Pesticides ‘cost double the amount they yield’, study finds

written by YR November 30, 2021

According to a study published on Tuesday (30 November), the cost of pesticides may far outweigh the economic benefits.

At the same time, the sector makes about €900m in profits, and the study argues this is not an efficient way of spending agricultural funds.

“Tripling organic farms by 2030 would cost €1.85bn per year – less than the annual subsidies being spent on pesticides,” a group of researchers connected to BASIC wrote.

The study also mentions other costs to society that are used to benefit pesticide producers, including the big four – BASF, Bayer, ChemChina, Corteva – which represent 60 percent of global sales.

For example, the EU doles out €57.8bn in annual subsidies to maintain pesticide-reliant agricultural practices – or about half of the total EU budget.

A portion of this money ends up in the pockets of these companies.

Machinery, fertilisers, pesticides and hybrid/GMO varieties have also had beneficial effects. Global agricultural production has increased by 350 percent in the last 20 years.

This helped the pesticide industry reach an annual turnover of €53bn in 2020 – and the EU is one of the biggest consumer markets, with €12bn in sales to farmers in 2019.

However, the study states that the adverse effects on the environment, biodiversity, and human health potentially outweigh these gains.

It references earlier studies by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) that estimated the health cost of pesticides in the United States at around €1.3bn to €13bn annually.

And studies confirming suspicions that pesticides cause cancer, Parkinson’s or other diseases continue to mount.

In 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) also concluded there is “strong evidence” exposure to glyphosate can cause DNA damage.

The pesticide industry pays its EU lobbyists a collective €10m a year, but its message that pesticides are necessary to improve productivity is starting to attract criticism.

According to a Nature study,productivity in many crop-producing areas around the globe that use pesticides is going down.

Although there is no definitive proof connecting lower yields with pesticides, there are signs resistance against pesticides is rendering them less effective.

French president Emmanuel Macron has pledged to use its EU presidency in 2022 to work towards an accelerated phase-out of pesticides.

In its landmark farm-to-fork strategy, the European Union has set a target of a 50-percent reduction in pesticide use by 2030.

However, it is also set to renew authorisation of the weedkiller glyphosate next year, EUobserver reported.

The report strongly advises against renewal as an essential first step for the EU to reach its own sustainability goals.

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PYOTR VERZILOV, RUSSIAN ACTIVIST AND JOURNALIST, HAS BEEN ADDED TO RUSSIA’S WANTED LIST FOR HOLDING CANADIAN CITIZENSHIP

Pyotr Verzilov, 34, the publisher of the independent media website Mediazona, has been added to Russia’s wanted list.

According to the database, Pyotr is wanted “under an article of the Criminal Code.” Other details, including the article under which he faces charges are not provided.

His lawyer, Leonid Solovyov, has confirmed that his client’s name appeared on the wanted list on the Interior Ministry’s website over his alleged failure to report to authorities that he also holds Canadian citizenship.

“It didn’t happen today; Peter was put on the wanted list six months ago. This is connected to the criminal case of a second passport (Pyotr Verzilov is a citizen not only of Russia, but also of Canada), which was initiated against Verzilov in the summer of 2020. He himself is not in Russia at the moment,” Mediazona clarified.

Leonid Solovyov said that Pyotr Verzilov had never hidden his Canadian citizenship. Mediazona explained that Verzilov’s father lived in Canada, and he himself went to school there, after which he received his citizenship.

On September 29, 2021, Russian Ministry of Justice designated Mediazona as “foreign agent” along with over 20 individual journalists and rights activists. The Russian government uses the “foreign agents” designation to label what it perceives foreign-funded organizations engaged in political activity, as well as people linked to them.

On September 14, more than 150 Russian news agencies, NGOs, and charitable organizations launched a petition demanding the repeal of Russia’s “foreign agents” law.

Who is Pyotr Verzilov?

Pyotr Verzilov, 34, is a Russian-Canadian artist and activist, and the publisher of an independent news website Mediazona, which since 2014 has reported critically on the legal system and law enforcement practices in Russia.

Pyotr came to prominence as the unofficial spokesperson of the Russian feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot when he was arrested and jailed by the Russian state in 2012.Verzilov’s former wife Nadezhda Tolokonnikova is a member of Pussy Riot who staged a protest inside the Moscow Cathedral in February 2012. Later Tolokonnikova and two other members were sentenced to two years in prison for “hooliganism”.

On September 12, 2018, it was reported that Pyotr Verzilov was hospitalized in critical condition to a toxicological department of the Bakhrushin City Clinic in Moscow. On September 18, doctors at the German hospital said in a statement that it was “highly probable” that Pyotr had been poisoned.

Pyotr Verzilov has been sentenced to jail terms of between 10 and 20 days several times in recent years for taking part and organizing protest performances in Russia. Mediazona website focuses on news related to human rights, civil society, and the crackdown on dissent in Russia. Its editor-in-chief is Russian political journalist Sergey Smirnov.

[Editorial] Chun Doo-hwan: Gone but never to be forgiven

Efforts to rehabilitate Chun must not be tolerated

Rain drizzles on the Mangwol ceremony, the burial site of many of those killed during the 1980 massacre, on Tuesday, the day Chun Doo-hwan died. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

Posted on : Nov.24,2021 17:25 KST Modified on : Nov.24,2021 17:25 KST

Chun Doo-hwan, who was responsible for the massacre in Gwangju in May 1980, died at his home in the Yeonhui neighborhood of Seoul on Nov. 23, unapologetic and unremorseful until the very end. While it’s our practice and inclination to be somewhat magnanimous to the deceased, no sympathy can be felt for the death of the ringleader of a rebellion who seized power through a coup and butchered Koreans who tried to resist.

Chun’s junta, which took power in a coup on Dec. 12, 1979, smashed the “spring of democratization” in 1980 and crushed a movement for democracy in Gwangju that May with military force. Chun slaughtered innocent civilians to satisfy his lust for power. He committed crimes that history will never erase. Even after seizing power, he persisted in his pitiless tyranny, violating democracy and human rights and inflicting grievous pain on the public. He also kept cozy ties with Korea’s chaebol — family-owned conglomerates — and pocketed huge bribes from them.

