South Korea

From time to time, Korean media and environmentalists associated with them raise the question of an impending global environmental catastrophe, which will happen when the Japanese authorities dump thousands of tons of radioactive water into the sea after the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The excitement is fueled by periodic news that the water will soon be drained, and Seoul’s position alone is what keeps Tokyo from making a horrific decision.

The Minister of Justice position is deemed to be extremely important in South Korea because an individual in this post is responsible for overseeing rule of law and security institutions, particularly law enforcement agencies. De facto in this person’s power to undermine any given investigation or to stage a show trial irrespective of whether or not a defendant is actually guilty.

Many people are aware of the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 tracking site and its cool, end-of-the-world looking dark mode maps with all their data about the coronavirus. Here is what it looks like at the time of this writing:

On September 2, 2020, the main opposition force of the Republic of Korea, the conservative United Future Party changed its name. Of the three options proposed to the leadership of the party, the name People’s Power Party (PPP) was chosen.  The new name implies “the power coming from the people, exercised for the people and uniting the people into one whole.”

On 16 September 2020 Yoshihide Suga, the former Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, was appointed as the prime minister after Shinzo Abe retired due to chronic health problems.  Suga will head the ruling party until the end of September 2021, meaning until Shinzo Abe’s term of office expires. Then new elections will take place to elect a chair for the party for a three-year term.

In September 2020 two scandals unfolded simultaneously in South Korea, both of which can tell us a lot about popular attitudes to racism and bullying in that country.

On August 29, 2020, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea Lee Nak-yon was elected chairman of the ruling Democratic Party Toburo. He received 60.77% of the delegates’ votes. His rivals for the leadership of the ruling party were former Interior Minister Kim Boo-kyum and National Assembly MP Park Chul Min.

Recently, the author reported about US-South Korea combined military drills that are usually held in March and April. North Korea has kept a close watch over the exercises that are linked to preparations for the transfer of wartime Operational Control Authority (OPCON) to the Republic of Korea (ROK) from the United States Forces Korea (USFK).

The Starbucks in this story was in Paju, Korea but it could just as easily have been at a Starbucks in Spring Branch (Houston), Annandale (Virginia) or Palisades Park in Bergen County-- or in a Stabucks that has nothing to do with anyone with any Korean heritage at all.