Thursday April 16, 2020

Round-up of important news from major Korean dailies and from international media today

The Korea Post (http://www.koreapost.com/)
“Women take care of children, house work, but men also do when wives work”
The following are excerpts from an interview with Mrs. Nataliia Tymoshenko, spouse of the Ambassador of Ukraine in Seoul.—Ed.
Question: As was briefly introduced afore, the Korean people have a time-honoured expression, Naejo, which literally translates as “Domestic Support” and which means “Support and assistance given by a wife to her husband. How is this understood among non-Korean ladies?

‘Khoka, then a little boy, removed all the darkness, odds from Bangladesh’
The following article was contributed by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Seoul for publication on the occasion of the Independence Day of Bangladesh on March 26, 2020.—Ed. It was 1920, a century ago. It was a late spring evening, March the 17th. It was dark all around. It was one of the thousands of villages in Bangladesh - Tungipara at the present Gopalganj district. Born there was a baby boy, affectionately called ‘Khoka‘ - meaning a little boy - by his parents, who half a century later removed all the darkness and odds; changed the history of the Bengali nation and the world; created an independent and sovereign Bangladesh in 1971.

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KBS (http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/)

Ruling Party Wins Landslide Victory in General Elections
South Korea's ruling Democratic Party of Korea clinched a landslide victory in the general elections held amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The nation held the quadrennial elections on Wednesday to fill the 300-member unicameral National Assembly -- with 253 directly contested seats and 47 proportional representation (PR) slots.

Main Opposition Chief Resigns over Election Defeat
Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn of the main opposition United Future Party(UFP) resigned from his post after his party suffered a crushing defeat in Wednesday's general elections. Around 12 a.m. Thursday, Hwang announced in an emergency news conference at the National Assembly that as he promised earlier, he will step down from his post to take responsibility for the election outcome.

Pompeo Congratulates S. Korea on 'Successful' Elections
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo congratulated South Korea on Wednesday for holding "successful" general elections in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pompeo said in a statement that the United States would like to congratulate South Korea on holding successful legislative elections, saying the country is a "model for the world."

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Yonhap (http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr)

Ruling party's landslide election win to give boost to President Moon's reform drive
The ruling party's overwhelming parliamentary election victory is expected to provide fresh momentum to President Moon Jae-in's policy drive during the remainder of his tenure. In one of the world's first nationwide elections held amid the coronavirus pandemic, South Koreans awarded a majority of seats to the Democratic Party (DP) and its temporary sister party created for the proportional representation system.

New virus cases stay below 30 for 4th straight day
South Korea's new coronavirus cases hovered below 30 for the fourth straight day Thursday, but health authorities are still staying vigilant over imported cases and cluster infections following the parliamentary elections the previous day. The 22 new cases, detected Wednesday and slightly down from 27 a day ago, brought the nation's total infections to 10,613, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

More students to resume classes online amid virus woes
Students across South Korea are set to return to school Thursday but stay home for online classes as concerns over new coronavirus cluster infections linger. Under the government's three-step plan, first and second grades at middle schools and high schools, as well as grades four to six at elementary schools, are scheduled to begin the new semester through remote learning. The government had earlier postponed the new school year, which usually starts in March, by five weeks to April 6. The plan was once again updated as unexpected cluster infections broke out in various parts of the country.

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The Korea Herald (http://www.koreaherald.com)

Ruling party sweeps to victory
South Korean voters were seen giving President Moon Jae-in’s party control of the parliament in an election that took place amid a pandemic. Voter turnout was projected to rise to its highest level in 28 years. Early counts and exit poll results suggested dominance of the ruling Democratic Party on the back of the successfully flattening of the coronavirus curve, in comparison to other countries struggling with mounting death tolls.

S. Korea reports 22 new virus cases, 4 deaths
South Korea confirmed 22 new coronavirus patients for the preceding 24 hours as of Thursday at 12:01 a.m., marking a fourth consecutive day when the number of new infections fell below 30. On a cumulative basis, Korea has reported 10,613 cases. Of those, 7,757 or 73 percent have recovered. The greater Seoul area, including Gyeonggi Province, accounted for the highest proportion of new cases at six. Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province each counted four new cases. Busan had three and Gangwon Province one.

