Japan released video footage Friday it said proved a South Korean warship locked its fire-control radar onto a Japanese warplane off the northeastern coast in the latest move of an escalating row between the Asian neighbors.

The Defense Ministry’s just over 13-minute footage, filmed from the P-1 patrol aircraft, contained voices of Japanese crewmembers asking the destroyer for clarification but getting no response.

Japan alleged that the South Korean destroyer repeatedly locked its targeting radar on the Japanese aircraft Dec. 21 inside of Japan’s exclusive economic waters off the Noto Peninsula. A lock with fire-control radar is considered a hostile act and only one step away from actual firing.

South Korea has denied the allegation, saying its warship used an optical camera while rescuing a North Korean fishing boat in distress. Seoul’s Defense Ministry expressed “deep regret and concern” over Japan’s release of the video a day after the countries’ military officials held a video conference to resolve what Seoul described Tokyo’s “misunderstanding.”

Relations between Japan and South Korea have degraded to their worst in recent years over compensation issues related to sexual abuse of “comfort women” and Korean forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 through 1945.

The radar flap has added to the strain.

“Korea South Naval Ship, Hull Number 971, this is Japan Navy. We observed that your FC antenna is directed to us. What is the purpose of your act, over?” a crewmember asked the destroyer in English several times via three frequencies but the destroyer stayed silent. The voice grew slightly tense as the crew kept calling.

The video and published on the Tokyo ministry’s website starts showing the gray destroyer sailing near a pair of rubber boats and a North Korean vessel. About six minutes later, one of the crewmembers can be heard saying: “She is emitting FC,” and that it was coming from the destroyer. The pilot moves away from the warship.

The video shows the aircraft detecting more signals from the radar on the South Korean destroyer, but the pilot confirms that a gun is not pointed to their aircraft.

Choi Hyun-soo, South Korea’s Defense Ministry spokeswoman, said the footage provided no proof of what Japan said had happened but showed a Japanese aircraft conducting a “threatening low-altitude flight” over a South Korean warship at a rescue operation of a drifting North Korean boat.

“The video material made public by Japan contains only footage of the Japanese patrol plane circling above the surface of the sea and the (audio) conversation between the pilots and it cannot by common sense be regarded as objective evidence supporting the Japanese claims,” Choi said. She reiterated that the destroyer Gwanggaeto was in normal rescue operation. “There’s no change to the fact that our military did not operate tracking radar on a Japanese patrol plane.”

Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters earlier Friday that he decided to release the footage and data as objective evidence to let the people in and outside Japan know that the Japanese Self-Defense Force operated appropriately.

“It is most important that an incident like this should never be repeated between Japan and South Korea,” Iwaya said, adding that relations between the two sides are crucial for regional national security. “Even though difficult issues remain between Japan and South Korea,” he said, “I hope to overcome those problems and push forward our mutual understanding and exchange between our two militaries.”

South Korea’s government is fining BMW $10 million over its handling of a spate of engine fires in the country ? and the automaker’s problems don’t end there.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Monday that as well as imposing the 11.2 billion won ($9.9 million) fine, it will refer the case to prosecutors to decide whether criminal charges are necessary.

BMW’s (BMWYY) crisis in South Korea erupted over the summer as dozens of reports came in of its vehicles bursting into flames. The German automaker said the fires were the result of a problem with the cars’ exhaust systems and began checking vehicles that could be at risk.

But a panel set up by the government to investigate the matter found that BMW tried to hide the issue and then took too long to recall the 172,000 affected vehicles, according to the transport ministry.

In a statement Monday, BMW said it launched the recall “as soon as the root cause of the fire was confirmed.” The statement didn’t address the allegation that the automaker initially tried to cover up the problem.

BMW said the government investigation reached a similar conclusion to the company on the cause of the fires: a defect in the vehicles’ exhaust gas recirculation unit, a system that channels some fumes back into the engine to reduce pollution. But the transport ministry said the problem was the result of a design deficiency, which BMW denies.

More than 50 BMWs have caught fire in South Korea this year, but no deaths or injuries have been reported as a result. At one point, the government ordered local authorities to ban people from driving any of the potentially fire-prone cars that hadn’t been brought in for checks.

The company said Monday that it’s trying to complete the recall in South Korea “as quickly as possible” and apologized “for the concern and inconvenience” its customers have suffered.

“The BMW Group is cooperating with the ongoing investigation and is committed to resolving the issue,” it said.

BMW was the second most popular brand of imported cars in South Korea last year, selling nearly 60,000 vehicles, according to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association. The German company sold more than 2 million vehicles worldwide last year.

Japanese Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya “strongly protested” to South Korea on Friday after a South Korean destroyer allegedly locked its targeting radar on a Japanese surveillance plane.

Iwaya, speaking to reporters at his ministry, described the action as “extremely dangerous that could cause an unexpected situation”.

The incident came at a time when greater coordination is called for between the two Asian neighbors to tackle issues including North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, maritime security and natural disasters, he said.

“It’s extremely regrettable that the incident of this time happened,” Iwaya said. “We will urge South Korea to prevent a recurrence.”

South Korea’s defense ministry said its destroyer was performing routine operations.

“We were operating a radar as part of the operation but it was not intended to trace any Japanese patrol aircraft,” the ministry said in a statement.

Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. (Enec) this week publicly acknowledged concrete cracking in the containment buildings of two of the four reactors at its under-construction Barakah nuclear plant, more than a month after the problem was first reported.

At Unit 3, cracking in the thick pre-stressed, steel-lined concrete wall of the containment building could be more serious than Enec is letting on. Christer Viktorsson, director-general of the UAE’s Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (Fanr), said in an exclusive Nov. 21 interview that he learned about the problem in 2017 after testing at the unit revealed grease leaking out of the wall.

Viktorsson added that the “channels are greased to protect the tendons to make sure that the containment is strong.” Grease “started to come out in unexpected places” and workers “saw that there was a void in the containment in a certain place.” Asked if the problem at Unit 3 was reported to the Abu Dhabi’s International Advisory Board (IAB), Viktorsson said, “No. To us, with an action plan. So they said ‘we will fix this of course’; so we followed it and made sure that it’s being corrected.” Viktorsson provided no detail on the action plan or where things stood currently, but added “this is of course something that they need to fix before we give them an operating license.”

In response to an initial Energy Intelligence query in October about possible cracking, Enec confirmed the discovery of “voids” first reported by South Korea’s Hankyoreh newspaper. The utility explained in an Oct. 23 email to Energy Intelligence that Fanr had been officially notified “and a thorough investigation commenced. Throughout the process, Fanr has been regularly updated, and reviewed the repair plan and repair works on Unit 3, which are scheduled for completion by the end of 2018.” Project manager Korea Electric Power Co. (Kepco) is working with the Hyundai Samsung Joint Venture as well as an independent concrete expert contracted by Enec to verify the results of the investigation, Enec said.

While Enec claimed that this work is “not anticipated to impact the project schedule” the industry expert argued that the few details provided suggest the possibility of a leakage path from inside the cable channel, through the steel liner, and out to the concrete exterior. Asked about this possibility two weeks ago, Enec promised answers but instead on Tuesday referred Energy Intelligence to the Dec. 4 release, adding only that “there is no further information ... other than that, this was a minor issue of grease leakage, detected only on Unit 3, and with no tendon grease leakage in any of the other units.”

Another Hankyoreh article in October quoted Kepco CEO Kim Jong-gap describing similar problems in Korean reactors and telling a parliamentary committee that construction “has been halted on the UAE power plants because of the discovery of cracks.” This wasn’t confirmed by Enec. Kim also blamed South Korea’s recent low rate of nuclear power output on the need to repair “cracks and corroded plates resulting from poor construction” in older reactors and he compared it to the situation in the UAE, according to the article. It’s unclear whether the cracks at the Barakah units indicate problems with Korean construction techniques, or similar problems in South Korea’s one operational APR1400 or five under construction.

It’s also unclear just how the problem is being dealt with at Barakah, but should any “retensioning” become necessary that could pose major problems, the expert observed. “Do you recall the Crystal River plant in Florida?” he said, referring to a US reactor that shut down after a retensioning effort lead to widespread containment cracking. In that case the plant’s owners cut open the containment to install steam generators -- a step that ultimately proved fatal for the plant. “They had a pre-stressed concrete containment, had to disconnect the tendons, and when they did, that relieved all the tension incorrectly” and caused containment cracking. The cracks were repaired but “when they tried to retension it started cracking all over the structure.”

