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Mint
24-05-2025
- Health
- Mint
93-year-old stuns social media with young looks, shares secrets to staying healthy: Netizens react, ‘Is she a vampire?'
At 93 years old, Lee Gil-ya has gone viral for looking much younger than her age. In a recent university video, the president of Gachon University in South Korea was seen sitting straight and speaking with energy and confidence. She spoke about the new AI and platform era and said Gachon University would be a top choice for students and companies. Viewers were amazed by her thick hair, glowing skin and youthful charm. Many online users couldn't believe she was 93. Some called her the 'youngest-looking person' in the country. 'I wouldn't believe it if someone told me she's 93,' came from another. Another Instagram user wrote, 'I wish to be that healthy, full of projects and lively and 93.' 'Is she a vampire?' quipped another. However, not everyone believes that her ageless beauty is all-natural. 'God knows how many procedures she is undergoing to look like this to have such a smooth and wrinkle free face. It's clearly she does not look like this using hidrating cream only. It's exaggerated and vampire legends were born in Transilvania, not in Joseon,' remarked one user. 'Botox?' another wondered. Born in 1932, Lee shared her beauty secrets in a past interview with Herald Business. She drinks at least 1.5 litres of water daily, replaces coffee with tea and uses humidifiers all the time around her house. Childhood memories of poor people dying without care inspired her to become a doctor. 'I don't drink or smoke, I maintain a regular routine and have been receiving regular laser treatment at the dermatology department of Gil Hospital for the past 10 years," she added. In an interview with Chosun Daily, Lee said her secret to staying young was doing simple things consistently on a daily basis. She also avoids stress and stimulants. Lee Gil-ya started her medical journey in 1951 at Seoul National University and graduated in 1957. She completed her internship in 1965 at Mary Immaculate Hospital, USA, and her residency at Queen's Hospital Center by 1968. Later, she earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Japan in 1977. Lee Gil-ya established Gil Medical Foundation and Gachon Medical University and currently serves as the president of Unified Gachon University. Over the years, she has held many leadership positions, including chairing various educational and cultural institutions. She has received multiple honorary doctorates for her contribution to medicine and education.
South China Morning Post
19-03-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Record rise in South Korea's foreign residents highlights wage and education challenges
South Korea reported a record high in the number of foreign residents, however many of these individuals are facing economic challenges, with a significant portion earning below the national average income and struggling with the rising costs of education for their children. Advertisement According to Statistics Korea, last year, 1.56 million foreign nationals aged 15 and older lived in the country. This reflected an increase of 130,000, or 9.1 per cent, from the previous year, marking the largest rise since 2012, according to Chosun Daily. The study, conducted in May 2024, surveyed 20,000 foreign nationals staying in South Korea for more than 91 days, focusing on their employment status, wages, and living conditions. About 50 per cent of the foreign residents earned 2 to 3 million won (US$1,374 to US$2,061) per month, and another 37.1 per cent received more than 3 million won monthly. Pedestrians cross a road in front of the Bank of Korea headquarters in Seoul. South Korea reported a record number of foreign residents last year, but many face economic struggles and education cost burdens amid rising living expenses. Photo: AFP According to the country's household survey, employees in South Korea earned an average of 3.330 million won per month as of November. Advertisement Additionally, the survey revealed that foreign residents tend to find educating their underage children burdensome, with 44 per cent reporting the problem, while 31.1 per cent did not view it as a challenge.
