Latest news with #JejuIsland
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
South Korea's presidential candidates rally in final campaign stretch
Candidates running in South Korea's snap presidential election stage made a last push for votes on Monday, the eve of a poll triggered by the ex-leader Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law declaration. South Koreans are desperate to draw a line under six months of political turmoil sparked by Yoon's brief suspension of civilian rule in December, for which he was impeached and removed from office. All major polls put liberal Lee Jae-myung well ahead in the presidential race, with the latest Gallup survey showing 49 percent of respondents viewed him as the best candidate. Conservative Kim Moon-soo, from the People Power Party (PPP) -- Yoon's former party -- trailed Lee on 35 percent. Both candidates have framed the campaign as a fight for the soul of the nation. Lee is set to spend much of his final day of campaigning in his old stomping grounds of Gyeonggi Province -- where he previously served as governor and built much of his support base. He will then head to Seoul's Yeouido, where the "revolution of light began", according to his party -- a reference to a standoff between lawmakers and soldiers during the ill-fated martial law declaration. "From the place where the revolution of light began, we envision a future for South Korea, one that ends internal strife, overcomes insurrection, and emerges as a leading global economic power," a spokeswoman for Lee's Democratic Party said. Conservative Kim began his final campaign push from the southernmost tip of the country, Jeju Island, before making his way north and wrapping up in Seoul's hip Gangnam district where he is set to meet with young voters. Dominating the headlines of the last day of campaigning are allegations the Democratic Party fabricated an endorsement of Lee by veteran Singapore-based investor Jim Rogers. The Democratic Party said on Friday that Rogers described Lee as "a leader who can open a new chapter of peace, prosperity, and global leadership". But local media quoted him as telling them he had "not endorsed anyone in Korea ever", saying "Mr Lee is making things up". Rogers did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. - 'Dark campaign' - Despite the controversy, experts say Lee remains the strong favourite to win. "The presidential race has effectively become a contest between Lee Jae-myung and those rallying against him," Kang Joo-hyun, a political science professor at Sookmyung Women's University, told AFP. "The most recent polls show that Lee has consistently maintained a lead near or just below the majority threshold," she added. South Korea has entered a so-called "dark campaign period" -- meaning the results of public opinion polls are barred from being disclosed although pollsters are still conducting surveys. Over a third of voters have already cast their ballots, taking advantage of two days of early voting last week, according to the National Election Commission. The winner of the June 3 election takes office the following day on a single five-year term, with no transition period. hs/oho/hmn
South China Morning Post
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Actress Song Ji-hyo says ‘My mental strength broke down' making free diver documentary
Actress Song Ji-hyo takes on the challenge of becoming a haenyeo, a woman free diver who harvests seafood, on South Korea's Jeju Island in the JTBC-BBC joint documentary series Deep Dive Korea: Song Ji-hyo's Haenyeo Adventure. Advertisement In the three-part documentary, Song – best known for her appearance in Korea's longest-running variety show, Running Man – free dives alongside the veteran female divers with whom she shares a unique bond. Jeju's haenyeo culture, with a history dating back at least 400 years , was recognised for its unique cultural value and was listed as part of Unesco's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016. They are women who, even into their eighties, dive as deep as 20 metres (66 feet) without oxygen masks or modern equipment to collect shellfish to support both their families and their way of life. Recently, the Netflix series When Life Gives You Tangerines featured the story of the haenyeo, drawing significant public interest. The actress, whose aunt was a haenyeo, recalled the moment she received the project proposal. 'I immediately felt like it was meant for me. I wanted to do it so much that I hoped no one else would take it if I couldn't,' she said this week. Advertisement 'Even though I've been on Running Man for over 10 years, I wasn't finding much joy in the set, in acting or in my own life. I started to question whether I should keep acting in the same routine.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
