Latest posts by Hyejin Kim from December, 2008
Korea: Raising New Candles against ‘7 Evil Laws.’
While welcoming 2009, Korea has another series of candlelight vigils against the government. The major political party, the Grand National Party, and the government presented new and revised bills. Among citizens, it is called the ‘7 Evil Laws [KR].‘ They are about national security laws, communications track regulations (to make...
Korea: Teachers who have been fired
Recently, some Korean teachers were fired because they were opposed to a new test that the government initiated, Ilje Gosa (one-type test, a nationwide scholastic achievement assessment). It is a test that all students take with the same questions and the same date, so that students can be compared across...
Korea: Teenage Rape and Parents’ Responsibility
A teenager who has suffered from attention deficit disorder raped a seven year old girl. Having a previous record, the 18 year old was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the court. An interesting decision that the court made this time was to make his parents responsible for not...
Korea as a Multi-Ethnic Country
A daily newspaper, Hankyoreh, which is categorized as a progressive newspaper (or sometimes left-wing) introduced a series of articles, ‘Multi-Culturalism is Our Future.’ [KR] Korea, where one culture and one ethnic group are emphasized, currently has a population with only 2 percent foreign residents –1 million population. The newspaper article...
Korea: Train Connecting North and South Stopped.
The train service that connects North Korea and South Korea was suspended on the 28th of November. [En] When the train that stopped more than 50 years started operating after the North and South Korean summit last year, people were excited and expected closer relations. Due to the increase in...