A group of people stages a rally in front of the Foreign Ministry in downtown Seoul on May 21, 2018, calling for revision of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and denouncing U.S. forces for the environmental contamination of U.S. bases in South Korea. (Yonhap)
Leave it to the North Koreans to look for any opportunity to make a buck:
South Korean reporters at Incheon International Airport, Monday. / Yonhap
North Korea is demanding that each foreign reporter pay $10,000 for a visa to cover the planned dismantlement of a nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, Seoul government officials said Monday.
South Korean reporters were exempt, the officials said. But people familiar with the situation said the rule could be overturned anytime given the reclusive state’s unpredictability.
The North has invited an unspecified number of reporters from South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and the U.K. to the dismantlement ceremony scheduled for sometime between Wednesday and Friday.
In the South, news wire News1 and broadcaster MBC were selected to cover the event. The two companies selected four staff ― two writers and two photographers from News1 and two reporters and two cameramen from MBC ― respectively. They arrived in Beijing in the afternoon of Monday. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but the reporters will take a North Korean plane to Wonsan where their lodgings are at. From Wonsan they will take a train to the test site. I wonder if this $10,000 visa includes transportation and lodging? A suspect that will be a separate charge. Would anyone be willing to use their credit card in North Korea to pay for it?
Here is a really messed up story involving a USFK soldier who had his wife cheat on him, get pregnant, then falsely claim the child was his, and then falsely claim the baby died at child birth:
Sgt. Steven Garcia holds the baby, who is at the center of an unusual custody battle.
A South Korea-based soldier has been entangled in a monthslong drama complete with a cheating spouse, long-distance lies and kidnapping charges.
Sgt. Steven Garcia, 24, is a patrol supervisor with the 142nd Military Police Company at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul. In January, he was told that his wife, Marina Garcia, had given birth to a daughter back home in Arizona who died during childbirth.
“When my sister called me about that, it was pretty emotional,” Garcia told KVOA News in Tucson. “We cried quite a bit together over the phone. It was devastating.”
But he soon learned it wasn’t true.
On Feb. 5, an Arizona highway patrolman pulled over an out-of-state vehicle for speeding north of Willcox, Ariz., according to court documents. Inside was a Texas couple and a newborn.
Upon questioning the couple – Alex Hernandez, 33, and his wife, Leslie Morin Hernandez, 41 – the trooper learned that neither was a biological parent of the 3-day-old infant, the documents said.
Further questioning at the police station revealed that Alex Hernandez had fraudulently signed the birth certificate as the father after Marina Garcia arranged to give the child to them.
The Hernandezes were taken into custody, and the baby, who relatives said is named Leo, was handed over to Arizona’s Department of Child Safety.
Later that day, detectives questioned Marina Garcia, who was living in Sierra Vista with her boyfriend, an Army specialist. She admitted to conspiring with the Hernandezes and planned to travel to Texas to sign away her parental rights after recovering from delivery, according to court documents obtained by Stars and Stripes. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but Sergeant Garcia unsurprisingly wants a divorce. He also wants custody of the baby even though it is not his because he was a child that was adopted.
It appears that President Trump is determined to end the North Korean issue one way or another in his first term as US President according to Senator Lindsey Graham:
This EPA file photo shows U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham. (Yonhap)
U.S. President Donald Trump wants to end the North Korean nuclear crisis during his current term, and will likely use military means if diplomacy fails, an American senator said Sunday.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made the remark on Fox News, citing his conversation with the president three days earlier.
“He says he’s going to end this conflict within his first term, that every other president has been played,” Graham said. Trump’s term ends in early 2021.
“President Trump told me three days ago that he wants to end this in a win-win way,” the senator continued. “He thinks that’s possible, but if they pull out, they play him, that we’re going to end North Korea’s threat to the American homeland in his first term and I’ll let you surmise as to what that might look like.” [Yonhap]
President Moon Jae-in (3rd from L) walks to an airplane at Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on May 21, 2018, to depart to Washington D.C. for a summit meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump the following day. The summit will focus on ways to denuclearize North Korea ahead of a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12. (Yonhap)
After the media first made it look like the closure of North Korea’s nuclear test site was a big deal, it appears the media is now beginning to understand they are being used by the Kim regime for another purpose:
Foreign journalists will be allowed to journey deep into the mountains of North Korea this week to observe the closing of the country’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site in a much-touted display of goodwill before leader Kim Jong Un’s planned summit with President Donald Trump next month.
Expect good imagery, but not much else.
