#SouthKorea has no oil & nuclear energy produced about 30% of energy needs. Then #MoonJaein announced nuclear energy exit, which let to blackouts, increased coal & gas imports, reduced nuclear science majors/scientists, stopped SK from further nucl energy export, raised costs… https://t.co/vfk0ycrdMr
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) December 25, 2018
I wonder what the mental health of this guy is current is because this wasn’t a very well thought out robbery:
An American who has lived in South Korea for 20 years was arrested for robbing a lottery shop in Busan, police said Thursday.
Korea Times
According to Haeundae Police Station, the U.S. citizen, 63, entered the shop near Haeundae beach masked on Wednesday night, assaulted its manager and got away with bundles of cash (510,000 won, or $451).
The manager followed him shouting for help. The American was caught after police shot him with a stun gun.
He reportedly told police he had committed the crime “for money.” According to police, the American entered the country in 1988 and taught English until 2011. He is jobless.
I hope he enjoys his time in the foreigner prison over in Cheonan.
The Kim regime keeps telling the Moon administration that it is time to forget the international community and just go ahead and break sanctions:
A senior North Korean official called on the two Koreas on Wednesday to go their own way without being swayed by outside influence in pushing for an ambitious inter-Korean project to modernize and reconnect railways and roads over their border.
Yonhap
Kim Yun-hyok, the North’s vice railway minister, made the remarks at the project’s groundbreaking ceremony that the two Koreas jointly staged at Panmun Station in the North’s border town of Kaesong.
“It is time to firm up our determination until we can hear the strong sound of a ‘reunification whistle’ and go forward without vacillation in the face of headwinds,” Kim said.
“Whether to make an achievement in the North-South railway and road project depends on our people’s determination and willingness. A unified federation that Korean people want cannot be realized ever if we mind how others think,” he added.
You can read more at the link.
The Japanese are now claiming that its patrol plane was targeted by the South Korean Navy ship multiple times which means this was likely no accident if true:
A diplomatic row between South Korea and Japan escalated for a third day since a South Korean destroyer allegedly locked its radar on a Japanese surveillance plane Thursday during an operation to rescue a distressed North Korean vessel.
Joong Ang Ilbo
A Japanese Defense Ministry official on Sunday said that the South Korean warship targeted a Japanese patrol plane “multiple times for several minutes using its attack-purpose radar.” He reiterated demands by Japan’s Minister of Defense Takeshi Iwaya a day earlier that Seoul apologize for what he called an “extremely dangerous act.”
Iwaya said that the South Korean Gwanggaeto the Great-class destroyer aimed its fire control radar at a Japanese P-1 patrol plane that was conducting surveillance operations over its waters near central Honshu on Thursday.
The Moon administration is saying this all lies and that the Japanese government is using this distract domestic attention:
South Korea voiced “strong regrets” Monday over Japan’s repeated claim that its Navy ship directed fire-control radar at Tokyo’s patrol aircraft last week, a Seoul official said.
Yonhap
Korea’s foreign ministry expressed its view during director-general talks with Japan in Seoul.
“We have voiced strong regrets that Japan has unilaterally made its own claims to the media,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
“The two sides sufficiently explained their positions, but there appear to be gaps in their views. But we have agreed to continue communication going forward, if need be,” he added.
On Friday, Tokyo publicly accused a South Korean warship of having targeted its Maritime Self-Defense Force’s P-1 patrol aircraft on Thursday.
Seoul rejected the claim, saying Tokyo misinterpreted its naval operation to help a North Korean ship drifting near a sea border in the East Sea.
Despite Seoul’s denial, Tokyo has repeatedly raised the issue, sparking speculation that the Japanese government appears to be trying to divert attention from its waning public support.
Reading this Korean government statement has me wondering if the ROK Navy ship locked its weapons control radar on the Japanese aircraft to divert it from collecting intelligence on whatever they were doing with the North Korean ship.
I also find it ironic that the ROK government is claiming that the Japanese government is using the incident to divert domestic political attention when the ROK government regularly uses the Dokdo or comfort women issues to do the same thing.
Here is another statement from the ROK government that does not make sense:
South Korea’s Defense Ministry on Saturday dismissed the claims that its destroyer aimed its radar at the Japanese plane, and said that the ship had been carrying out routine operations at the time. A source within the South Korean Navy later clarified that the radar had been used to search for a North Korean vessel that had been marooned for several days off the peninsula’s east coast on Thursday.
Joong Ang Ilbo
The South Korean Navy that day rescued three North Korean sailors off the distressed fishing boat and recovered one body. They were then handed over to the North across the demilitarized zone on Friday.
Though it acknowledged the South Korean navy had indeed been carrying out a search and rescue operation that day, Japan’s Defense Ministry refused to accept Seoul’s explanations over the use of the radar, saying it was not an appropriate instrument for a maritime search maneuver.
As the Japanese Defense Ministry stated, a maritime search radar is different from the weapons control radar. The only explanation that makes sense is that the ROK Navy ship locked on the aircraft to divert it away from their operation with the North Korean vessel. The obvious next question is what was so sensitive about a supposed search and rescue mission that a ROK Navy ship did something as provocative as locking a weapons control radar on a Japanese patrol plane to divert it?
Or could this all just be simple incompetence by the ROK Navy?
I hope everyone has a great Christmas holiday this year. What says Christmas in Korea better than re-reading Chickenhead’s hilarious Twas the Night Before Christmas on the DMZ.
Anyone inside the People's Republic of #China should be "very scared" because #XiJinping is increasingly devoting the resources of the state to control, censor, imprison, and repress. https://t.co/hH9Xa8oWFL
— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) December 22, 2018
It seems like every week President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating continues to fall to a new low, however I don’t think it is low enough to really effect any change in his current North Korea policies yet:
President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating dropped to a record low last week, a poll showed Monday.
Korea Times
According to a survey by pollster Realmeter, 47.1 percent of the public said they approved of Moon’s performance, down 1.4 percentage points from last week.
Amid an ongoing controversy over the alleged surveillance of civilians by Cheong Wa Dae, the approval rating fell to the lowest in three weeks, according to Realmeter.
You can read more at the link, but his approval rating continues to fall despite controlling most of the news media in South Korea and imprisoning and launching lawsuits against journalists that oppose him.