Saturday’s derailment of a Seoul-bound KTX train from Gangneung has brought state-owned railroad operator KORAIL under heavy public scrutiny, as it was the 10th accident on Korail tracks in three weeks.

The accident, which left 15 injured, came just three days after Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon paid a special visit to KORAIL headquarters in Daejeon to order extra-strong safety measures in response to the series of mechanical failures ― as well as collisions with rail maintenance staff ― mostly involving the high-speed KTX trains.

“It’s hard for us to accept that the accident happened just three days after the prime minister himself visited KORAIL to berate it and order the prevention of further accidents,” Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mee said during her televised visit to the accident site on Sunday.

The high-speed line between Seoul and Gangneung, about 240 kilometers east of the capital, opened just six weeks before the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in February.

Kim harshly denounced the state-run railway operator, saying the accidents revealed the flaws in KORAIL’s operation system.

“While these accidents continue, it is quite embarrassing for us to have a big dream of winning overseas railway contracts or connecting the rails between the two Koreas,” Kim said.

According to Korail records, there have been more than 660 mechanical failures on its trains between 2013 and July this year.

Experts said the recent accidents ran deeper than just technical failures, pointing to overextended resources in the upkeep of the system.

Despite the increasing number of train failures each year, Korail cut its hiring budget for rail maintenance and repair workers by around 10 billion won ($8.9 million) from 2015 to 2017. Its records show it operated with 205 fewer repair personnel than recommended to keep almost 10,000 kilometers of railroad in working condition.

The spending cuts, at the risk of passenger safety, are expected to continue. Korail recorded an operating loss of more than 500 billion won last year.

On November 19th, Park Won-soon, the Mayor of Seoul stated, “If it is possible, I want to check a plan to change the Japanese products used in our city hall into domestic products closely.”

The mayor also said, “Our constitution writes that the treaty on the government procurements takes effect above the laws. So we have a difficulty, because it will be against this treaty, if we prohibit use of Japanese products. ”

An agency representing South Korean boy band BTS has apologized after one of the band members wore a t-shirt that appeared to celebrate the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II, and after photos emerged of another member wearing a hat with a Nazi symbol.

“We would like to … offer our sincerest apologies to anyone who has suffered pain, distress and discomfort due to our shortcomings and oversight in ensuring that these matters receive our most careful attention,” Big Hit Entertainment, said in a Wednesday statement cited by Associated Press.

The Los Angeles-based Jewish rights group Simon Wiesenthal Center had accused BTS of “mocking the past” over the t-shirt controversy, which saw Japanese broadcasters cancel recent appearances by the band.

“Wearing a T-shirt in Japan mocking the victims of the … A-bomb, is just the latest incident of this band mocking the past,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of center in a statement online. “The outrageous incidents reveal a basic lack of knowledge of history’s darkest chapters that endangers the future of younger generations.”

Photos purportedly from 2015 also appear to show one of the band members wearing a hat with Death’s Head, symbolizing the SS detachments that oversaw Nazi concentration camps. The rabbi also alleged that the band had flown Nazi-like flags during concerts and said BTS owed “both Jewish victims of the Holocaust and Japanese victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” an apology.

Big Hit Entertainment said “We’d like to clarify that all Big Hit staff and artists, including BTS, do not regard war or atomic bombs lightly,” and added that they “do not regard Nazis lightly nor any other group that promotes ideals or totalitarianism or extremism.”

BTS has shot to international stardom over the last year, with the group making history when it became the first K-Pop band to top the U.S. album charts in May.

Viva A-bomb T-shirt Jimin(October 14, 2018)

A-bomb blouson RM(Music Video, 2015) Nazis-like flag (September 2, 2017)

Nazi cap RM(September, 2014)

The Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced BTS, an internationally popular Korean band whose live performance on Japan TV was cancelled.

“Wearing a T-shirt in Japan mocking the victims of the Nagasaki A-bomb, is just the latest incident of this band mocking the past,” charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper. Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO.

Members of the band posed for a photo shoot wearing hats with the Nazi SS Death Head logo. The SS was a key component of the Nazi mass murder of 6 million Jews during the WWII Holocaust. “Flags appearing on stage at their concert were eerily similar to the Nazi Swastika. It goes without saying that this group, which was invited to speak at the UN, owes the people of Japan and the victims of the Nazism an apology.”

“But that is not enough. It is clear that those designing and promoting this group’s career are too comfortable with denigrating the memory of the past. The result is that on young generations in Korea and around the world are more likely to identify bigotry and intolerance as being ‘cool’ and help erase the lessons of history. The management of this group, not only the front performers, should publicly apologize,” Rabbi Cooper added.

Japanese fishermen are reporting clashes with North Korean fishing boats operating illegally within Japan’s exclusive economic zone during the peak squid fishing season.

The number of North Korean fishing vessels identified operating within Japanese waters has increased sharply in recent years, with the Fisheries Agency reporting that 5,191 foreign vessels were ordered to leave Japanese waters in 2017. In May to September this year, warnings were issued to 4,481 ships.

The majority of these cases have occurred in waters between northern Japan and the Korean Peninsula, including the rich squid and shrimp fishing grounds off the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture.

The Japan Squid Fisheries Association intends to submit a written request for additional security for Japanese boats and crews operating within the EEZ to the government, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.

“We can’t do anything, even if they operate illegally, and they act as though they own the place,” said Ken Honma, the captain of the Wakashio Maru No. 85, which is based in the Yamagata Prefecture port of Sakata.

Mr Honma told the Yomiuri that his vessel approached two foreign fishing boats off northern Japan and indicated that they should leave the area. The foreign fishermen threw stones at his vessel, Mr Honma claimed, adding that the authorities’ apparent inability to halt the poaching is “annoying”.

Japan Coast Guard vessels have taken steps to force the foreign ships to leave Japanese waters, but with limited success.

“When the authorities threaten to spray water at these ships, they hide behind Japanese boats”, Hideki Hiratsuka, head of the squid fishing fleet in the town of Ogi, Ishikawa Prefecture, told the Yomiuri.

“I want the authorities to take tougher security steps, such as seizing those vessels”, he said.

The arrival of North Korean ships in Japanese waters is a relatively recent problem and is apparently the result of falling catches in the North’s coastal waters, which have been largely fished out as demand for food increases. That situation has been worsened by sanctions on the North, which have limited international trade

Despite the relatively unseaworthiness of their vessels, the North Korean government has also been ordering its fishing fleets to go further out to sea in search of better catches.

One consequence of that policy is reports of dozens of damaged North Korean fishing boats washing up without their crews or only with their remains aboard.

Japanese Shine Muscat		Korean Shine Muscat

“Korean domestic products” of high-quality grape is very popular in Korea. This is the high quality grape “Shine Muscat” that is popular in Japan too.

It has a characteristic that sweetness of mean sugar content is 19 degrees. A Japanese research organization developed it for 30 years. It is the kind Japan boasts to the world, but, in fact, this “Shine Muscat” is very popular now in Korea.

“Shine Muscats” are done to a big pile in the prominent place of the fruit corner in a supermarket in Seoul, and you can know the popularity.

In fact, all this “Shine Muscats” are Korean domestic products and they are made without permission of Japan.

“Shine Muscats” of “the cultivation without permission” are unashamedly displayed in the shop in Kimcheon city, that is situated almost at the center of Korea and is famous for the special product of grape.

Kim Jaegyeong, the manager of Agriculture and Stockbreeding section of Kimcheon city said, “In those days when Shine Muscat was developed in Japan, Japan did not register the variety in Korea. It might be a Japanese mistake.” She added that it is not illegal to cultivate Shine Muscat in Korea.

Kimcheon city is backing Korean farmers up, making “Cultivation technology manual of Shine Muscats”.

In fact, the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization that developed Shine Muscat in Japan carried out the registration of variety in Japan in 2006. But it did not do the registration of variety in foreign countries then because it did not imagine the export.

It is an international treaty that the registration of variety of the fruits in foreign countries must be done within six years from the registration in its own country. Therefore the application time limit has already passed now. Though Korea did not bear the development cost at all, Shine Muscat is “free to produce at will” in Korea.

The overseas outflow of the Japanese “brand fruits” is not only this.

