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New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
How an original Rooftop Korean got red-pilled: ‘These protests are not organic'
They became the stuff of Second Amendment lore — young men with firearms, patrolling the streets and positioned on rooftops in the Koreatown neighborhood during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Thirty years later, as the City of Angels again faces threats of anarchy, coupled with a defunded and demoralized police force, many people recall the group of men — later known as the Rooftop Koreans — who took it upon themselves to bulwark their community. 'Back then, I didn't really have any skin in the game, so to speak,' Tony Moon, now 53, tells The Post. Advertisement As the fires and looting crept north from South Central to Koreatown, Moon's father no longer had a business in the neighborhood. In fact, the family was living in nearby Hollywood. But a friend's brother asked for assistance protecting his stereo-equipment store on Hoover Street, and Moon, then 19, joined the militia of around 75 men to patrol the neighborhood from looters and vandals. 7 Meme @DonaldJTrumpJr/X Advertisement It worked. Bedlam gripped the city — the LAPD had stood down to the rioters — but Koreatown remained unscorched. The '92 riots erupted on a Wednesday after four LAPD officers were acquitted in a police brutality case in which they were caught on video beating suspect Rodney King, who was black, during an arrest after a high-speed chase for driving while intoxicated. The unrest lasted six days and would become the most destructive civil disruption in US history, leaving 63 people dead, thousands injured and a billion dollars in property damage.\ 7 Korean Americans guarded Koreatown during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Wikipedia Advertisement LA Koreans felt particularly vulnerable; tensions with the black community were at an all-time high. A Korean shop owner in South Central the previous year shot and killed 15-year-old Latasha Harlins following a struggle when the woman accused the girl of trying to steal a bottle of orange juice. The shopkeeper was found guilty but sentenced only to probation, enraging the black community. In response, that year rapper Ice Cube released 'Black Korea,' a track full of anti-Asian racial epithets and threats of violence against Korean shopkeepers. 'It was lawless. A lot of us wondered if this was going to be a full-on attack on the [Korean] community. You could have pretty much gotten away with anything,' Moon recalls. Advertisement 7 Tony Moon is now a suburban family man — with an edge. Courtesy of Tony Moon But with riots returning to Los Angeles in recent years — Black Lives Matter in summer 2020 following George Floyd's death and again to a lesser extent last week protesting federal immigration enforcement — Moon sees few, if any, similarities to 1992. 'When the Rodney King verdict came through, there was genuine anger and frustration from that community. And I felt it, too,' Moon tells The Post from his home outside Los Angeles. 'These are not organic. There's no groundswell support from the community. Having gone through the 2020 BLM-Antifa riots and seeing how those were organized, we know that these are all manufactured, and they need to pay these people to show up,' he says. He accuses 'dark-money NGOs' of bankrolling the unrest, pointing for instance to Neville Singham, a China-linked tech tycoon who's under House probe. 7 Moon was a Rooftop Korean at 19, trying to prove himself to his father. Courtesy of Tony Moon 'Another good example would be the Tesla protests that you saw not that long ago, where they would show up at a specific time and they're out of there a couple hours later. If you're really passionate about your cause you would probably stay from sunup to sundown, but you can tell these people were on the clock.' His experiences in 1990s LA, in part, led to Moon's early, enthusiastic support for Barack Obama — until the Democrat's presidential term wore on and Moon became disillusioned with the Washington establishment. Advertisement 'I have a heart for the black community because I grew up with that culture. My hope was, with Obama, that with the black community, there would be a real, genuine change. Because as a country, we're only as strong as our weakest link. And right now, those areas are, I consider, our weakest link. Because they are the least educated, have the most crime. But I didn't see that change with Obama. And I saw how everything was just business as usual. Obama was just a neocon elitist, like everyone else,' Moon says. 'That's what communism is, which most people don't understand. These kids that are pushing for socialism, communism think that the people on top are going to be generous and kind to them, but they're not. They're just being used as useful tools. It's a feudal system again.' 7 A Los Angeles Korean shopping mall burns on the second day of the 1992 riots. AP While he was born in West Germany and immigrated to America at age 5, Moon grew up with horror stories of life under the communist North Korean regime. Advertisement In one family tale, his grandfather — suspected of having ties to anti-revolutionaries — was marched into a field to be executed by North Korean soldiers. A chance flyover of American helicopters spooked the troops, and he escaped. That's when the family decided to leave, eventually landing in the United States. 