How COVID-19 pandemic changed Korea’s election campaign
Parliamentary elections in South Korea, which took place amid a global COVID-19 pandemic, turned out to be a referndum on the Moon Jae-in administration’s response to the virus.  The government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak dominated campaign talk, with usually popular issues -- such as the approach toward North Korea, the slowing economy, prosecution and election reforms and corruption scandals -- nearly gone missing. And the marked slowdown in the virus’ spread in recent weeks aided President Moon and his party.

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The Korea Times (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr)

Ruling party wins crushing victory in parliamentary elections
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) cilnched a landslide victory in Wednesday's general election. In the election selecting 300 members of the National Assembly, the DPK obtained 163 out of 253 constituencies, according to the National Election Commission (NEC), Thursday. When including proportional representation seats which its satellite party, Civil Together, may win, the ruling bloc is expected to have 180 seats in total. The final result will come out later in the afternoon.

High-profile North Korean defector secures Assembly seat
High-profile North Korean defector Thae Yong-ho, a candidate of the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) running in a southern Seoul district, is likely to secure a win in the general election. In his first election bid, Thae, the former North Korean deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom, was ahead of Kim Sung-gon of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) 53.9 percent to 43.9 percent in the Gangnam-A constituency as of 11 p.m. Wednesday.

Moon likely to have steady state management in remaining term
Optimism is rising that President Moon Jae-in will be able to run state affairs steadily for the remainder of his term with the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) expected to win big in Wednesday's general election. If the ruling party and the liberal bloc take the majority of the 300-seat National Assembly, his policies are expected to more easily get parliamentary endorsement. Such a result has come after public approval for the President and the ruling party bounced back from the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when criticism mounted over the government's poor response to the outbreak.

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HanKyoReh Shinmun (http://english.hani.co.kr)

S. Korean shipment of 600,000 COVID-19 diagnostic kits departs for US
A shipment of South Korean COVID-19 diagnostic kits departed for the US on Apr. 14 at the request of US President Donald Trump. This is the first time that South Korea has exported a large number of diagnostic kits to the US. “Diagnostic kits from two of the three companies that have received preliminary approval from the FDA and have concluded export contracts are being transported to the US aboard cargo planes. I’m told that the shipment consists of 600,000 kits,” an official from South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters on Tuesday.

IMF projects -1.2% growth rate for S. Korea in 2020
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) adjusted its projected 2020 economic growth rate for South Korea to -1.2%, reflecting the impact of the global novel coronavirus pandemic. If the South Korean economy does experience a negative growth rate this year, it will have been the first time since 1998, when the rate stood at -5.1% amid the effects of the Asian financial crisis. The IMF also sharply reduced its 2020 global economic growth projection to -3.0%, predicting that the global economy would “experience its worst recession since the Great Depression” in the 1930s.

AI predicts COVID-19 treatments and vaccine will take between 2 to 5 years
It is generally understood that the development of a vaccine for an infectious disease takes 10 or more years. Mark Feinberg, president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), said in an interview with the health information website Stat News that the process could take 15 to 20 years. Meanwhile, companies working to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus are setting a target of having a first vaccine out within the year. Three companies are currently in the clinical trial stage. China’s CanSino Biologics has advanced the fastest to Phase II trials, while Moderna and Inovio in the US are in Phase I trials. Can artificial intelligence (AI) predict when a COVID-19 vaccine and treatments will be available?

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Chosun Ilbo (http://english.chosun.com)

Election Results Show Regionalism Rearing Ugly Head
The results of Wednesday's general election show that regionalism, the traditional scourge of Korean politics, reared its ugly head once again. The ruling Minjoo Party won resounding victories in the Seoul metropolitan area and the Jeolla provinces in the southwest, while the main opposition United Future Party held on to its traditional strongholds of South Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces. The emerging pattern shows Korea sliding back into a virtual two-party system.

