Author: GIKorea

A country suffering mass malnutrition and chronic food insecurity is holding a cooking competition. https://t.co/SCqYgfxxEQ

— Edward Oh 🇺🇸 (@EdwardHBOh) February 15, 2019

So now it looks like the Korean War Peace Treaty is off the table for the Trump-Kim II Summit:

Kyodo News reports Washington has floated to Pyongyang the idea of adopting a nonaggression or peace declaration act as they prepare for summit talks in Vietnam later this month.

The Japanese news agency on Friday quoted a number of U.S. and Japanese government sources familiar with the matter. 

The sources said Washington made the proposal in order to entice North Korea into making concessions related to denuclearization by guaranteeing the security of the North Korean regime. 

However, the report said it is uncertain whether an agreement will be reached before the second U.S.-North Korea summit, given Pyongyang’s continued reluctance to declare its nuclear weapons and missile programs.  

The report said the U.S. initially sought to declare an official end to the Korean War but decided against the idea after assessing that it would be difficult to get support on the matter from relevant countries, including South Korea and China, in a short period of time.

KBS World Radio

Who knows how accurate this comment is, but it is of course making the rounds as a headline:

Inevitably, the book includes disturbing new detail about Trump’s subservience to Russian President Vladimir Putin. During an Oval Office briefing in July 2017, Trump refused to believe U.S. intelligence reports that North Korea had test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile — a test that Kim Jong Un had called a Fourth of July “gift” to “the arrogant Americans.”
Trump dismissed the missile launch as a “hoax,” McCabe writes. “He thought that North Korea did not have the capability to launch such missiles. He said he knew this because Vladimir Putin had told him so.”

Washington Post

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Two years ago today(2/13), Kim Jong-un assassinated his half-brother using VX chemical nerve agent in an airport. People easily forget… pic.twitter.com/x1rmCu0HXV

— William Kim 김영권 (@NKMESSENGER) February 13, 2019

For something that is technically illegal in South Korea, it is widely practiced:

Around 20 percent of Korean women who get pregnant have abortions, according to a government survey, Thursday.

The Korea Institute of Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) announced the result of the survey, which it conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Welfare on 10,000 women aged between 15 and 44 online from September to October.

It was the third government survey on abortion, an illegal practice here ― except in certain life-threatening circumstances and in the cases of rape and incest ― but widely conducted secretly. Previous surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2010.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but to put this into perspective, this 20% number is very similar to the United States where it is estimated that 25% of women will have had an abortion by age 45.

I never thought I would type these words, but go Speaker Pelosi:

A South Korean delegation of lawmakers visiting Washington this week for talks with U.S. officials ahead of the second U.S.-North summit clashed with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over Pyongyang’s true intentions after she accused the North of pursuing South Korea’s “demilitarization.”

Joong Ang Ilbo via a reader tip

North Korea would love demilitarization of South Korea, but the Kim regime knows they won’t get that. What they are hoping for is military superiority in order to extort the North Korea. This is what the pursuit of a peace treaty is about, ending the US-ROK alliance while keeping their nuclear weapons that gives them military superiority over the South.

Here is what the ROK delegation said in response:

When Rep. Chung Dong-young of the minor leftist Party for Democracy and Peace replied that forging ties with the North like the United States did with Vietnam would help the United States “expand its national interest,” Pelosi shot back that she doesn’t trust the North. 

The Kim regime has done nothing to earn trust. By the way Chung Dong-young used to be the Unification Minister during the Roh Moo-hyun administration in South Korea who has a long history of anti-Americanism and Kim regime appeasing.

At one point, Pelosi reportedly said last year’s first summit between North Korea and the United States was nothing but a show, and that U.S. President Donald Trump failed to return home with any accomplishments. Pelosi continued, saying she wanted to see real proof that Pyongyang was denuclearizing. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, she added, is trying to demilitarize the South, not give up his nuclear weapons.

The Kim regime is willing to do “pretend denuclearization”, but I have not seen any evidence they intend to really denuclearize. I think the Trump administration is beginning to realize this as well and is why they are focusing on ending the ICBM program which they may have more success doing.

The Japanese even came up during this meeting:

National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang, who led the South Korean delegation, said Pelosi also brought up his recent spat with the Japanese government and told him she was worried about strained ties between Seoul and Tokyo, adding she hopes they settle the issues soon. Moon said he felt Pelosi made the comment due to Japan’s request. 

