Author: GIKorea

It looks like the elderly people of South Korea might be the ones making the sacrifice to pay off Kim Jong-un:

Anchor: The government is reportedly mulling a set of reform measures to ensure the sustainable operation of the National Pension Fund, which is expected to run out of money around three years earlier than predicted. The reported measures are, however, drawing strong public criticism as they’re likely to increase the burden for subscribers.
Our Lee Bo-kyung has more.

Report: The Moon Jae-in administration is floating the idea of pension reform as the pension fund for salaried workers and the self-employed is expected to bottom out in 2057, about three years earlier than previously estimated.

An advisory panel on the national pension is set to release its reform proposals on Friday. The proposals reportedly include a move to extend the subscription period to the age of 65 from the current 60.

The committee also recommends the government increase premiums gradually from the current nine percent of a subscriber’s monthly income. Another step could be pushing back the payout age to 68.

After the plans were leaked in media reports last Friday, people began voicing outrage about the possible changes, posting over one thousand online petitions on the Web site of the presidential office.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link.

As I and many have been saying for years, the Kim regime is not going to denuclearize:

Anchor: A U.S. news Web site says the Trump administration has presented North Korea with a formal timeline for starting the process of denuclearization. The report comes as the U.S. and North Korea are witnessing a stalemate in their nuclear negotiations and Washington seems to have adopted a carrot-and-stick approach towards Pyongyang.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.

Report: U.S. news Web site Vox reported on Wednesday that Washington had proposed Pyongyang hand over 60 to 70 percent of its nuclear weapons within six to eight months, after which the U.S. or a third party would take possession of the warheads and remove them from the North.

According to the report, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presented the plan to North Korean negotiators multiple times over the past two months, but the North’s delegation, led by senior official Kim Yong-chol, has turned down Pompeo’s proposal each time.

Vox said that “it’s unclear what concessions, if any, the U.S. would offer in exchange beyond sanctions relief or removing North Korea from the state sponsors of terrorism list.”

Given that Pyongyang has yet to disclose to Washington just how many nuclear bombs it has, it would be difficult to verify the North’s arsenal volume even if it did agree to hand over what it claims to be 60 to 70 percent of its arsenal.

One source told Vox that Pompeo’s main goal in this stage of the negotiations is solely to get Pyongyang to officially reveal how many nuclear weapons it has.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link, but I really hope I am wrong one day about this and the Kim regime decides to give up all their nuclear weapons, but judging from past history and current statements it appears to be unlikely.

What the Kim regime is willing to do is pretend to denuclearize like they did during past US presidential administrations.  They will do this to create the myth that “progress” is happening to denuclearize North Korea.  In return for pretending to denuclearize the Kim regime would want the sanctions dropped.  In such a scenario President Trump would probably get his Nobel Peace Prize for signing a pretend denuclearization agreement, the Moon Jae-in administration in South Korea could then start pumping cash into North Korea, and the Kim regime can then use the funds to hand out cash to the regime elite and further modernize the military.

Signing up to such an agreement may sound ridiculous, but remember the US has signed up for pretend denuclearization deals not once, but twice!  The first was the Agreed Framework during the Clinton administration and then the Six Party Talks deal during the Bush administration.  Will there be a third one?  Time will tell.

The date? Likely early Sept, so Moon can celebrate #NorthKorea's 70th anniversary on 9/9 in Pyongyang, but he has denied #SouthKorea's birthdate of 1948/8/15. Why does SK's own prez deny SK's birthdate, but want to celebrate north's, helping north's claim over the peninsula? https://t.co/sdLqVbtDXO

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) August 12, 2018

This photo provided by the Korean Central News Agency on Aug. 13, 2018, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visiting a ranch, north of Pyongyang. As is customary, the agency didn’t provide the date of his visit. (Yonhap)

Here we go again, another year and yet more claims of a food crisis in North Korea.  When are people going to learn that the only reason there is a food crisis in North Korea is because of the Kim regime which many governments and organizations continue to enable?:

A heat wave in North Korea has led to rice, maize and other crops withering in the fields, “with potentially catastrophic effects,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Friday.

The world’s largest disaster relief network warned of a risk of a “full-blown food security crisis” in the isolated country, where a famine in the mid-1990s killed up to 3 million people. It said the worrying situation had been exacerbated by international sanctions imposed due to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.  [Japan Times]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if the Moon administration will try and claim that the “food security crisis” is why sanctions should be dropped on North Korea?

