Author: GIKorea

Muslims pose at a mosque in Seoul on June 15, 2018, to mark Eid al-Fitr, an Islamic holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. (Yonhap)

Soccer legend Diego Maradona is being accused of making a racist gesture towards some Korean fans at the World Cup:

Football legend Diego Maradona’s racist gesture toward young Korean fans is drawing a strong backlash in Korea.

Maradona, 57, has been accused of making a “clearly racist gesture” at the Spartak Stadium on Saturday, after Korean fans shouted and waved at him in joy.

ITV presenter Jacqui Oatley, who was there as part of the broadcaster’s coverage of the game between Argentina and Iceland, claimed on Twitter that Maradona “pulled his eyes to the side in a clearly racist gesture. All of us who saw it are stunned.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but interestingly no one caught this on film.  However, here is what Maradona said happened:

Responding to the accusation in a Facebook post on Sunday morning, Maradona said: “Today, in the stadium, among so many demonstrations of affection from the people, I was struck by a group of people around a fan who filmed us. “I saw an Asian boy wearing an Argentina T-shirt. I, from afar, tried to tell them how nice it seemed to me that even the Asians cheer for us. And that’s all, guys, come on.” [iNews]

I will let everyone make up their own minds if Maradona had racist intentions or not.

Removing the North Korean artillery from areas along the DMZ would be a huge concession by the Kim regime which is why I would be surprised to see this happen:

South Korea proposed that North Korea move its long-range artillery away from the heavily fortified border in an effort to reduce tensions during last week’s rare cross-border military talks, government sources here said Sunday.

During Thursday’s general-grade meeting, the first in more than a decade, Seoul made a series of suggestions, including relocating the artillery pieces to areas 30 to 40 kilometers away from the Military Demarcation Line separating the two Koreas, the insiders said.

The two sides held the talks to follow up on the Panmunjom Declaration from the April 27 inter-Korean summit at the truce village, which calls for joint efforts to alleviate military tensions and “practically eliminate the danger of war.”

“We conveyed our position to the North that in light of consultations between the North and the United States over the denuclearization issue, we have to craft measures to drastically reduce military tensions by removing practical threats,” a source said on condition of anonymity.

“I understand that (the South) suggested moving the North’s artillery that threatens the Seoul metropolitan area to rear areas so as to actively implement the Panmunjom Declaration,” the source added.

According to a 2016 South Korean defense white paper, the North has 14,100 artillery pieces, including 5,500 multiple rocket launchers, a majority of which have been deployed near the border.

Pyongyang is known to possess a variety of rocket systems, including 170 mm-caliber self-propelled howitzers and 240 mm multiple rocket launchers that can easily target Seoul and surrounding areas.

The North’s longer-range 300 mm multiple rocket launcher is seen as more formidable, as it is capable of reaching key U.S. military installations in Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province and the headquarters of the South’s Army, Navy and Air Force in the Gyeryongdae military compound in South Chungcheong Province.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but North Korea’s artillery has been their source of deterrence for decades.  If it wasn’t for North Korea’s artillery threat on Seoul a regime change war would have likely happened by now considering the outrageous provocations the Kim regime has committed over the years.

Removing the artillery from its carefully hardened positions on the DMZ would ultimately be a threat to regime security which is why I would be surprised to see this happen.

I have long been following this lawsuit here at the ROK Drop and now the lawsuit has forced Harvard to release how they select their applicants.  The way the admissions process is set up it makes it harder for Asian-Americans to be accepted to the prestigious university:

In an intense legal battle over the role of race in Harvard University’s admissions policies, a group that is suing the school says Harvard lowers the rankings of Asian-American applicants in a way that is unconstitutional.

Harvard says that its admissions process is legal — and it notes that the plaintiff group, the Students for Fair Admissions, is backed by the same activist who previously challenged the University of Texas’ affirmative action policy.

The SFFA says Harvard uses “racial balancing” as part of its formula for admitting students and that the practice is illegal. In response, Harvard says the group is misinterpreting data that the highly competitive school shared about how it chooses students.

