Foreign students participating in the international summer school of Korea University stage a K-pop flash mob at the school in Seoul on July 6, 2018. They danced to “Red Flavor,” a song of Red Velvet, one of K-pop’s biggest girl groups. (Yonhap)
This was some smart thinking by this 9 year old Korean boy on vacation in Hawaii with his parents when he was kidnapped as part of a car theft:
A 9-year-old boy from South Korea and witnesses helped lead Honolulu police to the man who allegedly stole a car with the child inside in Kailua late Thursday morning.
Police said officers arrested a 35-year-old Enchanted Lake man on suspicion of kidnapping, auto theft, theft of property and two warrants after he allegedly stole a rental car with the boy inside.
Police gave the following account of the incident: The boy’s parents, visiting from Korea, left the child inside the car with the air conditioning on, and stopped near the Kailua boat ramp to take pictures of the scenery. At 11:23 a.m. near 729 Mokulua Drive, the suspect jumped into the car and drove off with the boy inside. The boy, who speaks English, asked the man to drop him off at Kalapawai Market and the suspect complied.
The child was able to give officers the car’s license plate number and a description of the vehicle, police said.
Witnesses called 911 and police located the car, which had collided with another vehicle at the intersection of Kamehameha Highway and Mokulele Drive in Kaneohe.
Police said the driver got out and ran on foot, but officers captured him a short distance away. The suspect had personal property from the vehicle on his person, police said.
The suspect was taken to Castle Medical Center with minor cuts to his hand received in the accident. He was later taken to the Kaneohe station for booking. [Star Advertiser]
North Korea says high-level talks with a U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were “regrettable” and has accused Washington of trying to unilaterally pressure the country into abandoning its nukes.
The statement by an unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman on Saturday came hours after Pompeo concluded two days of talks with North Korean officials led by Kim Yong Chol.
The statement says that the United States betrayed the spirit of last month’s summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by making unilateral demands on “CVID,” or the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea.
It says the outcome of the follow-up talks was “very concerning” because it has led to a “dangerous phase that might rattle our willingness for denuclearization that had been firm.” [Associated Press]
You can read more at the link, but my best guess on what is going on is that North Korea wants some of the sanctions dropped for the little to nothing they have done to denuclearize. This is their standard playbook from past negotiations.
The other thing that is in their playbook is using the remains of US servicemembers killed during the Korean War as bargaining chips. When the return of 200 war remains was announced I was wondering what the cost would be? Now we know they were just bargaining chips by the Kim regime to get sanctions dropped.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has wrapped up two days of talks with senior North Korean officials without meeting Kim Jong Un but with commitments for new discussions on denuclearization and the repatriation of the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War.
The Kim regime is only committing to further discussions on the return of the remains which proves they are simply bargaining chips to get what the Kim regime wants which is some of the sanctions dropped. South Korean President Moon is ready to send the Kim regime cash and aid, but the sanctions are preventing him from doing so.
What will be important to watch now is if the Trump administration flinches and allows some of the sanctions to be dropped to keep the negotiations going. If they do then truly nothing has changed, the Trump administration is just the latest government to be fooled by the Kim regime’s false promises to denuclearize.
It is still business as usual for North Korea’s hackers:
North Korean hackers are suspected of carrying out cyber attacks aimed at raising profits and collecting data despite warm relations between the two Koreas, security experts here said Thursday.
According to security sources, North Korea has not desisted from attacking South Korean organizations even though Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to stop hostile acts against each other after the landmark summit held in late April.
A North Korea-based hacking group, dubbed “Hidden Cobra,” recently infected local hospitals and manufacturing firms with malicious codes, cyber security sources said. The group is also presumed to have attacked financial and media companies around the globe to collect data.
ESTsecurity Corp., a local security firm, said Wednesday a hacking group is sending out e-mails disguised as a South Korean governmental agency carrying out research on separated families of the two Koreas. The email can infect the computer with advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks. [Yonhap]
Kim Jong-un is a demi-god in North Korea so few would be willing to point out that the seat of his trousers has a big smudge of dirt across the bottom during his recent tour of a textile factory in Sinuiju on the border with China. Or was it intentional to show Kim has worked hard for the people? Kim reportedly upbraided factory workers for poor work performance. This footage is from the North Korean Central TV. Yonhap via Korea Times
It has taken 23 years, but the Japanese government has finally executed the Aum Shinrikyo cult leaders responsible for the 1995 sarin gas subway attack in Tokyo and other murders in Japan:
Shoko Asahara headed the Aum Shinrikyo cult
Seven members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult which carried out a deadly chemical attack on the Tokyo underground in 1995 have been executed, including cult leader Shoko Asahara.
The Sarin attack, Japan’s worst terror incident, killed 13 people and injured thousands more.
The executions took place at a Tokyo detention house on Friday morning.
Japan does not give prior notice of executions, but they were later confirmed by the justice ministry.
Shoko Asahara, 63, and his followers were also accused of several other murders and an earlier Sarin gas attack in 1994 which killed eight and left 600 injured. [BBC]
I hope no one is surprised by this because this has always been one of the long game end states:
Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to work toward the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea during their third summit in China, according to a Japanese press report.
The Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday the two leaders agreed to cooperate strategically on a shared objective of the removal of the 28,500 U.S. soldiers in the South, following the summit in Singapore where President Donald Trump described joint drills as “very provocative” and costly.
The Asahi’s source, described as well versed in China-North Korea affairs, said Beijing and Pyongyang also agreed to bide their time and not rush negotiations with Washington.
The report comes a day ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo‘s visit to Pyongyang, his third known trip to North Korea.
China and North Korea see an opportunity to ask U.S. troops to leave if and when a peace treaty is signed. [UPI]
You can read more at the link, but you can add the Russians and South Korean leftists to this list as well that want US troops off of the peninsula. Despite claims in the media that Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in want US troops to stay after any peace deal is reached, this is just all rhetoric to prevent energizing South Korean conservatives against Moon.
Remember Moon is a very skilled politician that needs to keep the Korean right at bay and public anxiety down. If he advocated openly for a USFK withdrawal that would give the South Korean right an issue to strongly attack him with and cause much public anxiety after decades of security guarantees provided by US forces. That is why I think the Moon administration will publicly say they support USFK staying, but will then have their surrogates do things to make life difficult for USFK.
Possibly the future of USFK after a peace treaty could look a lot like the current THAAD site in Seongju. President Moon will say all the right things that he supports USFK, just like he supposedly supports the THAAD site, but will set conditions to make it difficult for its continued existence and cause the US to withdraw troops on its own accord.
