On Friday, the Hi Seoul Festival starts. The Hi Seoul Festival is usually, frankly, pretty great, loaded with free performances and stuff to see. You should make a point of attending, if you can. Here's the website. Learn more.
Welcome news: They're trying to tighten the rules on international marriages, so that it's a little harder to set up those tragic situations where imported brides go missing, or get beaten nearly to death, within a week of arriving. They're proposing laws to block someone with economic or mental disadvantages, or with criminal history, from bringing in a foreign bride. The problem? The right to the pursuit of happiness might end up shooting down laws that, say, a mentally disabled 47-year-old is no longer able to bring a 20-year-old in to mother his children.
There are required courses about intercultural issues already, which is good. I hope they can figure out some ways to make these laws stick.
However, while screening is important, even more important are follow-up programs for women who are already here: I'll be honest and admit I don't know a whole lot about what programs are in place, or where they're located: free classes in Seoul don't mean much for isolated country-houses in Jeollabuk.
Korea Times story here.
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