The public display of the closure of the facility on Mount Mantap will likely be heavy on spectacle and light on substance. And the media will be spending much of their time in an unrelated tourism zone that North Korea hopes will be the next big thing for its economy if Kim’s diplomatic overtures pay off in the months ahead.
For sure, the closure is a milestone, marking an end to the world’s last active underground testing site and offering some important insights into Kim’s mindset as he sets the stage for his meeting with Trump. [Associated Press]
You can read more at the link, but as I have long said the closure of the nuclear test site is largely meaningless because if they decide they need to conduct more tests they can just dig another shaft at a time of their choosing.
What is interesting though is that according to the article the media is going to be kept in Wonsan. This is because Kim plans to use the media to showcase has plan to expand South Korean tourism into Wonsan to increase foreign currency. So basically these journalists going to North Korea get to see a largely meaningless dog and pony show and then promote the Kim regime’s major foreign currency initiative.
The ties to the Moon campaign to the blogger behind the online opinion rigging scandal before the election has expanded:
Song In-bae
A political blogger known as Druking who allegedly used software to rig public opinion for – and later against – President Moon Jae-in had more ties to Moon’s aides and confidants than previously thought.
The Blue House found in an internal investigation that Moon’s personal secretary, Song In-bae, met with members of the blogger’s political group before last year’s presidential election, when they allegedly engaged in suspicious online activities to support Moon, then a candidate.
“Song met with members of the group four times,” Kim Eui-kyeom, the Blue House’s press secretary, said during a briefing on Monday. “The first was in June 2016.”
An acquaintance of Song who volunteered in his failed National Assembly run in 2016 first suggested the meeting. The acquaintance was part of Druking’s group. Some members allegedly requested that Song bring Kim Kyoung-soo, a former lawmaker with close ties to Moon.
“It is normal for campaign members to meet lots of people during election season,” Kim Eui-kyeom said. “Song was simply doing that in bringing Kim Kyoung-soo to the meeting. We found that Song did not meet with Druking after the election, so that was the end of the Blue House’s investigation.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Readers may remember that Kim Kyoung-soo is the Democrat Party representative that authorized and directed Druking’s online activities. It appears that Moon’s personal secretary needed someone to work with the bloggers and chose Moon’s close friend Kim Kyoung-soo to be that person. What is further interesting is that Song even took payments from the bloggers:
According to the Blue House, Song voluntarily requested the internal probe after Kim Kyoung-soo held a news conference on April 16 about his alleged connection with Druking. Blue House officials questioned Song on April 20 and 26 and found he had received money from Druking’s group but found no issue with the payment.
“They insisted on paying him an honorarium for meeting them,” Kim Eui-kyeom said. “Song initially refused to take it, but they insisted. He received a total of 2 million won [$1,844], which was given to him as 1 million won each time over two times.”
This is pretty amazing that President Moon’s personal secretary not only met with blogging group behind the online opinion rigging scandal multiple times, but even took a nearly $2,000 cash payment from them and yet the Blue House say there is nothing to see here. What further adds to this is the fact that NIS personnel are in jail for online opinion manipulation and former Presidents Park and Lee and others are all in jail for alleged bribes.
In this case we have President Moon’s own personal secretary taking a cash payment from a group conducting illegal activity, that after the election made requests for government positions and received some of them.
It has come to this: *Breitbart* just did a better job of describing the cast of extremists in Moon Jae-in’s cabinet than “respected” publications with correspondents in Asia.https://t.co/NbdJMjz8PL I don’t read Breitbart; saw the link in my traffic stats. But I know who does.
Does this issue in South Korea sound familiar to Americans?:
Doctors staged a massive rally in Seoul on Sunday in protest against what they call the government’s “unilateral” medical care policy.
Around 7,000 members from the Korean Medical Association gathered in central Seoul to voice their anger at so-called Moon Jae-in Care, which the government says is focused on providing comprehensive medical services to the general public at reasonable prices.
The participants shouted out slogans such as “Let’s banish Moon Jae-in Care” and “The government has come up with a delusional policy.”
Many in the medical profession have been opposed to the plan costing 30.6 trillion won ($27.9 billion) that will be implemented in stages up to 2022. The government is aiming to greatly expand National Health Insurance coverage for most medical treatment, which includes various medical procedures and tests.
“We have set up a committee with the government to discuss the issue but we will immediately halt all talks and put up a strong fight, as discussions are void of truth with the government taking steps to unilaterally push forward the plan,” said Choi Dae-jib, the president of the association.
Doctors have consistently complained that policymakers are railroading the plan without proper consultation with those in the medical field and without regard for how the program will be funded in the long term. [Yonhap]
