In the Absence: South Korea's Sewol Ferry Disaster

An unflinching look at South Korea's Sewol ferry disaster as it unfolds and its ramifications on a nation.

A disaster began to quietly unfold at 8:49am on April 16, 2014.

The Sewol ferry, bound for Jeju Island in South Korea, began to sink. On board were 476 passengers, including 325 students on a school trip. Mobile phone footage records students struggling to stay on their feet in their cabins, the atmosphere calm but uncertain.

Dashcam footage showed cars sliding across the car deck as the ship tipped.

A passenger had made an emergency call at 8:52am, and through radio communications the authorities were notified. The ferry continued to sink.

In South Korea Sexism Is Doing Just Fine

South Korea is so male dominated that's almost impossible to realize they elected Park Geun hye President.  But, not worry then men are fighting back. For last several months thousands of women have gathered in central Seoul to protest against all types of sexual abuse they must endure. Somehow the tone deaf, ignorant and misogynistic assholes heading the National Police Agency and the Seoul Public Prosecutors office seem unable or unwilling to extricate their  collective heads from their collective asses.

Thousands of women protesting over an epidemic of  illegal spy cam videos being uploaded to the internet and what do these fools focus on? Why the one woman who surreptitiously photographed a nude male model from art school who then posted the photograph online.   

A South Korean court has taken the rare step of jailing a woman for secretly photographing a male nude model, in a case that has sparked accusations of sexism and double standards.

The 25-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Ahn, was sentenced to 10 months in prison by the Seoul western district court and ordered to undergo 40 hours of counselling on sexual violence.

South Korea is in the midst of an epidemic of spycam pornography, where victims are secretly filmed in places such as toilet stalls and changing rooms. A series of monthly protests in Seoul have drawn tens of thousands of people.

The number of spycam crimes reported to police surged from around 1,100 in 2010 to more than 6,500 last year. It is thought many crimes go unreported.

Of the 16,201 people arrested between 2012 and 2017 for making illegal recordings, 98% were men, including school teachers, college professors, church pastors and police officers. Of the 26,000 recorded victims over that period, 84% were women.

The future of South Korea after Park Geun-hye

What will happen now that the country's highest court has upheld the impeachment and ouster of President Park Geun-hye?

South Korea's constitutional court has upheld the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.

A new presidential election is due to be held within 60 days.

The South Korean leadership is not only dealing with internal turmoil but growing tensions with North Korea too.

Following the latest North Korean ballistic missile tests, the deployment of a US missile defence system is causing alarm for Chinese leaders.

What You Need To Know: Impeachment Of Park Geun-hye: Her Impeachment Has Been Upheld

South Korea's President Park Geun-hye has become the country's first democratically elected leader to be forced from office.

Judges unanimously upheld Parliament's decision to impeach Ms Park over her role in a corruption scandal involving close friend Choi Soon-sil.

She now loses her presidential immunity and could face criminal charges.

There are reports one person protesting outside court in support of Ms Park has died - details are still emerging.

• What does this mean for South Korea?
• The friendship behind a presidential crisis
• South Korea's corruption scandal explained
• Did a puppy bring down South Korea's president?
• The tragedy of South Korea's first female leader
• The career of a trailblazer in South Korean politics

The court ruling is the culmination of months of turmoil which brought South Koreans to the streets in protest.

Today South Korean President Park Geun-hye will learn if her impeachment by the South Korean assembly is upheld by the Constitutional Court.  The case stems from bribery and influence scandal involving her friendship with Choi Soon-sil.  It's alleged that she used her friendship with President Park to enact policies and pressure major Korean corporations to make large monetary donations to charities controlled by her.

Park Geun-hye is not the first Korean president to be impeached.  The late President Roh Moo-hyun was impeached by the National Assembly on 12 March 2004 over his attempts to create an administrative capital outside of Seoul.   On 14 May 2004 the country's Constitutional  Court overturned his impeachment.


If Park Geun-hye impeachment is upheld she be removed from office immediately losing her constitutional protections against prosecution.     

