“[T]he only way to solve the nuclear threat is the final elimination of Kim Jong-un and the regime. I think in order to eliminate…the regime…the most realistic and effective is to disseminate the outside information in order to educate North Korean people.” – Thae Yong Ho https://t.co/WABxjeFOr5
— Edward Oh 🇺🇸 (@EdwardHBOh) February 16, 2019
USFK should expect that every incident involving US soldiers that the Korean media becomes aware of will be publicized:
Two female U.S. army soldiers have been questioned for allegedly assaulting a Korean man and a police officer in Dongducheon, police said Monday.
According to Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency, a private, 20, from the U.S. Eighth Army and a private first class, 19, from the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division were questioned in the early hours of the day after allegedly kicking and punching a man, 58, and a police officer.
This came after an altercation between the soldiers and the man at around midnight. How the trouble started is still unclear.
Police said the soldiers refused to say anything and returned to their units later.
Police plan to summon them again for questioning after checking surveillance cameras in the area.
We are not at the point that the Korean media will sensationalize these incidents yet. They will just matter of factly report every little incident to keep the GI crime narrative simmering with the public.
I suspect that after a peace treaty is signed and the Korean left mobilizes surrogates to push for US troop withdrawals that is when they will sensationalize every little incident that happens like they did in the late 90’s to early 2000’s timeframe.
Every Korean leftist’s favorite news presenter, Sohn Suk-hee is in trouble:
Sohn Suk-hee, the chief and well-known news presenter of the cable channel JTBC, faced police questioning Saturday over an allegation that he used violence against a freelance journalist.
Yonhap
Sohn was accused of punching the journalist in the face several times during a dinner meeting in Seoul in January.
The journalist, identified only by his surname, Kim, insisted that Sohn offered him a job at JTBC, then assaulted him after he rejected the offer. Kim said he was reporting on a car accident in which Sohn was involved a few years ago.
To undergo the police questioning, Sohn arrived at a police station in western Seoul at 7:40 a.m. for his first police questioning since the scandal arose in early January.
The JTBC chief has denied the allegation against him. He has filed a charge accusing Kim of extortion.
ROK Heads may remember that Sohn is in charge of JTBC which was the news station that aired the report about the tablet PC that led to the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye. However, since Park’s impeachment conservative journalists have proven that JTBC aired fake news to help bring her down.
Sohn Suk-hee then sued these journalists for libel that challenged JTBC’s reporting even though the reports were based on facts. The journalists were then sent to jail. It will be interesting to see if Sohn who committed a real crime, if the report of the assault is true, is sent to jail. If so he should be put in a cell right next to the journalists he had jailed.
It looks like Kim Jong-un may visit a Samsung factory during his trip to Vietnam. I suspect that such a visit will be used to further the perception that he has changed and really wants to advance the DPRK economy and thus why sanctions should be dropped before denuclearization:
A senior North Korean official is believed to have looked around areas near a smartphone factory in Vietnam owned by South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co., sources said Sunday.
Yonhap
The move is prompting speculation that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may seek to visit the Samsung factory when he travels to Vietnam for his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Kim Chang-son, known as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s de facto chief of staff, and other officials arrived in Hanoi Saturday to check logistics for a second summit between Trump and Kim slated for Feb. 27-28.
You can read more at the link.
Again: North Korea’s greatest strategic weapon is a longer attention span.
— the oranckay (@oranckay) February 16, 2019
Also, the ability to get the words “verification,” “inspection,” “dismantling,” and “nuclear facility” into the int’l news cycle all over again, without giving up anything important. https://t.co/9iYiRBm1Hl
It is looking more and more like not much is going to come out of the Trump-Kim II Summit:
Anchor: U.S. President Donald Trump said sanctions will remain on North Korea and he is not in a rush to remove the regimes’ nuclear arsenal. Instead, ahead of his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Trump tried to highlight what the North can achieve through denuclearization.
KBS World Radio
Kim Bum-soo has more on Trump’s latest news conference.
Report: Ahead of his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this month, U.S. President Donald Trump has again highlighted the economic potential of the reclusive state.
[Sound bite: US President Donald Trump]
“… we think that North Korea and Chairman Kim have a tremendous potential as an economic force, economic power. Their location between South Korea and then Russia and China — right smack in the middle — is phenomenal.”
Speaking during a White House news conference on Friday, the American president addressed a wide range of issues, including the denuclearization of North Korea.
[Sound bite: US President Donald Trump]
“But we hope we’re going to be very much equally as successful. I’m in no rush for speed. We just don’t want testing. The sanctions, as you know, remain. Everything is remaining.”
Just a day earlier, U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo hinted that at the upcoming meeting Washington may be more focused on further easing the military tension on the peninsula rather than immediately lifting sanctions.
You can read more at the link.
If it wasn’t bad enough that so called “meritorious persons” are receiving much more lavish government benefits than veterans, now certain veterans may not even be able to get buried in a national cemetery:
A controversy surfaced when the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans pursued an initiative to cancel burial benefits for military veterans with less than 20 years service but more than 10 years service and instead make room for the burial of those who participated in candlelight protests and those designated as “Democracy Movement Meritorious Persons.” This means certain military veterans will no longer be eligible to be buried at the national cemeteries. The Korean War Veterans Association and other veterans groups strongly opposed the move.
East Asia Research Center
You can read much more at the link.
If anyone is wondering what happened to the former Blue House Chief of Staff and North Korean bagman, Im Jong-seok after he resigned, don’t worry because he was given a golden parachute of a position in the UAE:
Nearly two weeks after President Moon Jae-in let his former chief of staff go in a show of reform, the Blue House announced Monday that Im Jong-seok will return as Moon’s special advisor for the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Joong Ang Ilbo
Han Byung-do, former senior secretary for political affairs, was named Moon’s special advisor for Iraq.
Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said during a press briefing Monday that Im had strengthened mutual trust between Korea and the UAE while serving as presidential chief of staff, and that based on this, the Blue House expects him to contribute immensely to boosting Korea’s national interests in his new post as advisor for the UAE.
You can read more at the link.
