British teenagers have started arriving back in Seoul – about 120 miles (197km) from the campsite – and they will spend the next week in hotels.
The UK Scout Association said young people and adult volunteers had begun “settling into their accommodation” and the Jamboree experience would continue in the city before returning to the UK on 13 August as planned.
The BBC has been told that some scouts are sharing five to a room, while up to 250 are sleeping in the ballroom of one Seoul hotel due to a lack of available accommodation.
One of the UK team told BBC’s Seoul correspondent Jean Mackenzie the decision to pull out was not based just on the extreme heat but was also down to the facilities and food.
They described the campsite toilets as a “health risk” and said children’s dietary needs were not being met.
The UK team monitored conditions for a number of days, they said, giving the organisers the opportunity to improve them, but had lost confidence they could keep everyone safe.
Many of the parents the BBC has spoken to have said their children spent years preparing to attend the event, often raising thousands of pounds to do so.
Thunderstorms are forecast for the region in which it is taking place, while temperatures will feel hotter than 40C due to high humidity, according to AccuWeather.
The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), the largest international Scouting organisation, said it had asked the Korean Scout Association, which is hosting the event, to consider ending early.
The movement said that the host “decided to go ahead with the event” and assured participants that it was doing “everything possible to address the issues caused by the heatwave”.
UK Scouts, the country’s largest scouting organisation, said its volunteers and others had worked to give members “enough food and water… shelter from the unusually hot weather… and toilets and washing facilities appropriate for an event of this scale.”
The UK and US teams have the money and resources to relocate thousands of people at short notice but there are plenty of countries at the event which do not.
The US is taking its participants to Camp Humphreys army base in Pyeongtaek, citing safety concerns.
Parents of children at the campsite told the BBC that no activities were taking place due to the heat.
Others have defended the event, saying their children were disappointed that they had to leave.
One mother from north-east England said what was meant to be a “great life experience” had turned into a “survival mission” for her 16-year-old daughter.
“She knew it would be hot but not as hot as it is. They cannot cool down, their tents are too hot,” said the mother, who did not wish to be named.
Her daughter had told her that the showers and toilets were “appalling and unsafe”, with “floating rubbish, plasters and hair” blocking drains.
Another parent said the situation was so bad they put their daughter on a plane back to the UK on Friday.
However Peter Naldrett told the BBC that his two children were “frustrated, upset and angry” about having to leave.
“My kids have said that the toilets are a bit grim but it’s manageable,” he said.
Shannon Swaffer, whose 15-year-old daughter is at the event, said the children were “all devastated that it’s ended early”.
“By all accounts the heat is intolerable and adults and kids alike can’t continue there,” she said, adding that her family were “lifelong Scout people” and that the leaders had been “absolutely phenomenal”.
Rebecca Coldwell said her 17-year-old daughter had received “outstanding” medical care for an infected wound, and that she was “heartbroken” about having to move to hotels.
Kristin Sayers from Virginia in the US, paid $6,500 (£5,100) for her 17-year-old son Corey to go to the jamboree but said his dream had turned into a “nightmare”.
“He’s very aware of how much money that is and the sacrifices we made as a family to send him. We could’ve done so much with that money,” she told Reuters news agency.
Some Scouts from Spain, Belgium, and France, told the BBC they were happy to still be at the campsite and disappointed the British had left.
Blanca, a 16-year-old from Spain, said her sister was taken to hospital on the first day because of the heat, but she has recovered and so have the conditions.
“Now the situation is better. They give us cold water and fans and let us go inside places to get shade,” she said.
“I am sad the British didn’t stay. They’re really cool people and I enjoyed spending time with them,” she added.
Attendees of the World Scout Jamboree cool off with water at a scout camping site in Buan, South Korea, on Friday. Photo: Yonhap via AP
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday ordered his government to urgently provide air-conditioned buses and refrigerator trucks to help cool down the tens of thousands of attendees at the World Scout Jamboree, where hundreds have sought medical treatment amid a scorching heatwave.
The event, which congregates teenage scouts from around the world, is this year taking place outdoors in the seaside county of Buan, some 180km southwest of Seoul.
Aside from colourful tents and awnings, there is little natural shade around the 8.8 sq km of reclaimed tidelands on which the gathering is held, and where participants have pitched their tents on shipping pallets laid on the soggy ground.
To make matters worse, apart from the hot and humid weather, the jamboree has also been plagued by bugs, dirty toilets, inadequate food, and a lack of services.
