I don’t know what’s worse, Secretary of State Pompeo referring to Chairman Un or CNN North Korea “expert” Will Ripley’s “Chol” f-up. Does this mean they think Kim Jong Un, his dad, and grandad all shared the same first name Kim, but had different last names – Sung, Il, and Un? https://t.co/mJ03PdsnGg
— Edward Oh 🇺🇸 (@EdwardHBOh) January 16, 2019
It will be interesting to see if hydrogen fuel cell car technology takes off in South Korea or not:
The government hopes the so-called hydrogen economy will create 420,000 jobs by 2040.
Joong Ang Ilbo
On Thursday, the government laid out a roadmap to making hydrogen-related technologies a key new growth engine for Korea.
The government wants to boost the hydrogen economy, which is currently valued at 1 trillion won ($890 million), to 16 trillion won in 2022, 25 trillion won by 2030 and 43 trillion won by 2040. Jobs in the industry are supposed to grow from the current 10,000 to 100,000 in 2022 and 200,000 in 2030.
At an event in Ulsan attended by President Moon Jae-in, Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Sung Yun-mo and the Hyundai Motor Group heir apparent and vice chairman, Chung Eui-sun, the government described plans to raise the sales of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (or FCEVs) to 810,000 units in total by 2022. That figure includes 670,000 sold in the local market and 14,000 units exported. This year alone, the government is hoping for more than 4,000 FCEV unit sales.
You can read more at the link, but the big problem with hydrogen fuel cells cars in the fueling infrastructure to support them. It is very expensive to open a hydrogen fuel cell station compared to a gas station or even an electrical vehicle charging station.
If Kim Jong-un was going to visit on any day, I am sure the Moon administration would love for it to be March 1st. The hope will be that conservative protesters against Kim’s visit will be muted because of a large dislike of the Japanese in South Korea that tends to reach a crescendo on the March 1st Independence Day which celebrates an uprising against Japanese colonial occupation back in 1919.
Is North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visiting Seoul on March 1?
Korea Times
Reports of this began circulating Wednesday, citing unidentified government sources. Some had plausible details: for the leaders of the two Koreas to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement Day ― on the date and at the same location.
The uprising on March 1, 1919 ― celebrated by both Koreas ― is recorded as one of the marquee grassroots independence movements during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday denied reports that Kim would visit Seoul on the historically symbolic day. Nevertheless, the speculation continues.
You can read more at the link, but if this visit does in fact happen I would expect there to be a large anti-Japanese buildup to try and unite most South Koreans before the Kim Jong-un visit.
No shocker here:
The thick smog that blanketed most of the country over the weekend was largely from pollutants from China, the JoongAng Ilbo reported exclusively Thursday after analyzing the Korean and Chinese governments’ data on fine dust movements in the atmosphere.
Joong Ang Ilbo
The paper analyzed the Air Quality Index (AQI) in cities and regions in China put out by the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the PM2.5 fine dust levels across Korea put out by the Korean Ministry of Environment’s National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER).
It found that rises and falls in the AQI in China were mirrored in the levels of PM2.5 in the atmosphere over Korea last week.
You can read more at the link.
Meanwhile, Seoul’s new Defense White Paper removes reference to:#northkorea as “enemy”
— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) January 15, 2019
“THAAD”
“Shared values of free democracy and market economy with Japan”
While it inserts:
“Strong will to defend Dokdo and maintain defense preparedness”
A convergence of clear priorities. https://t.co/NjL9kydUf3
Hopefully no one that follows this issue closely is surprised by North Korea continuing to develop their nuclear weapons program:
North Korea‘s Kim Jong Un is “gaining time” as he fine-tunes his nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs, a Japanese analyst said.
During a conversation Monday with former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus at Japan Society, former Lieutenant General of Japan’s Self-Defense Force Koichi Isobe said North Korea has not stopped military developments despite refraining from provocations.“Kim Jong Un is gaining time to continue developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles,” Isobe said. “The threat of intermediate ballistic missiles [that can target Japan] still remains.”
UPI
The former Japanese commander added Tokyo faces challenges across three strategic fronts, including the Korean Peninsula.
“Since the 2010s, all three fronts have become tense. Traditional geopolitics has come back to the region.”
Gen. Petraeus, best known for leading the 2007 “surge” in Iraq, agreed North Korea is developing nuclear and missile capabilities, but said the testing of missiles stopped because of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s confrontational approach.
“The only way to [stop provocations] was to get the attention of China, and this is why you had some of the rhetoric, not all of which would have been my choice of words at various times,” Petraeus said, referring to Trump’s threat in 2017 to “totally destroy” North Korea and “rocket man” Kim.
You can read more at the link.
Here is another reason why I do not move the ROK Drop over on to Facebook:
One of the largest Korea-based online communities disappeared from the internet around 1 p.m. last Wednesday. According to its founder Travis Hull and moderators, Facebook deleted the 28,000-member group “OinK ― Only in Korea” without warning or explanation.
Korea Times
“Absolutely no word from the folks at Facebook so far,” Hull told The Korea Times. “We have petitioned Facebook to review their decision via a link they provide in their help section, but so far we have received no comment from the company and I’m not holding my breath that we will.”
Blame started flying immediately after the group disappeared, with nobody fully sure what caused the sudden removal. Speculation ranged from too many posts flagged for racism or “anti-racist” moderators limiting free speech, to a discussion about an actual crime, in which a member accused another of a serious crime and threats of retaliation were made.
There was also speculation Facebook algorithms may have reacted to a new weekly feature allowing users to promote their own social media content, titled “Whore Yourself Wednesdays.”
You can read more at the link.
It looks like the Butcher of the Cheonan could be making another visit to the US:
Kim Yong-chol, a top North Korean official, is expected to visit Washington this week to prepare for a second North-U.S. summit, after the American president sent a letter to the North Korean leader over the weekend.
Joong Ang Ilbo
A source familiar with the North-U.S. talks said Monday that Kim, the vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, “wanted to visit Washington immediately,” so the two sides are “working on scheduling a visit for Jan. 17 to 18.”
U.S. President Donald Trump sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over the weekend, reported CNN Tuesday, citing a source familiar with the ongoing denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
The letter from Trump was flown to Pyongyang and delivered by hand, according to the CNN source, who also said that Kim Yong-chol could visit Washington as soon as this week to finalize details of the upcoming summit.
You can read more at the link.
