Author: GIKorea

Just another reason why companies should not source products from China:

California firm E.L.F. cosmetics has agreed to pay a nearly $1 million fine for importing fake eyelashes containing materials from UN-sanctioned North Korea, according to the US Treasury Department.

Between 2012 and 2017, the company imported “156 shipments of false eyelash kits from two suppliers located in the People’s Republic of China that contained materials sourced by these suppliers” from North Korea, the Treasury said in a statement.

“E.L.F.’s compliance program and its supplier audits failed to discover that approximately 80 percent of the false eyelash kits supplied by two of E.L.F.’s China-based suppliers contained materials” from North Korea, it added.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

#GenDunford spoke with his #ROK counterpart by phone yesterday to thank him for his support over the past year and reaffirm his commitment to the 🇺🇸-🇰🇷alliance, a lynchpin of stability and security in the #IndoPacific.

Full readout: https://t.co/dXpidVcZZq (File Photo) pic.twitter.com/tMkqnWu42F

— The Joint Staff (@thejointstaff) February 1, 2019

These are some pretty serious allegations being hurled at President Moon about his daughter:

The ruling Democratic Party on Wednesday urged an opposition lawmaker to apologize to President Moon Jae-in for claiming that his daughter and her family may have moved abroad because they were dissatisfied with Korea’s economy or education system. 

The main conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP) refused to back down, saying the Blue House has yet to respond to its lawmaker’s open inquiry asking why Moon’s daughter left the country.

The tit-for-tat began Tuesday when LKP Rep. Kwak Sang-do, during an LKP internal meeting, disclosed paper documents he said were submitted by Moon’s daughter to her son’s elementary school on July 11, 2018, which indicated that the family was going to move abroad. 

Kwak, a former prosecutor, said he found out that Moon’s grandson, who at the time was a second-grader, is now attending an international school in one of 10 countries that comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations: Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia and Brunei. 

Kwak claimed that a day before Moon’s daughter informed her son’s school about the move overseas, she sold her villa in Jongno District, central Seoul. 

The opposition lawmaker asked the Blue House to reveal how much the Presidential Security Service was spending on protecting Moon’s daughter and her family in a foreign country, noting it would cost more than if they were living in Korea.

Kwak also asked why the family moved abroad, saying that if it were for the child’s education, it would mean the Korean education system had “flaws.” 

If it were due to the parents’ careers, it could mean they were “dissatisfied” with the Korean economy, he continued. 

“The public needs to know about the complaints of the president’s children,” said Kwak.

The LKP lawmaker also took a jab at Moon’s son-in-law, saying “speculation is running rampant” that the government funded 20 billion won ($17.9 million) to a company he worked for, and 3 billion won was allegedly embezzled, so the Blue House told him to leave the country while they settle the case.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but according to this article in the Hankyoreh from a year ago Moon’s daughter does not like being in the spotlight. Her move could have been simply to get away from the media attention in South Korea.

Another rival of current ROK President Moon Jae-in is heading to jail:

Former South Chungcheong governor and one-time presidential contender An Hee-jung was placed under immediate detention on Friday after a Seoul court sentenced him to three and half years in prison on charges of rape and sexual assault. 

The verdict overturned that of a lower court and was the latest twist in a roller-coaster scandal that ensnared the highest-profile figure in Korea’s Me Too movement. 

The Seoul High Court Friday afternoon ruled that An used his authority to force his former secretary, Kim Ji-eun, into an adulterous sexual relationship against her will from July 2017 to February last year. 

Nine of the 10 incidents of sexual assault claimed by Kim were accepted by the court, which acknowledged that her disclosures in the case were “natural” and that she had no reason to falsely accuse An and would not benefit from his downfall. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The big question is what are the consequences for the Moon administration for willfully violating UN sanctions? A sternly worded letter isn’t going to be a deterrent for future violations:

A report by a U.N. panel will accuse South Korea of failing to notify the Security Council of its shipments of petroleum products to North Korea in breach of international sanctions, diplomatic sources say.
It will be the first time for the sanctions committee on North Korea under the 15-member council to say that Seoul has violated U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang. South Korea has been stepping up efforts to improve relations with North Korea since last year.


The panel is also expected to say North Korea illegally sold fishing rights to other countries in contravention of Security Council resolutions.
The panel’s annual report is expected to show that vessels carrying North Korean fishing licenses were operating in waters between the Korean Peninsula and neighboring countries. The claim is based on information provided by two unnamed member states — one identified as Japan, according to officials in Tokyo.
It is anticipated that information obtained from fishermen will reveal that around 200 Chinese fishing vessels were operating in North Korean waters, and that the price of a single fishing license cost about 50,000 yuan ($7,250) per month.
South Korea allegedly did not notify the Security Council of its deliveries of petroleum products for use at a joint liaison office set up in September in Kaesong, just inside the North Korean side of the border.

Japan Times

You can read more at the link, but Japanese intelligence collection aircraft flying around the Korean peninsula that are now a subject of controversy are partly there to identify possible sanctions violations.

By the way the accompanying picture of students in South Korea cheering Kim Jong-un is pretty sickening. Someone in the South Korean media should interview families of those killed in the Cheonan attack and Yeonpyeong Island shelling what they think of these rallies.

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

This is Moon Jae-In at his best. https://t.co/AihvgC4pyU

— Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) February 1, 2019