Chun had several opportunities to repent before his death. But he continued making audacious excuses for his crimes and indulging in self-justification until his death. Not once did he exhibit the slightest trace of remorse.

When he was put on trial for sedition and for his role in the Gwangju massacre during the presidency of Kim Young-sam, he said that the Gwangju democracy movement had been “a scheme hatched by leftist groups” and he described the movement as an “insurrection” in his memoir, which was published in 2017. Chun slandered late Catholic priest Cho Pius — who testified to seeing government troops shooting at protesters from helicopters during the uprising — as being “Satan in disguise” and “a shameless liar.”

Chun is often compared to Roh Tae-woo, who passed away a month ago. But at least Roh offered an apology through his surviving family members, who reported that he’d “asked for forgiveness for his mistakes.”

Another point of contrast with Roh is that Chun didn’t pay the restitution he owed the government for 25 years. The prosecutors managed to seize 124.9 billion won (US$105.01 million) of his assets, but Chun still owed almost just as much — 95.6 billion won (US$80 million). When the prosecutors placed Chun’s home in Yeonhui neighborhood up for auction in an attempt to collect the rest of the money, Chun’s family members brazenly sued to stop the auction.

Chun’s wife, Lee Soon-ja, has earned her own share of public scorn. She claimed in her autobiography in 2017 that Chun’s responsibility for the massacre in Gwangju was a “political distortion of history” and made the wild claim prior to attending a court hearing in 2019 that “my husband is the father of democracy in the Republic of Korea.”

Throughout his life and until its very end, Chun committed crimes against the Korean people and history itself. It would be extremely inappropriate for government officials or politicians to convey their condolences or attend his wake, not to mention holding a state funeral for the man.

It’s regrettable that the Blue House nevertheless said on Tuesday, “We express our condolences for Chun Doo-hwan and express our sympathy to his bereaved family.” Officials added that there were “no plans to send flowers or pay respects at his wake” given Chun’s failure to offer “a sincere apology.” Even so, we consider the Blue House’s comments unfit for a butcher like Chun. The people who deserve our sympathy are the victims of the massacre in Gwangju and their bereaved family members, who never received a single word of apology from Chun.

There have recently been some regressive efforts to rehabilitate Chun. That apparently prompted Yoon Seok-youl, presidential candidate for the People Power Party (PPP), to remark that “many people say that Chun Doo-hwan was really good at politics aside from the coup and the events of May 1980” — a remark for which Yoon eventually apologized.

We must be cautious and alert about such efforts and must not tolerate them. Undeniably, the democratization of Korean society has continued since the protests of 1987 while surmounting a number of obstacles.

The PPP decided not to release an official statement on Chun’s death. Its cowardly silence is presumably motivated by concern for public opinion and its own hardcore supporters on the far right. Political groups that don’t fear history are no more than special interest groups representing their supporters. The essence of a conservative party is prioritizing public safety above all else. With its current attitude, the PPP won’t be able to break out of the confines of a reactionary party.

With the consecutive deaths of Roh Tae-woo and Chun Doo-hwan, the era of military dictatorship in Korea has at last receded into the past. In effect, Korea has turned a page in its history.

Even so, we must keep trying to learn the full truth about the massacre in Gwangju. That includes determining who ordered the martial law troops to fire the first shots at Gwangju Station at 10:30 pm on May 20, 1980, and to fire the first volleys in front of South Jeolla Provincial Office at 1 pm on May 21, as well as identifying the missing people whose fate remains unknown and finding and recovering the bodies of the victims.

Our failure to uncover more about what happened on that day 41 years ago should have us hang our heads in compunction before Gwangju’s victims, before those like Park Jong-chul and Lee Han-yeol who died in the struggle for democracy, and before history itself. In the tribunal of history, there is no statute of limitations.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

Witness to history and survivor of Gwangju Uprising dies on same day as Chun Doo-hwan

Lee Gwang-yeong dedicated his life to uncovering the truth of the Gwangju Uprising and its brutal suppression, and took the witness stand in 2019 in the case against Chun for defaming the dead

Lee Gwang-yeong, pictured here, testified to witnessing a military helicopter opening fire on civilians during the democratic popular uprising in Gwangju, May 1980. (Hankyoreh archive photo)

Posted on : Nov.25,2021 

Sighs of disbelief could be heard among those gathered at the wake of Lee Gwang-yeong, 68, in the Buk District of Gwangju on Wednesday.

“He’d fought his whole life against Chun Doo-hwan, and now he’s left us. God only knows how hard that was,” one of the visitors said.

Lee’s body had been found the day before in a reservoir in Gangjin County, South Jeolla Province, the place where he’d been born. Before his death, he wrote a short note on a piece of paper in his home in Iksan, North Jeolla Province. Considering that Lee drove himself to Gangjin, the police concluded that he had died by suicide.

Lee had been paralyzed from the waist down — the result of being shot in the spine by government troops sent to suppress the Gwangju Uprising in 1980.

“The last time we spoke on the phone was a week ago, so I was really shocked to hear the news yesterday. He’d always been in a lot of physical and mental pain, and then this,” said Lee Ji-hyeon, inaugural chairperson of an association for people injured in the Gwangju massacre.

“My brother had been in so much pain [recently] that he’d become dependent on painkillers,” said Lee Gwang-seong, 61-year-old younger brother to Gwang-yeong. “I think he went down this path because of his personality — he never wanted to be a burden on others.”

It’s presumed that Lee Gwang-yeong passed away around midnight on Tuesday. After Chun Doo-hwan died at 9 am that very morning, survivors of the Gwangju massacre drew attention to the tragic fate connecting the two.

Lee, then a Buddhist monk who went by Jingak, was on his way to Jeungsim Temple, near Gwangju, on May 19, 1980, when he took part in the uprising. He was helping transport injured people to the hospital on May 21 when he was struck in the spine by a bullet fired by the martial law troops.


Lee Gwang-yeong emceed the wedding of Lee Ji-hyeon, the inaugural president of an association of those injured during the Gwangju Uprising, in 1983. (provided by Lee Ji-hyeon)

During his hospital stay, Lee returned to secular life and started a family. He ran a comic book shop and supplied food to schools.

