Probably wouldn't go as far as to say that Korea doesn't care, but it's been notable how comms from the ROK side have been largely siloed to MND, while those from Japan have often come from Abe's circle. One side is clearly eager to make a bigger deal out of this than the other. https://t.co/fLgg2XhQG9
— 이주민 / Chris Lee (@oldtype) January 7, 2019
Makes me wonder how big the market for fake refugee applications is in the US if this is even happening in South Korea:
A 34-year-old Ukrainian woman was sentenced to 14 months in jail for helping other foreigners draft fake refugee applications, Tuesday.
Korea Times
The Incheon District Court said the woman “repeatedly disrupted immigration processes” by writing false refugee applications for 57 foreign clients who arrived in Korea on temporary B-1 or E-9 visas.
According to court documents, the woman cooked up clients’ stories telling of prosecution in their home countries, including kidnapping, rape and unfair treatment by law enforcement, between March 2017 and June 2018. She was paid 200,000 won per application by a broker company that linked her with the foreign clients.
You can read more at the link.
Kim Jong-un has finished getting his marching orders from Emperor President Xi and is on his way back home:
After holding meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has left Beijing and is now headed for Pyongyang aboard his special train. Kim is expected to have coordinated strategies with Xi ahead of his envisioned meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
KBS World Radio
Kim Bum-soo has more.
Report: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping for about an hour on Tuesday.
After their fourth summit, Xi hosted a banquet for Kim which lasted for more than four hours. Tuesday is believed to be Kim’s 35th birthday.
On Wednesday, Kim and Xi are believed to have met again for a luncheon at a hotel in Beijing.
You can read more at the link.
The technology is kind of cool, but I am not sure why someone would need a rollable television?:
LG Electronics unveiled the world’s first “rollable” television at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019 that launched in Las Vegas, United States, on Tuesday.
Joong Ang Ilbo
Last year, its affiliate LG Display unveiled a prototype of a 65-inch rollable OLED display panel at the same event. Dubbed the LG Signature OLED TV R9, it uses the same technology, only it comes with an aluminium case at the screen’s bottom that looks like a long tissue box.
A rolling OLED display was possible because unlike TV panels of the past, OLED screens don’t need backlight to show color, but have molecules that let out light on their own.
The panel can roll itself up and down from the case so that the television set looks more like a long, rectangular table once the screen is completely inserted. LG boasts that the screen can maintain its color definition even as it rolls itself. R9 won the CES 2019 Innovation Awards in the video display sector.
LG plans to launch global sales of R9 this year, starting from Korea. Its price was not disclosed, but it will be among LG’s premium television lineups.
Can’t make this up: China invites foreign journalists into internment camps in Xinjiang to hear detainees sing English rendition of “If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands.” https://t.co/BXONJcquaa
— Ely Ratner (@elyratner) January 6, 2019
This is all part of the Kim regime’s strategy to separate the ROK from the US to advance their confederation strategy:
North Korea’s official newspaper urged South Korea on Monday to stop joint military drills with the United States, saying it will help create a peaceful atmosphere and move forward inter-Korean relations.
Yonhap
The Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the North’s ruling party, also called on Seoul to stop bringing any foreign strategic assets onto the Korean Peninsula, reiterating what leader Kim Jong-un demanded during his New Year’s speech last week.
“Removing nuclear threats on the Korean Peninsula and fostering peaceful mood is an essential requirement for inter-Korean relations to move forward,” the newspaper said in a commentary.
You can read more at the link.
There has to be something to the current scandals that the Blue House has been denying considering that President Moon has replaced Im Jong-seok:
President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday replaced his chief of staff and two other senior secretaries in what was widely seen as a move to put behind a scandal that is apparently hurting his approval rating.
Yonhap
The president named Noh Young-min, currently the ambassador to China, as his new chief of staff.
Noh is a three-term lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party who also served as a co-chair of Moon’s election camp in the 2017 presidential race.
The new chief of staff said he will work to make up for his shortcomings by listening to what others have to say.
“The fact is I am a person who falls short in many ways. That is why I am also afraid (of taking the job). I plan to make up for my shortcomings by listening. I promise to listen to anyone, about any subject and any policy,” he told reporters.
The 61-year-old will replace Im Jong-seok, also a former lawmaker of the ruling party.
You can read more at the link, but ROK Heads may remember Im Jong-seok has a prolific communist and pro-North Korean past. You can read a detailed background about how immersed Im is in communist ideology was at this link. Im was also less than a decade ago collecting royalties for the Kim regime.
The fact that Moon removed someone highly trusted by North Korea shows that there must be something to the accusations of domestic spying, meddling in private business affairs, and manipulating the national debt.
It looks like a second Trump-Kim summit must be close to becoming a reality because Kim Jong-un is off to China to get his marching orders from Emperor President Xi:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping apparently aiming to coordinate strategies ahead of his possible second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Yonhap
A special train carrying Kim and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, arrived at a highly secure station in Beijing at around 10:55 a.m. Escorted by Chinese police, he and his entourage headed in prearranged limousines to Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.
Kim was accompanied by party, government and military officials, including Kim Yong-chol, a key nuclear negotiator with the United States, and Ri Yong-ho and No Kwang-chol, the country’s foreign and defense ministers, respectively, Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency earlier reported.
In footage later unveiled by North Korea’s state TV, Kim Yo-jong, the leader’s younger sister, was also seen among the people leaving for China. She accompanied her brother on his second trip to China in May last year.
You can read more at the link.
