Author: GIKorea

Someone should have asked the ROK defense minister what he meant by countering threats in all directions? Does he Japan is a military threat against South Korea?:

South Korea will increase defense spending by an average of 7.5 percent each year over the next five years with a focus on building “independent capabilities to counter threats from all directions,” Seoul’s defense ministry said Friday.
The ministry announced its defense blueprint for the 2019-2023 period, during which it wants to spend 270.7 trillion won (US$241.9 billion) — 94.1 trillion won on improving defense capabilities and the rest on managing troops, equipment and facilities. 
Under the plan, the ministry seeks to increase the country’s defense budget, which stands at 46.7 trillion won this year, to 50.3 trillion won for 2020, 54.1 trillion won for 2021, 57.8 trillion won for 2022 and 61.8 trillion won for 2023.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The New York Times has taken notice of how progressive policies that have been championed in the US have not worked in South Korea:

INCHEON, South Korea — As President Trump leads a drive to slash taxes and pare back regulation, one major economy is taking a different approach. 
Under President Moon Jae-in, South Korea has raised taxes and the minimum wage in the name of economic growth. So far, it hasn’t worked out as planned.
Growth has slowed, unemployment has risen and small-business owners like Moon Seung are complaining. Mr. Moon, founder of an auto parts maker called Dasung in Incheon, an industrial town near Seoul, says his labor costs were up an extra 3 percent last year after the minimum wage rose to 7,530 Korean won, or about $6.70, an hour. That may not sound like much, but it ate into his razor-thin profit margin and prompted him to stop hiring.

“We can’t take it,” Mr. Moon said. “This is a problem not just for the employers, but for the employees.”

NY Times

You can read the rest at the link.

I wonder if this Chinese envoy realizes the irony of his statement when China currently has tens of thousands of ethnic Uighur in internment camps because they are Muslims:

Chinese ambassador Lu Shaye has accused Canada of applying a double standard, and has decried what he sees as “Western egotism and white supremacy” in the treatment of detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
China’s envoy to Canada penned a Jan. 9 column in The Hill Times, a twice-weekly Ottawa publication that focuses on parliamentary affairs, in which he harshly criticizes Canada for demanding the release of two jailed Canadians while detaining Ms. Meng.
“It’s understandable that these Canadians are concerned about their own citizens. But have they shown any concern or sympathy for [Ms.] Meng after she was illegally detained and deprived of freedom?” Mr. Lu wrote.
China has imprisoned former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor in what appears to be retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Ms. Meng for extradition to the United States to face allegations of bank fraud related to U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Globe and Mail

You can read more at the link.

Moon Jae-in at a press conference: #SouthKorea's "gap btwn the wealthy & the poor and inequality have become the worst in the world." On what basis? Is that what his new head of Korea Statistics said? After all, Moon fired his predecessor for being too accurate. https://t.co/UgXM2G4osr

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) January 11, 2019

The Moon admin agreed to spend 3.56 bil won ($3.2 million) to provide enough Tamiflu medication for 200,000 people to #NorthKorea. It agreed to buy not SK-made generics, but the Swiss originals–much easier for NK to resell for hard currency. #sanctionshttps://t.co/xpDOmSqEYD

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) January 9, 2019

For those that have not been following this issue, the Japanese side does not dispute the forced labor claim, what they dispute is that they already paid compensation with the 1965 treaty. Instead of handing out money for individual compensation, the ROK government used the money to develop the economy instead.

A South Korean court said Wednesday it has ordered the seizure of local assets of a Japanese company after it refused to compensate several wartime forced laborers, in an escalation of a diplomatic brawl between the Asian neighbors.
Japan called the decision “extremely regrettable” and said it will push for talks with Seoul on the issue.
In a landmark ruling in October, South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. to pay 100 million won ($88,000) each to four plaintiffs forced to work for the company when Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula in 1910-45.

But the company refused to follow that ruling, siding with Japan’s long-held positon that all colonial-era compensation issues were settled by a 1965 treaty that restored diplomatic relations between the two governments. Japanese officials said they could take the issue to the International Court of Justice.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link, but is the ROK government going support someone who makes a compensation claim against China for their role in the destruction of South Korea during the Korean War that killed tens of thousands of South Koreans?

By the way Joshua Stanton over at One Free Korea makes a good point, I wonder how much the sagging Moon administration approval ratings have to do with this?

I haven't read the news today. Are the South Korean president's approval ratings down? https://t.co/Tway5G267Y

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) January 9, 2019

A ROK Drop favorite, David Maxwell recently had this to say in The Hill about the cost sharing negotiations between the US and South Korea:

Trump seems not to recognize that the ROK makes significant contributions to its own defense. In 2017, 2.7 percent of its GDP went to defense — a higher percentage than any member of NATO except the U.S. Furthermore, the ROK’s 2018 defense budget increased by 9.9 pecent, or $40 billion, the largest in history. It has an active force of 625,000 troops with 28,000 Americans stationed in South Korea. Under the current SMA, the ROK covers half of the roughly $1.6 billion basing cost for American troops, but according to reports, Trump wants Seoul to pay 100 percent.
Yet South Korea already covers more than just annual basing costs. The recently expanded Camp Humphreys is now the largest U.S. military base outside of the continental U.S. It cost some $10.7 billion and the ROK provided 90 percent of the funds. The ROK government also agreed to a renegotiated Korea-U.S Free Trade Agreement, in response to pressure from Trump.  Finally, from 2012 through 2016 the ROK purchased $19.8 billion in U.S. military equipment through Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales. 
It is essential for both sides to remember that the primary purpose of the alliance is to prevent war. 

The Hill

You can read more at the link.

I have ever seen anyone get court martialed and face a year in jail for incidents like this before:

If found guilty, the sentencing guidelines call for up to a year in jail and a bad conduct discharge. The charges against her stem from three incidents, which Kman described in his opening statement.
Pointing a 9mm pistol at another sergeant during preliminary marksmanship instruction at the range near Allied Joint Force Command Naples in November 2017 constituted dereliction of duty, he said.
“She said, ‘Stay still so I can find my sight picture,’” the prosecutor said. “The government doesn’t care if SFC Barboza thought she was being funny.”
Repeatedly calling a specialist fat in front of other soldiers was maltreatment, he said, and Barboza had committed disrespect of a noncommissioned officer when she touched the hair of an African-American staff sergeant and made a derogatory comment.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

#XiJinping did not "invite" #KimJongUn, he summoned him. Kim rulers brag they are Korean nationalists, but they act like vassals to the Chinese. Xi pulled the string, and Fatty the Third came running to Beijing. Kim has gone to China four times, and Xi has gone to Korea no times. https://t.co/oGHHaYxXNH

— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) January 8, 2019