ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Seokmin Lee

Seokmin Lee is a former Senior Research Officer at the Constitutional Research Institute, in the Constitutional Court of Korea. He taught as a Post-Doc/Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Tuebingen, Germany as a part of "Teach@Tuebingen" Program (2014-2015).

POSTS BY Seokmin Lee

08 April 2021

South Korea’s Combating COVID-19 Under the Rule of Law

South Korea has reduced the significant number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases without ordering stringent restrictions, nor locking down regions and causing severe economic damage. South Korea was able to slow down the spread of COVID-19 along with the government’s quick reaction to the disease. The government has been implementing nationwide free public testing programs. The KCDC in the government tracked all the confirmed cases’ geographic footprints and publicized the information to the people via online websites and mobile texts. Local cities opened up an innovative ‘drive-through’ testing area, which became a model followed by other countries. The civil society has also generally followed the guidelines provided by government, including using medical face masks and adapting to ‘social-distancing. Continue reading >>

25 March 2020

Seokmin Lee

Fighting COVID 19 – Legal Powers and Risks: South Korea

The Republic of Korea (South Korea) was calculated to be one of the countries that are “heavily hit” by the spread of COVID-19 that sprung from Wuhan, China. According to the latest Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, as of March 23, South Korea has reported just over 8,900 cases and 111 deaths. Whereas many Western countries have reached ever higher numbers of infections, South Korea’s outbreak curve has been beaten back. From a one-day high of 909 new cases on February 29, South Korea has seen its daily case count rise by as few as 74 cases last Monday. And this Monday the number of new cases was 64. South Korea is seeing a "stabilizing trend", as Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told the BBC recently. Continue reading >>