APEC says 'concerned' over challanges to global trade
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group said Friday that it was "concerned" over the challenges to global trade, as ministers from APEC countries met in South Korea in the shadow of growing woes from US tariffs. Trade ministers from the top economies that make up APEC are meeting on South Korea's Jeju Island amid concerns for the global trading system since US President Donald Trump unveiled bombshell levies on most partners. The United States is a key APEC member and was represented by Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who held a series of bilateral meetings with nations eager to soften the blow of Washington's tariffs. "We are concerned with the fundamental challenges faced by the global trading system," trade ministers from the 21-member group said in a joint statement. They urged greater cooperation, saying they "remain committed" to APEC as a means of "bringing us together to address the economic challenges facing our region". South Korea's Minister for Trade, Cheong In-Kyo, said the joint statement was hard-won, with "significant differences" in positions clear early on in the talks. But at the last minute, the countries "dramatically" reached an agreement, he said, with the APEC emphasising the importance of global trading mechanisms such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as well as sustainable supply chains. This "sends a highly positive signal to global markets", he said, adding that "APEC members can work together to navigate the current highly uncertain global trade environment effectively". - No joint response to US - Cheong said there had been no discussion of "joint responses" to US tariffs, saying it was not possible as "each country faces significantly different circumstances". South Korea recorded a $66 billion trade surplus with the United States last year -- behind only Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan -- making it a key target of Trump's trade tirade. Highly dependent on exports, the country has been hit hard by the 25 percent tariffs on automobiles imposed by Trump in early April. The auto industry accounts for 27 percent of South Korea's exports to the United States, which takes in nearly half of the country's car exports. Trump announced additional "reciprocal" tariffs of up to 25 percent on South Korean exports last month, but later suspended them until early July. Seoul aims to leverage the talks with commitments to purchase more US liquefied natural gas (LNG) and offer support in shipbuilding, a sector in which South Korea is a leader, after China. Earlier Friday, Greer met Chung Ki-sun, the vice chairman of HD Hyundai, which owns South Korea's country's largest shipbuilding company. HD Hyundai said in a statement that discussions covered cooperation with US shipmaker Huntington Ingalls Industries. Greer is also set to meet the CEO of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean, which provides maintenance, repair and overhaul services for US Navy vessels. Shares of Hanwha Ocean rose nearly three percent on Friday morning, while HD Hyundai Heavy Industries gained as much as 3.6 percent. hs-jug/ceb/fox
Arab News
16-05-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Taiwan meets with US for tariff talks in South Korea
TAIPEI: The main Taiwan and U.S. trade representatives met in South Korea for trade negotiations, yielding optimism that further talks would lead to reduced U.S. tariffs on Taiwan exports, the island's Vice-Premier Cheng Li-chiun said on a news conference marking Premier Cho Jung-tai's first year in office, Cheng said chief Taiwan negotiator Jenni Yang reported "good bilateral talks" in which both sides shared expectations of future Taiwan-U.S. economic cooperation and continued talks Taiwan government confirmed in a statement that Yang met with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's trade meeting on Jeju Island."Taiwan is confident it can reach trade balance by increasing purchases from the U.S.," Cheng said, adding that the U.S. is now the top overseas investment destination for was facing U.S. import tariffs of 32% on its products under U.S. President Donald Trump's new tariff policies, before Trump paused the plan last month for 90 has since begun tariff talks with Washington, promising to purchase more U.S. goods and invest more in America to achieve more balanced trade.
The Guardian
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
South Korea's female freedivers: TV has made stars of the haenyeo but what is their real story?
