한국 Lemmy 커뮤니티 / Korea Lemmy community

It's the time of the year again where we make Lunar New Years Dumplings at my parent's in law's place again. Every year I'm getting better at shaping them. This year they are with pork and beef mixed and half of them are with cabbage and the other half with celery.

And my sincere condolences to everyone stuck in a traffic jam, yesterday's weather has been brutal.

SEOUL, South Korea -- The tail of a passenger plane with 176 people on board caught fire before takeoff at an airport in South Korea Tuesday night, news reports said. All passnagers and crew weer safely evacuated.

The Air Busan plane at Gimhae International Airport in the southeastern city of Busan was bound for Hong Kong, Yonhap news agency reported. The 169 passengers and seven crew members were evacuated using an inflatable slide, the report said, adding that three people were injured but their condition wasn’t serious.

I started drinking coffee in Germany where there is the idiom: "Kalter Kaffe"

The idiom "Kalter Kaffee" in German literally means "cold coffee," but figuratively, it refers to something that is old news, outdated, or not interesting anymore. It’s often used to dismiss information or topics as no longer relevant.

Anyway it's something undesirable.

But I get the appeal, I like the fruitiness of a coldbrew, especially with tonic water during the summer. It's refreshing and cooling down your body.

What I really can't get behind is how much Koreans love their Ice coffee, especially during the winter.

Right now I'm sitting in a cafe in the morning and sip on my hot cafe latte warming up my fingers while it's freezing outside, windy and everyone has a big winter coat on.

But then at the same time every person who comes in orders a Ice Latte, which is a cafe latte full of ice cubes. They wait to get it and then go oouside to drink it in the freezing cold on their way to work or wherever they go.

So I don't get it, once coffee is cold I always throw it away and brew a new one because it tastes terrible.

This is one of those cultural clashes I can't get over.

Presidential security guards forced to sing a song glorifying Yoon at his birthday (audio included)

새로운 대한민국 위해서 하늘이 우리에게 보내주신 대통령이 태어나신 뜻깊은 오늘을 우리모두가 축하해

"We all celebrate this meaningful day when the president sent by heaven to us for the new Republic of Korea was born."

President Yoon Suk Yeol was taken into custody by a joint probe team at 10:33 a.m. Wednesday, according to police and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, 12 days after being repelled in its initial attempt to detain him.

Yoon arrived at the CIO headquarters of the CIO in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, for questioning over his martial law declaration in December.

Damn it's really cold outside, we had -13°C yesterday in Pangyo. I have to Wals about 3 km to the Kindergarden with my 2 years old, I put so many clothes on him he was almost not able to walk :D

The government and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) decided, Wednesday, to designate Jan. 27 as a temporary holiday for the nation.

With the Lunar New Year holiday slated for Jan. 28 to 30, the designation will enable people to take a six-day break, from Jan. 25 to 30. If they take an additional day off on Jan. 31, they could enjoy up to nine days of holiday through Feb. 2.

Despite President Yoon Suk-yeol’s claims that only unarmed soldiers were deployed to the National Assembly on Dec. 3 after he declared martial law, investigations have revealed that the martial law forces had more than 50,000 rounds of live ammunition on hand that day.

Investigations also revealed that, after experiencing difficulties in blockading the National Assembly, then-Minister of Defense Kim Yong-hyun ordered helicopters returning special forces to their base to instead set course for the National Assembly.

According to the indictment against Kim, received by Democratic Party lawmaker Jang Kyung-tae from the Justice Ministry on Sunday, the Special Warfare Command (SWC), Capital Defense Command (CDC) and Defense Intelligence Command (DIC) prepared at least 57,000 rounds of live ammunition on Dec. 3, 2024, the day martial law was so abruptly invoked.

After a dramatic six-hour long standoff with security, South Korea police have called off an attempt to arrest suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol.

The military and Yoon's security service officers formed a human wall and used vehicles to block the arrest team's path, local news outlet Yonhap reported.

