The Korea Times

Homosexuals have right to serve in army

By Kwon Mee-yoo A homosexual man who was discharged from mandatory military service with a riot police unit because of his sexual orientation filed a complaint to the Ministry of National Defense requesting to serve in the Army. Lee Gye-deok, 24, was a riot policeman in 2008 and applied for a transfer to the Army after revealing his sexual orientation, however, he was subject to disciplinary action by the police unit and was then dismissed earlier this year. He wrote that it is absurd that he could not serve in the Army because he is homosexual. “If heterosexuals serve in the army, so should homosexuals,” he said. “Homosexual people have the right to properly serve the military,” he said. “My coming out became an obstacle to me, but I think gays can perform military duties just as well as heterosexuals.” In 2008, he asked for a transfer from the riot police to the Army. “Riot police played the role of a villain when citizens mounted candlelit protests against the import of U.S. beef,” he said. “I doubted whether what I was doing was for the nation or not.” He added

Nov 18, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

Warrant sought for man who threw feces at Rohs grave

By Kwon Mee-yoo Police have requested an arrest warrant for a 63-year-old man who threw feces at the tomb of the late former President Roh Moo-hyun, in his hometown of Bongha Village in Gimhae. The Gimhae Seobu Police Station in South Gyeongsang Province requested the warrant for the man, identified only by his surname Jeong, Monday, on the charge of desecrating the grave of the former President who passed away last year. Jeong allegedly hurled human feces onto a broad and flat epitaph in front of Roh’s grave, while pretending to pay respects to the late President who committed suicide in May 2009. Police said he hid the excrement in a plastic box and put it in a paper bag. According to the police, Jeong planned the action about a month in advance. He bought a plastic bottle to collect a week’s excrement and prepared dozens of handouts reading, “The pro-North Korean sect has caused confusion about the country’s identity.” “I had expected to get arrested, but I wanted to urge the Prosecutor General to reinvestigate the former President,” Jeong said, according to the

Nov 15, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

Floating Island to open on Han River next April

By Kwon Mee-yoo “The Floating Island,” three large artificial islets on the Han River, will open to the public in April 2011, inviting many citizens and tourists to experience the Seoul landmark. Seoul City said Monday that currently the upper part of the floating island’s facilities is under construction and the man-made islands are scheduled to be opened to the public next year. The opening was originally planned for September, but was postponed due to unusually cold weather last winter and a long rainy season this summer. The Floating Island is a group of artificial islets located below Banpo Bridge, a project costing some 96 billion won. The city government floated the first island Vista in June; the second, Viva in February and the third, Terra in May. The entire facility is 9,900 square meters in size, including the connecting bridges. The largest islet Vista will house a 692 seat convention hall for conferences or exhibitions and restaurants. The 3,449-square-meter-wide second island Viva will have event halls for entertainment and the smallest Terra is i

Nov 15, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

Nursing home fire kills 10 in Pohang

By Kwon Mee-yoo A pre-dawn fire at a private nursing home in the port city of Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, killed 10 senior citizens and injured 17, Friday. The fire broke out in the two-story Indeok Nursing Home at 4:24 a.m. Friday. About 20 fire engines rushed to the scene. The fire started in a 16-square-meter wide office on the first floor and was extinguished after 30 minutes. A worker at the facility, identified only as Choi, 63, who first discovered the fire, said she saw a light as she awoke from sleeping and saw flames shooting out of the office. The nursing home has offices and wards on the first floor and more wards on the second floor. The facility is for elderly women only. Most of the dead, aged from 70 to 90, suffocated as their illnesses made it difficult to evacuate them quickly, firefighters said. All of the deaths occurred on the first floor. Those injured were aged between 50 and 91 and they were taken to four nearby hospitals. Police are investigating what caused the fire. “Most of the victims were senior citizens who could not move

Nov 12, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

Foreign volunteers clean up Gyeonghui Palace

By Kwon Mee-yoo Braving chilly weather, 16 foreigners gathered at Gyeonghui Palace in downtown Seoul, Tuesday, to help clean the cultural heritage. They brushed away dust from the fancy frames of doors and windows and pulled up weeds growing between stone floor slabs. The opportunity was organized by the Seoul Global Center (SGC), one-stop service center for expatriates in Seoul, “Usually we have more people, but the team is small today due to the cold weather,” Lim Jae-gyu of the SGC said. He added that many of them are students who wanted to volunteer during their stay in Korea. “Some of them volunteer on a regular basis,” he said. The SGC offers such opportunity once or twice a year, but local global village centers have regular programs Quen Tin, 24, from France has been in Seoul for three months now on a working holiday visa and joined the clean-up with his French friends. He had studied Korean in France and is now staying in Korea for a year for academic and vocational experience. He found about the SGC through the Internet and visited the Seorae Global Vill

