Mentally Ill People to be Eligible to Drive

The Cabinet has approved a bill that would allow people with mental conditions to obtain a driver’s license, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Welfare has said. The bill is aimed at giving mental patients more opportunities for rehabilitation, and will allow those suffering from temporary mental conditions to drive home from hospital after receiving treatments. Surprise has been expressed by some citizens on hearing the news – the extremely poor quality of driving in Korea and the regular use of the nation’s sidewalks by car drivers and motorcyclists had led many to believe that mentally ill people were already eligible to drive in South Korea.

The bill will also force hospitals to discharge patients who decide not to receive medical treatment, even if medical professionals judge them to be a danger to society. Members of the Cabinet have been worried that as the law currently stands, they may be at risk of being held without trial, although the new law will benefit other people as well as protecting them. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, the Cabinet continue to deny they are a danger to society.

While Koreans who are judged to be at risk of hurting themselves or others will be free to refuse medical treatment and must be released into society, the bill takes the opposite approach to foreigners living in Korea; the new law allows for the forced hospitalization of foreign residents who are judged to be dangerous.

The Ministry of Justice, which overseas immigration-related matters as part of its criminal remit, shares a belief - along with most of the Korean media - that many foreigners are potentially dangerous, and it welcomes the introduction of a law that will enable these drug-taking sexually depraved individuals to be quietly removed en masse from society depending on the political or media climate. By introducing the anti-foreigner legislation under the guise of driving license bill, Korean politicians are hoping that the foreign community living in Korea will be unaware of the government’s new ability to detain them without trial.

The bill has been welcomed on Internet forums frequented by women who are married to foreigners. 24-year-old Seoul resident Kim wrote "Now I can trick my non-Korean speaking husband into attending the hospital on some pretext, explain some of his habits to the doctors, and get rid of him."

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Police Want to Question Sarah Palin Over North Korea Comments

'Red Sarah'

Famous American narcissist and future President-Elect Sarah Palin shocked South Koreans this week by pledging her support for North Korea after its attack on Yeonpyeong Island, stoking long-held fears among South Koreans that the maverick politician, whose runaway success has been based on having no firm beliefs of her own, will lead America into abandoning its former allies and maybe even taking the other side.

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seoul, which has started a probe into false rumors and statements sympathetic to North Korea in the wake of the Yeonpyeong Island bombing, says it has directed the National Police Agency to work with Interpol in order seek to question Ms. Palin over her statements. Under freedom of speech laws, North Korean web sites and books about Marxism are banned in South Korea, leaving many South Korean citizens unaware of just how ideologically bankrupt the North has become.

Some in America have dismissed the 'North Korean allies' comment as a mistake on Palin’s part, but Palin has tried to avoid discussing the matter further, fueling speculation that she prematurely revealed an important aspect of her Presidential campaign, which is expected pursue an isolationist foreign policy. Members of the Democratic Party’s ‘Birther’ movement, which maintains Sarah Louise Palin - whose middle name is French - endangered her most recent baby’s health by traveling home to Alaska from Texas despite being in labor, have seized on the comment as providing proof of what they have long suspected – that Palin is a socialist.

But the slip – if it was a slip – seems to be indicative of a growing problem in America, which is an inability to distinguish between the two Koreas. Many South Koreans studying in America report being constantly asked about life under Communism ‘back home’. Some academics have pointed to this as a condemning indictment of the decline in the American education system, while others say that Mademoiselle Palin’s rise to power - despite her apparent disinterest in almost anything except herself - represents a more pressing danger to the former superpower.

South Korean academics say that the confusion is partly the fault of politicians and bureaucrats in Seoul. 55-year-old Professor Kim from Korea International University told us in an email interview “The government doesn’t do enough to distinguish between the two Koreas. Right now, it’s running a major international tourism campaign titled ‘Visit Korea Year 2010-2012’. Well, which Korea? If you don’t want people to confuse the two Koreas, tourism campaigns should emphasize that this is ‘South Korea’”

Despite the request through Interpol, it is thought unlikely that Sarah Louise Palin will come to Korea to answer police questions as she doesn’t have a passport. Her cousin, Monty Python member Michael Palin, said in a press statement after the comments “We would ask people for their understanding at what is obviously a difficult time for our family. While I believe Sarah would make an extremely funny President in the best traditions of Python humour, we think such a performance would best be left to film and not played out in reality.”

