The Korean daily media headlines and humor

Monday June 17, 2019

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

The Korea Post media (www.koreapost.com) in English, (www.koreapost.co.kr) in Korean.

Moon back in Korea after Northern Europe trip

Following an eight-day tour of Finland, Norway and Sweden, President Moon Jae-in returned to South Korea on Sunday, where a pile of tough tasks remains unresolved. The keywords of his discussions during the state visits were peace, innovation and inclusive growth.

S. Korea, Sweden sign MOUs on trade, economic cooperation

South Korea and Sweden have signed six memorandums of understandings (MOUs) to expand trade and cooperation in emerging industries, the government said Saturday. The MOUs were signed in line with President Moon Jae-in's visit to Sweden on the last leg of his eight-day Northern Europe trip that also took him to Finland and Norway.

Moon visits former first lady's home soon after foreign trip

President Moon Jae-in met with the bereaved family of Lee Hee-ho, a former first lady, immediately after returning from a weeklong trip to Northern Europe on Sunday. Moon and first lady Kim Jung-sook headed straight to the house in Donggyo-dong, located in western Seoul, from a military airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

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

Moon Returns from Trip to Northern Europe

President Moon Jae-in has returned home from a week-long trip to Finland, Norway and Sweden in Northern Europe. The president arrived in Seoul Airport in Seongman on Sunday after summit talks with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in the Swedish city of Saltsjobaden the previous day.

S. Korea's Long-term Jobless Posts Biggest Drop in Nearly 16 Years

The number of people who have remained jobless for over one year posted the largest drop in nearly 16 years last month. According to Statistics Korea on Sunday, four-thousand people remained out of work for more than 12 months as of May, down 14-thousand from a year earlier.

S. Korea Finishes Second in U-20 World Cup after Loss to Ukraine

South Korea finished in second place at the FIFA U-20 World Cup following a 3-1 loss to Ukraine in the final at Lodz Stadium in Poland on Saturday. Lee Kang-in scored a penalty goal in the fifth minute to give South Korea an early lead, but Ukraine scored three goals for their first title.

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

N.K. fishermen questioned for 2nd day

South Korean authorities questioned four North Korean fishermen for a second day Sunday, after rescuing them a day earlier from a boat that drifted across the maritime border off the east coast after an engine failure. The boat was found adrift in waters near the port of the east coast city of Samcheok on Saturday morning. The site was about 150 kilometers south of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas.

Moon visits former first lady's home soon after foreign trip

President Moon Jae-in met with the bereaved family of Lee Hee-ho, a former first lady, immediately after returning from a weeklong trip to Northern Europe on Sunday. Moon and first lady Kim Jung-sook headed straight to the house in Donggyo-dong, located in western Seoul, from a military airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

BTS captivates fans on 2nd day of Busan concerts

K-pop band BTS fascinated fans with dazzling performances for a second day during their fan meeting and concert event held in South Korea's southern port city of Busan on Sunday. Some 22,000 fans from at home and abroad, known as "ARMY," gathered at Busan Asiad Auxiliary Stadium for the second and final day of the septet's "5th Muster [Magic Shop]" tour performances in the country's second-largest city.

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

No deal reached, parliamentary standoff to continue

A parliamentary impasse appears set to continue, as rival political parties on Sunday failed to narrow differences on holding a public hearing on the country’s economic situation. In addition, an extraordinary session in June is likely to be held without the main opposition Liberty Korea Party.

Treasury bond yield hits new low, gold price surges amid uncertainties

Responding to mounting speculations that South Korea’s central bank may soon lower the policy rate amid uncertainties, Treasury bond interest rates hit a record-low this year, market observers noted Sunday. Gold price, in contrast, has remained strong and hit a new high, reflecting investors’ increasing appetite for low-risk assets.

Moon returns to mounting speculations about NK dialogue

President Moon Jae-in has returned back from a three-nation tour of Europe, but his comments regarding North Korea have gained more public attention than Seoul’s relationship with Nordic countries. On the tour to Finland, Norway and Sweden, Moon not only put a timeline on his desired meeting with Kim Jong-un, but also urged Pyongyang to take concrete steps, while voicing his views on the groundwork necessary for US-North Korea dialogue..

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

Seoul, Washington to discuss 4th inter-Korean summit

Senior South Korean nuclear negotiators will discuss with their Washington counterparts a suggestion that President Moon Jae-in meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's planned visit to Seoul at the end of the month. "As President Moon has returned from his trip to Scandinavian countries, senior nuclear negotiators plan to discuss with U.S. officials, and simultaneously their North Korean counterparts, a possible fourth inter-Korean summit before Trump's visit here," a presidential aide said Sunday.

Korea badly needs officials to handle increasing asylum seekers

More than 20,000 asylum seekers are waiting to hear back from the Korean Immigration Office, according to recent government data made public Sunday. The backlog is apparently due to chronic understaffing at the office resulting in insufficient officials to review the applications.

