Free Republic

Rose Kang describes that whenever a ceiling fan starts to spin, she vomits. After a few hours around any fan, she says, her cheeks start to swell and her head begins to pound. Yet, her experience is relatively minor. In South Korea, newspapers and a government agency report that the air blowing from an electric fan can cause death. “If you fall asleep with it going, you’ll die the next day,” says Kang, who moved from Seoul last year and now works at a hair salon in Toronto’s Koreatown. The daily newspaper in Ulsan, one of Korea’s largest cities, wrote...

(URGENT) N. Korea fires shells at S. Korean military along western border 2015/08/20 16:54

Kim Jong Un might be enriching uranium for nuclear bombs and planting landmines in South Korea.

SEOUL, July 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will deploy a new homegrown mid-range surface-to-air missile, M-SAM, in the Air Force this year following a successful test-fire, the defense acquisition agency said Thursday. The missile with a 40-kilometer range, also called "Cheongung," was developed locally in 2011 to replace the Air Force's aging batteries of MIM-23 Hawk from the U.S. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration said it recently carried out a successful test launch of the initial M-SAM, sealing the quality certification. The new missile will be distributed to the Air Force starting in September, the DAPA said, adding that mass-production...

Airbus Group SE beat out Boeing Co. in a $1.33 billion race to supply South Korea with four aerial refueling tankers, dashing the U.S. plane maker’s hopes of securing the first foreign order for a program beleaguered by budget overruns and delays. A spokesman for South Korea’s main arms procurement agency said Tuesday it plans to buy four of Airbus’s refueling planes, called the A330 MRTT, for multirole tanker transport. The first delivery is due in 2019. The European plane maker’s bid became more attractive with euro weakening since the bids were submitted, the spokesman for South Korea’s Defense Acquisition...

Six people have died, 87 have been infected, and some 1,800 schools and kindergartens have temporarily shut their doors amid an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in South Korea. It’s likely the most significant outbreak of the disease outside the Middle East, and over the weekend, the World Health Organization released details on new cases of the disease in South Korea. It also issued a surprising piece of advice for individuals seeking to avoid infection: Drink neither raw camel milk nor camel urine. That’s perhaps not as strange as it sounds. While the exact transmission mechanisms remain unclear, it...

In a bar in Seoul’s upmarket Gangnam district this week, music was blasting from the speakers and Harry Potter played on a giant flat-screen television; but the electronic darts board and kung fu video game stands were bereft of customers, and all but one of the tables were empty. The barman had a simple answer for the unusual lack of business: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers). South Korea on Friday reported three more deaths from Mers, in what has become the largest outbreak of the virus outside Saudi Arabia, with more than a dozen deaths in the past few weeks...

Nurses at a hospital in China have been reportedly drawing lots to determine who should treat a patient with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers). The hospital, in the southern city of Huizhou, said the ballot was arranged because there were too many volunteers to treat the South Korean man. But posts on social media suggest many were reluctant to take on the task. The virus has a death rate of 27%, according to the World Health Organization. The sick man was named as China's first Mers case last week, after travelling to the country from South Korea, via Hong Kong....

South Korea struggled to contain an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) on Monday as health authorities announced three more cases, bringing the number of infections to 18 in just over 10 days. Authorities are considering a ban on overseas travel for the nearly 700 people isolated for possible infection after a 44-year-old man broke a voluntary house quarantine last week and flew to Hong Kong and then travelled to mainland China. The man subsequently tested positive for MERS, China's first confirmed case, setting off alarm bells as health officials traced his footsteps and tested dozens of people who...

Authorities also reported six new cases of infection from the virus, raising the total to 25 since the first case was confirmed in May. That infection was of a 68-year-old South Korean man who had visited Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. South Korea is considering an overseas travel ban for almost 700 people isolated for possible infection from the virus. However, authorities said on Tuesday there is insufficient evidence to declare an epidemic. Of the six new cases reported Tuesday, two are people who didn’t come into contact with the original carrier, authorities said. Instead, they contracted...

The future of this year’s Pride in Seoul is looking uncertain after a notice banning the parade in the planned route was issued by Seoul Metropolitan police. The police issued the ban on the grounds that there were too many rallies planned for the same time, including opposing anti-LGBT demonstrations, and that it would cause too much disruption to traffic and pedestrians in the area. The organisers of the parade are contesting the prohibition saying it is unreasonable and unjustifiable. They also announced their plans to fight the prohibition by liaising with other activist groups. This comes after a controversial...