In the time of Pyeongchang Olympics, Korean strawberries that Japanese curling girls ate attracted attention. But the strawberries were made by taking seedlings from Japan without permission and crossbreeding them. It estimated the amount of loss of Japan for five years was up to 22 billion yen, because Korea exported the strawberries.

The export of Shine Muscats in Kimcheon city are anticipated to be approximately 100 tons this year, too.

T-shirt that Jimin, a member of BTS contributed to SNS on October 14, 2018 became a topic, because the A-bomb was on the T-shirt.

The T-shirt is called “A-bomb T-shirt”, because the mushroom cloud by the A-bomb is printed in the top right corner.

In addition, the picture that Koreans perform banzai is printed in the lower left.

This photo seems to have been photographed in Hawaii last year.

The written content memorializes the day when Korea was released from Japan.

“Patriotism Our history Liberation”

The A-bomb has really nothing to do with celebrating the liberation of Korea.

In other words this T-shirt celebrates anniversary of the birth of South Korea, and has the meaning of “Anti-Japan”, that is to say, “It serves you right for dropped A-bomb.”

On August 15, 2013, BTS' leader RM said so through their formal Twitter,
“오늘은 광복절!! 역사를 잊은 민족에게 미래란 없습니다. 쉬는것도 좋지만 순국하신 독립투사 분들께 다시 한 번 감사드리는 하루가 되길 바래요! 대한 독립 만세!”
（“Today is The National Liberation Day of Korea!! The future does not come to the nation who forgot the history. The holiday is good, but I thank the patriots who laid down their lives for the independence of our country again. Cheers for Great Korea independence!”）

When Koreans say, “the nation who forgot the history”, they point at Japanese. However, Koreans themselves have forgot the history. For example, Goryeo invaded Japan in the 13th century. 70% of the Korean vocabulary come from Japanese, because of the colonization by Japan. The first subway in Korea was constructed by yen loan and technical cooperation by Japan. The trains were made in Japan. (Wikipedia Japanese version) etc. All the history that is inconvenient for Korea is forgotten.

The Koreans are convinced that Korea was a member of the Allies of World War II, United Nations, but it was not true. In those days Koreans were members of the defeated nations, because the Koreans had Japanese nationality. Koreans do not know even it either.

“The nation who forgot the history” is Korean, isn’t it?

South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled that a major Japanese steelmaker should compensate four South Koreans for forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula before the end of World War II.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tokyo will respond “resolutely” to the ruling, which he described as “impossible in light of international law.” He said the ruling violated a 1965 treaty between Seoul and Tokyo that was accompanied by Japanese payments to restore diplomatic ties. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Japan could potentially take the case to the International Court of Justice.

The court said Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. should provide compensation of 100 million won ($87,680) to each of the four plaintiffs, who were forced to work at Japanese steel mills from 1941 to 1943. Among them, only 94-year-old Lee Chun-sik has survived the legal battle, which extended nearly 14 years.

The court rejected Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal’s stance that the issue of compensation for forced labor had been settled by the 1965 treaty.

In the past, both governments have stated that the issue of forced labor compensation had been settled by the treaty.

Tokyo maintains that the $500 million Japan provided to South Korea under the 1965 treaty was meant to permanently settle all wartime compensation issues. But the Supreme Court in Tuesday’s ruling said the treaty does not terminate individuals’ rights to seek compensation for the “inhumane illegal” experiences they were forced into.

On 29th, members of the Diet scolded some private kindergartens about having misappropriated money of government support personally regardless of the ruling and opposition parties in the Diet.

Deokseon Li, Chairperson of emergency measures of Korean kindergarten society and persons concerned of the private kindergarten protested saying “it was only the error that occurred at the secret passage of the system, and there was no injustice”.

“A problem of the law is not a problem of the systems, but a problem of the morality”, said Chanyeor Li, chairman of the Board of Education. He criticized the remark of Deokseon Li.

Yongim Kim, a branch manager of Korean kindergarten society said in a tearful voice, “I realized that ‘Korean emotion law’ was bigger than Private School Act and accountants law in this way.”

For the question about the personal misappropriation for money of support of the government, she criticized the secret passage of the system in the same way as Deokseon Li, and said, “You should criticize us severely after establishing rules”..

And she took something out while talking in a tearful voice. It was a band type headlight.

Kim wore it on her head and said, “I work early in the morning. I sold my car.”

She said, “it is regrettable that we devoted ourselves to the education of the children throughout our lives, but are denounced as an unjust group.” However, there was no statement of self-review.

A remark of Kang Han-na, a talent from Korea becomes the problem in Korea. On October 27, she did a guest-shot in a Japanese variety show.

She said, “99 % of the Korean entertainers have had plastic surgery.”

Surely Korea is one of “the big power of cosmetic surgery in the world” as you know. However, the Korean media brings it into question.

“Kang Han-na’s irresponsible remark about Korean cosmetic surgery”…criticism rush (”Money today”)

“Kang Han-na gave K-culture a feeling of insult” (”Sports Donga”)

“Kang Han-na stimulates not only the honor of the entertainers but also Korean pride” (”Daily An”)

There are many articles like these. And the name of Kang Han-na holds the first place in the search ranking of Korean maximum portal site.

Now the net gets flooded by comments. They write “You should give Kang Han-na punishment”, “You should deprive her of Korean nationality” and “Forbid her entry to Korea”.

At the “nation petition” corner of the Executive Office of the President, a thread “Please expel Hannah from Korea” stands up.

The Japanese government has lodged a protest with South Korea after its navy hoisted a flag during Thursday’s international fleet review symbolizing a 16th century Korean naval commander who fought off attacks from Japan.

South Korea had requested that countries taking part in the event ensure their warships do not fly flags other than their own or South Korea’s national flag.

“South Korea violated the policy it had set,” a senior official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Friday.

A South Korean warship hoisted a flag symbolizing Adm. Yi Sun-sin, who is renowned in the country for his victories over invasions launched by Japanese ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the late 16th century.

Through a diplomatic channel, Tokyo told Seoul the act was extremely regrettable.

Japan initially planned to send a Maritime Self-Defense Force ship to the fleet review, but the plan was scrapped after South Korea asked the MSDF not to fly the Rising Sun flag, which is regarded in South Korea as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism.

Seven countries that took part in the event showed flags other than their own or South Korean flags. Those countries were Russia, Australia, Singapore, Canada, Thailand, Brunei and India, informed sources said.

Korean four visually-impaired players participate in judo tournament of Asia Paralympics. But it was revealed that they had the driver’s license.

When people acquire a driver’s license in Korea, the higher eyesight than 0.5 with both eyes using glasses or the contact lens are required.

The eyesight of one of the players was 1.5 and that of the other player was 1.0. They have got the driver’s licenses.

According to the rules of the Asian Games Judo Mixed Team Competition, three men and three women each compete at six levels, and the team that wins the first four wins wins. If there are 3-3 equal points, the promotion team will be judged according to the minor points.

And this game is exactly 3-3 of the split. Finally, the referee decided that the Japanese team won by 20-11 points. However, according to the subtitles produced by South Korean KBS TV, the Korean media agreed that South Korea should win by 11-10 points.

This controversy has also extended to the arena. After nearly 10 minutes of discussion, the referee team decided to maintain the original sentence. Six South Korean players refused to leave the venue after the complaint failed. They sat in the middle of the venue for 14 minutes before leaving.

Later, South Korean media accused the referee of suspected Japanese, and said they stole the South Koreans should have won. Japanese media satirize the Korean peoples old skills and repeatedly protest against sitting in the arena, disrupting order.

As early as the womens Epee semi-final in the 2012 London Olympics, South Korea’s Shin A-lam and Germany’s Heidemann battle to extra time. As a result, Heidman won in the last second, but the South Korean coach thought that the last second of the game time does not exist. So Shin A-lam sat down to protest, after nearly an hour of repeated discussion, the referee finally decided to maintain the original judgment.

Korea defeated Taiwan after tie-breaks in the extra tenth inning and won the championship after an interval of two tournaments.

The Korean nine jumped out of first base bench and gave vent to delight on a mound when the Korean pitcher struck out the Taiwanese last batter.

But, when they stood in line, the empty plastic bottles were scattered in the mound and the gloves were left in the position. That made a strange scene.

The persons concerned with the tournament flew into a rage and said, "Korean are no good! Their manner is bad". They tried to advise Korean players to clean them up through the interpreter, but the advice was not communicated and the staff had no choice but to clear them up.

