After losing two major employers the city of Gunsan is facing a population flight as workers look for jobs elsewhere in the country:
A shopping district in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province is deserted on Tuesday
The closure of GM Korea’s plant in Gunsan on Thursday is emptying the southwestern industrial town of its population in a process familiar from GM headquarters’ home of Detroit.
The Gunsan plant employed around 2,000 workers, but only 15 to 20 remain to look after the sprawling 1.2 million sq.m complex.
Song Yong-sun (55) came to work on Wednesday. “I’ve worked here for the last 23 years since the plant was built back in 1995,” he said. “I thought I’d retire at this factory, but now I’m at a loss.”
It is not the only closure turning the city in North Jeolla Province into a ghost town. Last July, a Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard shut its doors after failing to win new orders. [Chosun Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but could you imagine what would happen to Gunsan if the US airbase outside the city ever closed as well?
This incident with a British man is pretty good analogy for what would happen to Taiwan and other Southeast Asian nations if they try and take on China on the simmering territorial disputes in the region, expect to get bullied and beaten into submission by overwhelming numbers:
A group of Chinese men assaulted a British man who had the word “Taiwan” tattooed on his forehead for refusing to say “Taiwan is part of China.”
Paul Farrell, who has lived in Taiwan for 14 years, lost two teeth, received a fat lip and ended up with bruises all over his body after 10 Chinese men beat him during his holiday in the southern Cambodian city of Sihanoukville, the Taiwan News reported Sunday.
According to the report, he became embroiled in an argument with them after they tried to pick a fight over the tattoo at a bar.
One of them suddenly shouted “Taiwan-China!” In response, Farrell said, “Taiwan-Taiwan!” And then they “went insane, grabbed poles and started attacking me,” he said.
He said at least 10 Chinese men savagely assaulted him, forcing him to say “Taiwan is part of China,” as hundreds of bystanders watched the attack.
Fearing for his life, Farrell eventually said: “OK, you think Taiwan is China, I’ll say Taiwan is China. I just want to leave.” [Korea Times]
Assuming all these charges are true, I tend to think people like this have been doing shady stuff their whole career, but just now finally got caught:
Lt. Col. Christopher DeMure (left) takes command of JBER’s 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment on Aug. 30, 2016. (Credit: From 4/25 Facebook page)
The head of an Army unit stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is charged with filing nearly half a million dollars in fraudulent insurance claims spanning more than three years.
Lt. Col. Christopher DeMure, 40, faces charges of mail and wire fraud as well as money laundering in the case, according to U.S. Attorney for Alaska, Bryan Schroder’s office. DeMure – commander of the 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment within the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division – allegedly made over $475,000 in false claims and received nearly $400,000 from September 2014 to February of this year.
U.S. Army Alaska spokesman John Pennell confirmed DeMure’s status as commander of the battalion, which recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, but he referred all other questions about the case to Schroder’s office.
According to charging documents, DeMure’s scheme involved claims made to military insurer USAA Federal Savings Bank as well as American Express on at least seven separate occasions. In one incident, he allegedly claimed more than $215,000 in false losses from a U-Haul van he said was burglarized in July 2016 when he moved to JBER from Fort Benning, Ga. [KTVA News 11]
You can read much more at the link, but once again assuming all of this is true, LTC DeMure must have thought USAA was stupid and would not catch on to his fraud claims. You would think he would at least try to make fraudulent claims with different insurance companies instead of making them all with USAA which makes it easier to detect.
A protester is taken away from a statue symbolizing Korea’s forced laborers on a sidewalk near the Japanese Consulate in the southeastern port city of Busan on May 31, 2018, as officials from the city’s Dong Ward office load the statue onto a truck, as police disperse protesters from civic groups who attempt to prevent it from being removed. The statue, which represents laborers who were forcibly mobilized by Japan during its 1910-45 colonial domination over the Korean Peninsula, was transported to the state-run National Memorial Museum of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Occupation also in the city. Civic groups want to set it up in front of the Japanese Consulate, but the government says it should be placed elsewhere. (Yonhap)
There is a fascinating read posted over at One Free Korea by guest author Dr. Tara O that goes into detail about how the Moon Jae-in administration was able to take over the news network MBC. During the timeframe that led to former President Park’s impeachment, MBC was the only network giving coverage to activists protesting in favor of Park Geun-hye. Once elected the Moon administration made sure to take action against MBC using the typical playbook from the Korean left:
Controlling the narrative through the information people receive is one of the key steps in influencing people’s thoughts and behaviors. Influencing the media is important in this regard. The Moon administration in South Korea has taken over control of Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), with help from the labor union, the National Union of Media Workers at MBC Headquarters (전국언론노동조합 MBC 본부), which is under the umbrella of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) (전국민주노동조합총연맹). Similar methods were employed to take over another network, the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS). The following examines the methods in which the hostile takeover of MBC occurred. (…………)
– The labor union members then went to the universities, workplaces, churches where the board members go to, and harassed them, even using violence.