Lee played an active role in bringing to light the truth of the Gwangju Uprising and the slaughter of protesters. He helped set up the association for the injured in 1982 and testified in the Gwangju hearings at the National Assembly in 1988.

Along with late Catholic priest Rev. Cho Pius, Lee was one of the major figures who testified that martial law troops had fired on protesters from helicopters during the massacre. He was the first witness to testify in Chun’s first trial on charges of defaming the dead in May 2019.

“I was riding in a military jeep around 2 pm on May 21, 1980, when I witnessed helicopter gunfire while we were passing the roundabout at the Wolsan neighborhood in the Nam District of Gwangju,” he said.

Kang Seong-won, 59, one of the founding members of the association for the injured, had been close to Lee over the years. “He threw himself into the cause of uncovering the truth of the massacre and of bringing democracy [to Korea]. It’s so unfair to think he left us because he couldn’t bear the pain while Chun got to pass so peacefully.”

Almost every year, more massacre survivors end their lives, a troubling indication of the physical pain and psychological trauma they have suffered. Chung Byeong-gyun, who had been living alone, was found dead in September 2020.

According to a paper published in June by Kim Myeong-hee, a professor of sociology at Gyeongsang National University, 46 massacre survivors died by suicide between 1980 and 2019.

By By Kim Yong-hee, Gwangju correspondent
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

“It tears me up inside”: Mother of teen gone missing in Gwangju massacre reflects on death of Chun Doo-hwan

The city of Gwangju has recognized 84 people as having gone missing during the events of May 1980 in Gwangju

Kim Jin-deok, whose son went missing during the Gwangju Uprising. (provided by Kim Jin-deok)

Posted on : Nov.25,2021 

“My only wish is to find even a sliver of my son’s bones before I die… It tears me up inside to think that that man, Chun Doo-hwan, could just croak on us like that without so much as a single word.”

Kim Jin-deok, 77, who lives in Goheung County, South Jeolla Province, sighed with exasperation during a phone conversation with the Hankyoreh on Wednesday.

Kim’s son, Im Ok-hwan, set out from the temple where he’d been staying with friends to return to his home in Goheung in May 1980, while the Gwangju Uprising and its bloody suppression was underway. Im, who was a 17-year-old student in his second year of high school at the time, was never heard from again.

“After hearing about the trouble in Gwangju in May of 1980, I would speak on the phone with Ok-hwan every day. On the evening of May 19, Ok-hwan said to me, ‘Mom, I’m fine — don’t worry about me.’ That was our last phone call,” she recalled.

No longer able to reach her son on the phone, Kim headed to Gwangju on May 22. The bus only took her as far as Hwasun County, meaning she had to walk the rest of the way.

When she reached the temple where Im had been staying, Kim was told her son had left on May 21, apparently headed home. Upon hearing that, Kim collapsed on the spot.

Kim roamed through the hill behind Chosun University, the direction her son would have been heading, but she couldn’t find any traces of him. She walked around Gwangju until her feet were blistered, stopping by Chonnam National University Hospital and Chosun University Hospital, but her son was nowhere to be seen.

Assuming that Im was dead, the family prepared burial garments for him and returned to Gwangju on June 2. Neighbors joined the family in searching for him. They visited the Sangmugwan army gymnasium near the old South Jeolla Provincial Office where the bodies of the dead had been stored, but by the time they arrived, the bodies had already been moved elsewhere.

Im Ok-hwan, who went missing during the Gwangju Uprising in May of 1980

 (provided by the May 18th National Cemetery)

The family and friends returned to the slopes of the hill behind Chosun University. The troops enforcing martial law refused to give them permission to access the area, but the police let them in after learning the circumstances. They found items left behind by the troops — including soju bottles, bread wrappers, and truncheons — but nothing that could tell them what had become of Im. They tried digging with their bare hands, wondering if the teenager had been given a shallow burial, but failed to find anything.

Later, one of Im’s friends who had been staying at the temple told Kim that they’d been crossing the hill when they heard gunshots. The group had scattered at that point, and that was the last they saw of Im.

Im’s father, Im Jun-bae, became president of a group of family members of those who disappeared in the massacre in Gwangju, and Kim’s family members traveled to Gwangju, Seoul, and other areas along with bereaved families of massacre victims asking people to help find Kim’s son. But each time, a township official who was assigned to monitor Kim’s family stopped her from going. In Kim’s eyes, that official was just as bad as Chun Doo-hwan himself.

Researchers of the Gwangju Uprising think that Im’s disappearance may be linked to the 7th Airborne Brigade, which was deployed to Gwangju to suppress the uprising. When civic resistance stiffened after troops fired into a crowd of protesters in front of the old South Jeolla Provincial Office on May 21, 1980, government troops drew a cordon around the city to isolate it from the outside world.

On the afternoon that Im went missing, the 872 enlisted soldiers and officers in the 7th Airborne Brigade, which had been stationed at Chosun University, moved across the hill behind the university to Neoritjae, a hill on the boundary between Gwangju and Hwasun. That overlapped with the route presumably taken by Im as he headed toward Hwasun on foot.

Kim says that all she wants is to find her son’s remains and bury them in a sunny spot. “My husband often laments that he probably won’t even find Ok-hwan’s bones before he dies. It makes me furious to think that powerless people like us are living with such pain while Chun Doo-hwan gets to die in comfort.”

The city of Gwangju recognized a total of 84 people as having disappeared during the Gwangju massacre. Six of them were identified when the bodies of victims were moved to a different cemetery in 2001, but the whereabouts of the other 78 remain unknown. For those who went missing without friends or family, hardly any information has yet to be ucovered.

By Kim Yong-hee, Gwangju correspondent
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

[Photo] A belly full of plastic

Members of Greenpeace Korea staged a protest Thursday calling on food manufacturers to reduce their use of plastic

Activists with Greenpeace Korea stage a protest in front of the offices of Lotte Chilsung Beverage in Seoul’s Songpa District on Thursday, calling on food manufacturers to cut their use of plastic packaging. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

Posted on : Nov.25,2021 

The environmental advocacy group Greenpeace Korea staged a protest in front of the offices of several food manufacturers on Thursday, calling on the companies to reduce the amount of plastic they use.

