Today on The Korea Times Podcast: President Park vows to improve the state of inter-Korean relations and the nut rage incident lands one sister in jail and another in hot water. Plus foot and mouth disease is detected in Gyeonggi Province and an app aims to keep women safe on the subway.
President Park Geun-hye pledged earlier this week to seek improvements in inter-Korean relations this year. “I will lay substantial grounds for and open a way to unification,” Park said in her New Year message.
She vowed to take the initiative in relations with North Korea based on trust and change, and end the era of national division. Park stressed the significance of New Year, which is expected to be a critical juncture for inter-Korean relations.
Emily Cho, Heather Cho’s younger sister and a Korean Air executive, apologized Wednesday for a text message she sent to her sister this month, in which she promised to avenge her sister over the alleged nut rage incident.
The prosecution had been investigating Heather Cho over the “nut rage” incident. The prosecution submitted that message, along with other messages, to the court in its request to issue an arrest warrant for her. She was put behind bars Wednesday night after a court issued the warrant.
Around 20 pigs on a farm in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, have tested positive for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) ― the first outbreak in the province since the winter of 2012. Farmers in Gyeonggi are again gripped by anxiety. In 2010, some 367,000 pigs or about 99% of the livestock being raised in the province, were slaughtered.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) launched a smartphone app on Jan. 1 through which a sexual abuse victim on the subway train can ask for help from subway staff, in an effort to enhance the safety of female passengers. The app will also enable a third person, who sees sexual abuse happening, to ask for help.
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