The Moon administration has agreed to conduct their third inter-Korean summit this year, but this one will be held in Pyongyang:

South and North Korea agreed Monday to hold a summit meeting between their leaders in Pyongyang in September.

The agreement was made during high-level talks on the northern side of Panmunjom that separates the two Koreas. They, however, did not unveil the date of the meeting.

“We agreed to hold an inter-Korean summit within September in Pyongyang” the two Koreas said in a joint press statement issued after the meeting.

North Korea’s chief delegate, Ri Son-gwon, hinted after the meeting that the two sides agreed on a date but decided not to announce it, only to emphasize that the summit will take place “within September.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the number topic I would guess they are going to talk about is how to get around the UN sanctions since the Kim regime is not going to denuclearize and the Trump administration is refusing to drop sanctions until they do.  If such talks are being conducted, hold the summit in Pyongyang makes sense because there is less possibility of intelligence gathering there to determine what their joint strategy is going to be.

Considering how Koreans tend to keep embarrassing things like this quiet, I am not surprised how sexual abuse like this was allowed to go on for so long:

When Kim Eun-hee was 10 years old, a primary school child with dreams of tennis stardom, her coach raped her for the first time. Then he did it again. And again. And again.

The South Korean was too young to even know what sex was. But she knew she dreaded the repeated orders to come to his room at their training camp, and the pain and humiliation.

“It took me years to realize that it was rape,” Kim said. “He kept raping me for two years. … He told me it was a secret to be kept between him and me.”

Now 27, Kim has spoken to international media about her experiences for the first time, and revealed how female athletes in South Korea have silently suffered sexual abuse by their coaches.  (……..)

In a highly competitive society where winning is everything, many young athletes forgo schooling or live away from families to train with their peers and coaches full time, living in a dorm-like environment for years.

The training camp system — akin to models used by communist sporting machines such as China — is credited with helping the South punch well above its weight on the global sporting stage.

But it has proven to be the setting for abuse in several sports — especially of underage athletes whose existence is controlled by their trainers.

“The coach was the king of my world, dictating everything about my daily life from how to exercise to when to sleep and what to eat,” said Kim, adding that he beat her repeatedly as part of “training.”

The coach was eventually dismissed after some parents complained of his “suspicious behavior,” but he was simply moved to another school with no criminal inquiry. Many victims are forced into silence in a world where going public often means the end of any aspirations to stardom.

“This is a community where those who speak out are ostracized and bullied as ‘traitors’ who brought shame to the sport,” said Chung Yong-chul, a sports psychology professor at Sogang University in Seoul.

A 2014 survey commissioned by the Korean Sports & Olympic Committee showed that around 1 in 7 female athletes had experienced sexual abuse in the previous year, but 70 percent of them did not seek help of any kind.  [Japan Times]

You can read much more at the link.

The Unbelievable Story of North Korea's Most-Celebrated Propagandist – The Atlantic https://t.co/uRaHQ0nbJB

— DPRK Watch (@dprkwatch) August 11, 2018

People cross the Han River during an event in Seoul on Aug. 10, 2018, in a boat made of corrugated cardboard, plastic wrap and adhesive tape. (Yonhap)

Considering that this soldiers remains were recovered in 1995, in makes me wonder how long it will take DPAA to identify the 52 remains recently returned by North Korea.  Regardless welcome home PFC Joe Elmore:

The remains of a Kentucky soldier who disappeared after a 1950 Korean War battle with high casualties will be returned home for a burial with full military honors.

Army Pfc. Joe S. Elmore’s remains were originally thought to be of a British soldier when they were discovered in North Korea in 1995, but they could not be identified. The remains were later buried in South Korea.

Nearly 20 years later, the remains were disinterred and transported to The Defense Department’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which seeks to identify missing and unidentified American soldiers. The agency used DNA and anthropological analysis to match the remains to Elmore.

Elmore was 20 when he was killed during a battle on Dec. 2, 1950, in Hamgyeong Province, North Korea. He will be given a military funeral in Albany, Kentucky, on Aug. 18.

The POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a release that Elmore was among about 2,500 U.S. soldiers that were attacked in late November by overwhelming Chinese forces near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.  [SF Gate]

You can read more at the link.