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Fearing Arrest, Chinese Foreign Minister Cancels South Korea Trip

Hit and run

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi canceled a scheduled trip to South Korea on Friday, citing “scheduling” issues. However, we understand from senior government sources in Beijing that with the trip coming only three days after the communist shelling of a South Korean village on Yeonpyeong Island, the Minister secretly feared arrest on reaching Seoul under international war crimes legislation. While arresting a foreign government official protected by diplomatic immunity is almost unheard of, in recent years the legal principle supporting this has been established in a variety of war crimes cases.

The standing International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, which is currently investigating the shelling of the civilian village on Yeonpyeong, is reluctant to discuss specifics, but privately we understand that the Chinese Foreign Minister has been named as a ‘person of interest’ in the case, along with several other members of the Chinese Politburo.

The attack on Yeonpyeong Island originated from China’s North Korean province, which is notionally independent but actually operates as a Chinese supported protectorate. The shells didn't use conventional explosives but instead contained thermobaric or 'fuel-air' warheads designed to maximize civilian casualties. It was the worst attack on civilians since a ceasefire was agreed with the Chinese at the end of the Korean War in 1953. Over 400,000 Chinese soldiers were killed attacking South Korea and its allies during the war, and many believe China is still seeking retribution. While China’s North Korean province is directly supported from Beijing politically, economically and militarily, the limited autonomy the province is afforded allows Beijing to claim deniability when its proxy state threatens South Korea, Japan and the United States in order to further China’s long-term foreign policy goal, which is to create a Chinese ‘sphere of influence' across Asia dubbed the ‘Greater China Co-Prosperity Sphere’.

The South Korean Government has also supported China’s North Korean province economically for many years in the form of protection payments, particularly under the ‘Sunshine Policy’, named after the nuclear fire which sunshine is associated with - and which the policy was expected to lead to.

South Korean citizens had criticized the Chinese Foreign Minister’s invitation, which was not withdrawn by the Government after the bombing of Yeonpyeong. 32-year-old Kim, an office worker in Seoul appeared to typify the views of many when he told us “I know diplomacy demands that we sit down and talk with our enemies, but this was too soon after the attack.” But people also dismissed the Minister’s fears of arrest; while many South Koreans had family killed by the Chinese military in the War, they expect many more to be killed by the Chinese if China is ever directly called to account for the attacks against South Korea. But despite the South Korean Government's reluctance to criticize China, China has continued to directly blame South Korea for the attack, saying that South Korea must do more to ensure peace in the region. One Chinese newspaper editorial even praised the regional government in Pyongyang for showing what it called "toughness" during the skirmish.

Despite widespread political realism about South Korea's powerlessness, Internet forum users have still expressed anger over China's stance. "What if the North launches a nuclear missile to Seoul? China would say that both nations need to settle problems through talks while turning blind eyes to the assault." an Internet user posted on a news site. But the Chinese Government say that if Seoul is destroyed in a nuclear attack it will probably be because the people living there deserve it.

Some refugees from Yeonpyeong, who fled to Incheon on boats during the shelling - fearing it was part of an invasion of the island - are now reluctant to return. Many homes have been destroyed and since property insurance is not common in Korea – especially among the poor - most of the families lost everything in the bombardment. 32-year-old Kim says she’s thinking of starting a new life on the mainland “The military obviously can’t protect us... the government is weak – they give economic aid to the enemy and we get bombed in return. Why go back to be bombed again?” Kim is also concerned for the mental wellbeing of her 5-year-old daughter, who doctors have said has been deeply traumatized by both the shelling - which narrowly missed the family as they escaped - and the loss of the family’s pet dog in the initial confusion following the attack. “She hasn’t stopped crying since the attack,” explains Kim “she really loved our dog - they played together all the time - and she wants to know why we left him behind on the island. Our house burned down and our neighbor who stayed on the island hasn’t seen him. This morning I had to tell her that he might have gone to Heaven.”

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