On September 5, Japan vs Korea in the first league of 12th BFA U18 Baseball Championship was performed in KIRISHIMA at Sun Marine Stadium Miyazaki in Miyazaki Prefecture.

There was a rough play that a Korean player stamped the hand and the glove of a Japanese player, when he touched the Korean player, and a voice of the criticism goes up on a net.

Japan prevented Korea’s steal of the third base. The timing was completely out and Takuya Nakagawa of the third baseman was going to put his glove in front of the base and touch the Korean player.

But then Kim Daehan, the Korean second base runner did a sliding and stamped the glove with his foot.

Nakagawa uttered a cry and showed anger, because Kim was going to leave without apologizing.

On August 30, Korean opposition party “Justice party” admitted that the party's official information video plagiarized the video of Makoto Shinkai, Japanese movie director, and it apologized.

On August 27 Justice party released the official animation video to introduce the party. However, it was revealed that the movie resembled TV CF that Shinkai produced for “Zkai” and “Taisei Corporation”, and the CF was televised in Japan.

The video was produced by a member of the party's media team and he was a “passionate fan” of Shinkai. He accepted plagiarism and said, “I traced the work of Shinkai, because I could not stand the pressure of the deadline”.

The Sepien-Senamnoi hydropower dam collapsed because of substandard construction.

The Lao’s Minister of Energy and Mines Khammany Inthilath Khammany Inthilath told a press conference in Vientiane that the collapse of Saddle Dam D of the Sepien-Senamnoi hydropower project on July 23 was due to poor-quality construction.

The dam break had already ravaged 13 villages and affected six others as the flood was still flowing. 587 families with 3,060 people were made homeless, while 131 people were reported missing.

The Sepien-Senamnoi hydroelectric power plant is being constructed by the Sepien-Senamnoi Power Company (PNPC), which is a joint-venture of SK Engineering and Construction (SK E&C), Korea Western Power (KOWEPO), Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding (RATCH), and Lao Holding State Enterprise (LHSE).

Belgium won the game against Japan with 3-2 on 2018 FIFA world cup knockout stage at Rostov Arena, Russia. With just before fulltime, Belgian player Chadli scored a goal to clinch a dramatic come-from-behind victory.

When Chadli scored the goal , KBS commentator Han said, “Thank you, Chadli! I commented my doubts a while ago about why Belgium team sent Chadli, but I was completely wrong. I apologize and thank you.”

And the commentator Han added that with an excited voice, “I naturally thank the goal of Chadli, and apologize him. The last counter-attack such as the flash of lightning by five Belgian players! This is soccer.”

Reputation Institute (RI), the world’s leading provider of reputation monitoring, measurement, and management services announced the company’s annual Country RepTrakR rankings. Based on more than 58,000 individual ratings among the General Public across the G8 economies, the study evaluated 55 of the world’s largest countries by GDP during the first quarter of 2018. It captured a measure of emotional connection towards these countries, and how perceptions of reputation drive underlying stakeholder behavior on key measures such as the willingness to visit, live in, work in, invest in and study in these countries.

Sweden (81.7 points) rose from third to first place and is one of four countries with an excellent reputation. With almost universally excellent reputation scores, Sweden is seen as the #1 most ethical country with high transparency and low corruption, as well as the country with the most progressive social and economic policies. Right behind Sweden, Finland (81.6 points) is the highest climber, rising from #7 to #2.

This investigation indicates European six countries (Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands) occupied the Top Ten, and Australia and New Zealand maintained the high-rankings same as last year.

Canada ranked down from #1 to #7 and in Asia Japan reached the top 10 from #12 to #8 with 4 rank-up. Korea (58.5 points) rose from #35 to #31 with 4 rank-up.

Despite losing 1-0 to Poland, the Japanese were able to advance to the round of 16 because they received fewer yellow cards than Senegal, which lost to Colombia by the same score at the same time.

Once Colombia had scored in Samara, Japan knew it had done enough to advance even though it was losing late in its match. The Japanese players slowed play down to almost nothing, softly passing the ball back and forth in little triangles in their own end to waste time.

The fans at the Volgograd Arena showed their displeasure by booing and whistling loudly over the final minutes. Poland, happy to get a victory after two losses, did little to pressure the opposing side.

Both Japan and Senegal finished the group phase with four points, had the same goal difference and the same amount of goals scored. They also played to a 2-2 draw on Sunday. Starting at this year’s tournament, disciplinary records － known as fair play － were added by FIFA as a tiebreaker. Japan had four yellow cards in its three group matches while Senegal had six.

Ahn Jung-Hwan who is a South Korean former football player and television personality is in charge of MBC broadcast and he pointed out, “This does not have courtesy for the soccer fan, though many fans watched the game throughout the world”. And he added, “We were eliminated from the 2018 World Cup beautifully, but Japan advanced to the round of 16 uglily”.

JYP Entertainment has officially cancelled the release of a Korean singer Yubin’s B-side track, “City Love.”

The agency stated, “We delayed the release of this track because we became aware of a copyright dispute, but we must inform you that we have ultimately canceled its release.

We sincerely apologize to all the fans who had been waiting.”

The dispute took place due to the song’s similarity to Mariya Takeuchi’s “Plastic Love.”

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to change the date of National Railway Day -- designated in 1937 when Korea was under Japan's colonial rule -- amid criticism it is a vestige of the colonial occupation.

The Japanese colonial powers designated Sept. 18 as the railway anniversary to mark the 1899 opening of Korea's first railway, linking Seoul and the city of Incheon. Critics have called for the anniversary to be changed, as the Gyeongin Railway was a major means by which Japan exploited Korea.

On Tuesday, the Cabinet decided to move the anniversary to June 28 to mark the 1894 establishment of Korea's first railway agency during a meeting presided over by President Moon Jae-in.

It is the second time that the government of President Moon Jae-in has changed a national anniversary.

Last month, the Cabinet also decided to change the anniversary of the 1919 founding of Korea's provisional government in China to April 11 from the current April 13 in accordance with suggestions from historians.

These decisions have prompted speculation that the liberal Moon administration could also seek to change other anniversaries that were designated from a conservative point of view, such as Armed Forces Day, which marks South Korean forces' crossing of the 38th parallel border into the North during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Conservative critics say changing such anniversaries that have been observed for decades would be going too far.

I met my upper‐class friend from university. He has been living in the United States for a long time and he just came back to Korea the other day. He is a big fan of the U. S. Major League baseball, and he says his two daughters are baseball enthusiasts, too.

He told me, “it is my hobby to watch baseball with my children when I finish my work in the United States, but I do not watch the professional baseball in Korea”.

“When I watch professional baseball of Korea with my daughters on TV, a batter often complains about the decision and insults the umpire “. I can not hear his voice, but I can understand that in his lips and his manner. At first I thought only that player did so, but there were many similar cases when I saw other games and competitions.

When I heard his words, I came to be worried about the many scenes that I saw unintentionally until now. Indeed, players are always excited and their faces are bright red. Pitchers who gave a home run, batters who struck out and fielders who erred. It was certain that they said unprintable words here. “Damn it!” may be still good.

This is not limited to baseball of course. Kim Yeon-koung, a representative from women’s volleyball Korea shouted something alone in the international game, because she could not go well. but a camera showed her manner. She seems to regret the words given unintentionally very much.

Unfortunately I have seen many players who felt no sense of guilt about their own problematic actions outside and inside of the fields and the stadiums. There is no end to count drink-drivings, verbal abuses at Twitter, illegal sports gamblings, fixed games, etc.

Professional sports groups conduct some training for rookie players every year to tell them how they should be as a human being and a player”. However, “As the boy, so the man” is a common saying. Can a youth who is over 20 years old change its custom in one day or two day’s training? You should perform such an education since they were young.

The leaders of North and South Korea agreed on Friday to work to remove all nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula and, within the year, pursue talks with the United States to declare an official end to the Korean War, which ravaged the peninsula from 1950 to 1953.

At a historic summit meeting, the first time a North Korean leader had ever set foot in the South, the leaders vowed to negotiate a treaty to replace a truce that has kept an uneasy peace on the divided Korean Peninsula for more than six decades. A peace treaty has been one of the incentives North Korea has demanded in return for dismantling its nuclear program.

“South and North Korea confirmed the common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula,” read a statement signed by North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and the South’s president, Moon Jae-in, after their meeting at the border village of Panmunjom.

