Sunrise at Haeundae in BusanPeople enjoy the sunrise on the first day of 2019 at Haeundae beach in Busan, the country’s southernmost port city on Jan. 1, where two giant balloon pigs have been installed. (Yonhap)
This photo, captured from North Korean state TV, shows leader Kim Jong-un delivering a New Year’s address on Jan. 1, 2019.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Tuesday he is firmly committed to denuclearization and ready to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at any time, but warned he could seek an alternative course if the U.S. misjudges his patience and sticks to sanctions. Kim made the remarks during his New Year’s speech broadcast by the country’s state television, also urging the U.S. to take corresponding measures in exchange for denuclearization steps the communist nation has taken so far. Kim also said he is willing to reopen the now shuttered inter-Korean industrial park in the North’s border city of Kaesong and resume a suspended tour program to Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast “without any preconditions.” That could suggest Kim wants the resumption of the two projects as sanctions relief from the U.S. “I am always ready to sit down again with the U.S. president at any time and will make efforts to produce an outcome that the international community would welcome,” Kim said. “(But) we could be left with no choice but to seek a new way if the U.S. does not make good on its promises, misjudges our patience, while seeking to force things unilaterally and clinging to sanctions and pressure,” he said.
You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime is hoping they can get the second meeting with President Trump where Kim Jong-un can convince him to drop the sanctions on the Kaesong Industrial Park and the Mt. Kumgang Resort for superficial and easily reversible concessions that we have seen before.
Dropping of sanctions would allow a surge of investment in North Korea that will line the pockets of the Kim regime that they can then use to further develop their nuclear and other weapons programs. The only real concessions from North Korea that I believe would warrant dropping of any sanctions is when they release a complete list of their nuclear sites, allow inspections, and begin shipping nuclear material out of the country. I have seen no indications the Kim regime is even considering this.
Year of the PigPigs, the zodiac sign under the lunar calendar for 2019, are put out to pasture at a farm in Cheongyang, South Chungcheong Province, on Dec. 31, 2018, on New Year’s Eve. (Yonhap)
According to the Blue House there is nothing to see here, move along:
Cho Kuk (R), President Moon Jae-in’s top secretary for civil affairs, answers questions from lawmakers at the National Assembly on Dec. 31, 2018, over the presidential office’s alleged surveillance of civilians. (Yonhap)
President Moon Jae-in’s secretary for civil affairs said Monday that the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae has not surveilled civilians for political purposes, shrugging off a former investigator’s spying claim. Controversy has flared up after Kim Tae-woo, a former special investigator at the presidential office, made the revelation that he had collected information, including info about civilians and former bureaucrats who should not be subject to Cheong Wa Dae surveillance. Surveillance of civilians has been a sensitive issue in South Korea as former conservative governments were blamed for illegally spying on citizens for political purposes. Cho Kuk, Moon’s top secretary for civil affairs, and Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok flatly rejected Kim’s claim at a meeting of the parliamentary steering committee that oversees Cheong Wa Dae. Kim was under Cho’s supervision. It marked the first time since 2006 that a presidential secretary for civil affairs spoke at the parliamentary panel. The revelation came after Kim was forced to return to his original post at the prosecution last month over an allegation that he sought to influence a police probe into a corruption case involving his acquaintance. “The bottom line is that as Kim has become almost certain to face disciplinary actions due to his irregularities, he crafted a rare hoax by distorting the due work process into a political issue and trying to cover up his misconduct,” Cho told lawmakers. The presidential civil affairs team under the Moon government has not surveilled civilians or drawn up blacklists (of people critical of the government) unlike other previous administrations),” he stressed.
Enlisted soldiers will be allowed to stay off base for about four hours after hours during weekdays starting in February as part of efforts to protect the rights of conscripts. The Defense Ministry on Thursday announced a set of new guidelines that will allow soldiers to leave their base from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. up to twice a month. They can meet family and friends, pursue their studies or enjoy themselves as long as their fitness for combat is not affected. Currently conscripts are confined to the district where their barracks is for fear that they will not make it back in time in an emergency. But in future they can travel as far as a two-hour drive from their base. Some small businesses near bases were against the plan because they were afraid of losing customers, and some pundits warned the plans could affect discipline. But a ministry spokesman said, “We’re going to rely on common sense when we let soldiers spend time off base.”
A special prosecutor team led by Huh Ik-bum has demanded a five-year prison term for South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo over his alleged involvement in an online opinion rigging scandal.
At the final hearing on Friday, the team said Kim acted like a deviant politician by mobilizing a private group that engages in illegal acts and using public posts as bargaining chips for elections.
Kim, a close aide to President Moon Jae-in, is accused of approving a blogger and his associates’ development of a computer program called “King Crab,” which could be used to manipulate the number of likes for online comments.
The special counsel team believes Kim colluded with the blogger known as “druking” to manipulate comments on news articles with the program to benefit the ruling Democratic Party, then the opposition party, in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.
Kim Jong Un wrote a two-page new years letter to Moon Jae-in today. In it he:
– Expressed regret for not visiting Seoul in 2018 – Said wanted to meet Moon 'frequently' in 2019 – Would work w/ Moon for "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula together"https://t.co/QJqMKnMg5epic.twitter.com/8cJahPQar5
Sudanese student becomes doctorThis photo, provided by Inje Medical College, shows Thomas Tarvan Akot, a 33-year-old Sudanese student, posing for a photo in front of a bust of the late South Korean Catholic priest Lee Tae-seok after a commencement ceremony at the school in Busan in January 2018. He recently passed South Korea’s monthslong national examination for medical practitioners after years of studying. The Sudanese came to South Korea from his country for his studies in 2009 on the priest’s recommendation. Nicknamed “the Schweitzer of Sudan,” Lee served many years as a doctor and died of cancer in the African nation in 2010. He was the first foreigner to be introduced in textbooks in South Sudan for his social contributions and volunteer work. (Yonhap)