Epidemic Proves Lucky Break for Some Athletes
The cancelation of most sporting events around the world is proving a lucky break for some sportsmen who can recuperate in peace or even complete their military duties without damaging their career. A key example is Tottenham Hotspur striker Son Heung-min, who broke his arm during a match against Aston Villa in February. Son returned to Korea for surgery, which was a setback for both him and the team while the season was not going to end until May. He was also to play in the Korean national squad's Asian qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup against Turkmenistan and Sri Lanka in March. But now both Premier League matches and the World Cup preliminaries have been indefinitely postponed.

Returnee from U.S. Arrested for Breaking Self-Quarantine
A Korean man in his 60s who recently returned from the U.S. has been arrested for breaking self-quarantine by visiting a sauna and a restaurant. This is the first arrest of a self-quarantine breaker. A district court in Seoul issued an arrest warrant for the 68-year-old on Tuesday for violating quarantine rules. He had flown in from the U.S. last Friday and was placed in self-quarantine in temporary accommodation because he has no permanent residence here. But he sneaked out around 2 p.m. Saturday to visit a sauna in Songpa, Seoul, where he was caught by police who had been tipped off. He was let off with a warning and returned to the facility.

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The Dong-A Ilbo (http://english.donga.com/)

N. Korea fires short-range missiles ahead of April 15 general elections
North Korea fired a barrage of short-range missiles into East Sea on Tuesday, a day before South Korea’s general elections. The launch, which came on the eve of North Korea’s late founder Kim Il Sung’s birthday, is part of the military actions stressed by Kim Jong Un and is intended to send a message to South Korea before the elections. Multiple short-range missiles were fired northeastward from areas near Munchon between 7 a.m. and 7:40 a.m., said South Korean military authorities. The missiles reportedly flew over 150 kilometers before they fell into the East Sea.

Competition grows fierce among low-cost smartphones
Global smartphone manufacturers are turning to affordable smartphones below one million won in an effort to address falling demand and meet the increasing consumers’ needs for value for money, which are new challenges brought by COVID-19. The smartphone industry said Tuesday that Apple plans to launch its low-end smartphone model in major global markets including the United States later this month for the first time in four years since 2016. It is said that Apple’s new Apple product will be called iPhone SE named after its original model, which was released in 2016. The iPhone SE is expected to be launched in May in South Korea.

S. Korea ships COVID-19 test kits to U.S.
South Korea sent 600,000 COVID-19 tests to the United States on Tuesday. The shipment has been made 21 days after U.S. President Donald Trump requested testing kits on his phone call to South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The testing kits were manufactured by two of the three South Korean companies that secured preliminary approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and signed an export contract, following the call between the two leaders last month. The test kits were reportedly shipped from Incheon International Airport to Louisville, Kentucky by a U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) cargo plane.

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The KyungHyang Shinmun (http://english.khan.co.kr/)

Employment Crisis Confirmed in Hospitality, Tourism and other Face-to-Face Service Industries
Problems in employment triggered by COVID-19 have been confirmed. Companies are hiring fewer workers and more people are applying for job-seeking benefits (unemployment benefits), forcing the government to hand out a record-breaking amount. The government will promote measures putting top priority on retaining employment, and implement additional measures, such as creating more jobs, to stabilize the livelihood of the unemployed. On April 13, the Ministry of Employment and Labor released the “March Labor Market Trend Based on Employment Administration Statistics” and it showed that the number of people who newly applied for job-seeking benefits last month increased to 156,000--31,000 more than the same period last year.

Why Is Eastern Europe Doing a Better Job at Containing COVID-19 than Western Europe?
When COVID-19 made its presence felt in Europe after February, experts predicted damages to be bigger in Eastern Europe, relatively poorer than the rich countries in Western Europe. Eastern Europe not only fell behind in the quality of medical equipment, but many doctors and nurses had already headed west seeking better salaries. Thus experts expected these countries to be vulnerable in their ability to respond to the outbreak. However, in reality, it was the opposite. According to Worldometer, which provides statistics on COVID-19 including the number of confirmed cases and deaths around the world, on the afternoon of April 13 (South Korean time), 368 people per 1 million of the population had died in Spain, 329 in Italy, 311 in Belgium, 221 in France, and 145 in the United Kingdom. In Germany, cited as a model country in Western Europe for its quarantine measures, the number was 36.

