This is one of the most absurd lines Trump said last night. At the end of the Obama term, there was no sign that US + NK were about to go to war. Then Trump started with his “fire and fury” and “Rocket Man” tweets in 2017. That increased tensions. https://t.co/hrFJkW8GUb
— Edward Wong (@ewong) February 6, 2019
Who knows where this bridge to nowhere is located?
As I have said before why can’t a country that can afford a nuclear weapons program buy its own Tamiflu?:
South Korea has no problem in drawing global cooperation for its planned delivery of antiviral medication to North Korea, a unification ministry official said Thursday.
Yonhap
The government promised to send 200,000 doses of Tamiflu to North Korea via a land route over their western border, but delivery has been repeatedly put off as Seoul says more time is needed for relevant preparations.
Speculation arose that Washington’s discomfort with the plan’s potential undermining of a global sanctions regime against Pyongyang might be behind the prolonged delay.
The hesitation from Washington is probably because they realize the Tamiflu is likely going to be sold on the blackmarket for millions as yet another illicit Kim regime money making operation to avoid sanctions.
I like this idea of having elevated bike paths, much safer than sharing the road with cars, especially in a congested city like Seoul:
Seoul has announced the winners of an architectural design contest for elevated bike paths that can provide cyclists a more continuous and safer ride around Seoul.
Korea Times
The first prize went to a submission titled “UNDER the C,” which drew up plans for a bike path beneath an elevated expressway in northeastern Seoul. If built, this elevated bike lane will connect cyclists in the Jeongneung Station area to the Jungnang stream, whose bike paths eventually connect to those along the Han River in the south.
You can read more at the link.
"Trump has found that his lack of experience in politics and diplomacy, which require policy knowledge, team building and nuanced negotiating ability, has left him at a decided disadvantage despite his boasts about his deal-making prowess" https://t.co/B5cZYgQbfE
— Francis Fukuyama (@FukuyamaFrancis) February 4, 2019
It has been speculated that the Trump administration would agree to end the Korean War and it appears that is the direction Trump-Kim II Summit negotiations are going:
President Moon Jae-in and Chinese President Xi Jinping may join the summit to be held between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this month in Vietnam to declare an end to the Korean War.
Korea Times
As U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun stated last week, President Trump is open to formally ending the war as part of measures to spur denuclearization talks with North Korea. This is an idea Moon, Xi and Kim have all been supporting.
One major obstacle was North Korea’s opposition to the continued presence of U.S. troops in South Korea. However, the North has reportedly changed its stance on this.
U.S. and South Korean officials said ending the Korean War is a major topic in the ongoing pre-summit talks in Pyongyang.
You can read more a the link, but I have said this repeatedly, North Korea does not have to call for a withdrawal of US troops when its surrogates in South Korea will do it for them.
Anti-US leftist groups will claim that a peace treaty calls into question why US troops are needed in Korea. Two of the largest anti-US leftist groups, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and Minbyun-Lawyers for a Democratic Society are already advancing this idea.
The PSPD and Minbyun are both extreme left wing pro-Pyongyang organization that have long been anti-US. For example PSPD is one of the groups behind the ongoing THAAD protests, blamed the US for Christian missionaries kidnapped by the Taliban, was a member of the Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. FTA that even had one of their own set himself on fire outside one of the FTA meetings in Seoul. PSPD was also one of the lead organizations against the relocation of US forces to Camp Humphreys.
Minbyun on the other hand, have been used to legally attack North Korean defectors, one of the groups behind the US beef riots, and have long attacked the USFK relocation plan.
I would not be surprised that these groups and other large anti-US leftist groups eventually mobilize to protest and blockade US military bases to disrupt operations and make life miserable for US servicemembers in Korea. The THAAD site is already experiencing this.
If the traffic at Camp Humphreys is already bad can you imagine what would happen if people had to deal with protesters as well while trying to get through the gates?
The protests combined with the ROK government playing hardball on USFK cost sharing would be intended to convince President Trump to withdraw some if not all of the US troops. This is why North Korea doesn’t have to call for US troop withdrawals when they have surrogates to do it for them.
This poll shows why the Moon administration feels it can play hardball with the US in regards to increasing the funding for USFK, it is a popular opinion to do so:
In a poll fielded in South Korea in late January by RealMeter, a majority of South Koreans (59%) oppose accommodating US demands on increased burden sharing support (26% are in favor). It is especially notable that there are virtually no significant divides across demographic groups. Pluralities—and majorities in most cases—of all ages, regions, ideological leanings, and party affiliations are in opposition to Seoul giving in to US demands. The lone outlier are supporters of Liberty Party Korea, the main conservative opposition party. Even there, 45 percent support giving in to US demands versus 39 percent who oppose.
The Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs
You can read more at the link, but even threatening to withdraw US troops does little to impact the numbers. This leads me to believe that Koreans do not believe that President Trump would actually pull out troops.
I would be interested to see what the poll numbers would be if Koreans were asked what is more important, paying more to Kim Jong-un or the US-ROK alliance?
I find it interesting how this ROK government report adds Japan as a country to blame for pollution in South Korea and then does not list how much pollution it is responsible for:
External sources accounted for 75 percent of South Korea’s ultrafine dust air pollution in January, a state-run environment agency said Wednesday.
Yonhap
South Korea saw a drastic rise in the average level of ultrafine dust particles, those smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, in between Jan. 11 and 15. According to the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), a think tank under the Ministry of Environment, external sources from China, Mongolia, North Korea and Japan were responsible for 75 percent of ultrafine dust particles in South Korea during that period.
You can read more at the link, but I think the vast majority of Koreans realize the vast majority of pollution is coming from China and there is nothing they can do about it.