Activists with Greenpeace Korea stage a protest in front of the offices of Lotte Chilsung Beverage in Seoul’s Songpa District on Thursday, calling on food manufacturers to cut their use of plastic packaging. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

The protest took place in front of the offices of Lotte Chilsung Beverage in Seoul’s Songpa District. To illustrate the gravity of plastic pollution, protesters cut open a model of a fish to reveal that it was full of various plastic bottles, instant food containers, and a variety of other single-use disposable items. One protester held up a placard reading, “With nowhere else to go, the only answer for plastic is to reduce its use.”

The protesters said that as food manufacturers continue to contribute to the mass production and consumption of single-use plastic packaging, plastic continues to make its way into the ground and water, where it pollutes ecosystems.


Greenpeace Korea activists open up a large model fish to reveal its stomach full of plastic waste.

 (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

By Kim Hye-yun, staff reporter
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

BTS makes history as first Asian act to win top honor at AMAs

The K-pop juggernaut walked away from Sunday’s awards with trophies for Artist of the Year, Favorite Pop Song and Favorite Pop Duo/Group

BTS takes the stage at the 2021 American Music Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles after winning Artist of the Year. (Reuters/Yonhap News)

Posted on : Nov.23,2021 

“Four years ago, we gave this first-time ever TV live performance on this stage, the AMAs [American Music Awards],” said BTS leader RM on Sunday evening as the group became the first Asian act in history to receive the Artist of the Year prize at the 2021 American Music Awards (AMAs) during this year’s ceremony in Los Angeles

“It was [a performance of the song] ‘DNA.’ We were, like, too excited and nervous at the time. It’s been a long and amazing ride since then, but nobody could have ever bet on the odds of us standing here receiving this award — except y’all, Army,” he continued.

BTS captured three of the top awards at the ceremony that evening, including Favorite Pop Song and Favorite Pop Duo/Group in addition to Artist of the Year. The AMAs are considered one of the US’ top three popular music award ceremonies, alongside the Grammys and Billboard Music Awards.

The competition for Artist of the Year was as fierce as it has ever been. To win the honor, BTS beat out US pop star Taylor Swift — the most honored artist in the history of the awards with 32 prizes to date — along with such big names as Ariana Grande, Olivia Rodrigo, Drake and The Weeknd.

“We just wanted to make people happy with our music,” BTS member Jungkook said in his acceptance speech.

“We believe that this opens up the beginning of our new chapter. In the past few years, we learned that each and every moment is precious.”

BTS poses for photos with the three trophies they won during the 2021 AMAs, in Los Angeles on Sunday. (Reuters/Yonhap News)

BTS has now won awards at four straight AMAs dating back to 2018. The group has won the Favorite Pop Duo/Group award for three years running. It has also set a record by winning in every category where it has been nominated to date.

As RM indicated in his acceptance speech, the AMAs were where BTS made its US television debut. The group introduced itself to US viewers with a performance of their song “DNA” at the ceremony in 2017.

It was the same year that BTS made its debut on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with the same track, which peaked at No. 67.

Four years later in 2021, BTS topped the chart for 10 weeks with its song “Butter” and reached the top spot with its follow-up “Permission to Dance” and their collaboration with Coldplay, “My Universe.”

With the AMAs victory, the group has finally snagged a top prize at one of the top three popular music award ceremonies four years after its US debut. Analysts see this as a sign that BTS hasn’t just succeeded in the world’s pop capital — it has established itself as the world’s top pop act.

“Over the past few years, the US music industry has been trying to use BTS to invigorate the industry as a whole, and now BTS has become the very face of the US music industry,” said popular music critic Kim Young-dae.

“This award marks the zenith of the 20-year history of ‘global K-pop,’” he said.

Since 2006, the AMAs have selected winners by popular vote rather than expert ballots. This year’s results appear to be an especially strong reflection of Gen Z members voting by way of TikTok, one of the most popular social media platforms in the US today.

“The AMAs select [winners] entirely through fan voting, so this award is very symbolic in terms of popular appeal,” Kim said.


BTS performs with Coldplay on Sunday evening in Los Angeles at the 2021 AMAs. (Reuters/Yonhap News)

Park Sun-hwa, who operates a YouTube channel out of the US, said, “The fact that a Korean act won a top award at one of the US’ top three awards ceremonies in the US itself— the toughest music industry around — is a source of great strength and courage to us Koreans.”

“They won the ‘hat trick of hope,’ giving us a sense of pride in Korean DNA,” she added.

Park also said, “While the award itself is important, it’s also very symbolic that [BTS] broke the glass ceiling in a powerful country like the US.”

“BTS shows that if you have the talent, you can overcome [barriers of] race and nationality,” Park said.

Lee Jeong-yoon, a senior at the University of California, Los Angeles, said, “It’s amazing that a Korean act is producing notable results at major award ceremonies, but it also feels like something we’re getting more and more used to.”

“It felt like a lot of my US friends liked BTS, but this trifecta of awards really drives home how popular K-pop is,” Lee said.

The AMAs are also seen as something of a dry run for the 64th Grammy Awards, which take place on Jan. 31 of next year. Grammy nominees are scheduled to be announced Tuesday.

At the 2020 Grammys in March, BTS became the first Korean act nominated in the category of Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, although it did not end up winning.

Kim Young-dae said, “It looks possible that [BTS] could be nominated for one of the top four Grammys, and it may well win in the genre category of Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.”

By Jung Hyuk-june, staff reporter
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

Former US special envoy calls 30 years of US policy on N. Korea a failure

The comment came during a session at the 17th Hankyoreh-Busan International Symposium 

Chairman of the Hankyoreh Foundation for Reunification and Culture Moon Chung-in (center and right) speaks with former US special envoy for the North Korean nuclear issue Robert Gallucci on Wednesday at the 17th Hankyoreh-Busan International Symposium held at Westin Josun Busan Hotel in Busan’s Haeundae District. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

Posted on : Nov.18,2021 

The 17th Hankyoreh-Busan International Symposium, organized under the title “Reflection and Innovation for Sustainable Peace on the Korean Peninsula,” kicked off Wednesday at the Westin Josun Busan Hotel in Busan’s Haeundae District.

