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Victoria Kim Profile picture
Victoria Kim
@vicjkim
Live correspondent, @nytimes. Previously: @latimes Seoul correspondent, metro reporter. Reach me at vkim (at) https://t.co/pdtcuvAv4k
Aug 31, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Remember restaurants? Seoul's been fortunate that they've remained open — so far — including the ones that serve the city's 70,000 cab drivers.

Let @yamphoto & I take you into some of them, for a look into hard-working lives strained by the pandemic:

latimes.com/world-nation/s… Known as 'gisa sikdang,' they offer cheap & quick meals — and will also pay parking fines should drivers get ticketed while eating.

They've also become places where those on a budget can get a filling meal, with unlimited rice & banchan, like the family in the movie 'Parasite.' ImageImageImageImage
Jul 27, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
The vast majority if farm work in South Korea, as in many developed nations, is done by migrant workers — legal and otherwise.

@yamphoto and I spent time at a tobacco farm, learning the stories of a farmer and Thai workers, lives changed by COVID-19:

latimes.com/world-nation/s… The flow of migrant labor largely halted by coronavirus-related travel restrictions has led to shortages and desperation across South Korea's agricultural areas, as crops ripened and rains loomed.

In their stories you'll find tales of opportunity and reinvention. Image
Jul 13, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Attorney for Park's accuser says the former secretary told police she received sexually explicit Telegram messages, including photos of him clad only in underwear, and was subject unwanted physical contact over four years of working for the mayor. Women's rights activists read a letter from the accuser. "I should have screamed, cried out, reported that first time," she wrote. "I suffered alone, during the long period of being silent."
Jul 9, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Seoul mayor Park Won-soon has been found dead after an hours-long search, in an apparent suicide. He was reportedly facing sexual harassment allegations recently reported to police. Like President Roh Moo-hyun, who took his own life in 2009, Park was a liberal stalwart who fought authoritarian rule in South Korea as a young man. He was in his third term as mayor, first elected in 2011. He was 65.
Jun 16, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Dramatic video from South Korea's Ministry of National Defense showing North Korea blowing up the liaison office with South Korea

latimes.com/world-nation/s… @yonhaptweet graphic showing the location and facade of the blown-up liaison office. Sleek new building that just opened its doors Sept. 2018.
May 21, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
South Korea's high school seniors went back to school Wednesday, so I did too. Thrilled to report one teacher mistook me for a student. (It was probably the masks.)

This was the scene at Gyungbuk Girls' High in Daegu, the hardest-hit city in the country.

latimes.com/world-nation/s… All 300+ students were surprisingly good about keeping on face masks through all 7 periods, including P.E.

They snuck in hugs and clutched hands though, upon seeing friends for the first time in months, despite teachers' best efforts to keep them apart.

Photos by @chowoohae ImageImageImageImage
May 12, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Seoul mayor says 101 individuals have tested positive for the coronavirus stemming from the outbreak surrounding Itaewon clubs. 64 are in the city of Seoul.

Authorities have tested 7,272 linked to the cluster. They've found secondary infections in family members and coworkers. They're received a list of 10,905 people who were in the Itaewon area based on cell tower information and another 494 who used credit cards, and sent them text messages urging them to get tested, @Seoul_gov says. "The battle against an epidemic is all about speed," mayor says.
May 5, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
A number of you will soon discover I don't typically tweet about baseball/KBO — my expertise is in drinking beer at the stadium! You're in better hands with @MyKBO @Jeeho_1 or @sung_minkim.

But while I have you, here's my opening day recap, for @latimes:

latimes.com/world-nation/s… Some parting post-game shots from the field ImageImageImage
May 5, 2020 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
Today's office ⚾️ Image T-30, spraying the infield Image
Apr 14, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Good morning! It's election day in South Korea and the polls are open.

