As rallies flared up all over the country Saturday to demand President Park Geun-hye’s resignation, teenagers took to the streets to express their anger and frustration at the scandal involving Park and her confidante Choi Soon-sil.

Many middle and high school students are disappointed at how Choi’s daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, was illegally admitted to a top university and received special treatment there.

“She did not study or make the appropriate effort but had the privilege of going to the university because she was born into a powerful family,” Kwon Ha-kyeong, a 16-year-old student, told The Korea Herald at Saturday’s rally. “While we are forced to study hard to get good grades, all she needed was her powerful parents.”

In the unfolding Choi scandal that even threatens Park’s presidency, allegations concerning Chung may appear trivial. Choi is accused of much more serious crimes such as extorting billions of won from the country’s top conglomerates. However, the anger and frustration felt by South Korean teenagers goes beyond just Chung — it is a reflection of their dissatisfaction with society.

“I am disappointed at the current society. It is full of unfair competition,” Kim Ie-tae, 17, said at Saturday’s rally.

In South Korea, where many consider education to be a top priority, students are often pushed to study hard to enter a good university. The Choi scandal, however, seems to deny what they have been told and believe in — hard work eventually pays off.

On Friday, the Education Ministry confirmed that the 19-year-old dressage rider Chung had been accepted to Ewha Womans University in Seoul with false academic records. Her mother, Choi, had pulled strings behind the scenes to get her daughter special treatment in educational and sports circles.

The university, which had previously denied the allegations against Chung, issued a public apology and decided to annul her acceptance.

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2016-11-06 10:08:13

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Tens of thousands of South Koreans stage protest in Seoul calling for President Park Geun Hye to resign

Source:

AFP

Reuters

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The sinking of the Sewol Ferry in April 2014 also drove many teens to the streets.

“I cannot believe the president’s whereabouts are unknown after the Sewol Ferry incident happened. I could not help but come here,” said 18-year-old rally participant Kim Soo-yeon.

The Sewol Ferry sank while heading to Jeju Island, leaving more than 300 dead. It had been carrying 475 passengers, including 324 students on a class trip.

The public had heavily criticised the president’s failure in handling the situation and Park’s whereabouts for seven hours on the day of the disaster still remain in question.

Changes in society might also be the reason behind teenagers’ willingness to take part in the demonstration Saturday.

“Young people and teenagers are participating more and care more about current affairs because more adults are willing to hear our voices,” said Kim Ji-yoon, a high school senior who took the national college entrance exam Thursday. “There are more of us (students) willing to speak out about state matters as citizens of South Korea as well, even though we are young.”

On the day of Suneung — the annual college scholastic ability exam — , a teenagers’ group called Hope held a candle light vigil in which some 70 students demanded the president step down from her post. Most of them were high school seniors who came after taking their big exam earlier that day.

“My cousin who’s a year older than me retook the exam today with me because she failed to go to the very school Chung was so easily accepted to last year,” a high school senior Jeong Eun-seon said at the rally. “I was also a student athlete (like Chung) but I hurt my back and gave up my goal.”

Hope also organised a demonstration Saturday. Some 600 students gathered for the rally held in front of Youngpoong Bookstore in Jongno, central Seoul, calling for the resignation of President Park.

Just hundred meters away was another group of middle and high school students, under the group name “Teens’ Evolution.” They held a rally against the president in front of the Bosingak Bell in Jongno. The organizers estimated some 500 participants.

Participating teens were not all members of the organisations but came to the rallies after they saw posts and articles about the rallies on social networks, they said.

“I saw a Facebook post (about today’s rally) and decided to participate,” said Kim Hyung-sub, a sophomore at a high school in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province.

After announcing their official denunciation of the scandal in a statement at 3 p.m., Hope marched down the streets through Euljiro 1-ga Station and pass City Hall to reach the Seoul Finance Center near Gwanghwamun Square where the main candle light vigil was held.

At the main vigil, there were more teens in school uniform holding signs that read “Park Geun-hye out.”

An 18-year-old student went up on stage impromptu to address the massive crowd.

“Even soap opera writers would not create (in their texts) a president this corrupt,” he said. “This cannot be reality.”