Police officers forcibly remove President Yoon Suk Yeol's supporters lying on the road in front of the presidential residence in Seoul during a rally in support of Yoon, Thursday. Yonhap

The picture is interesting:

My parents in law live close to where the Korean President lives so the small ally today is full of police and supporters all day long. They have a hard time to go to work and home because of them.

They just sent this video and this text:

얘들야 지금 우리 골목 초등학교 골목도 이렇게 복잡하다 윤석렬 채포하로 온다해서 윤석렬 지지자들. 윤석렬 집은 그윗골목인데 그 골목하고 또 그윗골목까지 수많은 사람들이 있어 그래서 여기까지 퍼 진거지

Acting President Choi Sang-mok appointed two out of three Constitutional Court justice nominees, Tuesday, as he presided over his first regular Cabinet meeting after assuming the role.

Choi took on the position following former acting President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo’s impeachment by the opposition-controlled National Assembly on Friday. Han was ousted for delaying the appointment of three Constitutional Court justice nominees who had won parliamentary approval on Thursday.

Choi appointed Jeong Gye-seon, nominated by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), and Cho Han-chang, recommended by the ruling People Power Party (PPP), but said he would hold off the appointment of Ma Eun-hyuk, nominated by the DPK, until rival parties reach a compromise.

A joint investigation team said Monday it has sought an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived imposition of martial law, making him the first sitting president to face arrest.

No one knows for certain what caused Jeju Air flight 2216 to crash, killing all but two of its 181 passengers and crew. As darkness fell at Muan international airport in South Korea and officials fielded questions from distraught relatives of the dead, the most likely explanation was that the plane had been struck by one or more birds, triggering a sequence of events that prevented the pilot from deploying the landing gear.

Aviation officials focused on bird strikes – and, to a lesser extent, the weather – as the most probable cause, even as some experts said the relatively common phenomenon would not have been enough to cause a catastrophic failure of the landing gear.

Oh my god, this is getting real crazy.

Senior diplomats of South Korea and the United States agreed Monday to fully resume bilateral diplomatic and security schedules postponed in the aftermath of President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law attempt, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell held their first talks in Washington after Yoon's short-lived martial law imposition on Dec. 3 and his subsequent impeachment on Dec. 14, amid concerns that the political turmoil in Seoul could affect the bilateral alliance.

I'm born in Silesia (which is former Germany but now Poland) and for Christmas where is a super delicious desert called Makówka and I was ordering all the things from my grocery list for the traditional Christmas diner and at the end I tried to order the poppy seeds which are the main ingredient of the desert.

And by main ingredient I mean you need like 3 kg of it. In Poland and Germany you just buy it in the supermarket, they sell it in 500g packages. I lived in Sweden and there it was already difficult because they only sold it in 30g packages and it was somehow expensive, so that I always brought some from Germany to have in storage.

Anyway I couldn't find it at all, and then I asked ChatGTP where I could buy it in Korea and it told me:

In Korean, "mak" (poppy seeds) is referred to as 양귀비 씨앗.
However, it's important to note that poppy seeds are classified as narcotics in South Korea, and their possession or importation is strictly prohibited.
Attempting to order or bring poppy seeds into the country can lead to serious legal consequences, including fines or imprisonment.
Therefore, it's advisable to avoid purchasing or attempting to import poppy seeds while in South Korea.

And as the source it linked to a this New York Post article .

God damn it, so no Makówka for me this year ...

The local hamburger franchise Lotteria was the butt of a surge of memes and other online satire on Thursday, after police investigations revealed that former intelligence commanders met at one of its restaurants in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, to discuss martial law plans, two days before President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration on Dec. 3.

Turns out some people in some countries are braver than in others and do stand up to authoritarian assholes.

South Korea’s Supreme Court on Dec. 12 upheld a two-year prison sentence for Cho Kuk, the former justice minister and leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party (RKP). The ruling also confirmed the forfeiture of Cho’s lawmaker status. Cho’s conviction stemmed from charges including forging documents to secure his children’s university admissions, obstruction of business and violations of anti-corruption laws.

Former South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun has attempted to end his own life while in custody, the head of the country’s correctional service said Wednesday, as a political crisis from the President’s brief declaration of martial law continues to spiral.