Fallout from South Korean president's impeachment

South Korea's National Assembly voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal.

She has been embroiled in a corruption scandal that led to the biggest street protests in South Korean history followed by the country's first impeachment.

Nearly eight out of 10 members of parliament voted against President Park Geun-Hye, including about half of her own party.

Her executive powers have been suspended and a court will rule on whether she should step down.

So after the impeachment, what needs to be done to address South Korea's growing inequality and soaring living costs?

Korean President Park Geun-hye Has Announced She'll Turn Power Over To The National Assembly

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has issued a statement that her powers will be delegated to the National Assembly and has once again apologized for the ongoing scandal involving  the influence of a close friend who reportedly held sway over policy decisions which is illegal as she isn't an elected member of government.   President Park has faced massive demonstrations over the last five weeks and well as impeachment threats from the General Assembly which is controlled by the opposition.  Among the allegations were that this person had access to national security information and reportedly written speeches.

The embattled South Korean president has said that she will allow the country's parliament to decide how long she stays in office and plan for a successor amid calls for her impeachment.

"I will leave to parliament everything about my future including shortening of my term," she said.

Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett, reporting from Seoul, said that while Park had stopped short of resigning, her remarks effectively paved the way for her to be replaced.

"She has said would delegate the opinion of how long her term would last – a potential shortening of her term – to the national assembly. Then she would delegate her political authority to an incoming candidate," Fawcett said.

Will South Korea's President be forced out of office.

Park Geun-hye is at the centre of a corruption scandal and she ordered some of her top aides to quit.

South Korean leaders are known for controversial scandals, and the current row over alleged corruption is no exception.

There are mounting calls for President Park to resign.

Protesters are angry about her close friendship with a woman named Choi Soon-sil, who has allegedly helped her with political appointments and policy decisions, even though she's a private citizen without security clearance. Park has apologised, sacked several advisers, including her chief of staff, and cancelled meetings to deal with the unrest.

But seven out of ten South Koreans still say they want her to step down or be impeached.

Beginning with the election of Kim-Young sam in 1995 South Koreans have called for their various presidents to resign over scandals involving their family members or themselves. Not a single one resigned.   

South Korea accused of rewriting history in new school textbooks

The South Korean government complains all the time about history textbooks used in Japanese junior high and high schools. Saying that given the government's control of writing and publishing of the materials used by Japanese students that their perspective is skewed towards the conservative views and ideology of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).  To say that the political of the elites of the LDP aren't historical revisionists and war crimes deniers would be disingenuous. Because, that's exactly who and what they are.  Now South Korea will undertake a similar process thanks to the conservative government led by President Park Geun-hye whose father Park Chung-hee is the former military dictator of that country.


        Revisionism row intensifies as ministers push ahead with plans for state-issued texts to correct ‘pro-North Korean’ bias

The policy has become a bitter ideological battleground between left and right in South Korea, with the government claiming the changes are necessary to correct a “pro-North Korean” bias. Critics have accused president Park Geun-Hye’s administration of seeking to manipulate and distort the narrative of how the South Korean state was created.
Following an obligatory 20-day period to canvass public opinion, prime minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn and education minister Hwang Woo-Yea confirmed that from 2017 middle and high school students would each receive a single government-issued history textbook.
“We cannot teach our children with biased history textbooks,” Hwang said in a televised statement.

I love that quote:"We cannot teach our children with biased history textbooks, Hwang said in a televised statement."
So, what's the solution? Using biased textbooks from a conservative revisionist point of view to teach history to South Korean  students.

Battleground with multiple fronts

Arguments have focused on issues such as who bears most responsibility for the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean war, and how the textbooks should reference North Korea’s official “juche” ideology.
Deeply sensitive issues such as collaboration during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule are also strongly contested, as well as the violence that accompanied the move to democracy in the 1980s and 90s.

I'm sure like in Japan, Korea's conservatives will completely whitewash the military dictatorship era of the 20 century.