Attendees of the World Scout Jamboree hold umbrellas to avoid sunshine at a scout camping site in Buan, South Korea, on Friday. Photo: Yonhap via AP
Weather forecasts show the mercury is expected to hover around 35 degrees Celsius with no signs of cooling down in the coming weeks at a venue where the quadrennial world jamboree is under way until August 12, with some 43,000 scouts from 158 countries taking part.
By the end of the first day on Tuesday, 315 participants needed treatment for heat-related symptoms, 106 others for sunburn and 318 others complained of mosquito bites, the Chosun newspaper daily said.
A parent whose daughter was attending the jamboree urged organisers to resolve the issues quickly.
“My daughter is there right now and is telling us that it is a shame, everything is uncontrolled, no food, no way to protect them from the sun, this is real chaos!” they wrote on the Facebook page of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM).
A participant is carried on a stretcher at Jamboree Hospital during the World Scout Jamboree in Buan, South Korea, on Friday. Photo: Reuters
Yoon directed the government to “provide air-conditioned buses for scouts to stay cool at least for a while and refrigerator trucks to provide cold bottled water as much as necessary”, his presidential office said.He also ordered that meals at the event be “immediately improved” and tasked government ministries to resolve the problems at the site “with all their might”.
In addition to the scouts’ heat-induced health problems, hygiene issues including spoiled food, clogged toilets and inadequate shower facilities have also been raised. According to local news reports, eggs with mould were given to some participants, although they were not consumed before being discarded.
The WOSM on Friday said that over the past few days, an “extreme heatwave and humidity has caused some challenging conditions” for participants.
The South Korean organisers were increasing shaded areas and water around programme activities, making more air-conditioned spaces and transport available, deploying more doctors and nurses and increasing the availability of medical facilities and ambulances, it added.
China says it will maintain a ban on some Japanese food imports over the plan to release water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean.
China’s customs administration said it would also implement radiation tests on food from other parts of the country.
South Korea is also maintaining a similar ban but says the proposed release meets international standards.
On Wednesday the UN’s nuclear watchdog said it would have “negligible impact” on the environment.
On Friday Japan’s nuclear regulator also gave its approval.
In 2011, a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake flooded three reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. It is regarded as the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
More than 150,000 people were evacuated from an exclusion zone around the plant, which remains in place. Decommissioning of the plant has also started, but the process could take decades.
What happened at Fukushima?
Meanwhile the equivalent of around 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water has amassed at the nuclear facility, according to Reuters news agency.
Storage space for the water is running out, but the plans initiated by the Japanese government and the facility’s operator, Tepco, to release the water into the sea have encountered regional criticism – most harshly from China.
“China Customs will maintain a high level of vigilance,” China’s customs authority said.
Japan’s foreign ministry said it was considering possible measures in response, according to an unnamed official who spoke to AFP news agency.
China has already strongly criticised the plan – accusing Japan of treating the ocean like its “private sewer.”
It has also warned the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) against endorsing it. The agency released a report on Wednesday stating the plan would have a “negligible” impact on the environment.
Speaking in Tokyo on Friday, the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, told Reuters he was “extremely confident” in his agency’s assessment of Japan’s proposal.
He added that his organisation did not take any sides and that its findings were based on scientific evidence.
[1/5] People attend a mass rally denouncing the U.S. in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 25, 2023 in this photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)North Korea held mass rallies in Pyongyang where people shouted slogans vowing a “war of revenge” to destroy the United States, as it marked the 73rd anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, state media reported on Monday.
About 120,000 working people and students took part in the rallies held across the capital on Sunday, state news agency KCNA reported.
Photos released by state media showed a stadium crowded with people holding placards reading “The whole U.S. mainland is within our shooting range” and “The imperialist U.S. is the destroyer of peace.”
Sunday’s anniversary came amid concerns Pyongyang could soon conduct another launch of its first military spy satellite to boost monitoring of U.S. military activities after its first attempt ended in failure on May 31.
North Korea now had “the strongest absolute weapon to punish the U.S. imperialists” and the “avengers on this land are burning with the indomitable will to revenge the enemy,” KCNA said.
Nuclear-armed North Korea has been testing various weapons including its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile, ramping up tension with the South and the South’s main ally, the United States.
In a separate foreign ministry report, North Korea said the U.S. was “making desperate efforts to ignite a nuclear war,” accusing Washington of sending strategic assets to the region.
For a country with the world’s lowest fertility rate – one that has spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to encourage women to have more babies – the idea of barring children from places like cafes and restaurants might seem a little counterproductive.
