hankyoreh

The 12th Korea Queer Culture Festival will begin Saturday, May 28 at Hanbit Park in Seoul. This year’s theme is “Viva! Queer.” Launched in 2000, this year marks the festival’s 12th year of events.
The festival will open with booths set up by various LGBTQ and human rights advocacy organizations, where attendees can gather and speak with representatives of the respective organizations. Opening ceremonies begin at 3:30, and the parade is expected to begin at 4:30.
Weather forecasts indicate regular festival attendees can expect clear skies and warm summer weather in contrast to last year’s unrelenting rain.
　
S.Korea’s household debt exceeds $727 Bil. in Q1
South Korea’s household debt for the first time reached more than 8-hundred trillion won or roughly 7-hundred-30 billion US dollars in the first quarter of this year.
The Bank of Korea said on Wednesday that debts owed by households rose by 5.6 billion dollars from a year before due to a rise in mortgage loans. However, the increase is a lot less than the 23-billion-dollar quarterly rise in the final quarter of last year.
(Arirang News)　
　　
Baucus warns of impasse on KOFUS FTA unless Republicans agree to renew TAA
A senior Democratic senator Wednesday threatened not to move on the pending free trade deals with South Korea, Panama and Colombia unless Republicans agree to renew funding for retraining displaced workers.
“A long-term reauthorization of a robust TAA program must move in tandem with our pending trade agreements with Panama, Colombia and Korea,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus told a committee hearing. “They must move together as a package, an agreed-upon agreement that both TAA and the FTAs will pass in this Congress. Otherwise, nothing passes. It‘s all or nothing.”
Congressional Republicans have opposed the renewal of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program for the retraining of workers displaced due to foreign competition. The program expired in February after being extended two years ago as part of Obama’s stimulus plans to help the world’s biggest economy rebound from the worst recession in decades.
(Yonhap News)