Day: August 12, 2023

1935 — “The Evergreen,” a novel by Shim Hun depicting the lives of an educated couple trying to “enlighten” farmers, wins a literary prize presented by the Dong-Ah Ilbo newspaper. The novel, based on real-life experience, portrays the impoverished Korean countryside under Japanese colonial rule in the early part of the 20th century, a time when Japanese occupiers expropriated land and rice from farmers.

The young couple dedicate themselves to the “enlightenment movement,” which sought to educate ordinary Korean citizens and encourage them to demand their rights by speaking out against Japanese colonial rule.

1959 — Japan signs an agreement with North Korea to repatriate Koreans living in its territory to the communist country. The North, needing to increase its diminished labor force after the Korean War, sought to present itself as a hospitable home to its nationals overseas.

The first group of some 975 people leaves Japan for North Korea in December. The voluntary repatriation continues until November 1962, when the agreement expired. Ultimately, a total of 77,288 Koreans in Japan voluntarily went to the North.

The agreement was later renewed, but the deteriorating economic situation in North Korea stopped people from moving there after the 1970s.

1994 — Samsung Electronics Co. announces the development of the world’s first 256-megabit DRAM computer chips. Now the world’s No. 1 computer memory chip maker, Samsung is also credited with the development of 1-gigabit DRAM chips and 4-gigabit DRAM process technology.

2007 — Two South Korean women from a 23-member aid group abducted by the Taliban in Afghanistan are freed. Two men in the group, including its 42-year-old leader Bae Hyung-kyu, are executed.

On July 19, a bus carrying the 23 South Korean volunteers, mostly women in their 20s and 30s, is hijacked by Taliban militants en route to the southern city of Kandahar from Kabul. The remaining 19 hostages are freed in late August after Seoul announces it will pull out troops from the country by the end of the year and ban all missionary work there.

2012 — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stresses the need for dialogue between Seoul and Tokyo to resolve Japan’s claim to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo.

2015 — President Park Geun-hye grants special pardons to high-profile businessmen, including SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, and more than 6,500 others ahead of Liberation Day.

2021 — The vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co. Lee Jae-yong is released from the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang on parole, seven months after imprisonment following a 2 1/2-year prison sentence in a bribery case involving former President Park Geun-hye.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

A man in an electric wheelchair who had gone missing as Typhoon Khanun landed in South Korea earlier this week was found dead in a reservoir Saturday, fire authorities said.

A search was under way for the 67-year-old man who reportedly went missing Thursday after falling into a flooded stream in Daegu, 237 kilometers south of Seoul.

Daegu fire authorities said they discovered his body at a nearby reservoir at 10:20 a.m. Saturday. Dozens of firefighters, police officers and city officials, as well as two detection dogs, had been mobilized for the search.

The man’s electric wheelchair was earlier found near the flooded stream where he went missing.

South Korea suffered a total of 361 cases of facility and flooding damage nationwide from Typhoon Khanun, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.

Two people, including the missing man, died in the southeastern city, but their deaths had been classified as safety accidents unrelated to the typhoon.

Khanun, which plowed through South Korea from south to north for 16 hours Thursday, dissipated after reaching the vicinity of North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, around 6 a.m. Friday, according to the weather agency.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

A U.N. Security Council panel has approved sanctions exemptions for the World Health Organization (WHO) allowing the delivery of tents into North Korea, its website showed Saturday.

On July 20, the U.N. committee overseeing sanctions approved the waiver on the importation of five “multipurpose” tents into the North for humanitarian relief to civilians to help cope with flood, drought and other emergencies, according to the U.N. website.

The exemption will be valid for nine months, the committee said.

It remains unclear when the items will be delivered to the North, as the reclusive country maintains border controls due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

About 10,000 young Scouts and adult volunteers who participated in the 2023 World Scout Jamboree in South Korea are ready to depart back home Saturday, the interior and safety ministry said.

According to the ministry, over 10,000 participants headed to the airport on Saturday alone to return to their respective countries.

The central government and local governments will host various cultural programs, and provide food and transportation services to the remaining participants until they depart back home, it added.

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min earlier said the government will “provide convenience to the participants of the jamboree and take care of the safety of each of them until the last one (departs).”

The quadrennial global event kicked off in Saemangeum on Aug. 1 for a 12-day run, with about 40,000 Scout members joining in from 158 countries.

The British, U.S. and some other contingents pulled out of the campsite after just a few days amid safety concerns arising from a prolonged heat wave and a lack of sanitation in the reclaimed treeless land area.

Earlier this week, the rest of the Scouts also evacuated to Seoul and seven other regions, as Typhoon Khanun was forecast to make landfall near the region.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

About 10,000 young Scouts and adult volunteers who participated in the 2023 World Scout Jamboree in South Korea are ready to depart back home Saturday, the interior and safety ministry said.

According to the ministry, over 10,000 participants headed to the airport on Saturday alone to return to their respective countries.

The central government and local governments will host various cultural programs, and provide food and transportation services to the remaining participants until they depart back home, it added.

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min earlier said the government will “provide convenience to the participants of the jamboree and take care of the safety of each of them until the last one (departs).”

The quadrennial global event kicked off in Saemangeum on Aug. 1 for a 12-day run, with about 40,000 Scout members joining in from 158 countries.

The British, U.S. and some other contingents pulled out of the campsite after just a few days amid safety concerns arising from a prolonged heat wave and a lack of sanitation in the reclaimed treeless land area.

Earlier this week, the rest of the Scouts also evacuated to Seoul and seven other regions, as Typhoon Khanun was forecast to make landfall near the region.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo stressed that the jamboree came to a successful end, disclosing parts of his phone talks with several foreign envoys on his Facebook post.

Gareth Weir, Deputy Ambassador at the British Embassy Seoul, expressed his “appreciation and said he was surprised by the South Korean government’s goodwill and problem-solving capability” demonstrated at the event, Han said.

He also held phone talks with Dagmar Schmidt Tartagli, the Swiss ambassador to South Korea, to ask about the Swiss Scouts who recently sustained injuries from a bus accident in the southern city of Suncheon.

Tartagli expressed appreciation for the call, and said they were all treated and discharged from the hospital, according to Han.

A tour bus carrying members of the Swiss contingent and a guide collided with another bus Wednesday on a road in Suncheon while heading to Seoul, leaving three Scouts injured.

Source: Yonhap News Agency