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2016-10-29 18:47:34

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The ‘female Rasputin’ at centre of S Korean President Park Geun-Hye political scandal

Source:

AFP

Reuters

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Yangon – Two civilians were killed on Sunday when fighting broke out in a northern Myanmar town on the border with China, a region long plagued by ethnic rebel insurgencies.

The latest clashes are another blow to civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s hopes of forging a nationwide peace agreement after years of war in Myanmar’s many ethnic minority border regions.

Locals in the town of Muse, a hotbed of smuggling, reported that fighting began in the early morning.

“People from (the) border checkpoint are now fleeing to Muse because of heavy fighting,” Aye Aye, a resident of the town, told AFP.

“A man and a woman died because of gunshot wounds after they arrived in hospital this morning,” said a worker at the local hospital, asking for anonymity, adding that some 25 others were wounded.

Fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin state, which reignited in 2011 after the collapse of a 17-year ceasefire, has displaced around 100,000 people and spilled over into parts of neighbouring Shan state.

Muse lies in the north of Shan, not far from Kachin, and is separated from China by a river.

Two rebel representatives confirmed their troops were involved in the clashes.

“We are fighting together with our alliance of ethnic armed groups,” Khine Thu Kha, from the Arakan Army, told AFP.

The rebels said the groups involved included the powerful KIA, the Arakan Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army.

The latter three have not been invited to the current or last round of peace talks.

One of Suu Kyi’s priorities is a peace deal with the patchwork of armed minorities fighting the state.

But continuing fighting in Kachin and Shan states overshadowed the peace talks and it is expected to take years to end the complex conflicts.

In September renewed clashes broke out in southern Karen state between the military and rebels. The northern half of the western state of Rakhine is currently under a military lockdown after a string of deadly attacks against border posts last month.

More than 30,000 people have been displaced and at least 70 people killed in the latest fighting in Rakhine.

Myanmar’s military has a long history of rights abuses that has fostered a deep mistrust among ethnic minorities of the central government.

Suu Kyi also has limited control over the army which retains 25 per cent of parliamentary seats as well as key defence and security positions in government.

Lucknow, India – At least 96 passengers, most of whom were sleeping, were killed when an express train derailed in northern India early Sunday, police said.

Rescue workers were searching for survivors believed still trapped inside the badly mangled coaches of the Patna-Indore express after the crash near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh state.

Police initially put the death toll at 63 but revised the figure later.

“The death toll has unfortunately increased and it is 96 now,” Daljit Singh Chawdhary, the additional police director-general, told reporters, adding 150 were injured.

All local hospitals have been placed on alert and more than 30 ambulances have been deployed.

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2016-11-20 13:47:54

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Passenger train derails in northern India

Source:

Reuters

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TV footage showed rescue workers using gas cutters and other equipment to slice through severely mangled coaches strewn with suitcases and other luggage.

Witnesses spoke of being woken by a huge bang and being thrown around.

“We woke up to a great thud this morning. It was pitch dark and the noise was deafening,” a passenger told reporters as he waited with his family at the scene.

“I am lucky to be alive and safe. But it was a near-death experience for us.” Nitika Trivedi, a student who boarded the train with her family from the eastern city of Patna, said images of the bodies of her fellow passengers would long haunt her.

“I had never seen something like this in my life before. I am shaken to the core.” Railway officials said special trains had been pressed into service for stranded travellers.

“We are also trying to clear the tracks and complete the restoration work as quickly as possible,” Vijay Kumar, a spokesman for north-central railways, told AFP.

National Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu said in a tweet the government would investigate what caused the derailment and announced compensation for the victims.

India’s railway network, one of the world’s largest, is still the main form of long-distance travel in the vast country, but it is poorly funded and deadly accidents occur relatively frequently.

In 2014 an express train ploughed into a stationary freight train, also in Uttar Pradesh, killing 26 people.

And last year 27 people died after two trains derailed in Madhya Pradesh state during heavy rain.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was “anguished beyond words” by the loss of life in the latest accident.

In 2012 a government report said almost 15,000 people were killed every year on India’s railways, describing the deaths as an annual “massacre”.

Modi’s government has pledged to invest US$137 billion (S$195 billion) over five years to modernise the crumbling railways, making them safer, faster and more efficient.