A statue of Baek Pa-sun, a Korean ceramic artisan who helped give birth to Japan’s porcelain production in the city of Arita.

An industry group of Korean ceramic artists said it will set up a statue of a Korean ceramic artisan revered for helping give birth to Japan’s first domestic porcelain production in the city of Arita.

The potter is Baek Pa-sun (百婆仙, 1560-1656). She is a legendary female potter who blazed the trail for what is now known as Arita ware in Japan.

A delegation of the Korean Ceramics Art Association in Icheon, south of Seoul, and the Baek Pasun Memorial Society will visit the Japanese city on April 29 to unveil the statue at a gallery named after the potter.

The installation of the 1.9-meter (6.2-foot) statue at Gallery Baekpasun is timed to coincide with a ceramics festival in Arita.

Ahn Seok-young, a ceramics artist in Yeoju, south of Seoul, produced the statue, which depicts Baek clad in “chima jeogori,” or traditional Korean dress, looking at a teacup in her hands.

The Gyeonggi provincial government footed the 130 million won ($121,360) bill for the project.

Baek hailed from the Korean city of Gimhae and was the first female pottery expert in the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).

She was captured along with her husband, Gimhae potter Kim Tae-do (金泰道), by Japanese soldiers during the 1592-98 Japanese invasions of Korea.

They were taken to the town of Takeo near Arita, in what is now Japan’s Saga Prefecture, in the late 16th century.

According to historical records, Baek moved to Arita with about 900 Korean potters after her husband died, making a tremendous contribution to the development of Arita ware.

She remained in Arita as the leader of pottery making until her death at age 96, establishing herself as the mother of Arita ware.

Korean police searched the Korean Air Lines head office on 19th over the suspicion that Korean Air senior vice president Cho Hyun-min splashed water in the face of an employee at the advertising agency furiously during a meeting with the agency.

The police carried out a domiciliary search of the advertising agency on the day before.

Cho was charged with suspicion (the assault suspicion) that she splashed water in the face of an employee at the advertising agency during a meeting with the agency held in the Korean Air Lines head office in last month.

The police confiscated Cho’s two cell-phones for business and for individual, and the cell-phones and PCs of the officers who attended at the meeting in the head office on the same day.

The police secured audio files stored to the cell-phone of the meeting attendants in the domiciliary search to the advertising agency of the day before.

The person concerned with police explained, “We push forward the investigation quickly, because this is the issue that the people are highly concerned with and the evidences necessary for the investigation might be deleted and damaged.”

A large quantities of polyethylene tanks washed ashore at the Sea of Japan coast of Shimane prefecture in this March. Most of them had Hangul Alphabets writings, and some of them had strong acid-related liquid. The articles washed ashore of the polyethylene tanks are increasing around the Sea of Japan coast in late years. and approximately 3,000 articles washed ashore in the prefecture from February to March in last year. The coast local governments are at a loss in the un-welcomed situation of “things that remind people of winter season”.

The Government of Japan・Cabinet Public Relations Office, Cabinet Secretariat

In a small coastal town on the Sea of Japan, a group of people is working diligently to keep the beaches clean. We followed the cleanup efforts led by a woman in the Hokuriku region.

Debris from current in the Sea of Japan often washes ashore on the popular beach destination that is on a bay that faces northwest. We asked a woman, who leads the beach cleanup efforts, about what kinds of things turn up.

She explained that trash typically consists of things like fishing gear, plastic bottles, and polyethylene tanks. And sometimes they find medical waste such as syringes. More than half of the debris comes from outside of Japan, and most of that has Korean writing on it. What is more surprising is that sometimes several items of the same thing wash ashore—leading one to suspect that they were disposed of systematically and intentionally. She also said that medical waste and polyethylene tanks contain residual hazardous substances, such as caustic soda, and are extremely dangerous; because of this they have to take special care to keep children away during their clean up activities.

In this way, the marine environment is protected by the diligent efforts of people who are embracing the sea. People who throw trash into the sea need to be conscious of what is happening and understand the negative consequences of littering.

Recently, a movement to change the name of the Sea of Japan to the East Sea has gained attention in the United States. However, we have to think about this carefully. If we truly care about these waters, preserving the marine environment is far more important than trying to change its name. The ocean transcends national borders. Every person who benefits from the ocean’s bounty must think about the ocean as a whole as well as those on the other sides of it and join together to protect our global marine environment.

The Hokuriku region of Japan is facing the Sea of Japan.	People engage in cleanup activities undaunted by the vast amounts of trash that wash ashore.
Plastic products like polyethylene tanks and fishing gear, such as rope and buoys, are inorganic and therefore not biodegradable. A considerable amount of trash, such as bottles containing chemicals that you wouldn't even want to touch, 6 also wash ashore. You can see Korean characters on them.

Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs changed the description about Korea on the website and deleted the modifier “most important neighboring country”.

Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs changed the description about Japan-Republic of Korea Relations on the official site, and it turned into “There are difficult problems between Japan and Korea, but it is important that Japan manages these, advances cooperation in various fields, and goes ahead with Japan and Korea relations by the future-oriented looking” without modifiers.

These words are reviewed every two months and are considered to be an external signal of the Japanese Government.

I checked the convenience of the places and the transfer for the audience and journalists with disabilities.

I moved from Inchon to Jiangling by the well-maintained Korea Train Express (KTX). I was surprised at the floor of the train 75 centimeters higher than the platform. I use the wheelchair and I got on and off the train using a movable electric lift, but it took time. People with the big baggage had trouble with getting on and off the train, too.

The means of transportation was classified roughly into the “players, officers”, “persons concerned with games”, “journalists” and “audience”. I was going to get on a bus for journalists at first, but the platform was a step-type and the wheelchair was not available.

Therefore I had asked plural bureaus for two days and knew at last that the car that coped with the wheelchair for the meet official was available. All the staffs were kind, but they did not know the details of the car when they were different from the group in charge of the car. The car was convenient, but the places and time I had to wait for the car had not become clear, even if I made a reservation.

I used the bus for audiences too. There were the plural routes each in Jiangling and PyeongChang. And there were the step-type buses and the low-chassis buses with the electric slope on each route, too. But the stops of the low-chassis buses were far from the general stops at the Jiangling station squares, and the guidance was insufficient.

The sporting venues also had problems. At the two venues of the alpine skiing & snowboarding and the cross-country & biathlon, the mixture zones were made on snow. So I could not go there with my wheelchair. And the fence of the coverage seats for wheelchairs was high and it was hard for me to see the competitions. The new rink had a few elevators. The curling ground nearby was slightly old, and the elevator that were built later was not available if I could not look for the person in charge.

In addition, even the newly built district in the town of Jiangling had the steps in front of the restaurants and the slopes were steep, and there were some shops the wheelchair user could not enter alone.

In a girls’ high school in Daejeon, a teacher said to students in a school hour, “Because we did not have many children, we were inferior to Japs. You have to be pregnant without using the pills, the condoms and the contraceptive devices and you must have children.” It provokes a discussion.

On April 13, Education Bureau of Daejeon city said the A teacher had done such an inappropriate reference to the students in a class of the first grader in the morning on April 9.

The students posted the wall newspaper that demanded open apology of the school saying , “It not only reminded 17 years old high school girls of a sexual sense of shame, but also infringed upon woman human rights by describing the woman as the machine that bore children”, and they told this at Twitter.

The person concerned with city Education Bureau said, “We confirmed that this teacher said ‘We must beat Japan’ and then made such a remark.”

The school side said, “The teacher admitted his mistake, and went to all classrooms and apologized to the students. We are going to have a meeting and to discuss a disciplinary measure”.

Binggrae, the Korean food company released two kinds of new product of ice cream “Super Cone” on April 5. But it gives a plagiarism scandal.

The corn of the cone type of Giant Cone (Glico, Japan) is filled with ice cream. Chocolate is coated at the top of the ice cream, and nuts and chocolate cookies are put on the top. (wikipedia)

As for Super Cone (Binggrae), the position of the product name, the design of the letters and also the color of the wrapping paper made of blue and red are similar to those of the Japanese products.

Binggrae said as always, “Super Cone does not imitate Giant cone.” However, it added, “We are considering the change of the package”.

China’s refusal to be the “world’s garbage dump” by banning imports of various plastics and other waste materials that went into effect in January has left ordinary South Koreans feeling a swirl of emotions as the country’s authorities scramble to figure out how to dispose of plastic bags and other recyclables.

