Asean Tribune

Canada and the Philippines are looking to sign a deal that would give Manila free access to Ottawa’s multimillion-dollar dark vessel detection program and support efforts to combat illegal fishing in its waters. Canada is prepared to deploy the system as soon as the two governments finalize the agreement, Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines David Hartman said Saturday. “We are looking forward to imminently concluding negotiations on an agreement to provide the Philippines with access to Canada’s Dark Vessel Detection program,’ he said in a text message. ‘We are prepared, pending conclusion of the implementing agreement, to deploy the system in the coming weeks.’ Hartman said the satellite-based system would provide the country with ‘near-real-time monitoring capability’ to help enhance its maritime domain awareness and boost its capability to combat illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUUF), as well as protect its marine environments. Dark vessels are ships whose location-transmitting devices h
ave been switched off to evade monitoring, control and surveillance. Canada and the Philippines began the negotiations in January, a few months after Ottawa identified the Philippines as a core partner in its Indo-Pacific Strategy. The Canadian Embassy has expressed hope that the deal could be signed during the 6th Philippine-Canada Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation meeting in Ottawa next week.

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Source: Philippines News Agency

Nearly 8 out of 10 South Koreans in their 20s and 30s agree on the need for Seoul to improve relations with Japan, a survey showed Saturday.

The online poll — conducted by the Korea Youth Foundation — found 22 percent of the respondents said they “strongly agree” with the need for South Korea to improve or strengthen relations with Japan, while 56.8 percent said they agreed to some extent.

Among them, 47.3 percent cited economic advancement through trade with Japan as the biggest reason for their support toward improving ties with the neighboring country, followed by 20.2 percent who called for the need to step up defense cooperation with Tokyo to better counter North Korea’s nuclear threats.

South Korea and Japan are key allies of the United States, though they have long been in conflict over territory and other historical disputes stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

President Yoon Suk Yeol held summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on several occas
ions as they pushed to improve bilateral ties.

In the same survey, 31.7 percent positively viewed Japan, while 28.7 percent had unfavorable views toward the country, among which over 84 percent of the respondents cited Tokyo’s “distorted history perception.”

The Korea Youth Foundation did not provide a margin of error for the poll, which was conducted on 5,176 people aged between 19 and 39 from Aug. 16 to 23.

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Source: Yonhap News Agency

Assets held by South Korean households in Seoul and the surrounding metropolitan areas were some 70 percent larger than those owned by households in the non-metropolitan regions, data showed Saturday.

The average per-household assets in Seoul, the western city of Incheon and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province came to 692.46 million won (US$512,554) as of end-March, some 69.2 percent greater than 409.35 million won owned by each non-capital household, according to the data by Statistics Korea presented to Rep. Kim Hoi-jae of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP).

The amount of assets here includes debts.

The asset gap between metropolitan and non-metropolitan households has grown due mainly to the recent sharp increase in real estate prices centering on apartments in Seoul and the adjacent areas.

In 2018, households in the capital areas had 47.5 percent larger assets than their non-capital counterparts, and the figure rose to 53.6 percent in 2019, 59.6 percent in 2020 and 65.6 percent in 2022, the da
ta showed.

The average yearly income for households in the capital regions stood at 702.2 million won in 2021, and that for the remaining households was 583.2 million won.

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Source: Yonhap News Agency

The top 1 percent of South Korean singers in terms of income earned an average of 4.62 billion won (US$3.4 million) per person in 2021, with their aggregate income accounting for nearly 70 percent of that earned by all singers in the country that year, data showed Saturday.

A total of 7,720 singers earned 515.65 billion won combined in 2021, meaning that each singer gained 66.79 million won that year, according to the data compiled by the National Tax Service and presented to Rep. Kang Joon-hyun of the main opposition Democratic Party.

Of them, the top 1 percent earners gained 355.57 million won, or 4.62 billion won per person, and their income took up 68.9 percent of the total.

The average per-person income of the top 1 percent singers stood at 1.76 billion won in 2020, 2.25 billion won in 2019 and 3.45 billion won in 2018, the data showed.

Among South Korean actors, the top 1 percent of income earners, or 160 individuals, earned 382.9 billion won combined in 2021, or 48.6 percent of the total, and ea
ch of them earned 2.27 billion won on average, the data showed.

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Source: Yonhap News Agency

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Source: Yonhap News Agency

The number of apparent heat-related deaths nearly quadrupled on-year in 2023 as the country was struck by an unusual heat wave, the disease control agency said Saturday.

A total of 32 people were presumed to have died of heat-related illness this year as of Friday, compared with nine a year earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

This year’s figure is the largest since 2018, when the country reported 48 heat-related deaths.

South Korea began compiling the related data in 2011.

The country had been gripped by sweltering weather this summer, with the average national temperature from June through August coming to 24.7 C, the fourth-highest level ever, according to the weather agency.

Those aged 65 and older accounted for 29.5 percent of all patients suffering heat-related illnesses this year, followed by those in their 50s with 21.3 percent, the data showed.

Health authorities have operated an enhanced heat-related illness monitoring system since May 20, which is to end o
n Saturday.

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Source: Yonhap News Agency