Author: GIKorea

I think these mom and pop stores have a valid complaint because big businesses can respond to the wage increase by cutting jobs or hours and then automating where necessary.  Mom and pop stores may not have the capital available to automate like a bigger business:

Owners of mom-and-pop stores on Friday called on the government to freeze the minimum wage in 2019, claiming rising labor costs will seriously impact their profitability.

If the government moves to raise the minimum hourly wage from the current 7,530 won, the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME) won’t accept it, a KFME official said.

The Minimum Wage Commission is required to set the guidelines for next year’s minimum wage level by Saturday. Representatives for labor are demanding a 43 percent increase in the wage to 10,790 won, but small businesses have made it clear that such a step is unacceptable.

Mom-and-pop stores and other modestly sized firms account for 86 percent of the country’s enterprises and hire 36 percent of its total workforce, according to Statistics Korea.

The country’s minimum wage shot up this year, and the Moon Jae-in government is pushing to raise the hourly base to 10,000 won within three years to achieve “income-led growth.”

But local businesses are lukewarm to the idea. There has been a move to let go of workers due to rising costs, with people in their 20s and 30s facing greater difficulties landing jobs.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but Seattle moved their minimum to $15 an hour and a University of Washington study found it cost jobs.

The Russians are acting like Russians:

Two Russian military planes on Friday violated South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) four times and flew away following warnings, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The JCS said that the aircraft first entered the KADIZ north of the eastern island of Ulleungdo at 2:08 p.m. and flew out of it 74 kilometers southeast of Pohang at 2:35 p.m. They re-entered the KADIZ at 3:21 p.m. from the east and then left from the northwest of Jeju Island at 3:45 p.m.

At 4:08 p.m., the planes entered the KADIZ northwest of Jeju and flew out of it at 4:32 p.m. At 5:36, they re-entered the KADIZ from the east of the Dokdo islets and left at 5:53 p.m.

South Korea deployed its aircraft to send warnings to the planes, the JCS explained.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the Russians do these flights through US and Japanese ADIZ’s as well likely to assess the response times of ground alert aircraft.

Some how I doubt the radical Islamists will try and exploit this Koran burning by a wacko Korean feminist group compared to when a wacko US preacher throated to burn the Koran and it landed him as number two on Al Qaida’s hit list:

WOMAD, a radical feminist group, has claimed one of its members burned a copy of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam.

The person who posted a picture of the burning Quran Wednesday said, “Muslim cockroaches and Korean men should be eliminated.”

It is unclear whether she actually burned the text and, if so, how she obtained it.

This came just a day after another member posted a photo of a Catholic sacramental wafer scribbled with foul language in red ink.

Following the news, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK) denounced the posting as a serious insult to the Catholic Church and vowed to take action in response.

“In accordance with Catholic regulations, the CBCK is preparing the process to notify the Vatican through the Vatican ambassador in Seoul,” said priest Ahn Bong-hwan, spokesman of the CBCK.

Under the motto, “We hate all men,” WOMAD has gained notoriety for bashing religions and men since its 2016 inception.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but the wacko US preacher who threatened to burn Korans, worked as a Uber driver. Clearly his 15 minutes of fame is over.

Annual LGBT Fest Soon to Open Amid Strong Opposition https://t.co/rH5QxoPAxU

— JamesTurnbull (@JamesTurnbull) July 12, 2018

This photo provided by Asan Medical Center in Seoul on July 12, 2018, shows Sarang, who was born at 302 grams, the lowest weight of any newborn in South Korea, in January. She gained weight to over 3 kilograms by the end of June with the help of medical staff at the hospital. (Yonhap)

Here is the latest on the drawn out return of remains from US servicemembers during the Korean War by North Korea:

The United States and North Korea have agreed to hold talks Sunday to discuss the repatriation of American troops’ remains from the 1950-53 Korean War, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said.

Heather Nauert said in a statement that the North Koreans proposed the date Thursday after a meeting expected the same day failed to materialize.

“Vice Chairman Kim Yong-chol agreed in his dialogue with Secretary Pompeo to have his team meet with an American team in Panmunjom on or around July 12th to move forward with the repatriation of American service members’ remains,” the spokeswoman said. “Mid day July 12th they contacted us and offered to meet on July 15th. We will be ready.” (……….)

About 200 sets of remains are expected to be returned through the inter-Korean border to the United Nations Command (UNC), which oversees the cease-fire that ended the Korean War.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said earlier that the UNC would receive the remains, not the South Korean or U.S. militaries alone, because all 21 nations that fought under the U.N. flag alongside South Korea and the U.S. lost troops in the conflict.

There was widespread speculation that Pompeo would return with the remains following his visit to Pyongyang, but that did not happen.  Once the remains cross the inter-Korean border, they will be moved to the U.S. air base in Osan, south of Seoul, and then to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii for forensic identification.