There is an episode in the Netflix drama When Life Gives You Tangerines where a woman dives into the sea and brings back a catch of abalone (sea snails), which she says will feed her family. The woman is a haenyeo. Haenyeo, or 'women of the sea', have been recorded as far back as the 17th century and are unique to the island of Jeju in South Korea, where they fish sustainably, diving time and again on a single breath to bring back shellfish and seaweed. Yet the scene, set in the 1960s, simply wouldn't happen today, says Myeonghyo Go, a haenyeo who lives in the village of Iho-dong on Jeju. 'The seaweeds here are disappearing, and seaweed is the food for abalone. Because we don't have the seaweeds, we don't have abalone,' she says. Myeonghyo is not only a haenyeo, she is a citizen scientist and environmentalist. In her 40s, she represents the new generation of Korea's traditional divers and her mission is to change the way the women are seen by the outside world. Haenyeo are one of the country's most famous cultural exports, with Unesco officially inscribing their work on the representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity because of their focus on sustainability. Yet their future is at a crossroads. Most of them now are over 70, so the national government and the Jeju authorities are keen for a new generation to come forward. When the provincial government (Jeju is a self-governing province within Korea) made its application to Unesco it described how the haenyeo represent 'the island's character and people's spirit', yet Myeonghyo feels the resulting fascination with the haenyeo has not always been beneficial to the women's future. 'I feel uncomfortable when stories about the haenyeo are shared,' she says. 'They [those who are telling the stories] take everything that is really important out and only show certain aspects of our lives.' She adds: 'There is a famous haenyeo choir and if there's an official event they are often invited to sing nice songs. But the haenyeo tradition of singing together started from when things became tiring and difficult [during work]. So our songs are not joyous, per se, and what you are seeing is not really authentic.' The fascination with the haenyeo has peaked in the past few years as part of the frenzy over Korean culture, kicked off by the rise of K-pop. In 2022, another K-drama, Our Blues, also followed the lives of the sea women, and last year a documentary, The Last of the Sea Women, generated publicity for Apple TV. This month, the BBC will show the first programme it has made in Korea (in collaboration with broadcaster JTBC), Deep Dive Korea. It follows Korean model and actor Song Ji-hyo as she attempts to become a haenyeo. Myeonghyo wants to use the popularity of the haenyeo to create a school to educate people about ocean ecology and create a team of citizen scientists. 'When I feel we [the haenyeo] are being used, it used to make me feel quite lonely,' she says. 'Then I started to change my mind and think, can I use this interest to tell the real story instead? For me, that is a story that draws on a long tradition of protecting the weak, both in our community and in the natural world.' She says that the haenyeo have a tradition called halmeoni bada, which translates as Grandma ocean. It is a designated area of shallow water where the oldest haenyeo go and catch. 'So we have this way of caring for elderly people and the weak,' she says. 'And then we have communal diving days once or twice a month, where whatever we catch we divide equally between all the haenyeo, regardless of age or experience.' The haenyeo also work with the ocean when they fish, so they don't dive during a shellfish's breeding season, for example, but harvest seaweed instead. They also avoid catching conch if they are smaller than 7cm to give the species a chance to reproduce before being harvested. 'We survive on collecting and selling the seafood, but we are also protecting them,' she says. 'We show how humans and nature can coexist.' Myeonghyo volunteers with the Paran ocean citizen science centre, a relatively new local NGO that employs citizen science to document the changes in the seas around Jeju and uses the information to lobby the government for enhanced marine protection. She needed to be taught to dive with scuba gear to document the ocean flora, and since doing so says she has noticed large, hard corals appearing alongside Jeju's traditional soft corals. These are more typically found in tropical waters and have only started appearing in such numbers in the past five years when the water temperature around the south side of Jeju has risen markedly, reaching a new record high last year, according to data from the National Institute of Fisheries Science. The same area has also experienced a sharp decline in seaweed, outbreaks of jellyfish and green algae, and the melting of soft corals. Sanghoon Yoon, an adviser at Paran, whose mother was a haenyeo, says the older generation are not always keen to raise their voices about the environment. 'Yet the ocean is changing rapidly and they are the first ones to witness those changes and so when we go and talk to them on a one-to-one basis, they start to open their hearts more. My hope is that the younger generation will lead on this change in what the haenyeo stand for.' Before she can start on the rest of the world, however, Myeonghyo has a challenge to tackle closer to home – her mum. Sixty-nine-year-old Chunsuk Son became a haenyeo at 17, following in the footsteps of her mother, but she doesn't see why her daughter has to do the same. 'When I educated her, I wanted her to have a proper job like joining the civil service,' she says. 'We older women don't want our daughters to be haenyeo, but Myeonghyo keeps saying that she wants to be one in order to protect the ocean and to help to make where we live a better place. I know she has a different aim [as a haenyeo] and a different direction. In any case, she doesn't listen to me.' Additional reporting by Eunhae Grace Jung