Nov 12, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

Conflict over school free meal program deepens

By Kwon Mee-yoo The conflict is deepening between Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon and district council chiefs, mostly belonging to the opposition Democratic Party, over providing free meals to primary and secondary school students. Goh Jae-deuk, the Seongdong District head and chairman of the ward chiefs association, held a press conference denouncing Seoul City’s decision not to allocate a budget for the provision of free meals. His condemnation came days after the city government distributed some 145 billion won for next year’s educational budget, but did not allocate any money needed to extend the free meal program pushed by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and district offices. “This is obviously a rejection of the free school meal program, not that the city government is short of money,” Goh said. The Seoul education office, led by liberal superintendent Kwak No-hyun, compiled a budget of 116 billion won, half of the amount needed for providing free school lunches to all primary school students in Seoul. The education office asked for the municipal government t

Nov 12, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

HS Indulge in design city Seoul

By Kwon Mee-yoo Seoul, one of the most dynamic cities in the world, is continuously transforming itself into a more attractive global city, maintaining a striking balance between modernization and past traditions. Upgrading its beauty to a higher level and making the city more convenient are artful touches of sophisticated urban designs initiated by the city government. "Seoul is a unique city based on its long history, gifted natural environment and highly advanced information technology and it is now to expand into a foreigner-friendly global city in the world," Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said at a press conference Tuesday. The New York Times announced "31 Places to Go in 2010" in January and Seoul ranked third. The prestigious paper said that Seoul's hip galleries, fashionable shops and cafes are attracting design enthusiasts from all over the world. The result did not come out of nowhere. It is a result of Seoul’s constant efforts to create a better city through special designs. City of design Seoul aims to be a "charming" city and is on its way to reaching t

Nov 11, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

Use of goldfish draws criticism

By Kwon Mee-yoo The use of six goldfish at the Coex to check the safety and quality of water for bathrooms of 20 heads of state has drawn protests from an animal rights group, which calls it abuse. Coex staffers announced Wednesday they were providing recycled water to bathrooms and used the fish to check the water purity after an eight-stage filtration system. The in-house water purification system is to remove toxic substances. However, an international animal activist group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), denounced the move, claiming goldfish suffer pain as much as other animals do. "Protecting world leaders is very serious, but so is protecting animals who feel pain just as people do," said Tracy Reiman, PETA's executive vice president, in a letter to the Korean authorities. "There are a variety of modern scientific methods that would better protect world leaders and keep fish from enduring agonizing death in contaminated water," she said. Oh Su-young, the Coex public relations manager, said the goldfish just symbolize that water in the bu

Nov 11, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

Anti-G20 protesters take to streets in Seoul

By Kwon Mee-yoo The G20 Summit is taking place at the Coex in southern Seoul and while the heads of states are busy with their discussions, small and even large protests are also taking place throughout the capital city against the international summit. The Korean People’s G20 Response Action, a confederation of some 80 progressive civic groups such as the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, held a protest against the summit in front of Seoul Station, Thursday afternoon. The protesters denounced the G20 for shifting the consequences of the economic crisis onto laborers. They urged the Korean government to introduce a financial transactions tax to control capital flows, the root cause of the recent global financial crisis that cut jobs and deflated the values of properties. International activists including Alejandra Angriman of Argentina and Dani Setiawan of Indonesia also participated in the rally. An organizer of the anti-G20 rally said more than 10,000 people took part in the demonstration, while the police

Nov 11, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

Editorial cartoon exhibition opens

By Kwon Mee-yoo An editorial cartoon exhibition is taking place in Seoul to awaken interest in environmental issues ahead of the G20 Seoul Summit scheduled to begin on Thursday. The G20 Seoul Summit Editorial Cartoon Exhibition “Save The Earth” is being held at two venues simultaneously. The Coex exhibition on the first floor of Coex Artium, from Nov. 7 to 14, is mostly for the participants of the G20 summit, while the other displayed in front of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Gwanghwamun, from Nov. 9 to 14, is for the general public. Kwon Byong-hyon, the president of Future Forest and a former Korean ambassador to China, said the exhibition aims to urge the G20 leaders to pay attention to environmental issues as well as economic problems. “Through the exhibition, we call for action to ‘Save The Earth’ by the G20 leaders including the adoption of ‘sustainable management of the Earth’ as an item for the summit’s agenda, as requested by the Future Forest to the presidential preparation committee earlier this year and we will continue to work for this,” he said

Nov 9, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

Kwon Mee-yoo

Read more

Homosexuals have right to serve in army

Warrant sought for man who threw feces at Rohs grave

Floating Island to open on Han River next April

Nursing home fire kills 10 in Pohang

Foreign volunteers clean up Gyeonghui Palace

Conflict over school free meal program deepens

HS Indulge in design city Seoul

Use of goldfish draws criticism

Anti-G20 protesters take to streets in Seoul

Editorial cartoon exhibition opens

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