But in South Korea, “no-kids zones” have become remarkably popular in recent years. Hundreds have sprung up across the country, aimed largely at ensuring disturbance-free environments for the grown-ups.
There are nearly 80 such zones on the holiday island of Jeju alone, according to a local think tank, and more than four hundred in the rest of the country, according to activist groups.
Doubts, though, are beginning to creep in about the wisdom of restricting children from so many places, fueled by concerns over the country’s growing demographic problems.
In addition to the world’s lowest birthrate, South Korea has one of the world’s fastest aging populations. That has left it with a problem familiar to graying nations across the world, namely: how to fund the pension and health care needs of a growing pool of retirees on the tax income generated by a slowly vanishing pool of workers.
And South Korea’s problem is more acute than most.
Last year, its fertility rate dropped to a record low of 0.78 – not even half the 2.1 needed for a stable population and far below even that of Japan (1.3), currently the world’s grayest nation. (And even further below the United States, which at 1.6 faces aging problems of its own).
With young South Koreans already facing pressure on multiple fronts – from sky-high real estate costs and long working weeks to rising economic anxiety – critics of the zones say the last thing the country needs is yet one more thing to make them think twice about starting a family.
The government, they point out, should know this better than anyone. After all, it’s spent more than $200 billion over the past 16 years trying to encourage more people to have children. Critics suggest that, rather than throwing more money at the problem, it needs to work on changing society’s attitudes towards the young.
A widely circulated crowd-sourced Google Map shows the location of many of South Korea’s no-kids zones, as identified by users.
‘Society must be reborn’
With polls suggesting a majority of South Koreans support no-kids zones, shifting those mindsets won’t be easy. But there are signs opinions may be shifting.
In recent weeks, a pushback against the zones has gained momentum thanks to Yong Hye-in, a mother and a lawmaker for the Basic Income Party who, in a show of defiance to mark Children’s Day, took her 2-year-old son to a meeting of the National Assembly – where babies are not usually allowed.
“Everyday life with children is not easy,” she told the assembled lawmakers in an impassioned speech, during which she was pictured both cuddling her son and letting him wander around the podium. “Our society must be reborn into one where children are included.”
That speech gained media coverage across the world, but it is not the only sign attitudes may slowly be changing.
Jeju island – a tourist hotspot off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula – recently debated the country’s first-ever bill aimed at making such zones illegal (though if passed it would apply only to the island).
The move by its provincial council comes amid growing concerns that the age limits imposed by many guesthouses and campsites on the tourism-dependent island may be damaging its reputation for hospitality.
As Bonnie Tilland, a university lecturer who specializes in South Korean culture, puts it: “Families with children who travel to Jeju on holiday are disgruntled if they drive to a scenic café only to be told that their children are not allowed.”
Other critics say the problem goes deeper than lost business opportunities. Some see no-kids zones as an unjustifiable act of age discrimination that runs contrary to the Korean constitution.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife Yuko Kishida inspect honour guards upon their arrival to Seoul airbase in Seongnam on May 7, 2023. (Photo: AFP/Kim Hong-ji)
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Seoul on Sunday (May 7) to meet South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, facing a sceptical public there as the leaders seek deeper ties amid nuclear threats from North Korea and China’s increasing assertiveness.
Kishida’s bilateral visit, the first by a Japanese leader to Seoul in 12 years, returns the trip Yoon made to Tokyo in March, where they sought to close a chapter on the historical disputes that have dominated Japan-South Korea relations for years.
Soon before departing, Kishida told reporters he hoped to have “an open discussion based on a relationship of trust” with Yoon, without elaborating on specific issues.
Yoon is facing criticism at home that he has given more than he’s received in his efforts to improve relations with Japan, including by proposing that South Korean businesses – not Japanese companies as ordered by a court – compensate victims of wartime labour during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial occupation.
South Korean officials are hopeful that Kishida will make some kind of gesture in return and offer some political support, although few observers expect any further formal apology for historical wrongs. Yoon himself has signalled he doesn’t believe that is necessary.
The focus of the summit instead will likely revolve around security cooperation in the face of North Korea’s nuclear threats, said Shin-wha Lee, a professor of international relations at Seoul-based Korea University.
“Within the framework of the ‘Washington Declaration,’ which outlines plans to strengthen extended deterrence, Korea will explore ways to enhance the collaborative efforts with Japan,” she added.
“We have a lot of opportunities to cooperate when it comes to addressing the threat of North Korea” and securing a free and open Indo-Pacific, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.