Elderly driver accidents jump by 50%

The number of car accidents involving elderly drivers has surged 50 percent over the past five years, according to a recent report, Sunday, despite a decrease among younger age groups. According to the Samsung Traffic Safety Research Institute, there has been a decrease of 20.6 percent in fatal accidents in the past five years, and overall car accidents slightly declined by 2.9 percent.

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

Alarming Rise of Depression Among 20-Somethings

Depression is on an alarming rise among Koreans in their 20s as economic pressures aggravate social isolation. Patients with depression almost doubled from 49,848 in 2014 to 98,434 last year, according to the Health Insurance Review Assessment Service. From 2010 to 2014, the number of young adults seeking treatment for depression stayed below 50,000 a year, but then it started to surge.

Big Businesses' Labor Costs Soar Despite Tepid Hiring

The labor costs of Korea's top 1,000 listed companies surged dramatically last year even though they hired only marginally more people than the year before. Labor costs increased four times faster than staff numbers, raising fears that businesses could move abroad to slash expenses.

Musical Film 'Aladdin' Turns out to Be a Crowd Favorite

The musical fantasy film "Aladdin" is working its magic at the box office. Disney's live-action remake of its 1992 animated film surpassed the 4-million-viewer mark on Tuesday, 19 days after arriving in theaters here on May 23, according to the Korean Film Council.

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

Pastors and church workers consistently underpaid, overworked and exploited

“I want to report my ‘devotion work.’” For a certain group of people, the labor laws that are supposed to apply to everyone are a world away – simply because their workplace happens to be a church. These are the clergy and laborers who work in South Korea’s churches. Their claims concern duties that are effectively forced on them by the church in the name of piety. People who work in the church refer to this type of labor exploitation as “devotion pay.”

A pilgrimage honoring a lover of Korean plants and trees

“Until Aug. 14, 2014, I knew nothing about Father Émile Joseph Taquet, his burial site, the king cherry tree, or the tangerine. But then someone told me about the king cherry. It was Kim Gyu, who lives right in front of the archdiocesan curia in the Namsan neighborhood of Daegu. In passing, Kim told me a story he’d heard from his grandfather about Taquet’s connection with the king cherry and about the convent and cathedral where Taquet’s funeral mass was held. That story marked the beginning of my journey.” Five years later, that journey culminated in the book “The Gift of Father Émile Taquet: Finding the Forest of Life in the King Cherry Tree,” which was recently published by Da Vinci. On May 19, the Émile Taquet Plant Research Institute opened at Cheongdo Arboretum, located in Deoksan Village, Maejeon Township, Cheongdo County, North Gyeongsang Province. On May 11, the Hankyoreh sat down with the author of the book and the director of the research institute — Father Jeong Hong-gyu, 65, christened as Augustine — at Holy Mother Pine Forest Village, a church in Cheongdo, on May 11.

Peace advocate emphasizes importance of inter-Korean railways

“Some have talked about how we shouldn’t be throwing money at North Korea, but I think every South Korean would like to visit Myeongsasimni Beach in Wonsan and Mt. Kumgang. In a word, the linking of South and North Korea railways is saying, ‘Let’s make the trip to Mt. Kumgang by train.’” This was the stated aim of the “peace tie donation movement to reconnect the Gyeongwon Railway Line (Mt. Kumgang Line)” according to Kwon Young-ghil, executive director of the corporation Peace Railway and Better Lives and a former two-term National Assembly member who served as inaugural leader of the Democratic Labor Party and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. The campaign, which was launched in earnest last year, involves collecting donations of 10,000 won (US$8.47) apiece from one million people to lay “railroad ties of peace” on the Gyeongwon (Seoul-Wonsan) railway line to restore a section disconnected by Korea’s national division. The plan is to donate concrete ties that can be placed on the 27km section from White Horse Hill to Woljong and on to Pyonggang, in North Korea’s Kangwon Province. Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon reportedly made a 10,000-won donation in March.

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

Pres. Moon calls on U.S.-N. Korea working-level talks

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that working-level negotiations are to be held in advance in order to make concrete progress in talks between the United States and North Korea amid signs of the resumption of their talks, which had been stalled since the U.S.-North summit talk in Hanoi. He implied that North Korea should respond to requests on working-level talks by the United States to facilitate a third U.S.-North summit while U.S. President Donald Trump repetitively emphasized that he would not be rushed to resume the talks with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong Un. President Moon said on Saturday (local time) in a joint press conference after his summit with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven that working-level talks should precede a next U.S.-North summit so that it can prevent the two leaders from ending their talks without results just as they did in Hanoi, Vietnam. It was the first occasion for Moon to mention the necessity of U.S.-North Korea working-level talks. The South Korean president’s remarks intend to stress that Pyongyang should come to the negotiating table, albeit working- level, to continue with a top-down approach in negotiations for a third Trump-Kim summit to happen.