Since their livelihood depends on China accepting the refuse they have collected and shipped, recyclable collectors have said they will no longer be taking plastic bags on their routine pickups. As a result, heaps of waste materials made of plastic film are blighting residential apartment complexes across Seoul.

While the dilemma of what to do with the recyclable waste remains the focal point, the current situation has stirred conversation on acceptable methods of recycling, an area that research has shown South Koreans can still improve.

According to the Ministry of Environment, research conducted from September 2016 through July 2017 found that 53.7 of the waste material in standard garbage bags consisted of recyclable material like paper, plastic bags, metal and batteries.

In the standard garbage bags, paper comprised the highest proportion of the waste material held at 28.5 percent, followed by toilet paper (21.1 percent), plastic (20.8 percent) and food waste (4.8 percent). Of these, paper and plastic can be separately disposed of via recycling.

Even when recyclables have been separated from standard garbage, evidence of lazy or unconscientious waste disposal methods still turn up.

At one Busan apartment complex, sorting through the piles of boxes set aside for collection revealed a carton of chicken with a clump of bones still inside. Other undesirable materials in the paper section included plastic wrapping pieces and bubble wrap. Lodged in the middle of a mound of empty PET bottles was one still half-full of brightly colored soda. And peering through the bunches of plastic bags and other plastic film products, one could see a few that were contaminated with food stains.

Often, the work of making the recyclables clean enough to persuade collectors to take them ultimately falls to the security guards of these apartment buildings. Park, a 55-year-old guard at the Busan apartment complex said, “Picking out the food waste among the recyclables is something that I do all the time.”

Fortunately for Park and others who undergo similar ordeals, more fellow citizens are taking the time to think about how to better handle their recyclable garbage.

One 32-year-old man living in Seoul said he had initially been very upset with the garbage collectors for suddenly refusing to take on recyclables, but that he later felt embarrassed at his lack of civic awareness when learning about what was happening behind the scenes.

“At the bare minimum, everyone should make sure that the things they throw away are actually in a state suitable to be recycled. When I ponder whether I didn’t at times just toss out dirty items into the recycling bin, I feel humbled and sorry,” he said.

General Motors Co. workers in South Korea forced their way into company executive offices, destroying and removing furniture, shortly after the local unit of the U.S. automaker told employees that there will be no bonuses due to a cash crisis.

A video posted on YouTube showed about a dozen union members storming the chief executive officer’s office in Incheon on Thursday, kicking and throwing chairs before removing a large desk. The union, whose representative could not be reached for comment, was protesting the company’s decision and urged the CEO to resign, according to GM Korea’s spokesman.

Separately, the company confirmed in a statement what it called a “violent incident” at its executive offices that “resulted in significant damage to company property.”

GM, which is seeking concessions from the union to revive its South Korean business after mounting losses, has proposed a $2.8 billion new investment plan and a $2.7 billion debt-for-equity swap to turn around the unit. After threatening to exit the country altogether earlier, the subsidiary last month said it intends to file for bankruptcy if the union fails to agree to a restructuring plan, putting pressure on employees and the government to help it stay afloat.

The incident was reported to the police, the company said, adding that it will take legal action against the workers.

Japan was deleted in a MV (music video) of a piece of music “Love Line” by Korean popular music group “Tong Vfang Xien Qi”, and it became the topic between net users.

The entertainment office “SM entertainment” they belong to accepted this immediately and explained it with “a CG mistake” and said, “We began to correct the work”.

The office added, “We confirmed this mistake was the issue of CG editing of production company FantazyLab. We could not confirm it beforehand. We apologize to those who felt inconvenience heartily.”

The corrected MV was shown again at 4:00 on the afternoon of 3rd April.

In Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018, 17 countries among participating nations installed National houses and used them as the places of the popular diplomacy. They became “the small embassies” press-agenting the culture of the own country.

The 3-story “Korea house” was built with the gray containers. It is like the warehouse type building that you can see well in the industrial housing complex. It is completely different from the designs of the National houses that utilize the tradition and the culture of the own countries, such as the Swiss house built with a traditional house “chalet” style with the raw wood transported by air from the own country and the Austria house with the log lodge style.

The Korea house did not consider a design. Korean physical education association showed “basics and enforcement design service of Korea house for 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics” in last September, and the invitation to bid started. Afterwards a company made a successful bid for a lowest price and built the Korea house in more than one month. The cost of construction was 1, 700 million won (approximately 1.7 million dollars).

However, ironically, the purpose of the invitation to bid plan that Korean physical education association clarified was design. It says, “We’ll develop the Korean-style design which can appeal to world people in the Olympic Games which is the place of the public festival where people all over the world gather. And we’ll make the Korea house a landmark to represent the Republic of Korea during Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and Paralympics period.”

Why did such a thing occur? According to the Korean building industry, the Korean physical education association gathered building and culture system experts and held the advisory board for setting and administration of Korea house in last July. There were many opinions to object to the plan of the Korean physical education association that proposed to build the Korea house with the containers. They said, “We can not build the representative building with the containers, because it should show the dignity of Great Korea”.

However, time was getting too close to open the public offering for design. The Korean physical education association pushed forward a lowest price person bid by the reason of the fairness in the procedure afterwards. The person concerned of the Korean physical education association said, “The Site of the Korea house was settled in the end of August and time was getting too close to open the public offering for design.”

The experts pointed out in a chorus, “It was a problem that there was no building coordinator who generalized Pyeongchang Winter Olympics”.

In August, 2012, the part-time job offer portal site "Albamon" announced that Korean university students thought the worst enemy nation was Japan and the most friendly nation was the United States. (http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/08/29/2012082901098.html)

Among 718 university students who answered the questionnaire, 506 answered, "Korea has friendly nations". Of these, 346 who reached 68.4% answered "the United States is our friendly nation". The second place was "Turky" (19.4%) and the third place was no other than "North Korea" (3.0%).

There were the other answers too, "Japan" (2.6%) and "China" (1.4%).

In addition, 91.8% of whole respondents answered, "Korea has enemy nations". Of these, 54.3% answered, "Japan is our enemy nation". 21.4% answered "North Korea is the enemy nation" and it ranked second.

The male students in particular answered, "Japan" (38.7%), "North Korea" (31.5%) and "China" (18.2%). That relatively dispersed, but, as for the female students, "66.8%" answered "Japan" predominantly.

Such a mentality covers up Korean whole society.

In the film "Shiri" and "JSA" that made a hit in Japan , the North Korean agents and soldiers were shown as "pure existence".

In contrast, the Korean movies handling Japan are all anti-Japan.

Nao Kodaira, the world record holder took the silver medal, but as for the moment of the decision, the Korean TV broadcast shouted with all its strength, “Kodaira failed in gold medal acquisition”. The gold medalist was a Netherlands skater. Even if the Korean skaters are not concerned with the competition for top, Korean media broadcast like this. The Korean media tend to do so, but it was the live coverage as if they were glad to see the defeat of the Japanese skater than the victory of the Korean skater. The live coverage showed the complicated thought and the painfulness to Japan. That could not be wiped up even in the holy place of sports.

In The figure skating men’s free performed in Jiangling on February 17th, Hanyu acquired a gold medal following the Sochi Olympic Games. It was reported there afterwards that Hanyu always donated the stuffed dolls to the competition site and he was liked by his refreshingness and his goodness.

On the other hand, there was the reaction that looks Korean again, too. In Korea, the day before was the lunar New Year, and the gold medal acquisition by Hanyu was in the middle of consecutive holidays of the lunar New Year. In the net, there were the notes of the racial gushiness such as “I don’t want to see that the Japanese flag was raised for New Year holidays” or “Do I have to listen to the Japanese national anthem?”

The climax of the Japan-Korea confrontation by the Olympic Games was the speed skating women’s 500 metres final in the night of the same day. Kodaira won a long-cherished gold medal, and Lee Sang-hwa’s 3 Olympic Games straight victories were blocked, and she was over in a silver medal. Korean TV flattered Lee Sang-hwa saying “Kodaira has made Lee Sang-hwa a goal until now”. But the Kodaira’s consideration to Lee Sang-hwa after the competition was paid attention and praised.

The heartwarming story of both skaters was transient. On 20th, Korean TV omitted the medal conferment scene to Kodaira in the medal ceremony, and the medal conferment to Lee Sang-hwa was relayed. Raising the Japanese flag and playing its national anthem were not relayed.

