Author: GIKorea

The problem you run into with false rape accusations is that authorities are likely hesitant to investigate much less prosecute because they will be accused of “blaming the victim”:

More than 220,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the government and the National Assembly to toughen the law against false accusations of sex crimes.

As of Thursday, 220,450 people have signed the petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website. The person who posted the plea on May 25 said Korea needs a law that punishes those who take advantage of its faulty justice system with heavier penalties.

“False accusations destroy the lives of the accused and their families. Nevertheless, accusers rarely face legal consequences, and when they do, they get off lightly,” the person said.

The call came after YouTube star Yang Ye-won’s controversial claims that she was forced to model for pornographic pictures at a Seoul photo studio in 2015. After it was revealed that she asked the accused photographer to give her more photo opportunities, which she did not mention during her YouTube “confession,” many people have doubted her claims and expressed fear of false allegations.

According to the Ministry of Justice’s investigation guidelines, prosecutors and police cannot initiate investigations into alleged false accusations of sex crimes until they conclude that the accused is evidently innocent.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Legitimizing and praising a dictator does not give us a real and permanent peace. It’s a delusional and fake peace that Trump wants us to believe. We must hold North Korea’s murderous Kim dictator accountable. We must fight for a world where justice… https://t.co/S44Xcp3Jvq

— Yeonmi Park (박연미) (@YeonmiParkNK) June 21, 2018

Kim Jae-il (R), a senior official of the Korea Customs Service (KCS) in charge of narcotic control, poses with Jesse Fong, Far East regional director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), at his office in Seoul on June 20, 2018, after signing an MOU on enhancing cooperation on drug busts. This photo was provided courtesy of the KCS. (Yonhap)

It looks like President Moon is in Russia setting conditions for any future summit between Putin and Kim Jong-un:

South Korean President Moon Jae-in began his three-day state visit to Russia on Thursday for a bilateral summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that will likely focus on ways to boost the countries’ economic cooperation, as well as joint efforts to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons.

Moon’s trip marked the first state visit to Russia by a South Korean leader since 1999, according to his office Cheong Wa Dae.

He was set to deliver a special speech at the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, becoming the first South Korean president to do so in history.

He will also meet Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev later in the day for bilateral talks on ways to expand their countries’ bilateral cooperation, Cheong Wa Dae said.

The Moon-Putin summit will be held on Friday, marking the third of its kind since Moon took office in May 2017. The two first met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit held in Germany in July. They last met in September, when Moon attended the annual Eastern Economic Forum held in the Russian city of Vladivostok.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

What I did not see in the article was if any money was handed over to North Korea for the return of the remains.  My assumption would be probably not since the sanctions are still in place.  It will be interesting to see how many remains the Kim regime hands over because Korean War remains are a cottage industry for the North Koreans to make money off of:

Marines of the First Marine Division pay their respects to fallen buddies during memorial services at the division’s cemetery at Hamhung, Korea, following the break-out from Chosin Reservoir, December 13, 1950. Cpl. Uthe. (Marine Corps)

The U.N. Command in South Korea is planning for the North Koreans to turn over the remains of U.S. troops who died in the 1950-53 war, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

It would be the first such repatriation in more than a decade.

The announcement follows an agreement by President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their summit last week to recover the remains of thousands of war dead, “including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.”

The U.S.-led command didn’t give a number or timing for the ceremony. The agency that oversees POW/MIA issues has said North Korean officials have indicated that they have recovered as many as 200 sets of remains over the years.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans know exactly where the bulk of the remains are because the US military buried a large number of casualties in marked cemeteries before evacuating North Korea after the Chinese intervened in the war.

The JSA may be preparing for the ceremony, but President Trump has said 200 remains have already been returned:

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that North Korea has sent back the remains of 200 American soldiers who were killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.

The repatriation is part of an agreement Trump signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their historic summit in Singapore last week.

“Our great fallen heroes, the remains, in fact today already 200 have been sent back,” Trump said at a rally in Duluth, Minnesota, noting that he had “great chemistry” and “got along really well” with Kim.  [Korea Times]

I could find no confirmation that this has actually happened yet; you would think this would be major news which leads me to believe it hasn’t happened.  However, if Kim does hand over 200 remains that is a pretty significant amount.