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Maeil Business News Korea (http://www.pulsenews.co.kr/)

LegoChem Bio inks $405mn licensing deal with UK’s Iksuda Therapeutics
Kosdaq-listed LegoChem Biosicences Inc. has signed a 496.3 billion won ($405 million) deal on licensing out its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology to U.K.-based biotech company Iksuda Therapeutics, said the company on Tuesday. LegoChem shares spiked on the news Thursday morning, trading nearly 10 percent higher at 53,500 won as of 10:30 am. The deal allows the British company to hold exclusive rights to develop and globally commercialize three ADC-based cancer therapies based on the Korean firm’s ADC linker/toxin platform called ConjuAll.

Moon’s governing party scores landslide victory in elections amid pandemic
South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s ruling party came away with a sweeping victory in the parliamentary elections on Wednesday thanks to the country’s largely successful response to the coronavirus. Moon’s Democratic Party of Korea and its satellite party secured at least 180 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, according to the National Election Commission on Thursday, making it the biggest win since the constitutional reform in 1987 that permitted direct democratic elections.

ABS woes add to debt-ridden Korean Air Lines, Asiana Airlines
South Korean flag carriers bolstering air cargo service amid hiatus in the travel business due to the global pandemic will likely further crash down as they have trouble in recovering asset-backed securities, analysts warned. An airliner’s asset-backed securities (ABS) are mostly based on the proceeds from future ticket sales and thus serve as a primary means of financing for flag carriers. The recovery of ABS issued by Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines however worsened in the past two months, with nearly 90 percent of flights grounded due to the air standstill from global virus pandemic.

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What’s ticking around the world at this second?
See what the world media around the world have to report:

USA Today www.usatoday.com aallman@gannett.com
The New York Times www.nytimes.com inytletters@nytimes.com
Wall Street Journal www.wsj.com support@wsj.com, service@wsj-asia.com
Financial Times www.ft.com ean@ft.com
The Times www.thetimes.co.uk help@timesplus.co.uk
The Sun www.thesun.co.uk talkback@the-sun.co.uk
Chinese People's Daily www.people.com.cn kf@people.cn
China Daily www.chinadaily.com.cn circulation@chinadaily.com.cn
GwangmyeongDaily www.gmw.cn webmaster@gmw.cn
Japan's Yomiuri www.yomiuri.co.jp japannews@yomiuri.com
Asahi www.asahi.com customer-support@asahi.com
Mainichi www.mainichi.jp
Le Monde www.ilemonde.com
Italy LaRepubblica www.quotidiano.repubblica.it vittorio.zucconi@gmail.com
Germany Frankfurter AllgemeineZeitung www.faz.net anzeigen.ausland@faz.de
SüddeutscheZeitung www.sueddeutsche.de forum@sueddeutsche.de
Australia Brisbane Times
www.brisbanetimes.com.au syndication@fairfaxmedia.com.au
Sydney Morning Herald www.smh.com.au
Colombia Reports http://www.colombiareports.com
Bogota Free Planet http://www.bogotafreeplanet.com,bfp@bogotafreeplanet.com
El Universal https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/english
Andes https://www.redaktionstest.net/andes-info-ec/
Ecuador Times https://www.ecuadortimes.net/
The Jordan Times https://www.jordantimes.com/
LSM.lv https://www.lsm.lv/
The Baltic Times http://www.baltictimes.com lithuania@baltictimes.com,
estonia@baltictimes.com, editor@baltictimes.com
El Pais https://english.elpais.com/
Philippine Daily Inquirer https://www.inquirer.net/
Daily News Hungary https://dailynewshungary.com/
Budapest Times https://www.budapesttimes.hu/
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The Korea Post is running video clips from the different embassies.
Azerbaijan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR8CBpcQ4WM
Sri Lanka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hByX92Y2aGY&t=22s
Morocco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfFmp2sVvSE
And many other countries.
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