The Korean ruling political party has been able to turn the Druking online opinion rigging scandal with clear links to the Moon administration, back on conservatives by claiming they rigged comments during the 2007 Presidential election:
Kim Dong-won, aka “Druking”
Seoul police are looking into suspicions that the main opposition party engaged in massive online opinion rigging during elections, including the 2007 presidential vote.
A newspaper reported Wednesday that the Liberty Korea Party (LKP) used a computer program to spread favorable news and jack up “likes” on comments on Internet sites from 2006 to 2014. At those times, the party’s name was first the Grand National Party and then the Saenuri Party.
The report cited the party campaign office’s chat records that it secured from an insider.
“We are checking the authenticity of the report,” the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said.
The agency has probed a similar online manipulation scheme led by an arrested blogger linked to the ruling Democratic Party (DP).
The blogger known as Druking used the same software. In a recent letter sent to a news outlet, he said that he acquired the program from a campaign official of the Grand National Party. It was used during the 2007 presidential election, he added. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but does anyone find it quite convenient that after all these weeks Druking mentioned nothing to the media about getting the program from the GNP, but now all the sudden he does? The timing is even more convenient considering that local elections and parliamentary by-elections are slated for June 13.
This was very lucky that no one was at home at the time of the collapse and the businesses were closed or this could have been quite a tragedy:
Police officers and firefighters examine the rubble of a collapsed building in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Monday. The building was completed in 1966 and collapsed on Sunday. Residents believe the cause was cracks in the foundation. [YONHAP]Residents of a four-story building that collapsed in central Seoul on Sunday are blaming the Yongsan District Office for ignoring their complaints about cracks in the foundation that they called a recipe for disaster.
The building, which consisted of restaurants on the first and second floors and living quarters on the third and fourth, collapsed at 12:35 p.m. A 68-year-old woman living on the top floor sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to police. The other residents were not at home, and the restaurants were all closed, which prevented further casualties.
Authorities have yet to identify the precise cause of the accident. Because the building was completed in 1966, police and firefighters believe it was the outcome of progressive deterioration. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but of course government authorities are alleged to have blown off reports from the residents of crack they seen forming in the building. This appears to be another example of the poor safety culture in South Korea.
This photo courtesy of the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (NRICH) shows the footprints of a vertebrate presumed to belong to the Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era, commonly known as the age of dinosaurs about 100 million years ago. The footprints were found on a rock in the southeastern industrial city of Ulsan recently. The NRICH said on June 5, 2018, that 18 such footprints were found in Ulsan on June 1. (Yonhap)
I wonder if the North Koreans will demand payment for allowing searches for war remains inside their section of the DMZ?:
President Moon Jae-in pays tribute to an Army sergeant who was killed during the Korean War at the National Cemetery in Daejeon on June 6, 2018, to mark the 63rd Memorial Day. (Yonhap)
President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday he will push for the recovery of the remains of fallen soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the Koreas in line with the improvement of ties with the North.
In his address at the 63rd Memorial Day ceremony at the National Cemetery in Daejeon, he expressed hopes that the fresh detente will pave the way for inter-Korean joint efforts to account for tens of thousands of service members still listed as missing in action from the 1950-53 Korean War.
“We will continue efforts to recover the remains of military and police members who fell during the Korean War until we find the last remaining person,” the commander in chief said.
“When South-North relations improve, we will push for the recovery of the remains in the DMZ first of all. We will also be able to retrieve the remains of U.S. and other foreign soldiers who participated in the war.” [Yonhap]
It looks like the venue for the Trump-Kim summit has finally been locked in:
The Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island in Singapore where U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will hold a summit on June 12. [AP/YONHAP]The Capella Hotel on Singapore’s resort island of Sentosa was named the venue for next week’s historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by the White House on Wednesday.
The much-anticipated summit is scheduled for 9 a.m. local time on June 12, and the announcement of the venue comes after U.S. and North Korean logistics teams scoured the Southeast Asian city-state last week for an optimal location.
After revealing the time of the meeting on Monday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, tweeted: “UPDATE: The venue for the Singapore summit between @POTUS [the president of the United States] and Leader Kim Jong Un will be the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island. We thank our great Singaporean hosts for their hospitality.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
I am still wondering who is picking up Kim Jong-un’s hotel bill since the US State Department says they aren’t paying for it:
The U.S. State Department addressed speculation about who is paying for the North Koreans’ stay in Singapore. Heather Nauert, spokesperson of the State Department, on Tuesday said, “The United States government is not paying for the North Korean delegation to stay” in Singapore, adding that it is not “paying for their expenses.”
I am glad to see that the State Department is not giving in to the demands to pay for Kim’s hotel bill. I wonder if the South Koreans will end up getting stuck with Kim’s hotel bill?
It looks like the UFG exercise this year will be very low key if the Kim regime continues to behave:
U.S. and Republic of Korean Soldiers conduct operations in the Combined Joint Task Force-Elimination Headquarters during Ulchi Freedom Guardian, Aug. 28, 2016, in Seoul.
South Korea will conduct annual war games with the United States as planned but will avoid publicizing them to facilitate diplomatic efforts over the North’s nuclear weapons program, the defense ministry said Monday.
North Korea has sharply denounced joint military exercises, which it considers rehearsals for an invasion, ahead of an unprecedented summit planned between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump on June 12 in Singapore.
“We will be conducting the U.S.-[South Korean] joint military exercises normally in line with annual plans,” ministry spokesman Lee Jin-woo said during a press briefing. “But we’ll refrain from promoting the contents of the joint drills or opening them to the public as best we can.”
The comments came a day after North Korea criticized the South for planning to join upcoming international maritime drills in Hawaii known as Rim of the Pacific and a major joint exercise with the U.S. called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, which begins in August. [Stars & Stripes]
Complaining about the RIMPAC exercise is pretty stupid considering it is held in Hawaii and involves many more countries than just the US and South Korea.
Great interview with former North Korean official Thae Yong-ho. One big takeaway relevant for US summit: Kim can’t reform NK into a benign state without risking collapse https://t.co/zQ0IenCKQ0
This photo provided by North Korea’s main daily Rodong Sinmun on June, 5, 2018, shows a mass civilian-military rally taking place in Wonsan, an eastern coastal city of the North, to show their commitment to completing a tourism district by April 15 next year, the birth anniversary of late founder Kim Il-sung. (Yonhap)
With Russian President Vladimir Putin inviting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to his country, expectations are that leaders from the two Koreas may meet in Russia this fall for the first time in a third country.
The Kremlin said Monday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov delivered Putin’s letter of invitation to Kim for an upcoming economic forum set to take place in Vladivostok in September. This came during the minister’s visit to Pyongyang last month when he met with the regime’s leader to discuss the ongoing denuclearization drive on the Korean Peninsula and Russia’s role to realize the goal.
“Details and time will be further coordinated through diplomatic channels (for Kim’s possible visit to Russia),” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He said the forum is one of the options that will allow Kim’s possible trip to the country. [Korea Times]