– Unable to withstand the harassment and threats to them and their families, some of the board members began to resign. [One Free Korea]
I highly recommend reading the entire article at the link, this is a must read to understand how the Korean left takes control of the media in South Korea and uses it to push their agenda. The effort to control the media narrative in South Korea is further advanced by the Moon administration using libel laws to silence their critics.
President Moon receives largely glowing coverage in the US media which makes me wonder if anyone in the American media will actually report on the Moon administration’s efforts to attack the freedom of the press and speech in South Korea?
Another example of how the defamation laws in South Korea are used to silence political opposition:
A conservative commentator has been arrested on libel charges regarding his claim that media reports that led to the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye were manipulated.
The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Byun Hee-jae, citing a risk of the suspect destroying evidence.
Byun is accused of spreading false information through his book “The Curse of Sohn Suk-hee” and his online articles, arguing that local cable channel JTBC manipulated the content of a tablet PC and made it look like it was used by Choi Soon-sil, a long-time confidante of the former president.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office filed for the warrant last Friday, accusing Byun of slandering JTBC, its president Sohn Suk-hee and its reporters without reasonable grounds.
The tablet PC was used as critical evidence proving that Choi had interfered in state affairs, leading to Park’s impeachment last year. [KBS World News]
For those that don’t remember the tablet was mysteriously found in an office once rented by Park Geun-hye’s friend Choi Soon-shil who was at the center of the scandal. The finding of the tablet PC was the key news that created the momentum to impeach former President Park Geun-hye.
JTBC only admitted where it found the tablet after changing its story multiple times about the origin of the tablet. If it was in fact found in the old office I always found it interesting how it was conveniently left with such sensitive information on it and no password protection. Additionally the Korean courts did not consider the tablet as evidence during the trial against President Park because it was tampered with.
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR HICKAM (May 30, 2018) — Adm. Phil Davidson, left, relieves Adm. Harry Harris, right, as commander of U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM). USPACOM is committed to enhancing stability in the Indo-Pacific region by promoting security cooperation, encouraging peaceful development, responding to contingencies, deterring aggression, and, when necessary, fighting to win. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James Mullen)
For those that haven’t heard, Defense Secretary James Mattis during the Change of Command ceremony renamed Pacific Command to “Indo-Pacific Command” in response to Chinese militarism in the region. I am just wondering what do we call PACOM now? iPAC? It makes it sound like a tech company.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a senior North Korean official met in New York Wednesday as both sides push to salvage a highly anticipated summit between their leaders.
The two had a 90-minute working dinner at the Manhattan residence of the U.S. deputy representative to the United Nations, with 13 days to go until a potential June 12 summit in Singapore between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Kim Yong-chol, a vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, arrived at JFK International Airport earlier in the day, becoming the highest-ranking North Korean to visit the U.S. since 2000.
His meeting with Pompeo is expected to determine whether the two sides have enough common ground to go ahead with the summit on dismantling the North’s nuclear weapons program in exchange for concessions. [Yonhap]
Maybe this what the dispute was really about in regards to almost having the summit cancelled, not denuclearization, but agreeing on what burger joint to put in North Korea: 😉
A new CIA intelligence assessment concludes North Korea has no plans to relinquish its nuclear weapons program even though denuclearization is the centerpiece of the summit tentatively planned for next month, NBC News reported Tuesday.
But North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be willing to bring a U.S. burger outlet to Pyongyang as a show of good faith, the assessment suggests. [USA Today]
You can read more at the link, but if a US fast food joint it opened up next to Kim Jong-un’s palace that may end up shortening his life expectancy considering his already extreme weight.
