Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
June 17, 2019
S. Korean businesses growingly adopt unmanned services
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Robots are coming to South Korea’s vibrant
coffee culture, where crowds of lunchtime customers queuing at cafés are a daily
sight. Cafés are among many businesses that could be transformed by
automated services in the tech-forward nation — a notion both exciting and
worrisome as jobs become scarcer. The Dal.komm Coffee franchise has 45
outlets, in malls, cafeterias, schools, and an airport, where robot baristas take
orders remotely through a mobile app or kiosk cashier and then brew and serve
fresh coffee. Customers are sent a four-digit code and can retrieve their drinks
from a pickup box. South Korean industries, including restaurants, convenience
stores, supermarkets, banks, and manufacturers are relying increasingly on
robots and other automation. But not without protest: many Koreans, especially
the young, are struggling to find work.
Fake “Made in Vietnam” labels used by Chinese companies
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam’s government says it is taking more steps
to prevent Chinese companies from using illegal “Made in Vietnam” labels to
avoid high tariffs that have been imposed by the United States on Chinese
goods. The customs department says textiles, fisheries, farm products, tiles,
honey, iron, steel, and plywood are among the Chinese products that are most
often being relabelled and then exported to a third country. Vietnam’s
government portal said the customs department has ordered its offices to be
more aggressive in checking the certificates of origin of products. In one case,
U.S. customs officials found a shipment of Chinese plywood relabelled to make it
appear that it originated in Vietnam. Speaking at the national assembly,
Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh warned of serious consequences if such
subterfuges cannot be controlled. “It will sabotage Vietnamese brands and
products and it will also affect consumers. We could even get tariff retribution
from other countries, and if that happens, it will hurt our economy,” the
government website quoted Minh as saying. The U.S. is Vietnam’s largest
export market, while it imports the most from China. In a spiralling trade war,
the U.S. is imposing 25% tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods. Beijing has
counterpunched by targeting $110 billion worth of American products.
Nepal Everest cleanup drive yields garbage, bodies
KATHMANDU, Nepal — A Nepal government expedition to Mount Everest
has removed 24,200 pounds of garbage and four dead bodies from the world’s
highest mountain, officials said. Tourism Department official Danduraj
Ghimire said the cleaners spent weeks collecting food wrappings, cans, bottles,
and empty oxygen cylinders. Some of the garbage was flown to Kathmandu and
handed over to recyclers in a ceremony officially concluding the cleanup cam-
paign. Officials called it a successful mission but said more trash still needs to be
collected. Some is covered by snow and only is exposed when temperatures rise.
Officials have not been able to estimate exactly how much garbage is on the
mountain. Most was at Camps 2 and 3, at which climbers can rest along the way
from the base camp to the 29,035-foot summit. Ghimire said the four bodies were
exposed by melting snow, carried to base camp, and flown to a hospital in
Kathmandu for identification. Climbers struggling to make it down the moun-
tain alive sometimes are unable to carry out the bodies of teammates who die.
More than 300 climbers have died on Everest since it was first conquered in
1953. It is unclear how many bodies are still on the mountain, and officials said
they have no records. Hundreds of climbers and their guides and porters spend
weeks on Everest every spring, the best climbing season. A tent city rises at the
base camp at 17,400 feet for three months between March and May.
Four die in non-air-conditioned train car in India
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Four people returning from a Hindu pilgrimage
died while travelling in a non-air-conditioned coach on an Indian train during a
summer heat wave. Temperatures during the day soared to 118º Fahrenheit.
Railway official Manoj Kumar said the four, who were between 69 and 81 years
old, were part of a group returning to the southern state of Kerala after visiting
the holy city of Varanasi in northern India. Kumar said the four fell sick in their
coach and the doctors who attended to them at Jhansi station found them dead.
They were sent for autopsies. Travelling in air-conditioned coaches is too
expensive for many poorer Indians. Schools and colleges were closed due to the
heat wave, and people were advised to stay indoors during daytime.