7 More than 1,000 Korean Americans rallied at LA's Admiral Park in 1992 to call for healing between the Korean and African-American communities. AP But at 19 years old, when Moon found himself standing guard outside a shopping center on Olympic Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue carrying the Remington 870 shotgun he'd bought himself with his first paycheck, he wasn't thinking of any of that. Advertisement He always thought of himself as an Angeleno first — being Korean had little to do with it. At the time, 'I was kind of a screw up. I didn't finish high school. My dad was on to me,' Moon recalls. He got his act together and went to the University of Southern California, where he studied business. He began working as a mortgage lender and started a family; his kids are now 14 and 16. 'I became just a Joe Schmo citizen.' As COVID-19 restrictions intensified in 2020, Moon began to suspect the authorities were lying about the illness' severity. Then he started following bizarre behavior from vote-counting precincts on election night that year. 7 Moon became a meme again in 2001. @PplsCityCouncil/X Advertisement He joined Twitter to have a place to vent his political frustrations and was shocked to discovere he'd become a meme: The younger generation had stumbled upon 1992's 'Rooftop Koreans' (a term Moon had never heard before) and, from 2020 riots' ashes, had sent out the bat-signal beckoning their return. 'They understood the call went out. A lot of the Korean guys were saying, 'Yeah, I'll go out again,'' Moon remembers. (Turns out they weren't needed; Koreatown was left untouched in 2020, as if someone had already gotten the message.) By now the mild-mannered suburban father was rapidly becoming a full-on political activist. On Jan. 6, 2021, Moon showed up in Washington, DC, to express solidarity with election-integrity protesters — though he didn't go inside the Capitol that day. 'I would fight for anyone's right to protest and speak their mind regardless of whatever side of the issue you're on,' Moon says, taking a swig from an orange water bottle — the very same bottle that in July 2021 led him to become another meme. That month he joined a protest outside Wi Spa in LA's Koreatown in support of women who'd complained about a nude male in their changing room, clashing with pro-transgender activists. As Moon was giving an interview a woman approached and kicked him in the groin. He reacted by bonking her with the water bottle, a moment that went viral. With more anti-Trump protests being organized across the country, does Moon think we're in for a repeat of 1992? Or a sequel to 2020's 'Summer of Love'? Not really. 'You can't fool people a hundred percent of the time. You can't use the same playbook over and over again. People have a certain degree of pattern recognition,' he says, believing the unrest is more theater than heart. 'I think everyone's going through riot fatigue.' Maybe even the ones being paid for it.
Korea Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
Korea unveils W30.5tr stimulus to revive growth, ease household strain
W10.3tr revenue cut marks first revision in five years as fiscal deficit widens Just two weeks into office, President Lee Jae Myung's administration has unveiled a proposal for a 30.5 trillion won ($22.2 billion) supplementary budget aimed at jump-starting the sluggish economy. The package includes a 10.3 trillion won revenue revision — the first in five years. 'The Korean economy now stands at an inflection point,' Second Vice Finance Minister Lim Ki-keun said Wednesday during a briefing in Sejong. 'To set growth on an upward trajectory, timely and bold fiscal intervention is more critical than ever. More spending cannot by itself solve everything, but this will be a vital first step.' The measure marks the second spending package this year, following a 13.8 trillion won plan approved in May under the previous administration, which won rare bipartisan support during a politically volatile, post-impeachment transition. With Cabinet approval secured on Thursday, the government said it plans to submit the latest proposal to the National Assembly by Monday. Lim said the latest plan was guided by two priorities: providing tangible support for the real economy and people's livelihoods and ensuring its swift implementation within the year. Of the 20.2 trillion won in new spending, 15.2 trillion won will go toward boosting economic activity, while 5 trillion won is earmarked for stabilizing livelihoods. A key pillar of the stimulus is a 10.3 trillion won cash relief program distributed via so-called 'spending coupons,' with payments ranging from 150,000 won to 500,000 won based on income levels. All Koreans will receive at least 150,000 won in the first phase, with larger amounts for lower-income households. In the second phase, the top 10 percent of earners will be excluded, while the remaining 90 percent will receive an additional 100,000 won. The government also allocated 2.7 trillion won to the construction sector, which has posted four consecutive quarters of contraction and remains a significant drag on domestic demand. To foster long-term growth, 1.2 trillion won will be invested in startups and emerging industries, including artificial intelligence and renewable energy. The 5 trillion won earmarked for livelihood support mainly targets struggling small business owners and the self-employed, as recent data show record-high default rates and involuntary closures. Of that, 1.4 trillion won will go toward easing the debt burden of chronically distressed borrowers, while 1.6 trillion won will be used to strengthen the employment safety net, through job-seeking benefits and aid for delayed wage