Voice of America
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Voice of America
N. Koreans' high casualties in Ukraine blamed on inexperience
North Korean troops that joined Moscow's forces about four months ago in Russia's border region of Kursk are estimated to have suffered considerable casualties in the war against Ukraine, which analysts attribute to their lack of front-line combat experience. Numbers from different sources vary, but more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers are believed to have died or been injured while fighting Ukrainian forces. The South Korean National Intelligence Service cited the figure in mid-January, breaking it down to at least 300 killed and another 2,700 wounded. In an interview published Monday by South Korea's Chosun Daily, Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence, said North Korean troops had suffered about 4,000 casualties. That would be one-third of the 12,000 North Korean soldiers who the U.S. in December estimated had been deployed to the Kursk region. A peace deal is being pushed by the Trump administration to end the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Frontal assaults "The North Korean military personnel fighting in the Kursk region are being used for frontal assaults without much military support such as artillery and armor and drones, against some of the very best Ukrainian forces," said Bruce Bennett, senior defense researcher at the Rand Corporation. "Many of the North Korean forces used by the Russians were trained to be special forces intended to penetrate into the enemy rear and operate there," he said. "Their North Korean training was not for frontal assaults, and they appear to not have been trained in Russia very well for such tactics, especially given the evolution of warfare to involve drones and other factors." If the Russians are using North Korean special operations forces as light infantry units, then "they are wasting their soldiers' lives" because they are not using the soldiers' special operations training, said David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy. If the Ukrainian forces are "employing effective combined arms maneuver with integrated fire support, they will inflict tremendous damage against frontal assaults," he said. Another reason for high casualties among North Korean troops could be "communications problems if they are working under the command of Russian forces," Maxwell said. "The language challenge hinders interoperability and the ability of the Russians to provide support" to the North Koreans. Many of the North Korean troops deployed to Russia are reportedly from the regime's elite special forces unit known as the 11th Corps of the Korean People's Army, also known as the Storm Corps. Headquartered in Tokchon, North Korea, the Storm Corps is trained to infiltrate and sabotage enemy operations and assassinate targets. North Korea began sending troops to Russia in October. Former U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the time that if the forces entered the war, it would be "a very, very serious issue" affecting not only Europe but also the Indo-Pacific region. The deployment of North Korean troops, in addition to the munitions the country had been sending to Russia since October 2023, represented an escalation of military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow and a dangerous expansion of Russia's war, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said in October. The same month, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun described North Korean troops as "mere cannon fodder mercenaries" for Russia's "illegal war of aggression." Russia has been using so-called meat-grinder tactics to fight Ukraine. The strategy involves mobilizing a large number of troops in a concentrated area of combat to bombard the enemy and break through its defenses. The attackers often suffer a high number of casualties. Escalation of conflict Ukrainian forces first reported encountering North Korean units on Nov. 5 in the Kursk region. Shortly afterward, Russia, reportedly using meat-grinder tactics, suffered a record number of casualties for the month. Russia suffered more than 2,000 casualties on Nov. 28 alone, which helped raise the average daily Russian casualties for the month to a new high of 1,523, according to the Institute for the Study of War, citing an analysis from the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense. Adding to the casualties are the lethal World War I-style combat tactics, such as heavy artillery bombardments and trench warfare, that have made a comeback in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Russians and North Koreans "are fighting in this horrible, almost World War I-style combat, where all sides, including the Ukrainians, are taking huge casualties" with "tons of artillery" and "missiles and rockets and tanks," said Bruce Bechtol, a professor focusing on East Asia and international security at Angelo State University in Texas. Since the start of the war, Russia is estimated to have incurred more than 860,000 casualties, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported Friday. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that more than 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and about 380,000 had been injured over that same period. Bechtol, a former intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency, said North Korean and Russian casualties could have been "exaggerated," and it might not be possible to assess exact figures, even after the war ends. In October, neither Moscow nor Pyongyang denied the possibility of North Korean troop deployment to Russia, nor did either fully acknowledge that North Korean soldiers were fighting Ukrainian forces. Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Korean troops in Russia reportedly told they're fighting South Korean forces
North Korean security services are telling their troops stationed in Russia's Kursk Oblast that they are fighting against both the Ukrainian and South Korean militaries, South Korean newspaper Chosun Daily reported, citing captured North Korean soldiers. Two North Korean prisoners of war, captured by Ukrainian forces last month, spoke exclusively to Chosun Daily at a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in Ukraine. One of the captives admitted that he and his fellow soldiers believed they were fighting South Korean troops, which heightened their morale and aggression. Each battalion, consisting of about 500 soldiers, was monitored by one or two officers from North Korea's State Security Ministry, one of the prisoners said. These officers oversaw ideological training and discipline. They reportedly informed their soldiers that Ukrainian drone operators were South Korean military personnel. Seoul has not provided military aid to Kyiv since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. Up to 12,000 North Korean troops were deployed to Kursk Oblast last fall to support Russian forces in countering a Ukrainian incursion launched in August 2024. Their journey to Russia took several months, with a group of 2,500 North Koreans departing on Oct. 10, 2024, traveling by train, then by plane, and finally by bus to