Japan-U.S.-EU's ‘hydrogen economy coalition’ excludes Korea

Japan’s move to form an alliance with the U.S. and the European Union, while excluding Korea, to secure leadership in the hydrogen economy, has become a reality. According to Japan’s NHK on Saturday, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the European Commission’s energy bureau held an extra meeting at the G20 Energy and Environment Ministerial Meeting in Karuizawa in Japan’s Nagano prefecture on the day, and made a joint statement on the development of hydrogen energy technology.

Dong-A’s ‘Doctor Helicopter’ campaign spreads also in U.S.

The Dong-A Ilbo-led campaign with a translated title of “Doctor Helicopter for Saving Life” is gaining awareness across the United States. Professor Lee Jin-Hyung of the Medical School at Stanford University on Saturday uploaded a video of researchers and herself joining the so-called resuscitation campaign on the campus on her personal social media account. It was the first case that participated in the campaign in the United States. The video shows Lee, the first-ever Korean female tenured professor at Stanford, saying “The sound of doctor helicopters is life. Doctor Helicopter is life” and shouting with her colleagues “Go, resuscitation.” Following her, the researchers around her shouted “Doctor Helicopter is life” and burst balloons in their hands.

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

"Interesting Point in Kim Jong-un's Letter to Trump"

On June 13 (local time), President Moon Jae-in mentioned North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's recent letter to U.S. President Donald Trump and said, "There is a very interesting part in the letter that President Trump did not disclose." President Moon is currently on a state trip to Norway, and this day, in a joint press conference following a summit with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, President Moon said, "The U.S. gave me a rough overview." The president added, "But I ask for your understanding, since I cannot say any more than what President Trump has already announced."

"AntiELAB South Koreans Support Democracy in Hong Kong" Solidarity on Social Media

The protests against an extradition bill in Hong Kong are growing more intense and South Koreans are showing their support and solidarity with the Hong Kong protestors on social media. On June 13, a series of posts joining the demonstration against the extradition bill came up on major social media, such as Twitter and Facebook. Some South Koreans online posted the hashtag, #AntiELAB to express their support. People also shared a poster with the words, "South Koreans support democracy in Hong Kong," and a white ribbon.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un, "Lee Hee-ho Made a Valuable Contribution to Inter-Korean Relations"

On June 12, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said, "Upon the sad news of the death of Ms. Lee Hee-ho, wife of former president Kim Dae-jung, I express my deepest condolences to her family." In a letter of condolences delivered by Kim's sister, Kim Yo-jong, first deputy director of propaganda and agitation, the North Korean leader wrote, "The devotion and efforts shown by Ms. Lee and former President Kim for the reconciliation and unity of our people, and for the peace and reunification of our nation despite all the pains and struggles they endured, have become a valuable contribution in the current development of inter-Korean relations, which is heading toward reunification and peace and prosperity." He further wrote, "Our people will never forget that."

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

Advisory panel launched to aid Korean Inc. sell agendas at shareholders mtgs

Korea Listed Companies Association (KLCA) will launch a governance committee advising the companies to better pitch their management decisions in shareholders’ meetings. The committee consisting of 10 experts including lawyers, accountants and analysts will be led by Kwak Su-keun, an honorary professor at Seoul National University. It will assume an advisory role for companies by analyzing agenda on their shareholders meetings and making relevant recommendations.

FSC to ease listing barriers for promising bio companies

Bio startups will find it easier to apply to go public under a new set of IPO guidelines to be announced by top financial authority Financial Services Commission (FSC) next month. FSC Chairman Choi Jong-ku said during the 2019 Maekyung Capital Market Discussion on Thursday that the financial authority will overhaul listing and fund-raising rules to make it easier for companies with high potential to join the market, with an aim to enhance Korean stock market’s competitiveness.

Korea’s export-import prices up in May for 4th straight month on weak won

South Korea’s export-import prices rose for the fourth straight month in May on the weak Korean won despite an extended fall in memory chip prices. According to Bank of Korea (BOK) data released Friday, the country’s export price index in May rose 2.6 percent on month to 103.16 (base year 2015), its fourth straight month of price gains. The index was the highest since November 2018 when it reached 103.48, with the pace of growth the fastest since July 2018.

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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 http://www.smh.com.au
Colombia Reports http://colombiareports.com
Bogota Free Planet http://bogotafreeplanet.combfp@bogotafreeplanet.com
El Universal http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/english
Andes http://www.andes.info.ec/en
Ecuador Times http://www.ecuadortimes.net
The Jordan Times https://www.jordantimes.com
LSM.lv http://www.lsm.lv/en
The Baltic Times http://www.baltictimes.com lithuania@baltictimes.com, estonia@baltictimes.com, editor@baltictimes.com
El Pais http://elpais.com/elpais/inenglish.html
Philippine Daily Inquirer https://www.inquirer.net
Daily News Hungary http://dailynewshungary.com
Budapest Times http://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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