The women’s pursuit race of the speed skating. The Korean media evaluated Japanese team doing the team play and its exhaustiveness of the capacity for organization to win the gold medal. But there was the defeat of the Korean women’s team a few days ago in the background.

In the qualifier of the pursuit race, one skater of the Korean team was greatly behind to other two skaters. One of the skaters said “the controversial statement” that ignored the teamwork, and the supervisor and skaters received a hard bashing in Korea. The dissatisfaction and the criticism against the own country team continued for a while. “Japanese capacity for organization is thorough. In comparison with it, Korea…”.

Even in sports, Koreans are concerned about Japan and do not want to lose. But they cannot but admit Japan, if they see the attitude and the manner of the Japanese players. The Winter Olympics held for the first time in Korea showed two sentiments toward Japan same as before.

Park Ji-woo, Kim Bo-reum, and Noh Seon-young competed at the Ladies’ Team Pursuit yesterday. However, Noh Seon-young was left behind by her two teammates, and because the event is a team event, the time taken was of Noh Seon-young, who lagged behind 4 seconds.

In an interview afterward, both Park Ji-woo and Kim Bo Ream spoke as if they were blaming Noh Seon-young for the loss. Kim Bo-reum said, “We were doing well, but at the end...” and then snorted in derision before continuing to say, “We had a big gap with the back.” Park Ji-woo, while not as severe, spoke also as if she were blaming Noh Seon-young.

After the controversial ’bullying’ of their last member, it’s been further revealed that Noh Seon-young had been constantly left out even during practice. The skater revealed that they barely had any team practice with her, and even during public practices, Noh Seon-young was always by herself.

That fact became even more obvious after the race, when the two skaters left Noh Seon-young by herself and only hung out with each other, even as Noh Seon-young cried.

In fact, only coach Bob de Jong approached Noh Seon-young to comfort her - none of the Korean coaches even bothered to try to talk to Noh Seon-young.

Netizens have been furious at the actions of the two skaters and have been calling for their disqualification, citing un-sportsmanly conduct. Not only have the articles about the two skaters completely taken over top spots in the sports section of trending articles, but netizens are heavily criticizing their behavior.

It’s been further noticed that in the beginning of the race, Noh Seon-young had been pushing the two skaters forward (as you are supposed to do in the team pursuit), but the other two skaters ditched her at the last lap.

Currently, the Blue House petition to disqualify the two skaters (Kim Bo-reum and Park Ji-woo) has over 200,000 signatures, even though the petition was started less than a day ago.

An Ju-hee (46) who ran a barbecue restaurant in Jiangling city, Gangwon-do telephoned a reservation visitor hastily on the night of 11th. This reservation visitor made a reservation in ten persons at 7:00 p.m., but they did not appear even if it was past 7:00 and the restaurant waited for a while. She called many times, and at last she finally could contact them, but the reservation visitor just said “We are eating in another restaurant” and hung up. There was no apology of “I am sorry”.

In Pyeongchang and Jiangling where the exciting games of the Winter Olympics are played, the restaurants are troubled by “No-show” (a person who is expected but who does not show up).

■Public service workers also do “No-show” with great number of persons.

A barbecue restaurant in Pyeongchang received reservations from 4 groups, 220 persons in the night of February 9 when the Olympic Games opening ceremony was performed. 4 groups were concerned with city hall and ward agency. However, nobody appeared in the restaurant on that very day. It got 2 groups’ cancellation by telephone at 4:00 p.m., but there was no telephone from 2 other groups (70 persons in total). Kim Dong-sung (43), the vice-manager said, “the damage was more than 5 million won” (approximately 500,000 yen).

O Moung-oak (44) who ran a Korean restaurant in Pyeongchang suffered the damage by No-show of a great number of persons on February 9 when the opening ceremony was performed. He received a reservation with 110 persons from a public institution, but it was canceled just before that. His restaurant could not accept other reservations for two days because of this group reservation.

In addition, there was a case that a central government office cancelled a reservation suddenly on the day, while it made the reservation of 80 staffs. A staff of this government office made a reservation at a restaurant in Pyeongchang on February 9. However, the staff canceled it suddenly on the reservation day.

■Restaurants say, “We do not take a reservation anymore.”

Restaurants suffer 100% of damage by “No-show”. Because the restaurants must leave the seats for the reservation visitors, they can not enter other visitors for several hours. Furthermore, they have to abandon the foods that they prepared for. A restaurant in Pyeongchang received a reservation of 40 persons for dinner, but suffered the damage by No-show. The owner (59) of the restaurant said, “we made even dishes that are not on the our menu according to the request from the visitors. We set dishes and the tablewares and finished preparations. But the visitors did not appear at last. We suffered big damage”.

A famous barbecue restaurant received a reservation of 12 persons at night and prepared for that, but the reservation visitors did not appear after all and it could not but throw away all the dishes.

In addition, an owner (52) of a Korean restaurant said, “We received a reservation of 60 persons the other day. And we phoned them for the confirmation two hours before reservation time, but it only said ‘We do not go’ and it was disconnected.”

■“Foreign visitors come at just reservation time, but …”

On the other hand, foreign visitors are not so. If they once make a reservation, it does not become “No-show” and they come over to the restaurants a little early or just in time.

The owners of the restaurants said, “Foreign visitors increased remarkably before and after opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, but it was a Korean who did not come according to the reservation”.

The Korean restaurants in Pyeongchang receive approximately 100 reservation maximum from foreigners a day. However, there are no “No-show” and cancellation at the last minute to now from the day of the opening ceremony. O Moung-oak said, “The foreign visitors are certain to come when they reserve my restaurant. They have not been late for reservation time.” An Ju-hee (46), the owner of a barbecue restaurant in Jiangling city said, “Approximately 80 foreign visitors come here a day. Both large groups of more than ten persons and small groups are punctual to the minute”.

South Korea has experienced limited Olympic success in winter sports. Of its 53 medals, 42 have come in short-track speedskating, nine in long-track speed skating and two in figure skating. None have come in the sliding sports of bobsled, luge or skeleton.

So South Korea has followed a familiar strategy for host nations that do not excel at winter sports and do not want to be embarrassed before a home audience: It went shopping, hiring a number of foreign coaches and granting citizenship to athletes from other countries.

South Korea found a luger from Germany. Hockey players from the United States and Canada. Biathletes from Russia. A cross-country skier from Norway. An ice dancer from Boston.

The strategy fostered cultural resentment and awakening. All told, 19 athletes were granted citizenship by South Korea on its team of 144 participants in the Winter Games, which began in earnest on Friday. A 20th athlete was granted citizenship for the Paralympics in March, but was later not selected for the team.

While precise statistics are not kept, this appears to be the largest number of athletes naturalized by the host country of a Winter Games, according to Bill Mallon, an Olympic historian from the United States who keeps a database of roughly 140,000 athletes.

Rule 41 of the Olympic Charter permits athletes to change their nationalities, but they must generally wait three years before participating for a second nation in the Games, unless the rule is waived.

Some naturalized South Korean athletes have birth or familial ties to the country and have gained dual citizenship. Others are essentially Olympic mercenaries.

Canadian short track speed skater Kim Boutin’s dream of winning an Olympic medal has quickly turned into a nightmare with her social media accounts inundated with abuse and threats from angry South Korean fans after she won bronze on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old grabbed third place in the women’s 500-metre final at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Tuesday but her joy was short-lived.

By Wednesday the disqualification of local Choi Min-jeong, who had finished second, triggered a wave of verbal attacks targeting the Canadian, seen as benefiting from what Koreans thought was an unfair decision of interfering.

”Congratulations on the dirty medal,“ one angry fan wrote. Did you’re (sic) papa teach you to cheat for the medal.”

“If I find you, you will die,” wrote another on-line user before Boutin was forced to block her accounts.

Short-track speed skating is the host nation’s favorite winter sport, with Koreans having won more medals there than in all other winter sports combined.

“None of us can control social media and the public has the right to say what they want but we would ask anyone to respect the athletes and support their work,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said on Wednesday.

“We occasionally have these issues and it is something we don’t approve of. Let’s stick to supporting the athletes and some great performances.”

Canada’s Olympic Committee issued a brief statement saying all team members’ safety was a top priority.

”We are working closely with Speed Skating Canada, our security personnel and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP),“ it said. ”We will not make further comment on this issue, so that Kim can focus on her upcoming events.