payments. The government is revising down its revenue projection by 10.3 trillion won, marking the first revenue correction since July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of end-April, the integrated fiscal balance, indicating the government's underlying fiscal health, posted a deficit of 46.1 trillion won — the third-largest April shortfall on record after 2024 and 2020. That figure is set to grow, factoring in more than 30 trillion won in combined extra budget spending this year. Fiscal conditions are set to worsen with expanded outlays. Full-year revenue is now projected at 642.4 trillion won, down from an initial estimate of 651.6 trillion won, while spending has been revised up to 702 trillion won from 673.3 trillion won. As a result, the year-end integrated fiscal deficit is forecast to reach 110.4 trillion won, widening from 91.6 trillion won last year. As a share of gross domestic product, the deficit rate is projected to rise to 4.2 percent, up from an earlier forecast of 3.3 percent. The national debt, which stood at roughly 1,200 trillion won as of end-April, is expected to exceed 1,300 trillion won by year's end, pushing the debt-to-GDP ratio to 49 percent. To finance the shortfall, the government plans to issue 19.8 trillion won in treasury bonds, with the remainder covered through about 10 trillion won in spending restructuring and available fund reserves. The ministry downplayed concerns about bond market pressure, saying the extra budget had already been priced in and yields remain stable. 'Demand in the treasury bond market remains solid,' Lim said. Despite concerns over fiscal health, the finance ministry said Korea's debt remains manageable by global standards. Lim underscored the administration's emphasis on 'sustainability,' calling for strategic spending paired with a long-term path to fiscal stability. 'Given current economic and fiscal conditions, rigidly adhering to the 3 percent deficit cap could harm both the economy and public finances,' Lim said, adding, 'While we remain committed to fiscal sustainability, strictly meeting the rule is unrealistic at this stage." The government expects the extra budget to boost economic growth by 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points, lifting it into the 1 percent range. The Bank of Korea projects 0.8 percent growth this year, while the International Monetary Fund forecasts a 1 percent expansion.
Korea Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
S. Korea suffers OECD's 4th-biggest AI brain drain
South Korea, despite being a leading producer of educated professionals in artificial intelligence and science, is rapidly losing talent to countries such as the United States, Canada, Japan and Germany, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Korea Chamber of Commerce's Sustainable Growth Initiative. In 2024, South Korea recorded a net loss of 0.36 AI experts per 10,000 people. That puts it near the bottom of the 38 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, at 35th place. Luxembourg, by comparison, gained 8.92 persons per 10,000 people. Germany gained 2.34 and the US 1.07. This measure subtracts the number of local professionals leaving the country from those coming in. In Korea's case, the gap is growing wider every year. This trend marks a reversal from what had been a modest but positive inflow of AI talent into South Korea. Just five years ago, in 2020, the country recorded a net gain. That has since shifted to a steady and worsening outflow. The broader science sector tells a similar story. In 2021, Korea's rate of scientists moving abroad (2.85 percent) was higher than the rate of foreign scientists moving in (2.64 percent). This placed Korea 33rd out of 43 countries in terms of scientific talent retention. The US is the top attractive destination for Korean researchers. The US issued 5,684 high-skilled EB-1 and EB-2 visas to Korean nationals in 2023. That is roughly 11 per 100,000 people, a far higher rate than China (0.94), Japan (0.86) and even India (1.44). And 71.1 percent of Korean Ph.D. graduates in the US reported plans to stay there long-term, a rise from the previous five years, when it had stayed below 70 percent. The SGI report identifies several structural issues behind the exodus. Chief among them is Korea's rigid and hierarchical workplace culture, which many young professionals find stifling. Compensation is also a major issue. The median starting salary for assistant professors in Korea is about $32,000 a year. In the US, it's over 83,000. Countries like Japan ($46,000) and Germany ($70,000) also pay significantly more. In addition, the report posits that Korea's 52-hour workweek cap, though intended to protect workers, often limits the flexibility that high-performing researchers need. Other countries make exceptions. The US, for instance, exempts many high-earning professionals from strict working hours regulations. Japan and Germany also allow special provisions for researchers in advanced fields. With Korea's working-age population shrinking and the research workforce projected to decline by over 20 percent by 2040, the report warns that the country faces a future where it trains the world's talent but struggles to keep enough of it to sustain its own growth. SGI recommends sweeping policy changes, including performance-based pay, flexible work arrangements for high-skilled professionals, and structured incentives for overseas Koreans to return. 'We're watching the foundation of Korea's scientific future quietly erode,' said SGI researcher Kim Cheon-goo. 'And we are helping build it elsewhere.'
