What a mess that was only made worse by how the investigation was conducted:
The Basic School for Marine Officers is reeling from a cheating scandal that involved six second lieutenants accused of wrongfully obtaining and sharing key grid points for the night land navigation course. (Sgt. Tyler Main/Marine Corps)
The Basic School for Marine Officers is reeling from a cheating scandal that involved six second lieutenants accused of wrongfully obtaining and sharing key grid points for the night land navigation course.
The officers were accused of sharing the grid points via text messages before the test and later relying on them to find hidden boxes stashed across the wooded night land navigation course in Quantico, Virginia, according to interviews with Marine Corps officials and a copy of the command investigation obtained by Marine Corps Times.
The Marine Corps considers that cheating because the students were able to complete the course without demonstrating the key skills the course aims to evaluate: conducting proper land navigation.
To make matters worse, the investigation of the six second lieutenants was mishandled and resulted in an investigation of the investigators. The episode was further complicated by the alleged illegal confinement of female officers and allegations of sexual harassment. In the end, numerous Marines faced discipline and one Marine’s claims of innocence led to a private polygraph test. [Marine Corps Times]
You can read about this whole drama filled mess at the link. It almost reads like it came straight from the Duffel Blog.
Here's an idea. Either make the SKorean military an all-volunteer force or keep the current system but don't exempt anyone. That was easy. https://t.co/1m9knKW58n
— John Lee (The Korean Foreigner) (@koreanforeigner) September 4, 2018
A group of bicyclers starts their five-day trip to the Demilitarized Zone bisecting the two Koreas on the opening day of the 2018 Tour de DMZ in Gangwha, west of Seoul, on Aug. 31, 2018, in this photo provided by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. (Yonhap)
This file photo of former police chief Cho Hyun-oh was taken Aug. 3, 2015. (Yonhap)
Police said Tuesday they have summoned former National Police Agency chief Cho Hyun-oh as part of a probe into suspicions that he spearheaded massive cyberoperations for the conservative government of the early 2010s.
Cho was ordered to appear for questioning at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. He served as the commissioner-general from 2010-12.
The 63-year-old is accused of abusing his power and instructing the agency to launch online maneuvers aimed at swaying public opinion in favor of the Lee Myung-bak government and his policies.
The police agency’s cybercommand allegedly had its own officers to write more than 40,000 Internet comments supporting the government. The cyberteam is also accused of ferreting out those who posted any negative comments about the Lee government. [Yonhap]
It will be interesting to see if the Moon administration is able to get this guy locked up while their own people who did the same thing during the last election go free.
President Moon’s approval rating is still high, but has dropped by 23 total points since May. The drop is largely due to the economic woes caused by the increase in the minimum wage. If his North Korea engagement policies fail that will likely be what drops him well below 50%. Remember President Moon was only elected President with 41% of the vote. He has been given a lot of goodwill for his North Korea engagement by the ROK public that could quickly shift if real results don’t happen:
President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating continued to drop last week amid worsening economic conditions, a poll showed Monday.
Moon’s approval rating came to 55.2 percent in a survey conducted by Realmeter, down 0.8 percentage point from the week before.
The weekly survey was conducted Monday through Friday, involving 2,507 adults throughout the nation.
The reading was the third consecutive week the rating had dropped and was a record low since the president took office in May 2017.
Moon faces strong criticism for his iconic income-led growth strategy that seeks to boost the income of wage earners, which he says will lead to a rise in domestic consumption, revitalizing the whole economy.
Apparently swayed by the new government strategy, the tripartite commission on the minimum wage hiked it by 16.4 percent to 7,530 won ($6.75) per hour at the start of this year. The minimum wage is again set to jump 10.9 percent to 8,350 won per hour in 2019.
Such a steep increase, however, is believed to have forced local businesses to cut back on jobs instead. [Korea Times]
Based on Japan’s recent military budget proposal I think we can infer that they expect the current peace initiative between North Korea, South Korea, and the United States will not last:
Aegis Ashore Deckhouse
Japan’s Defense Ministry is seeking to more than double spending on missile defense, including purchases of costly American arsenals, to defend against North Korean threats.
The record-high 5.3 trillion yen ($47 billion) request for fiscal 2019, approved Friday by the ministry, is up 2.1 percent from last year. The military spending has risen seven consecutive years under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The request related to missile defense rises to 424 billion yen ($3.8 billion) from about 180 billion yen last year. The overall government budget plan is to be submitted for Cabinet and parliamentary approval later this year.
The final budget could still grow because the request leaves out spending to reduce Okinawan communities’ burden of hosting many of 50,000 American troops stationed on the southern island and a relocation cost for some troops to the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.
A big chunk would buy a pair of land-based Aegis missile defense systems and a ship-to-air SM-3 Block IIA interceptor with an expanded range and accuracy developed jointly by the U.S. and Japan, as well as upgrading of fighter jets and destroyers to make them compatible with advanced interceptors. [Stars & Stripes]
Sankei reports China conducted its own "decapitation exercise" targeting KJU's vacation homes, key nuke facilities and NK command centers. The training was conducted in April near NK border, after the 1st KJU visit but before the inter-Korean summit (4.27) https://t.co/5qV419tYHF
Via a reader tip comes news that a South Korean think tank is recommending one of the worst Inter-Korean ideas yet, a single currency between North and South Korea:
South and North Korea should use a single currency to form an economic union in the mid to long term, the Korea Institute of Finance (KIF)noted in a report Sunday.
“When investment increases in North Korea along with inter-Korean trade of goods and services, the flow of capital will naturally follow. It will lead to problems such as settlements and which currencies should be used,” said Lee Yoon-sok, a senior research fellow at the KIF.
To deal with such problems, the two governments may allow residents to exchange their money with other currency when traveling North or South.
They may also allow the currencies of the two countries to be freely used in both countries. The researcher added that some North Koreans are known to be holding South Korean currency, expecting economic integration. [Korea Herald]
You can read more at the link, but if we thought North Korean counterfeiting was bad now, just wait until there is a single currency the Kim regime can control and print at will and call it inflation. I wonder who’s face would go on the bills?
Also of interest is that the KIF believes that sanctions will be eased on North Korea before the mid-term elections by President Trump to give him a foreign policy win. As long as North Korea does not commit to real denuclearization I don’t see sanctions being dropped, but I guess we will see what happens.
Starting this month, basic pension payments will rise and more families will be eligible to receive childcare subsidies.
The Health and Welfare Ministry has increased the monthly basic pension from 200-thousand to 250-thousand won for people 65 and older who fall in the bottom 70 percent income group.
Most families raising a child aged five or younger will also receive 100-thousand won each month from September. For a household of three, combined income will need to be below eleven-point-seven million won a month to be eligible for the benefit.
Those who are eligible for the childcare stipend can apply at local administration offices or at the Web site bokjiro.go.kr. The first payment will be on September 21st.
Monthly benefits for people with serious disabilities will also rise 50-thousand won to as much as 250-thousand. [KBS World]