The level of the meeting Sunday was not immediately known.

North Korea has reportedly proposed holding general-level military talks with the UNC over the repatriation of remains, sources here said Thursday, after it failed to show up at the meeting earlier that day.

With the meeting not taking place, the UNC reportedly made a phone call and North Koreans responded by saying that they needed to upgrade the “level” of the talks.

“North Korea apparently wants a U.S. general to appear at the table to quickly finalize the repatriation issue,” the source said. “It is likely that military generals from the U.S. and North Korea will take part in the meeting.”

The UNC told the U.S. Defense Ministry about North Korea’s proposal and is waiting for Washington’s answer, the source added.
“We have to see the U.S. Defense Ministry’s response, but the UNC reportedly gave a positive signal to North Korea, so there is a good chance of the talks taking place on Sunday,” the source said.

If realized, they will be the first general-level military talks between North Korea and the UNC since March 2009.  [Jong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

It seems to me that the Kim regime is working hard to butter up the US President while playing hardball with his underlings:

President Donald Trump Thursday released a letter from Kim Jong Un, in which the North Korean leader voices confidence in efforts to end their nuclear standoff, while calling on his US counterpart to take “practical actions” to build trust.

“A very nice note from Chairman Kim of North Korea,” Trump tweeted alongside a copy of the letter dated July 6 — the day that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Pyongyang for what turned out to be difficult talks with Kim’s regime.

“Great progress being made!” Trump added in his tweet.

In the letter Kim describes his June 12 summit with Trump in Singapore, and the resulting joint statement agreed by both sides, as the “start of a meaningful journey.”

“I firmly believe that the strong will, sincere efforts and unique approach of myself and Your Excellency Mr. President aimed at opening up a new future between the DPRK and the U.S. will sure surely come to fruition,” Kim writes.

“I deeply appreciate the energetic and extraordinary efforts made by Your Excellency Mr. President for the improvement of relations between the two countries and the faithful implementation of the joint statement,” he adds.

The North Korean leader also voices hope that “the invariable trust and confidence in Your Excellency Mr. President will be further strengthened in the future process of taking practical actions.”  [AFP]

You can read more at the link, but my thoughts on this is that the Kim regime as well as the Moon administration in South Korea, both understand that guys like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo have no intention of dropping sanctions until real denuclearization occurs.  That is why I believe they have been trying to appeal to President Trump’s ego in attempt to overrule his advisors and drop the sanctions for pretend denuclearization deal.

That is why I believe President Moon has come out and said that President Trump should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and now we have Kim Jong-un appealing to his ego by calling Trump “Your Excellency” repeatedly.  Time will tell if their strategy works or not.

The Army’s new physical fitness test is on its way with units beginning to field the equipment to take the test this year and final implementation in 2020:

There are six events in the ACFT:

• Strength Deadlift. This is a three-repetition maximum deadlift to test muscular strength; it mimics movement to safety and effectively lifting and carrying heavy loads.
• Standing Power Throw. This event involves throwing a 10-pound medicine ball as far as possible over the head and to the rear. It measures upper and lower muscular power, balance and whole body flexibility.
• Hand-Raised Push-ups. This event forces the soldier to go all the way to the floor and raise his hands before coming back up again, measuring upper-body muscular endurance.
• A 250-Meter Sprint, Drag and Carry. This is five different events within one event — a 50-meter sprint; a backward 50-meter drag of a 90-pound sled; a 50-meter movement; a 50-meter carry of two 40-pound kettle bells; and a final 50-meter sprint. It measures muscular strength, power, speed and reaction time.
• Leg Tuck. A soldier hangs perpendicular to the pull-up bar and brings his knees up to his elbows and back down again for one repetition. It measures muscular strength, endurance and grip.
• Two-Mile Run. The ACFT retains the two-mile run portion of the APFT, which is designed to measure aerobic and muscular endurance.

All events must be completed in 50 minutes or less, so there is mandated rest and a maximum time for each event, Frost said. Each soldier gets two minutes’ rest between each of the first five events and five minutes of rest before the two-mile run.  [Military.com]

You can read much more at the link, but if soldiers must complete the test in 50 minutes or less I will be interested to see how a company level unit will be able to execute this with six events.  It seems units would have to make this a multi-day event to get everyone complete.

I am also interested to see what the minimum scores will be considering this is a gender and age neutral test.

North Korea didn’t show up for a meeting with the U.S. on American war dead, South Korean media report https://t.co/kPCYMNHeWn pic.twitter.com/JeuPo59JEB

— Bloomberg (@business) July 12, 2018

South Korean female archers train during a media event for the 2018 Asian Games at the National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province, on July 10, 2018. (Yonhap)