Are people really surprised that the refugee problem is growing when laws are created that make it easier for the applicants to stay longer?:

Fears about refugees are spreading quickly across Korea after news that the number of asylum seekers on Jeju Island has soared.

More than 250,000 Koreans have signed a petition against the Jeju Provincial Government’s (JPG) refugee-friendly policy that allows foreigners to stay for several months without a visa and, in the meantime, helps them find jobs.

“I call on the government to put Koreans’ safety and other important issues first,” the person who posted the petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website wrote. “I’m doubtful whether they really are refugees. Think about it. Why would they come all the way here to seek asylum?”

“If we continue to allow them, what is happening in Europe today could become our future,” another petitioner wrote.

Judging by comments from news articles and social media, the dominant voice here doesn’t support the visa-waiver policy, which many locals think draws more refugees there.

According to the Jeju Immigration Office Tuesday, more than 940 foreigners have applied for legal refugee status so far this year, compared with 312 for the whole of last year.

Yemenis, whose country has been devastated by a civil war, account for about 54.7 percent, followed by Chinese (30.9 percent).

Many asylum seekers choose Korea’s southernmost island because the JPG allows them to stay there up to a month without a visa. If they apply for legal refugee status, they can earn an additional few months until the end of the screening process. If they bring the case to the court, it could be years.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but if so many Yeminis are fleeing the country than why aren’t more Sunni Arab countries taking in refugees instead of South Korea where they don’t speak language and have a different culture?

[NEWS ANALYSIS] Kim Jong-un's third visit to China marks landmark shift in style of North Korean diplomacy https://t.co/OjAVVVocUX

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) June 20, 2018

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) talks to Chinese President Xi Jinping at a banquet in Beijing on June 19, 2018, in this photo carried by North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun the following day.  (Yonhap)

With the joint ROK-US Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise already being cancelled, the ROK military has decided to cancel one of their own internal lead up exercises as well:

South Korea’s military has put off its own simulation-based exercise, scheduled for next week, in order to help maintain the momentum of talks with North Korea, a defense official said Wednesday.

The annual command-post practice, called Taegeuk, was scheduled to begin next Tuesday for a three-day run.

“We have decided to postpone it,” the official said, requesting anonymity. “We will review ways to conduct it at the most appropriate time and in the optimal manner.”

It means this year’s exercise has been postponed indefinitely.

The Taegeuk training, launched in 1995, has been held in May or June every year, led by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

This year would be the first time for the military to delay its opening.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It has long been known by Korea watchers that President Moon Jae-in’s Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok has prolific communist and pro-North Korean past.  Over at One Free Korea, Dr. Tara O has a guest post that provides detailed background information that shows how immersed Im was in communist ideology before entering the Blue House.  What I found really interesting was how during the Roo Moo-hyun administration Im founded a group that collected royalties for the Kim regime in North Korea:

In 2005, Im Jong-seok founded and led as chairman, the South-North Economic and Cultural Cooperation Foundation (남북경제문화협력재단). The Foundation has been collecting royalties from MBC, KBS, SBS, and other TV and online broadcasters for North Korean TV footage. According to the Ministry of Unification, the foundation collected an estimated $1,876,700 over 13 years and transferred the royalties to North Korea until the Cheonan sinking in 2010. It is still collecting royalties on behalf of North Korea’s Chosun Central Broadcasting Commission, with the plans to transfer the money once the sanctions are lifted. The foundation even called the Ministry of Defense Public Affairs and demanded royalties for using the missile test footage in July 2017. North Korea does not pay for footage from South Korean broadcasts.

The foundation also has other revenue streams. One is membership and the other is education & research. It collects about 32,700,000 Won (~$30,000) on average for its annual membership. It also became a contractor to the Seoul City and Seongdong District governments, developing South-North “peace education” programs. What is interesting is that the contract with Seoul City was signed on the same day as when Park Won-soon, Seoul City Mayor, appointed Im Jong-seok as the Deputy Mayor on June 11, 2014. Im was the campaign manager for Park prior to that in 2014, and successfully led to Park Won-soon’s re-election.  [One Free Korea]

You can read much more at the link where Dr. O in painstaking detail lists all of Im Jong-seok’s communist and pro-North Korean ties.  Does anyone think that Im Jong-seok who less than a decade ago was collecting royalties to send to the Kim regime is interested in being an honest broker now between the US and North Korea?