Tensions have simmered between Washington and Beijing as China becomes more assertive in its territorial claims over Taiwan and in the South China Sea, while the US shores up alliances across the Asia-Pacific.
But the historical differences between South Korea and Japan also threaten to cast a shadow over the blossoming ties between its two leaders.
The majority of South Koreans believe Japan hasn’t apologised sufficiently for atrocities during Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of Korea, Lee said. “They think that Prime Minister Kishida should show sincerity during his visit to South Korea, such as mentioning historical issues and expressing apologies,” she added.
On the other hand, Japan is taking it slow, said Daniel Russel, former US assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific.
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., April 28, 2023. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Friday it was necessary to ensure Russia’s invasion of Ukraine does not succeed and that Seoul was considering its options when it came to lethal aid to Kyiv.
In a speech at Harvard University’s Kennedy School on the fifth day of a state visit to mark the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-South Korean alliance, Yoon said the Russian invasion was a violation of international law and the rights of Ukrainians.
“We should prove that such attempts will never reach success, to block further attempts being made in the future,” he said, according to simultaneous translations of his remarks.
Yoon was asked about the possibility of South Korea providing lethal aid to Ukraine, and replied:
“We are closely monitoring the situation that’s going on the battlefield in Ukraine and will take proper measures in order to uphold the international norms and international law.
“Right now we are closely monitoring the situation and we are considering various options.”
On Wednesday, Yoon met U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House and the United States pledged to give South Korea more insight into its nuclear planning over any conflict with North Korea, amid anxiety over Pyongyang’s growing arsenal of missiles and bombs. The two also discussed the situation in Ukraine.
Yoon told Reuters in an interview last week before leaving for the United States that Seoul might extend its support for Ukraine beyond humanitarian and economic aid if it comes under a large-scale civilian attack, signaling a shift in his stance against arming Ukraine for the first time.
Answering another question, Yoon rejected the notion that the Washington Declaration he agreed with Biden meant they were accepting North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, adding that he was against treating North Korea’s possession of the weapons as a disarmament issue.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attends an interview with Reuters at the Presidential Office in Seoul, South Korea, April 18, 2023. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo/File Photo
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol set off on Monday for the United States and a summit with President Joe Biden at a time of rare questioning in South Korea of an alliance that has guaranteed its security for decades.
Yoon’s April 24-29 trip is the first state visit to the U.S. by a South Korean leader in 12 years and will mark the 70th anniversary of a partnership that has helped anchor U.S. strategy in Asia and provided a foundation for South Korea’s emergence as an economic powerhouse.
But as North Korea races ahead with the development of nuclear weapons and missiles to carry them, there are growing questions in South Korea about the relying on “extended deterrence”, in essence the American nuclear umbrella, and calls, even from some senior members of Yoon’s party, for South Korea to develop its own nuclear weapons.
A recent poll by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies showed that more than 54% of respondents believed the U.S. would not risk its safety to protect its Asian ally.
More than 64% supported South Korea developing its own nuclear weapons, with about 33% opposed.
Yoon has been pushing to boost South Korea’s say in operating the U.S. extended deterrence but exactly what that might entail has not been spelt out.
Yoon’s deputy national security adviser said both sides had been working on measures to operate the extended deterrence in a more concrete manner, hopefully with progress to be a revealed in a joint statement after the summit.
“What I can tell you now is that people’s interest in and expectations for extended deterrence have been great, and there are several things that have been carried out over the past year in terms of information sharing, planning and execution,” the adviser, Kim Tae-hyo, told reporters.
“We need to take steps to organise these things so that it can be easily understood to anyone in one big picture, how this is implemented and developed.”
A senior U.S. official said on Friday that Biden, during the summit with Yoon, would pledge “substantial” steps to underscore U.S. commitments to deter a North Korean nuclear attack.
HELP FOR UKRAINE
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which some in South Korea feel is distracting the United States from dangers in Asia, has also led to some rare friction between Seoul and Washington.
Leaked U.S. documents recently highlighted South Korean difficulties in dealing with pressure from its ally to help with the supply of military aid to Ukraine.
South Korea, a major producer of artillery shells, says it has not provided lethal weapons to Ukraine, citing its relations with Russia. It has limited its support to humanitarian aid.
South Korea tries to avoid antagonising Russia, due chiefly to business interests and Russian influence over North Korea.
Suggestions reported in media that the United States had been spying on South Korean deliberations about its support to Ukraine have raised hackles in South Korea, though both sides have played the down the issue.
The man known as David tells Sky News how his father disappeared without a trace and his mother was tortured in a labour camp – as he provides a rare insight into life in North Korea since the COVID pandemic.