The Department of Defense has ordered a review of all labs following revelations that the number of labs that received live anthrax samples is larger than first reported."As of now, 24 laboratories in 11 states and two foreign countries are believed to have received suspect samples. We continue to work closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who is leading the ongoing investigation pursuit to its statutory authorities. The Department will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates to the public," Defense Department said in a statement.The Defense Department had previously reported labs in nine states...

A group of international women activists crossed the heavily-fortified Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea on Sunday in what they said was a symbolic act for peace. North and South Korea are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Despite its name the DMZ is one of the most heavily militarized and fortified borders in the world. "We feel very celebratory and positive that we have created a voyage across the DMZ in peace and reconciliation," said U.S. activist and feminist Gloria Steinem, honorary co-chair of the WomanCrossDMZ...

Japan is hosting its first ever international defense industry trade exhibition and conference, further emphasizing the government’s sharp departure from a 70-year self-imposed ban on the export of defense-related equipment by Japanese firms as well as collaborations with foreign defense companies. […] Firms from the United States are much in evidence, inevitable given Japan’s close security alliance with its Pacific partner, but a number of German companies are testing the waters of a new and potentially lucrative market. […] Not all of Japan’s neighbors have welcomed what they claim is a return to the aggressive nationalism of the early decades...

South Korea’s prime minister has offered to resign amid a bribery scandal just two months after he took up the country’s No. 2 post, officials said Tuesday, in the latest political crisis to hit President Park Geun-hye. Lee Wan Koo has been at the center of a corruption scandal that flared after a businessman killed himself earlier this month, leaving a memo listing the names of eight high-profile figures he claimed to have bribed. Most of the eight men, including Lee, are considered as close associates of Park. Businessman Sung Wan-jong told a local daily before his death he gave...

Precision weapons and networked targeting have helped maintain America’s military superiority for decades. But technology marches on. New defense exporters are joining the global game with advanced and well-priced offerings, creating potential threats to the U.S. and its allies, and weakening Western influence. The Pentagon has a plan to cope with these evolving threats, but is it enough? To understand what’s happening, consider the global automotive industry. South Korea’s Hyundai Motors became a serious global competitor by leveraging the rapid diffusion of technology, an initial edge in cheap labor, and a “good enough” product for value buyers. Their success wasn’t...

Monsanto Co said on Wednesday it reached a settlement with U.S. wheat farmers who sued the seed company over market disruption after unapproved genetically engineered wheat was discovered growing without oversight in Oregon. Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" wheat, which was never approved by U.S. regulators and which the company said it stopped testing a decade ago, was found growing in an Oregon farmer's field in 2013. The company had said all the experimental grain was destroyed or stored away. South Korea and Japan temporarily halted purchases of U.S. wheat after the announcement on fears the unapproved wheat, engineered to withstand Roundup...

PARIS --- Airbus Helicopters has signed a contract with Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) to develop and manufacture 314 light helicopters in South Korea, a company official confirmed March 16. The contract was signed by the two companies’ chief executives in Seoul, Korea, earlier today. The contract, worth an estimated $3 billion, calls for joint development of 214 Light Attack Helicopters (LAH) and about 100 Light Civil Helicopters (LCH), based on the technology of the latest version of the Airbus AS365B1 Dauphin twin-engined medium helicopter, now re-designated H155. The two companies will share revenues from the contract on an even basis....

Who could have seen this coming? Practically everyone outside the Obama administration, that’s who, but these days it would have been a Logan Act violation to mention it. Saudi Arabia has cut a deal with South Korea to develop two nuclear reactors in the next 20 years, putting Iran’s chief opponent in the region to play a little nuclear escalateo with Tehran: As U.S. and Iranian diplomats inched toward progress on Tehran’s nuclear program last week, Saudi Arabia quietly signed its own nuclear-cooperation agreement with South Korea.That agreement, along with recent comments from Saudi officials and royals, is raising...

As U.S. and Iranian diplomats inched toward progress on Tehran’s nuclear program last week, Saudi Arabia quietly signed its own nuclear-cooperation agreement with South Korea. That agreement, along with recent comments from Saudi officials and royals, is raising concerns on Capitol Hill and among U.S. allies that a deal with Iran, rather than stanching the spread of nuclear technologies, risks fueling it. Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal, a member of the royal family, has publicly warned in recent months that Riyadh will seek to match the nuclear capabilities Iran is allowed to maintain as part of any...