The two-day event is jointly organized by Busan Metropolitan City and the Hankyoreh Foundation for Reunification and Culture. Participants focused their attention on examining why the progress seemingly made with peace on the peninsula has been repeatedly frustrated, while exploring avenues for future change.

Robert Gallucci, a former US State Department special envoy on the North Korean nuclear issue, took part via videoconference to deliver a keynote presentation and take part in a special conversation with Moon Chung-in, chairman of the Hankyoreh Foundation for Reunification and Culture.

In his remarks, Gallucci described the last 30 years of US policy on North Korea as a failure, adding that the US’ insistence on North Korea’s complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization was realistically unfeasible.

He also stressed the need for the US to understand North Korea’s motives for developing nuclear weapons and to pursue negotiations with patience.

Moon attributed the failure of the US’ North Korea policies to a “failure to properly motivate North Korea.”

“The assumption in Washington that North Korea ‘possesses nuclear weapons for the purpose of a communist reunification [of the Korean Peninsula] is a faulty analysis,” he said.

In a welcome address Wednesday, Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon said he looked forward to the symposium as “an occasion for seeking out ideas for Busan to play a role in and work together on peace and shared prosperity as a base for Eurasian cooperation and business, while focusing attention on the bid for Busan to host the Expo 2030 world fair.”

In a congratulatory address, South Korean Minister of Unification Lee In-young referred to a declaration officially ending the Korean War as a “wise solution that would be both a driving force for real peace on the Korean Peninsula and a catalyst for dialogue among South and North Korea and the US.”

Sin Sang-hae, chairperson of the Busan Metropolitan Council, stressed that peace on the Korean Peninsula and in East Asia was a “matter of intense interest for Busan, which has lofty dreams of serving as a gateway to the Eurasian continent.”

In a congratulatory address, CEO of the Hankyoreh newspaper Kim Hyun-dae said that the newspaper would “open up a forum for public discussion toward a world of peace.”

The first session of the symposium that day focused on the topic “Trio of Discontent: Why Peace Hasn’t Come to the Korean Peninsula.” It featured presentations by Li Tingting, professor at Peking University; Chin Hee-gwan, professor at Inje University; and Jenny Town, director of the 38 North website.

The symposium’s second session focused on the topic “A Triangle of Hope: How to Achieve Peace on the Korean Peninsula.” Participants included co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies John Feffer and Suh Jae-jung, professor of political science and international relations at the International Christian University in Tokyo.

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

What the US, China mean by maintaining the status quo on Taiwan

Maintaining the status quo on Taiwan is a win-win for the US and China, so why are they continuing to fight over it?

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping discuss Taiwan during a virtual summit held on Nov. 15. (EPA/Yonhap News)

Posted on : Nov.28,2021 

Despite being a hotspot in today’s rivalry between the US and China, Taiwan was the last territory to be incorporated into China. The island officially came under the rule of the Qing Dynasty in 1683, after the complete suppression of Koxinga, who ruled one of the last remnants of Ming China. Koxinga — the better-known moniker of Zheng Chenggong — launched his resistance against Qing invaders on China’s southeastern coast. He eventually moved to Taiwan and established a fiefdom that was later subjugated by armies sent by the Qing.

Until that time, Taiwan had never even been given a formal name in China. The island’s incorporation into China at the hands of Koxinga and its subsequent arrival on the stage of world history is tied to the Western powers’ encroachment upon Asia that began in the 15th century. Early on, the Ming Dynasty launched treasure voyages under Adm. Zheng He that had gone as far as the eastern coast of Africa, but China abruptly halted those journeys and instituted a “sea ban” on maritime activities

A refuge for defeated forces

That effectively left the seas of East Asia without an owner. When the Portuguese opened a sea route to Asia around the Cape of Good Hope, therefore, they managed to travel as far as Japan within 50 years and began to gain maritime supremacy. When the Portuguese stumbled upon Taiwan en route to Japan, they named it Formosa — a name that stuck in the West until World War II. Later, the Dutch East India Company established and administered a colony on the coast of Taiwan until they were pushed out by Koxinga.

Koxinga’s forces were among the various non-state powers to operate in the waters of East Asia after the Ming Dynasty surrendered supremacy with its ban on maritime activities. A substantial portion of the wealth of the southeastern coast of China — which had been the center of the Chinese economy since the Song Dynasty — had been based in sea trade. These non-state maritime powers collaborated with the Wokou pirates from Japan to dominate smuggling and other kinds of informal maritime trade.

The Japanese invasions of Korea in the late 16th century, during the fading days of the Ming Dynasty, showcased how Japan had been strengthened by its trade with the European powers. The Wokou emerged as a byproduct of that. While these pirates were the epitome of a non-state maritime power, Koxinga was their apotheosis. The nature of those forces was illustrated by the fact that Koxinga himself was born to a Japanese woman and grew up in Japan.

Now China faced another geopolitical challenge in addition to unifying and stabilizing the Central Plains, inhabited by the Han people, and creating a buffer region in the areas to the west and north — Xinjiang, Mongolia, Manchuria and Tibet — that were home to peoples who had threatened the security of the Central Plains since long ago. The latest challenge was cordoning off the southeastern coast. Over time, that became China’s most critical geopolitical challenge, with Taiwan at its heart.

After Japan completed its partial colonization of China with its victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, it made a point of forcing China to cede Taiwan to it.

The leadership of the US navy — including Adm. Chester Nimitz, who led the US to victory in the Battle of Midway and tipped the scales toward US victory in the Pacific War — called for advancing as far as Okinawa after the adoption of the “island-hopping” strategy that aimed to circumvent Japanese forces stationed throughout the Pacific Ocean. They selected Taiwan as the staging ground for the assault on the Japanese home islands that would be launched from Okinawa.

In contrast, the US army under Gen. Douglas MacArthur was determined to push north against the Japanese military and retake the Philippines. That was a matter of personal honor for MacArthur since the Japanese had pushed the US Army Forces in the Far East out of the Philippines and all the way to Australia. MacArthur gained control of the American war machine toward the end of the war, meaning the US military didn’t station troops in Taiwan.