Korea Herald
2 days ago
- Politics
- Korea Herald
British diplomat to highlight interconnectivity, climate change at TEDx Seoul
British diplomat Gareth Weir will take the stage at TEDxSeoul on June 28 to discuss global interconnectivity, climate change and geopolitics. Speaking with The Korea Herald ahead of the event, Weir, who serves as deputy ambassador at the British Embassy in Seoul, underscored the value of TEDx for dialogue, breaking silos and engaging citizens. 'We've partnered with TEDx a couple of times now,' said Weir. 'We did some work on climate change, including hosting events at the residence. For us, TEDx's motto — 'Ideas worth sharing' — says it all. That's why we engage: to share ideas.' Weir, a career diplomat, sees TEDx as aligning closely with the values of diplomacy. 'Diplomacy is fundamentally about dialogue,' he explained. 'TEDx creates a space for that dialogue in a safe environment. We hope it helps people build bridges and understand different viewpoints.' Underlining Korea's rapid development, Weir acknowledged the country's remarkable achievements but noted that future success hinges on adaptability. 'The miracle on the Han is extraordinary,' he said. 'But the next evolution — navigating climate, technology, global markets — is incredibly complex. Countries that succeed will be those that learn from others, engage widely, and embrace new ideas.' Weir pointed out that TEDx helps societies connect not only within but also across borders. 'It gives Koreans a platform to share their transformation and learn from global experiences. Many people around the world want to learn from Korea — and vice versa,' he said. Weir highlighted the UK Embassy's partnership with TEDx as a way to connect climate action and human rights through meaningful dialogue, emphasizing shared narratives and collaboration on issues like North Korea, energy transition and human rights. In his TEDx talk, titled 'Crossover,' Weir will highlight global interconnectivity and shared responsibility, urging people to act as engaged global citizens. Using everyday examples like smartphones, he will show how deeply interconnected the world is and call for bridge-building instead of polarization. He stresses that diplomacy and TEDx both thrive on ideas that inspire meaningful change. David Choo, curator of TEDxSeoul, described the event as a civic platform that amplifies underrepresented voices — youth, people with disabilities, climate activists and North Korean defectors. Choo highlighted plans with the British Embassy for cross-cultural events in literature, film and environmental storytelling. 'It's about sharing our lives and learning from each other through authentic storytelling,' added Choo. sanjaykumar@
New Straits Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New Straits Times
Koreans overcome scorching schedule to squeeze into semis
KUALA LUMPUR: The south battled the south, and it was South Korea who came out tops in the Nations Cup match at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil today. South Korean sank South Africa 1-0 to qualify for the semi-finals. The all important goal was scored by Lim Dohyun, his third of the tournament, from a penalty corner in the 29th minute in the Group A match which was played in scorching heat. It was South Korea's fourth win over South Africa since the 1994 World Cup in Sydney. The Koreans finished runners-up in the group with six points from two wins and one defeat. They lost to France 6-5 before edging Wales 3-2. South Korea coach Min Tae Seok said: "I am not satisfied with our overall performance. The players were too tired and didn't show their full potential." But Tae Seok Tae must be feeling hot under the collar. "We had three games that we played at 2pm, so obviously it had a big impact on the stamina of our players. The match scheduling really affected us," he said. "Our initial goal for this tournament was to get into the semi-finals, which we did. Hopefully, our players have enough rest and do better in the competition." In another match, world No. 10 France were held to a 2-2 draw by world No. 19 Wales. Louis Haertelmeyer (14th) and Amaury Bellenger (54th) scored for France. Wales replied through Fred Newbold (22nd) and Jack Pritchard (45th). France, who finished second in the Nations Cup in Poland last year, topped the group with seven points and will face the Group B runners-up on Friday. France had edged South Korea 6-5 in their opening match and beaten South Africa 4-3.
