On the 29th, the Artemis Project, the first journey to send mankind to the moon in 2025, will begin. The United States is conducting the ‘Artemis Program’, a manned lunar exploration program to send astronauts to the moon again about 50 years after the Apollo Project, which was the first human moon landing program that took the first step on the moon in 1969. The ‘Artemis Agreement’ was established as a principle of cooperation. Korea became the 10th participant in the Artemis Agreement to which the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Australia have signed in May of last year, and the signing of the agreement is expected to further expand cooperation in the space field between Korea and the United States. Currently, 21 countries are participating in the Artemis Agreement. Also, the 31st of this month is the one year anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. September 3 is the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Region in China, and the Eastern Economic Forum will be held in Vladivostok, Russia from the same day to September 8.
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| Artemis 1 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) |
◇Cock 1: SLS rocket launch on board the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis (moon return) project is scheduled to be launched = In 2025, the first project to re-landing mankind on the moon after 50 years takes the first step. An unmanned lunar orbit flight is scheduled to test its technical capabilities. According to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the countdown for the launch of the ‘Space Launch System’ (SLS) rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft began on the 27th at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. If there are no variables such as bad weather, the SLS will rise toward the moon in about 2 hours from 8:33 am (9:33 pm Korean time) on the 29th. If the weather conditions worsen, it will be postponed in early September. After the countdown, rain and lightning hit the Kennedy Space Center. However, it is known that there is no effect on the SLS as the launch pad is equipped with a lightning rod. The weather team is currently analyzing the specific impact. NASA believes that there is a 70% or more chance that the weather will clear on the 29th, the day of the launch. Artemis will travel 2,092,148 km, the distance between the Earth and the moon, in 42 days.
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| Female prisoners in Afghanistan listen to the stories of female prison guards at the Kandahar Central Prison on the 26th. EPA Yonhap News |
◇Cock 2: 1st anniversary of US withdrawal from Afghanistan… Women’s rights, still in a dark period = Coming 31st marks the one-year anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Afghanistan is walking through a dark period of human trafficking in Afghanistan amidst economic hardship a year after the withdrawal of U.S. troops and under the Taliban, and residents suffering from drug addiction. Perdaus Kawisi, 35, an Afghan journalist who is famous for being an ‘anti-Taliban’, recently told a media outlet that “Afghanistan’s economy is dying and the people are living in the darkest period in history.” In particular, he strongly criticized the Taliban’s oppression of women’s rights, saying, “The Taliban is the most anti-feminist regime in the world.” In fact, as the Taliban regained power, it is said that women’s rights in Afghanistan have returned to the time when the first Taliban took power (1996-2001).
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| A performer wearing a hanbok participates in the entrance ceremony for the Chinese flag, the Chinese flag, during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics held at the National Stadium in Beijing, China on the afternoon of February 4th. news |
◇Cock 3: The 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Region in China… Controversy over China’s ‘erase Hangul’ policy = Coming 3 will mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean-Chinese Autonomous Region in China. In this situation, it has been confirmed that the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China has established and implemented the rules for writing characters that give priority to Chinese. On the 25th of last month, the Yanbian government promulgated and put into effect the ‘Ordinance on the Manufacture of Korean Language and Letters’ on the 25th of last month. . For horizontal writing, Chinese is written on the front and Hangul is written on the back, and when vertical, Chinese is written on the right and Hangul on the left. In particular, all signs, such as signboards and advertisements that were previously produced and do not comply with these rules, were to be replaced. In Yanbian, the only Korean-Chinese autonomous province in China, as well as in Shenyang and Dandong in Liaoning Province, where Koreans and Koreans are densely populated, Hangeul has been used as the main language, and Chinese-speaking or Hangul-only signboards have been used. Therefore, this measure is interpreted as reflecting the recent trend of the Chinese government emphasizing the ‘common sense of the Chinese nation’.
Correspondent Kim Seon-young