In an echo of history, the Chinese Nationalists, also known as the Kuomintang, retreated to Taiwan, just as Koxinga had done long before, following their defeat on the mainland by the Communists in the Chinese Civil War. If American troops had been stationed in Taiwan at the time, it would likely have added a disturbing wrinkle to subsequent conflict in East Asia. Consider that when MacArthur’s troops were being pushed back by the Chinese in the Korean War, he advocated not only bombing Manchuria but also mobilizing Taiwanese forces to invade southeastern China.

After the US and Taiwan signed a mutual defense treaty in 1954, following the Korean War, mainland China continued to incite crises in the Taiwan Strait that have occasionally flared up until the present. In the First Taiwan Strait Crisis, China drove ROC troops from the Tachen Islands, off the coast of China, and repeatedly bombarded the Kinmen and Matsu islands.

China provoked the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1958 by again bombarding the Kinmen Islands. That crisis could have led to all-out war: the US threatened to drop the A-bomb on China and deployed the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet to the region.

China regularly shelled Kinmen until establishing diplomatic relations with the US in 1979, with the action becoming a kind of military ritual. When Lee Teng-hui, an advocate for Taiwanese independence, was elected president of Taiwan in 1996 — at a time when the US and China were on good terms — China brought about the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis by test-launching missiles in the strait.

Through that military ritual, China reasserted its sovereignty over Taiwan and indicated its willingness to wage all-out war. China’s military ritual has recently evolved into incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. Chinese jet fighters have made nearly 200 such incursions this year alone.

If the shelling of Kinmen symbolized China’s ground forces, the incursions into Taiwan’s air defense zone showcase China’s air and sea power and its maritime supremacy.

Taiwan was a key point of contention when the US and China were establishing diplomatic relations. One reason the process took so long was because of China’s claims about the status of Taiwan. When Richard Nixon abruptly visited China in 1972, Mao Zedong dodged questions about Taiwan, saying the issue could be discussed “in a hundred years.”

That’s how the US and China were able to agree to the “status quo” approach of maintaining Taiwan’s current status while the US also agreed to the principle of “One China,” which defines Taiwan as being part of China.

Maintaining status quo on Taiwan means different things to US, China

Taiwan currently plays a key role in the supply chain for China, which is the workshop of the world.

Foxconn, which manufactures iPhones, and TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, are Taiwanese companies that largely operate in the Chinese market. The major distribution companies operating in China are based in Taiwan, too.

Maintaining the status quo in Taiwan is essential for the international community — including China, Taiwan and the US.

While Biden and Xi did not mince words regarding their positions on Taiwan during their first virtual summit on Nov. 15, they basically emphasized maintaining the status quo in Taiwan. Biden said the US holds to the principle of “One China” and firmly opposes unilateral action that would change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.

Xi responded that China will patiently strive for “peaceful reunification” but will be forced to take “resolute measures” if Taiwanese independence forces provoke China or “cross the red line.”

The US and China were warning each other not to upset the status quo on Taiwan. “We need to establish some commonsense guardrails,” Biden said.

The White House explained that a guardrail would be set up to preserve responsible competition. The guardrail between the US and China means maintaining Taiwan’s de facto independence under the “One China” principle.

Considering that maintaining the status quo on Taiwan is a win-win game for everyone, conflict over Taiwan would seem irrational. But history shows that countries often disobey the dictates of reason.

While confrontation between the US and China may be inevitable, the two countries need to maintain the guardrail and avoid crossing each other’s red lines. The reason they’re wrangling over Taiwan even while both talk about maintaining the status quo there is because of Taiwan’s great geopolitical value.


By Jung E-gil, senior staff writer
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

S. Koreans over 60 are living in deficit, pointing to more people delaying retirement


Figures published by Statistics Korea show that Koreans start to earn more than they spend at age 28, but that by age 60, they were back in the red

People make their way across a crosswalk in central Seoul’s Gwanghwamun on Thursday morning. (Yonhap News)

Posted on : Nov.26,2021

South Koreans start living in the black at the age of 28, peaking at age 41, then fall back into the red at 60, government figures show.

The 2019 national transfer accounts, published by Statistics Korea on Thursday, show that in terms of per capita life cycle, spending exceeded labor income for Koreans from birth to age 27. There was a large deficit between the ages of 6 and 17 because of educational expenses, with the biggest deficit occurring at 17 (34.37 million won).

At the age of 28, labor income begins to overtake spending, with Koreans making the most labor income at the age of 41 (36.38 million won, or US$30,500) and reporting the biggest livelihood surplus at the age of 44 (15.94 million won).

Spending regains the lead over income once individuals reach the age of 60. Individuals’ livelihood deficit is around 15 million won in the 70s and nears 20 million won in the 80s. As people gradually push back retirement, the age when surplus switches to deficit was also delayed one year, from 59 in 2018.

National transfer accounts form a dataset of age-based spending and labor income for all Koreans that is used to identify the surplus and deficit structure of economic activity for each age group. The national transfer accounts were first published in January 2019, reflecting 2015 data, with the 2016 data coming out that December. The 2017 data was released in December 2020, and now the 2018 and 2019 datasets have been released together.

In 2018, the livelihood surplus period lasted from the age of 27 to 58, with both labor income and livelihood surplus maxing out at the age of 45.

In 2019, the life cycle deficit amounted to a total of 132.9 trillion won (US$111 billion). That figure is found by subtracting labor income (969.8 trillion won) from spending (1.1 quadrillion won) over the life cycle. Labor income (4.9%) increased more than spending (4.6%) year over year. Among different categories of labor income, wage income rose 5.4%, to 928.06 trillion, while labor income among the self-employed decreased 6.0%, to 41.77 trillion won.

By age group, the working age population (aged 15 to 64) had a net outflow of 131.7 trillion won because labor income earners are the ones who shoulder the burden of taxes and contributions to social security programs. Children (aged 14 and below) and the elderly (aged 65 and above) had a net inflow of 147.5 trillion won and 117.1 trillion won, respectively, given the child subsidies, educational services, and basic pension they receive.

Private sector transfers, including gifts and inheritance, amounted to a net outflow of 99.9 trillion for the working age population and a net inflow of 77.5 trillion won for children and 16.5 trillion won for the elderly. Private sector transfers to children (77.5 trillion won) were greater than public sector transfers (71.3 trillion won).