This is not the first time South Koreans have vented their anger at a foreign speed skater, with Britain’s Elise Christie receiving a similar on-line treatment at the Sochi 2014 Games after she collided with a South Korean skater.

U.S. Olympic champion Apolo Ohno also felt South Korean wrath in Salt Lake City in 2002 after protesting against what he said was blocking by a South Korean skater who was then disqualified.

The American quickly became the most reviled man in the country, earning the nickname “king of fouls.”

1. A South Korean women's short track speed skating coach has been suspended just weeks before the country hosts the Winter Olympics, officials said, with reports saying he hit Sochi gold medallist Shim Suk-Hee. (Korea・TChosun Ilbo)

   On the next day of the case, the banquet was held for the President Moon Jae-in and the players. But the Korean Skating Federation told a lie that Shim Suk-hee could not participate in the banquet because she suffered from influenza.

   The federation did not apologize for this false report. Whereas it inflicted a severe punishment of “eternal expulsion” on the coach who hit Shim Suk-Hee, it did not give any disposal to the inside of the federation.

2. Noh Seon-yeong who was a member of Korean national team of women's speed skating concentrated power on only the exercise of the group pursuit race, but it became clear that she did not get an Olympic Games participation qualification. (Korea・Yonhap News)

   This is because the federation did not understand the international regulations exactly.

3. 9 Korean representative players of the skiing have been training jointly, but it became clear that Korea had only four participation places of the skiing (Men 2, Women 2). (Korea・JoongAng Ilbo)

   Ski Association of Korea had recognized the fact, but did not tell the participation places to 9 players.

At the bus parking lot of the second terminal of Inchon International Airport where several hundred airport limousines a day come and go, a large quantity of garbage is piled beside buses lining up in a row. Wastes are put in the edge of road closely too.

Busmen throw away the garbage that the passenger left in the bus under the lamp-posts in the same parking lot and they are transferred by wind and roll to many places.

The dustmen of the bus pointed out, “There is not a place to throw away garbage”. The bus parking lot is run since the 15th day of this month before the second terminal formally started the business, but a trash box is not yet installed. Furthermore, the bus parking lot has become a huge trash box because the airport side did not collect the garbage.

In addition, some point out the hygiene state of the rest room that busmen use. The number of restrooms in particular is in short, and there are the persons easing nature at the parking lot.

The Inchon Airport public corporation explained this, “We prepared dustmen according to the opening day , but there was too much garbage to collect.”

Haunting pictures of a deserted ski resort an hour’s drive from Pyeongchang show a glimpse of the potential future for the South Korean city’s costly new facilities, built in time for hosting the upcoming Winter Olympics.

The Alps Ski Resort in Heul-ri opened in the 1980s and shut up shop in 2006, despite the area having the heaviest natural snowfall in the country.

The small settlement of 250 or so inhabitants was left struggling in the wake of the closure of what had been a significant income generator.

“It’s completely in ruins,” Oh Geum-Sik, who formerly ran a ski rental shop, told Channel News Asia.

“All the businesses are practically dead.”

Photos show Eighties-era ski boots gathering dust on a counter, musty hotel corridors and empty auditoriums with moulding chairs.

They are a timely reminder of what could happen to the new infrastructure built in Pyeongchang after the Winter Games, which take place from 9 to 25 February 2018, are over.

South Korea has spent $800m (￡578m) on facilities for the Olympics, but the International Olympic Committee is worried about the lack of legacy plans for some of them. After its final inspection in August, the IOC warned of the danger of creating “white elephants” with Olympic venues that may prove costly to maintain post-Games.

Pyeongchang’s 35,000-seat arena Olympic Stadium will only be used for the opening and closing ceremonies before it is torn down.

Meanwhile, a downhill course in Jeongseon, which was built on a forest that’s sacred to locals, will be deconstructed as soon as the Olympics are over.

As for the permanent structures, the 8,000-seat Gangneung Oval, built for the speed skating events, was rumoured to have a potential future as a refrigerated warehouse for seafood ? a claim that has since been denied by Gangwon officials.

Plans to use the 10,000-seat Gangneung Hockey Center to host a corporate league hockey team have also come to nothing.

“Raw chocolate ‘Market O’” naturally reminds Korean people of Japanese famous chocolate “Royce’s Raw chocolate” that they buy by all means when they go to Japan for a trip.

It considerably resembles not only the texture to melt as soon as you put “Royce's Raw chocolate” in your mouth, but also the form and the package.

Furthermore, the number of the chocolate in the “Raw chocolate ‘Market O’” is the same as the number of that of “Royce’ Raw chocolate ‘Au lait‘” (20).

Many Koreans said they had thought that “Royce’s Raw chocolate” was imported formally, and they showed negative response to the imitation “Raw chocolate ‘Market O’”.

On the other hand, the Orion expressed a sense of disappointment for such a “plagiarism discussion”. The Orion said “if you eat them, you will know the tastes are definitely different. The package became similar to Japanese chocolate, because moisture must not enter in it”. The Orion strongly excused itself as always.

One of the last sculptures by US artist Dennis Oppenheim has been destroyed by local authorities in a South Korean city on the grounds that it was becoming an “eyesore”.

Art lovers have expressed shock and anger over the demolishing of “Chamber”, installed next to the beach at Haeundae in Busan.

Oppenheim, a conceptual and performance artist as well as a sculptor, has works in the collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and London's Tate Gallery, among others, and public art on show in several cities around the world.

But that counted for nothing to the Haeundae District Office.

Time and the seafront location were not kind to the work, Haeundae district office official Shi Yun-Seok told AFP.

It began to rust because of brine and was damaged by a typhoon in 2016, he said.

“We also received a lot of phone calls from pedestrians and residents in the area demanding its withdrawal as the art work was turning into an eyesore,” he said, and workers were sent in last month to raze it to the ground.

“We've sent the wreckage, mainly steel pipes and polycarbonate materials, to a waste dump”, Shi added, denying local news reports that the metal was sold for scrap.

Japan said on Tuesday it can “by no means” accept South Korea’s call for more steps to help “comfort women”, a euphemism for girls and women forced to work in Japan’s wartime brothels, a divisive issue that Japan says was resolved with a 2015 deal.

A South Korean investigation appointed by the government concluded last month the dispute over the women could not be “fundamentally resolved” because the victims’ demand for legal compensation had not been met.

Japan responded by saying any attempt by South Korea to revise the 2015 deal, struck by a conservative South Korean government, would make relations “unmanageable”.

South Korea would not seek to renegotiate the 2015 agreement, even though it failed to meet victims’ needs and resolve the feud, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said on Tuesday.

But she added that she hoped Japan would make further efforts to help the women “regain honor and dignity and heal wounds in their hearts”.

“We can by no means accept South Korea’s demands for additional measures,” Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono told reporters in Tokyo.

Kono said the 2015 settlement was a “final and irreversible resolution”.

Japan says the matter of compensation for the women was settled under a 1965 treaty. It says that in 2015, it agreed to provide the funds to help them heal “psychological wounds”.

The House of Korean food promotion carried out an online investigation for 6,000 20-59-year-old foreigners (except the overseas Korean) lived in 10 overseas main cities by October 20 from September 29, last year.

64.1% of the local foreigners who live in 10 main cities in the world know the Korean foods, and 83.2% are satisfied with the Korean foods. It is relatively high.

As for the degree of recognition of the Korean foods, Southeastern Asian was the highest in 80.0%. 75.0% in China, 63.3% in United States and 57.2% in Europe & Oceania. On the other hand, Japan was worst in 32.8%.

Thae Yong-ho who had worked as a North Korean minister-counselor in UK and taken refuge in Korea in August, 2016 had an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun. He made clear about Japanese abduction issue. “Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea wants a large amount of financial support by Japan in exchange for solution of the abduction issue.”

He accepted an interview in Seoul city in the middle of December, 2017.

About the information of safety of the abductee, he said, “naturally North Korea grasps all” but he did not mention concrete information.

He said, "Kim Jong-un will not be going to solve the abduction issue unless Japan shows the bag with money definitely" and emphasized the point that differed from the Japanese side.

He shows a viewpoint, "North Korea cannot willingly suggest financial support by Japan. This is because if so, the public opinion of the Japan might stiffen more.

In addition, he said, “Kim Jong-un is going to transfuse into North Korean economy by Japan's money. If Japan gives money to North Korea, the abduction issue might be solved in favor of Japan.”