I totally agree with Dr. Lankov that the recent Kim-Moon Inter-Korean Summit was more marketing and hype than actual substance:
Andrei Lankov
It was, frankly, quite striking to see the tidal wave of unwarranted optimism in South Korean media that accompanied the April 27 summit.
To be more precise, this tidal wave began to rise shortly before the summit actually took place, and reached a truly remarkable level after its (modest and predictable) results were announced.
To a very large extent, this optimism has been deliberately manufactured by the South Korean bureaucracy. The Moon administration has spared no expense creating the impression that a historical breakthrough was made at Panmunjom.
These marketing efforts are eagerly supported by left-leaning media outlets, with the Hankyoreh Sinmun and Kyonghyang Sinmun being arguably the most vocal participants in this state-led enthusiasm building campaign. (…………)
One op-ed author, for example, assured his readers that in the near future, they will be able to take “the unification train” from Busan all the way to Moscow and Paris.
Another contributor shared his dreams about hiking in the North Korean mountains and buying freshly boiled corn from locals and assured readers that now, after this supposed breakthrough, these dreams are certainly about to come true very soon.
It has even been suggested that the architects of this supposed breakthrough should be considered as candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize.
These flood of naivety and self-imposed amnesia might sound comical, but there are good reasons why the Moon administration is working so hard to manufacture this optimism and to maintain it at a sufficiently high level. [NK News]
You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration is building this hype like I have previously posted about, to influence President Trump during his upcoming summit with Kim Jong-un. They need to get Trump on board with the Great Charade of 2018 and get him to also pretend that things are going to be different this time and that the North Koreans really do mean to denuclearize.
Rebuilding Kim’s image with the Inter-Korean Summit was part of this effort. The upcoming demolition of the nuclear test site will be the next dramatic optic of little substance that will happen before the Kim-Trump summit. If President Trump sticks to his demands of denuclearization with strict inspections before dropping sanctions than the Great Charade of 2018 will likely implode and Moon will likely blame Trump for its failure instead of the real source of the peninsula’s problems, Kim Jong-un.
I had no idea that the name of the infamous aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was actually someone’s name:
Gov. Eddie Calvo’s former spokesman Troy Torres was arrested in connection with conspiracy to distribute drugs after police found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in a residence, police said Saturday.
Torres, 37, of Mangilao was arrested Friday after the Mandaña Drug Task Force and SWAT raided a house on Chrysanthemum Street in Latte Heights, according to Guam Police Department spokesman Sgt. Paul Tapao.
Torres, along with the two others he was arrested with — John Vincent Aguigui Salas, 35, and Enolagay Aliga, 27, both of whom were arrested in connection with illegal possession of a Schedule II controlled substance, according to Tapao — were released Saturday afternoon, according to the Department of Corrections. [Pacific Daily News]
You can read more at the link, but the Enola Gay airplane actually took off from the island of Tinian which is a short distance north of Guam in the Mariana Islands chain. I wonder if her parents named her after the plane?
John Kelly strongly — and successfully — dissuaded Trump in February from ordering the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula, @NBCNews reports. This fits with accounts I heard about Trump throwing papers in the Oval, yelling about S.Koreahttps://t.co/JYqiqQHaqjpic.twitter.com/QBo6xHWu5K
Rescue authorities clean up the scene where a bus collided with a passenger vehicle, killing eight and injuring 11, on a road in Yeongam County, South Jeolla Province, on May 1, 2018. (Yonhap)
This would explain why Kim Jong-un made the unusual public appearance of sorrow after the tragic bus accident in North Korea that killed 32 Chinese tourists:
Mao Xinyu, left, became the youngest Major General of the People’s Liberation Army of China, according to Chinese newspaper Ming Pao in Hong Kong, August 2010. / Korea Times file
Chinese communist revolutionary Mao Zedong’s only grandson Mao Xinyu was possibly killed in a bus crash in North Korea in April that killed over 30 Chinese, according to a report from French radio.
Xinyu, the son of Mao Zedong’s second son Anqing who died fighting in the Korean War, was possibly one of 32 Chinese tourists who died when a bus fell from a bridge in North Hwanghae Province, Radio France Internationale’s Chinese version reported on April 30, citing a Chinese source.
The report said Xinyu, a Major General in the People’s Liberation Army of China, and most of the other Chinese tourists were the children of Chinese soldiers who fought in the Korean War.
The accident also killed four North Koreans.
The tourists died reportedly on their way back from a cemetery in Hoechang County in South Pyongan Province that was for Chinese soldiers who died during the Korean War. Mao Zedong’s eldest son Anying was buried there, which leads to the supposition Xinyu could have visited the cemetery to pay tribute to his uncle.
If it is true that Xinyu was among the dead, two direct descendants of Mao Zedong have perished on the Korean Peninsula. [Korea Times]
To me it appears that President Moon Jae-in is attempting to play to President Trump’s ego:
South Korea’s president said Monday that his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear weapons.
Moon Jae-in made the comments during a Cabinet meeting three days after his momentous summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. The only thing we need is peace,” he said in remarks confirmed by the presidential office.
Trump is planning to hold his own summit with Kim in coming weeks, although the venue and date have not been announced. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but if the North Koreans do not commit to real denuclearization President Trump could sink the entire facade that is going on right now. President Moon may be hoping that the possibility of winning a Nobel Peace Prize just like Trump’s rival Barack Obama did, may be enough to get him to play along with the current facade as well. Time will tell and we will all just have to wait and see what happens.
Not only has Heather Cho been vilified, sent to jail, and lost her job because of the “nut rage” incident now she is getting divorced and may lose custody of her kids:
Cho Hyun-ah (Heather Cho)
Cho Hyun-ah, former executive of Korean Air, who made global headlines with the infamous nut rage scandal, faces a divorce lawsuit from her husband of eight years.
According to legal sources on Monday, Cho’s husband filed a divorce suit to Seoul Family Court on April 2, and requested custody of their children.
Cho hasn’t yet appointed an attorney and the trial date hasn’t been set, Yonhap reported.
Cho and her husband, the head of a famous cosmetic surgery practice in Gangnam, married in 2010 and had twins. [UPI]
Ahn Cheol-soo (R), the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party’s preliminary candidate for Seoul mayor, runs in a half-marathon on a road in central Seoul on April 29, 2018, in this photo provided by the local daily Chosun Ilbo. (Yonhap)
This guy on Guam was arrested for trying to implement the “drinky girl” system with Filipino women that was once prevalent around US military installations in South Korea:
A producer who arranged for band members from the Philippines to perform on Guam, but had them illegally sell drinks in bars, “sounds like a bad guy,” said District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood, who questioned why he got such a lenient deal from prosecutors.
“I’m not sympathetic to this guy,” she said. “It sounds like he’s holding them hostage.”
Jemuel Luciano appeared in district court twice this week for sentencing after he entered a plea agreement.
In 2013, Luciano petitioned band members to come to Guam to perform, documents state. The female band members performed at Club Chicboy and other bars, and during their breaks were forced to sell drinks at about $30 a drink, which violated their visa status, said prosecutor Stephen Leon Guerrero.
Of the $30 drink sales, $10 would go to the bar, $10 would go to the band and $10 would go to Luciano, said Department of Homeland Security agent Brent Tablan. [Pacific Daily News]
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