Kursk, where they arrived in mid-December, according to one of the captives. The other captured soldier, a sniper trained for reconnaissance, said contact between North Korean troops and Russian forces was minimal, with interaction mainly occurring at the command level for ammunition, supplies, and equipment. President Volodymyr Zelensky previously reported that North Korean forces fighting for Russia had suffered 4,000 casualties, with two-thirds of the losses being soldiers killed. Ukraine's military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, attributed the high losses to North Korea's lack of combat experience and its use of human wave attacks with limited equipment. Ukraine's cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast in August 2024 initially seized 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of Russian territory. While Ukrainian forces have since lost roughly half that area due to Russian counterattacks, they recently advanced 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) in a renewed offensive. Read also: Ukraine refutes Putin's claims of Russian offensive from Kursk Oblast We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chinese construction risks turning the Yellow Sea into a flashpoint
China appears to be erecting structures in the Yellow Sea between China and the Korean peninsula. China's playbook for dominating neighbors includes island reclamation and maritime structures. The Yellow Sea is of historic importance to China, a former South Korea diplomat argues. With China's neighbors already nervous about its territorial ambitions, a new flashpoint has emerged between China and South Korea. China appears to be erecting structures in the Yellow Sea, located between China and the Korean peninsula. South Korea fears this could be a prelude to Beijing asserting sovereignty over the 150,000-square-mile body of water, which is rich in fish and has oil and gas deposits. This power play would have implications for the US. South Korean spy satellites detected the Chinese structure in December, according to the Chosun Daily, a South Korean newspaper. "The installation, a mobile steel framework exceeding 50 meters in diameter and height, was spotted in the disputed waters," the newspaper said. China erected two similar structures in 2024, eliciting South Korean protests. "China has reportedly described the structures as 'fishing support facilities,' dismissing concerns," the Chosun Daily noted. "South Korean officials believe China plans to install up to 12 such structures." To describe the situation as complicated would be an understatement. The Yellow Sea is in the exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, of both China and South Korea. Under international law, an EEZ allows nations to claim jurisdiction over economic resources out to 200 miles from their coastlines (at 4.3 million square miles, the US has the second-largest EEZ in the world after France). China has built islands to bolster its dubious claims to most of the South China Sea and challenged the EEZ rights of neighbors like the Philippines. Asked for comment on the sighted construction in the Yellow Sea, Liu Pengyu, a spokeman for the Chinese Embassy in the US, said "I am not aware of the specific situation, but as far as I know, China and the [Republic of Korea] are pushing forward negotiations on maritime delimitation and have established a dialogue and cooperation mechanism on maritime affairs. The two sides maintain sound communication on maritime issues." Not surprisingly, in a world where oceanic resources — such as oil and fish — are coveted like buried treasure, disputes over EEZs are not uncommon. In the Mediterranean, for example, Greece and Turkey are at odds over energy deposits. In this case, South Korea argues that the boundary between the conflicting EEZs should be drawn down the middle of the Yellow Sea. However, "China maintains that the maritime boundary should be proportional to its longer coastline and larger population," according to the National Bureau of Asian Research, a US think tank. In 2001, China and South Korea created the Provisional Measures Zone, or PMZ, which covers the area of their overlapping EEZs. In addition to delineating joint fishing rights and fisheries management, the PMZ also mandated that both nations would gradually restrict fishing to their respective EEZs. Instead, South Korea has long complained about Chinese vessels fishing in the Korean side, which has led to South Korean ships firing on Chinese fishermen. Were this simply a fishing dispute, the Yellow Sea might resemble the infamous "Cod Wars" between Britain and Iceland, which was an economic conflict rather than a shooting war. But Korea, and China's other neighbors, fear that Beijing is trawling for more than fish. Tensions between South Korea and China risk drawing in the US, which has a mutual defense pact with South Korea and bases 28,000 troops there. Erecting permanent maritime structures has become the calling card announcing Chinese claims to the Western Pacific. Most notorious are the artificial islands China has created in the South China Sea, which serve as air and naval bases to assert Beijing's claims to sovereignty over mineral-rich waters also claimed by Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations. These Chinese outposts spread like inkspots. For example, Beijing recently declared the waters around Scarborough Shoal — disputed reefs claimed by China and the Philippines — as territorial waters. In effect, these installations serve as the maritime equivalent of boots on the ground to assert a physical presence in an area. The Yellow Sea hasn't received as much global attention as flashpoints in the South China Sea, or China's simmering dispute over Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea. But the Yellow Sea is quite crucial to China, which is sensitive about its coastal areas, Sang Hun Seok, a former South Korean diplomat, argued in an essay for the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank. "From China's strategic point of view, solidifying its littoral defense and expanding the areas where it can enjoy freedom of action are critically important for its security," Sang Hun wrote. There is also a psychological sensitivity rooted in Chinese history over the last 200 years, in which China lost several wars and had its territory seized by colonial powers such as Great Britain, Japan and Russia. "Most critical battles in Northeast Asia since the 19th century — a period China sees as a brief deviation from its rightful historical trajectory — have been fought in the vicinity of the Yellow Sea," Sang Hun wrote. Unless South Korea and its allies can stop China from erecting outposts in the Yellow Sea, "the strategic balance in the region will ultimately shift in China's favor, leaving the allies' freedom of action restricted to a fraction of the Yellow Sea," Sang Hun warned. "This gradual shift would first weaken the defense posture for critical military assets along the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, gradually followed by Kyushu, Okinawa and ultimately Taiwan." Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn. Read the original article on Business Insider