I wish Pelosi would have hit back at him with my line by asking him to call for Kim Jong-un to hold hands and apologize to the victims of the Korean War, something his grandfather caused that was far more destructive than anything the Japanese ever did to South Korea. Or call for him to hold hands and apologize to the families of South Koreans abducted over the years by North Korea. Better yet will he call for Kim Jong-un to hold hands with the families of the victims of the Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong Island shelling. I would have loved to have seen his reaction.

This how Moon Hee-sang the ROK Parliament Speaker ended the meeting:

Unfazed, Moon told reporters during the press briefing that “the era of Pax Koreana” has arrived, and that the K-pop sensation BTS and Andy Kim, a Democratic New Jersey House representative of Korean descent, are “conquering the world from New York.”

Andy Kim and BTS are conquering the world? I really hope this is a mistranslation because this is almost as delusional as believing that Kim Jong-un really wants to denuclearize.

Dr. Tara O over at the East Asia Research Center has another very interesting article published about how government compensation payments to “meritorious persons” from the Gwangju Uprising are so much higher than those given to Korean and Vietnam War veterans:

The Gwangju Incident that began on May 18, 1980 is referred to as “5.18” in Korea.  Those designated as 5.18 Yugogja (5.18 “Meritorious Persons”) and their families receive extensive benefits from the South Korean government.  Unlike Korean War and Vietnam War veterans, whose status is determined by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans, the 5.18 Yugongja is determined in Gwangju.  While technically it falls under the Prime Minister’s office, de facto, the process and the decisions are made at the local government level.  However, it is the national government that pays the benefits.

East Asia Research Center

Below is an excerpt of a chart that shows the differences in compensation. Click the link to see the full chart:

Besides the extreme difference in compensation here is what makes this issue even more controversial is that the lists keeps growing. Plus politically connected people who were not even at Gwangju are now being selected as “meritorious persons” and getting the free cash and benefits:

For an event that occurred 39 years ago, it seems the number of 5.18 Yugongja should fall over time.  However, the number has been increasing, especially in recent years. In 1990, the first year the 5.18 Yugongja designation occurred, the number was 2,224.  As of August 2018, the number was 4,403.  In 2017, the number was 4,377, so it has increased by 26 in 8 months.  How is this possible?

It includes even those who were not present in Gwangju.  National Assemblyman Lee Hae-chan, the leader of the Deoburreo Minju Party, publicly admitted, “I became a Gwangju democracy Movement Yugongja, although I hadn’t even gone to Gwangju (then).” (0:30).  Lee Hae-chan was the former Prime Minister under Rho Moo-hyun and Education Minister under Kim Dae-jung. At least 30-40 other politicians are thought to be designated as 5.18 Yugongja.

This has caused conservative politicians to demand the release of the names of this growing list, but unlike the list of Korean and Vietnam War veterans this list is being kept secret. I think it is fair to say that certain people do not want the list released because it will show how it has become a way to reward politically connected people, thus why it keeps growing.

This “meritorious person” list reminds me of the National Medal of the Order of Merit for National Foundation where politically connected people are given generous stipends for this medal.

I am trying to think of an equivalent of politically connected corruption in the U.S. using a national medal of designation and I can’t think of one. The Presidential Medal of Freedom has long been given to politically connected people, but they are not getting huge payouts like in the ROK. Can anyone think of equivalent in the U.S. where politically connected people are getting huge payouts for an award or designation?

The USFK commander’s remarks makes me wonder if he inadvertently spoke about something already being discussed at higher levels?

The U.S. Department of Defense has reaffirmed that the issue of the American troop presence in South Korea is not directly related to denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang, multiple Seoul officials said Thursday.
It delivered the message recently to Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense amid a controversy over U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) chief Gen. Robert Abrams’ remarks at a congressional session, which were seen as signaling the possibility of the U.S. troop withdrawal — or drawdown — after a peace treaty is signed with North Korea, according to the officials.
In response to a senator’s question Tuesday about the USFK, the commander said his troops will stay on the peninsula, “Until there is a peace treaty, because we still remain in a state of armistice, a cessation of hostilities, until such time that there is a peace treaty between all of the parties.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.