LOST BABY. Marium, an estimated five-month-old female dugong baby separated from her mother, swims under a
boat hull near Libong island in Trang province, southern Thailand. The baby dugong that has developed an attachment to
humans after getting lost in the ocean off southern Thailand is being nurtured by marine experts in hopes that she can one
day fend for herself. (Sirachai Arunrugstichai via AP)
Thai vets nurture lost baby
dugong with milk and sea grass
By Jerry Harmer and Pitcha Dangprasith
The Associated Press
ANGKOK — A baby dugong, a large
ocean mammal, that has developed an
attachment to humans after being
separated from its mother and getting lost off
southern Thailand, is being nurtured by
marine experts in hopes that it can one day
fend for itself.
The estimated five-month-old female
dugong named Marium has become an
internet hit in Thailand after images of marine
biologists embracing and feeding her with
milk and sea grass spread across social media.
The dugong is a species of marine mammal
similar to the American manatee and can grow
to about 11 feet in length. Its conservation
status is listed as vulnerable by the
International Union for the Conservation of
Nature.
Marium was spotted alone near a beach on
Ko Poda island in Krabi province in April.
Officials later tried to release her into a
dugong habitat off the coast of another island
but she swam away.
Veterinarians and volunteers set out each
day in canoes to locate Marium near the
dugong habitat off Ko Libong island. She does
not swim with the herd and usually comes
straight to them, then follows them into
shallower water, where she is fed milk and sea
grass, similar to her natural diet, up to 15
times a day while also receiving health checks.
Marium’s caretakers believe she has formed
a bond with humans but is also drawn to the
shape of the underside of canoes, perhaps
seeing it as a mother substitute.
“She’s attached and tries to swim and cling
to the boat as if it was her mother and when we
B
China denies its vessel
intentionally hit Filipino boat
MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — China
has acknowledged its fishing vessel hit a
Filipino boat in the disputed South China Sea
in an incident that prompted an outcry in the
Philippines but denies the collision was
intentional.
The Philippines has filed a diplomatic
Continued on page 8
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Human-rights group locates North Korean execution sites
SEOUL, South Korea — A human-rights group says it has identified
hundreds of spots where witnesses claim North Korea carried out public
executions and extrajudicial state killings as part of an arbitrary and aggressive
use of the death penalty that is meant to intimidate its citizens. The Seoul-based
Transitional Justice Working Group said its research was based on interviews
with 610 North Korean defectors who helped locate the sites with satellite
imagery. The group didn’t reveal the exact locations of the 323 sites because it is
worried North Korea will tamper with them, but said 267 of them were located in
two northeastern provinces near the border with China, the area where most of
the defectors who participated in the study came from. North Korea’s public
executions tend to happen near rivers, in fields, and on hills, and also at
marketplaces and school grounds — places where residents and family
members of those sentenced are often forced to attend the killings, the report
said. The group also said it documented 25 sites where the dead were allegedly
disposed of by the state and also found official locations that may have
documents or other evidence related to the killings.
are swimming she would come and tuck under
our arms. It’s almost like the way she would
tuck under her mother,” said Nantarika
Chansue, director of the Aquatic Animal
Research Center of Chulalongkorn Univer-
sity’s Faculty of Veterinarian Science, who
advises Marium’s caretakers.
“So I think it’s not only humans but
anything that looks like another dugong that
she would be attached to,” Nantarika said.
Marium has attained fame on social media,
and images of her bonding with her human
guardians have been widely published by Thai
media. She also attracts crowds on Libong
island, where feeding is often watched by
scores of people crowding the seashore.
Veterinarians say they need to continue
looking after Marium for at least another year
until she can be weaned off of bottled milk,
after which they hope she will be able to look
after herself without their help.
Nantarika said dugongs typically stop
feeding on milk at around 18 months and
usually spend about eight years under their
mothers’ care. She said Marium would have to
be trained later to detach herself from humans
but, at this point, the emphasis should be on
her survival.
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84.42
4083.2
6.9247
2.129
7.8258
69.813
14310
42056
108.42
8715.4
4.165
112.2
155.0
3.373
52.06
64.351
3.7503
1.3706
1183.9
176.7
31.489
31.21
23483