In contrast, the elderly received more in public sector transfers (76.1 trillion won) than in private sector transfers (16.5 trillion won). That’s because government welfare programs play a bigger role in elder care than families and the private sector, Statistics Korea explained.


By Lee Jeong-hun, staff reporter
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

Hot on TSMC’s heels, Samsung Electronics picks Taylor, Texas, for new foundry location

Samsung Electronics will be investing US$17 billion into the new foundry, which is set to open in 2024

Samsung Electronics’ corporate offices in Seoul’s Seocho District. (Hankyoreh archive photo)

Posted on : Nov.25,2021 

Samsung Electronics has selected Taylor, Texas, as the site of its new semiconductor fabrication plant. Samsung will be pouring US$17 billion into the factory to help strengthen its foundry division, which has long been regarded as a weak point at the company.

Four reasons for choosing Taylor

Samsung announced the decision in a press conference at the Texas governor’s mansion on Tuesday that was attended by Gov. Greg Abbott, US Senator John Cornyn, and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and CEO Kim Ki-nam. Work will begin on the new factory in the first half of next year with the goal of beginning operations in the second half of 2024. The factory will be used to manufacture system semiconductors in 5G, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence (AI).

Along with Taylor, the city of Austin was Samsung’s other major contender for the factory site. The main reason the company mentioned for choosing Taylor was synergy with other facilities. The lot in Taylor, which covers close to 2 square miles, is about 15 miles away from another Samsung plant in Austin, Texas. In effect, the two factories will be linked by a drive of 20-30 minutes.

“The decision to invest in Taylor was based on multiple factors, including the local semiconductor ecosystem, infrastructure stability, local government support and community development opportunities,” the company said, adding that “the proximity to Samsung’s current manufacturing site in Austin [. . .] allows the two locations to share the necessary infrastructure and resources.”

Another major consideration for Samsung was the fact that several major buyers of system semiconductors, including Tesla, Dell and AT&T, are also based in Texas. Since system semiconductors tend to be produced in small-quantity batches, communication with clients is a big part of a company’s competitiveness. The proximity of Texas Tech University will also help the company recruit talented workers.

Samsung’s selection of the factory site was also influenced by the benefits offered by the city government. “Taylor had offered incentives that include the equivalent of property-tax breaks of up to 92.5% for the first 10 years,” The Wall Street Journal reported the day before.


Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (left) and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kim Ki-nam (right) shake hands at a press conference held at the governor’s residence in Texas on Tuesday. (provided by Samsung Electronics)

In pursuit of TSMC

Samsung Electronics’ new factory will give it a leg up in the foundry market, where the company has been seen as underperforming. Once the third line is completed in Pyeongtaek in the second half of next year and the new factory in Taylor goes online in 2024, Samsung will have gained the production capacity to compete for supremacy with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. As of the second quarter, TSMC was the No. 1 firm in the industry, with a 52.9% market share, while Samsung Electronics was at 17.3%.

In effect, these calculations were what Lee Jae-yong had in mind when he promised to make Samsung the global leader in the foundry sector by 2030 while announcing the company’s “Semiconductor Vision 2030” in April 2019.

In a similar context, Samsung Electronics and TSMC are locked in a fierce battle for technological supremacy. Samsung announced in the Samsung Foundry Forum 2021 last month that it will be introducing a 3-nanometer production line based on gate-all-around (GAA) technology in the first half of next year. Industry analysts said that Samsung was seeking to emphasize that it has as much as a six-month technological advantage over TSMC, which plans to launch a 3-nanometer production line based on current FinFET technology in the second half of next year.

Meanwhile, TSMC is currently spending US$12 billion on a new factory in Arizona that’s supposed to open in 2024. The Taiwanese company also plans to set up a joint venture with Sony and invest US$7 billion on the construction of a production facility in Kumamoto Prefecture with enthusiastic support from the Japanese government.


By Sun Dam-eun, staff reporter
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

SOUTH KOREA
[Editorial] Until vaccine inequity is addressed, none of us is safe

The Omicron variant is a reminder of the immense difficulty of responding to a global crisis at the level of individual countries

Travelers wearing personal protective clothing arrive at Incheon International Airport on Monday morning. (Yonhap News)

Posted on : Nov.30,2021

The world is under attack from Omicron, the 13th major variant of the COVID-19 virus and the fifth to be designated as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO). While Korea and other countries have hurried to place travel restrictions on the country where Omicron was discovered and its neighbors, the variant had already spread to 13 countries in five continents as of Monday — not even three weeks since it was first reported on Nov. 11.

The variant’s rapid transmission means it’s probably only a matter of time before it spreads around the entire world. This is a fresh and vivid reminder of the immense difficulty of responding to a global pandemic at the level of individual countries.

Just as with the other viral variants, Omicron first appeared in a low-income country: Botswana, in southern Africa. Low-income countries have less access to COVID-19 vaccines. While high-income countries have reached a full vaccination rate of more than 60% and are already moving on to booster shots, the full vaccination rate in the entirety of Africa has barely reached 7%. The partial vaccination rate – which includes those who’ve only received one vaccine dose — isn’t much higher, at 11%. The WHO and other groups have warned for some time now that these largely unvaccinated low-income countries are breeding grounds for viral variants and will become the epicenter of the global COVID-19 crisis.

In that sense, it’s no exaggeration to say that the Omicron crisis is the result of disregarding vaccine inequity. This crisis is due to major countries’ overemphasis on their economic interests and their selfish hoarding of vaccines in the face of something that not only appeals to our sense of universal togetherness but could also endanger us all — wealthy or otherwise — at any time.

This past September, the top health officials of G20 member countries signed the “Rome Pact” that called for developing countries to receive a fair supply of COVID-19 vaccines. But such declarations of “vaccine equity” are belied by the fact that vaccines supplied through the COVAX Facility, a collective vaccine purchasing project for developing countries, haven’t even reached 70% of its goal.

Global stock markets have been rattled by Omicron, even as the stocks of Pfizer and other vaccine makers have spiked. That’s an example of how untrammeled economic logic can backfire on the economy, as well as how pharmaceutical firms’ monopoly on profit can clash with the interests of the economic ecosystem as a whole.