Citing a 2013 analysis by Harvard’s Office of Institutional Research, the SFFA said in a federal court filing on Friday that if academics were the only criterion, Asian-American students would have made up more than 43 percent of students who were admitted, rather than the actual 18.7 percent.

Even if other criteria — such as legacy students, athletic recruiting and extracurricular and personal attributes — are included, the plaintiffs say, the number of Asian-Americans at Harvard would still have risen to more than 26 percent.

Saying that the admission rate for whites outpaced that of Asian-Americans over a 10-year period — despite outperforming them in only the “personal” ratings — the plaintiffs allege that “being Asian American actually decreases the chances of admissions.”  [NPR]

So how does Harvard justify not admitting Asian-Americans based on their academic performance? By penalizing them for their “personalities”:

Harvard consistently rated Asian-American applicants lower than others on traits like “positive personality,” likability, courage, kindness and being “widely respected,” according to an analysis of more than 160,000 student records filed Friday by a group representing Asian-American students in a lawsuit against the university.

Asian-Americans scored higher than applicants of any other racial or ethnic group on admissions measures like test scores, grades and extracurricular activities, according to the analysis commissioned by a group that opposes all race-based admissions criteria. But the students’ personal ratings significantly dragged down their chances of being admitted, the analysis found.  [New York Times]

I am not sure how an admission personnel can make an accurate determination about someones “courage” or “liability” from an application packet.  I think it is arguable that the personality scores are being used as a way to manipulate the stupid body to reflect what the university wants it to look like.

Could you imagine what the uproar would be if a university for example in the South was using personality scores to limit the number of African-American students?  I do find it interesting that since it is Asian-Americans being affected by Harvard’s policies that the usual race hustlers we see in the spotlight for issues like this are no where to be found.

(LEAD) Koreas to hold flurry of talks over sports, family reunions, railway connections https://t.co/mWk9UeMQ99

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) June 17, 2018

Former President Lee Myung-bak enters the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul on June 15, 2018, to attend a hearing in his trial on alleged corruption. (Yonhap)

Does anyone think it is just a coincidence that the North Korean human rights office in South Korea is shut down shortly after the summit between Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in?:

South Korea’s unification ministry said Thursday that it has closed the office for a state-run foundation for North Korea’s human rights, whose launch has been delayed for nearly two years amid political differences.

The ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations, said that it will terminate the lease contract for the office in Seoul this month to prevent the further waste of government funds, estimated at around 63 million won ($58,120) every month. The office has been vacant since first being rented 21 months ago.

“The move is only an administrative and operational measure to stem further financial losses. The government’s stance to launch the foundation on human rights for North Korean citizens as soon as possible remains unchanged,” the ministry said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is another example of no matter the subject Democrats will find a way to oppose President Trump:

A pair of Democratic senators on Wednesday introduced an amendment to the annual defense policy bill that would stop President Trump from withdrawing U.S. forces from South Korea without the Pentagon’s input.

The amendment “would help prevent the President from making a rash decision about troop reductions on the Korean Peninsula that negatively impacts our national security,” Sens. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.) and Chris Murphy (Conn.) said in a joint statement.

Introduced for the Fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the provision would stop a withdraw “unless the U.S. Secretary of Defense certifies it is in our national security interest and would not significantly undermine the security of our allies in the region.” [The Hill]

You can read more at the link.

I guess the next time a provocation cycle happens they can both just call and insult each other instead of using Twitter 😉 :

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he gave North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a direct phone number to reach him and that he plans to make a phone call to Kim.

“I can now call him. I gave him a very direct number,” he told reporters at the White House. “He can now call me if he has any difficulty. We have communication.”

His remarks come days after his first and historic encounter in Singapore with the leader of the reclusive state on Tuesday.

Trump also said he plans to personally call Kim on Sunday.

Trump and Kim declared in a joint text following the summit their commitment toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula while guaranteeing the security of Kim’s dynastic regime.  [Yonhap]

I wonder if Trump during the phone call will joke to Kim Jong-un to send him 25 million illegal Mexican immigrants?

We must not forget the people of North Korea whom has no voice and not allowed to speak because the dictator kills them and punishes three generations of their family members at this very moment.

— Yeonmi Park (박연미) (@YeonmiParkNK) June 13, 2018