For David, the streets of Seoul are a much longed for safe haven.
To the casual observer, there is nothing out of the ordinary about him.
He is a slight man, softly spoken, dressed in baggy jeans and wide glasses that are fashionable in South Korea.
But his story and what he has been through to get here are utterly remarkable.
He is a North Korean defector, one of the very few to have escaped the DPRK (Democratic Republic of Korea) within the last few years.
“My mother bribed the soldier beforehand,” he tells me as he gestures on a map to where he crossed the border north into China.
“The river was frozen solid. I remember walking maybe 15 minutes to 20 minutes across the ice.
“I remember shivering after crossing the river and climbing over the fence that the Chinese guards had set up.”
For the safety of his relatives that remain in North Korea, we can’t tell you exactly when or exactly how he left. Any specific identifying detail could result in harsh punishments for his loved ones.
But his stories from inside are astonishing and offer a rare glimpse into what life has been like there since the pandemic struck.
Father disappeared without a trace
His childhood, it seems, was a relatively normal one in DPRK terms – helping from a young age to tend the fields and attending school when he could.
But everything changed shortly after his father suddenly disappeared without a trace.
“It wasn’t until about a year later when he got in touch with us that I realised he had fled to the south,” he explains.
“He contacted my mother via telephone. What we didn’t realise was that the North Korean state political security department had been tapping our landline. As a result, our mother was sent away to the labour camp.”
Initially, he was allowed to visit his mother every three months in detention, and he describes what he saw there as shocking.
“The amount of food provided in these detention centres is pitifully little,” he says.
“Prisoners receive around 20 to 30 kernels of corn each meal, which is obviously not enough for a person to survive on, so I packed a lunch when I went to visit her.
The pandemic has made North Korea all but impenetrable
“My mother’s body had shrunk to half her original size in the three months she had been in detention. My eyes filled with tears the moment I saw her; she was so dishevelled and gaunt that I didn’t recognise her initially.
“They also beat the women in prison. Mother’s eyes were swollen to bits and there were bruises everywhere. I wept when I saw her wounds.”
Mother tortured
David was just a child at this time but he was left to fend for himself and his siblings. He says he left school and tried to make ends meet, working in the fields and logging in the winter, but also stole food to survive.
He took what little he could to his mother.
“My mother said that if the inmates’ families didn’t visit them in prison, they would starve to death from malnutrition,” he explains.
“She said tens of people died every day from malnutrition. She even said that people would die in the middle of meals.
“To dispose of the corpses, she said they folded them at the waist and put them in sacks.
“Afterwards, the corpses were buried near the fences of the prison. Also, because the graves weren’t very deep, the stench of the corpses would come up from the ground in the spring when it became warmer.”
His mother described to him the torture she faced, being made to sit for up to 17 hours and beaten if they moved as much as a finger.
A military parade in Pyongyang in February
She also described how inmates whose families did not have the means to bring extra food or bribe the guards would have a life expectancy of just three to four years.
David’s stories matter because recent testimony from inside North Korea is very rare indeed.
The pandemic has made this already secretive state all but impenetrable.
Policy to shoot anyone trying to cross border
In the 2010s, around 1,000 people a year successfully defected from North Korea – the vast majority crossing the northern border with China before seeking asylum in a third country.
But a combination of the strict closed-border policy implemented by both China and the DPRK, plus a new policy to shoot anyone trying to cross, means that in 2022 that number had plummeted to just 67.
People in Seoul watching reports of the long-range missile’s launch on Thursday morning
North Korea has fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) just hours before the leaders of South Korea and Japan are due to meet for a landmark summit.
Both Japanese and South Korean officials confirmed the long-range missile’s launch on Thursday morning.
It flew about 1,000km (620 miles) landing in waters west of Japan.
It is the fourth missile launch from Pyongyang this past week – although the other rounds have been short-range.
The activity comes amid ongoing naval drills between the US and South Korea around the Korean peninsula- the allies’ largest in five years. North Korea has repeatedly said it sees such exercises as provocation.
The missile was fired at 07:10 (22:10 GMT) from Pyongyang on the east coast of North Korea, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
Japan’s defence ministry confirmed it as an ICBM type and said it flew higher than 6,000km for about 70 minutes.
Following Thursday’s launch, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered his country’s military to continue with the joint US exercises as planned.
He added that Pyongyang would pay for its “reckless provocations”.
North Korea last fired an ICBM less than a month ago- an action that sparked a UN emergency meeting and condemnation from G7 countries.