These were some of the precautions being taken at a early voting station over the weekend -- face shields, thermometers, disposable plastic gloves.

latimes.com/world-nation/s… ImageImage At the polls, voters are being spaced to line up one meter (3.3ft) apart. At the rallies last week, on the other hand, folks weren't exactly socially distanced... ImageImageImageImage
Apr 9, 2020 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
I learned so much about nurses and the humanity and dedication with which they're fighting the coronavirus fight from the sketches of Oh Young-jun, an ICU nurse in Incheon, an art school dropout who draws scenes from the hospital on his days off.

latimes.com/world-nation/s… His sketches are such delicate, raw depictions of the day-to-day of nurses, whose work has gotten much more harrowing of late with the arrival of the novel coronavirus.

facebook.com/nursingstory/ ImageImageImageImage
Apr 7, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
This hour-by-hour account of what it's like to be in South Korean government quarantine upon arrival into the country is interesting. This person is at a police training facility, paying about $80/night with 3 meals/day.

They received SIM cards with free data for a month. A PA system announcement apparently referred to those in quarantine as "inmates." He wonders if someone at the facility is reading his tweets because the same announcement repeated a little later did not.

Apr 6, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
South Korea reports just 47 new cases of the coronavirus, the lowest daily uptick since infections began surging Feb 21, & the first time it's dipped below 50 since.

At the peak, it was 900+ new cases in one day.

Things could still turn on a dime, but feels like a milestone. Here's what that trajectory looked like, daily new cases in blue. In the gray is the number of those released from quarantine. Image
Mar 29, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
That ominous photo is of a discount pet goods store in South Korea. 🤦‍♀️ I know I'm not supposed to touch my face, but 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️
Mar 28, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I wrote something a little different about the coronavirus outbreak — musings on isolation, and how much we'd already been living in a socially distanced world before this deadly virus colored our everyday encounters. Hope you'll give it a read.

latimes.com/world-nation/s… Much of it is based on thoughts that had been percolating in my mind of the past year about Seoul, which in many ways is optimized for life with minimal human contact through apps and speedy delivery, where isolation has been a growing trend among the young.
Mar 21, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
**Extra, extra!**

A study in South Korea found masks retain 99.9% of filtering efficiency after being steamed stovetop, as you would veggies. Up to three times, for 20 mins.

Only for higher-rated (KF94, in South Korea) masks — lower rated KF80 masks lost some of its function. Just as you would veggies! Image
Mar 21, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Emergency alert just now: two additional coronavirus cases in Seongnam, a suburb south of Seoul. For one of them: **Record of visit to the U.S.**

There’s a real fear of reimported cases from US/Europe. Image Beginning at midnight March 22, every single traveler entering South Korea from Europe will be tested for the novel coronavirus. Even those who are negative will be required to self quarantine for 14 days. No such measures for the US as yet
Mar 16, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
For a second day in a row, South Korea has reported fewer than 100 new coronavirus cases (76 on Sunday, 74 today). 75 have died. That's 75 too many, but still under 1% mortality rate, and a dramatic contrast compared to places like Italy (1,800+), Iran (724) and Spain (292)
Mar 15, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Now that #Patient31 is trending outside of South Korea, here's my story about her and how South Korea dealt with it. Safe to say, you don't want to be Patient 31.

latimes.com/world-nation/s… And if you want to read more about the fringe religious sect/"cult" she was a part of, the Shincheonji Church of Jesus:
latimes.com/world-nation/s…

Religious leaders, you don't want to be Shincheonji either, and have your services lead to thousands being infected. Just saying.
Mar 14, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
South Korea's increase in coronavirus infections appears to be stabilizing, as much as the outbreak is far from over. Central to S. Korea's response was a rapid scale-up of testing — which was under way weeks before the number of infections began spiking.

latimes.com/world-nation/s… New infections by date are in green — after a peak in late February, newly reported cases have been just over 100 a day for most of this week.
Mar 10, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
During a press briefing just now, the mayor for the city of Daegu asked members of Shincheonji Church of Jesus to comply with testing and quarantine, saying "Think of the immense pain you've caused the community."

latimes.com/world-nation/s… Shincheonji, which many call a "cult," is a controversial, fringe organization with secretive proselytizing practices that may have contributed to the spread of the virus. At the same time, what if the mass outbreak had taken place at a Presbyterian or Catholic church?