Intellectuals across the world have called for temporarily suspending patents on COVID-19 vaccines. In July 2020, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and seven other world leaders ran an opinion piece in the Washington Post that began with the message, “None of us is safe until all of us are safe.” The time has come for our leaders to put words into action with bold decision-making.

Omicron variant emerges at worst moment, a consequence of vaccine inequity

The new variant, coupled with the onset of winter and waning vaccine effectiveness, is prompting concerns over increased spread

As countries tighten restrictions in order to block the spread of the Omicron variant, travelers wait to be tested for COVID-19 at Munich Airport on Saturday. (EPA/Yonhap News)

Posted on : Nov.29,2021 

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which was first detected in southern Africa, has now been spotted in European countries including the UK and Germany, prompting a global panic over the new viral strain. This turn of events is fueling criticisms that the world won’t be rid of the COVID-19 pandemic until developing countries receive their fair share of vaccines.

While it’s still unclear how dangerous Omicron will be, the variant has cropped up at a very bad time. Europe was already dealing with its worst wave of COVID-19, and people in the Northern Hemisphere are staying indoors as winter sets in. In addition, around six months have passed since the world’s major countries vaccinated their populations, meaning that vaccine efficacy may be waning. That’s raising the risk that the world will enter another phase of lockdowns.

Experts say that unless vaccine inequity in developing countries is addressed, variants could continue to emerge and place the whole world at risk.

The new variant’s spread

After being detected for the first time in Botswana, South Africa and Hong Kong on Thursday, the Omicron variant was also identified in Israel and Belgium on Friday. The next set of countries to spot the variant included the UK, Germany and Israel, Reuters reported on Saturday.

UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on Saturday that two people who had entered the country from southern Africa were infected with Omicron. The public health authority of the German state of Bavaria also said it had detected the variant in two people who had arrived from southern Africa on Wednesday.]

The Italian authorities identified Omicron in a tourist visiting Milan from Mozambique, and in the Czech Republic, a tourist from Namibia tested positive for the variant.

Thus far, almost all cases of the Omicron variant in areas outside of southern Africa have been in travelers arriving from there except for cases in Hong Kong. The variant has been detected in two people in Hong Kong: a tourist who was apparently infected while visiting South Africa and a tourist from another region who had been in quarantine at the same hotel. This second tourist may have been infected with Omicron through the air of the hotel, Hong Kong disease control officials were quoted as saying by Bloomberg.


People in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has been detected the most, wait to be tested for COVID-19 on Saturday. (AP/Yonhap News)

Back to stricter countermeasures

The UK and Israel were the first of many countries to ban travelers coming from southern Africa and stiffen disease control restrictions at home. The UK, where many had assumed they’d be spending a normal Christmas holiday season, issued a mask mandate on Saturday. Starting next week, masks will be mandatory for shoppers and transit riders, and all tourists arriving from overseas will have to be tested for COVID-19, the BBC reported.

Israel, which had already slapped a travel ban on southern Africa, said it will be barring all foreign tourists for the next two weeks, Reuters reported on Sunday. That makes Israel the first country to close its national borders to keep Omicron at bay. So far, most countries are only placing restrictions on southern Africa, but border controls are expected to be tightened if the number of Omicron cases increases.

The worst time for a new variant to emerge

It’s still unclear how much danger Omicron presents compared to other COVID-19 viral variants, including Delta. Angelique Coetzee, the South African doctor who first warned public health authorities about the Omicron variant, told British daily newspaper the Telegraph in an interview on Saturday that the symptoms of patients with Omicron “were so different and so mild from those I had treated before.”

Coetzee noted that one young person had reported extreme fatigue and that a six-year-old had dealt with a fever and a high pulse rate, but was much better after two days.

The problem is that Omicron has appeared at the worst possible time. A new wave of COVID-19 that began in eastern Europe has blazed across the continent to Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, driving Austria to implement a full lockdown on Nov. 22. The situation in Europe is serious, with citizens in the Netherlands and other places launching violent protests against the tougher disease control restrictions.

The fact that the number of cases is once again on the rise as the Northern Hemisphere enters winter — when more activities take place indoors — is another reason that Omicron is prompting concern. According to figures from the World Health Organization, the weekly global caseload in early October was over 2.82 million, which was the lowest since late June. But by the middle of November, the weekly caseload had increased 34% to over 3.78 million.

Another troubling factor is that four to six months have passed since many countries inoculated much of their populations this summer, suggesting that immunity may now be diminishing. According to Our World in Data, an international statistics website, the daily vaccination uptake rate around the world increased steadily to 0.54 per 100 population on July 27. The rate then faltered a little until rising to a similar level at the end of August. But since then, inoculations have slowed once again, with the rate falling to 0.37 on Friday.

Vaccine inequity rears its head

The fact that Omicron appeared in southern Africa, with its low vaccination rate, is prompting more criticism about advanced countries’ monopoly on vaccines. Critics point out that developing countries’ worsening public health environment and inability to gain immunity to COVID-19 because of a vaccine shortage engender conditions in which new viral variants will continue to emerge.

“While we still need to know more about Omicron, we do know that as long as large portions of the world’s population are unvaccinated, variants will continue to appear, and the pandemic will continue to be prolonged,” Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

“We will only prevent variants from emerging if we are able to protect all of the world’s population, not just the wealthy parts.”

An AP report quoted Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the UK’s University of Southampton, as saying, “This is one of the consequences of the inequity in vaccine rollouts and why the grabbing of surplus vaccines by richer countries will inevitably rebound on us all at some point.”

That’s what happened with the Delta variant, which was first detected in India. Delta built up momentum as it created the worst COVID-19 wave that India had seen in April and May before becoming a global juggernaut.

As of Wednesday, Botswana — where Omicron is believed to have first appeared — had only vaccinated 19.6% of its population. In neighboring South Africa, where Omicron is currently spreading, just 23.7% of the population have been fully vaccinated.

In the case of South Africa, at least, some note that the low vaccination rate is due more to vaccine hesitancy than to a shortage of vaccines. Public hesitancy prompted the South African government to ask Pfizer to delay its supply of vaccines on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

By Shin Gi-sub, senior staff writer
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]