Author: GIKorea

The axis of authoritarianism is meeting in China this week to pretend that the CCP had anything to do with helping to win World War II:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to take an initial step onto the multilateral diplomatic stage in China this week, with his planned trip to attend a military parade in Beijing setting the stage for a possible three-way summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

It will be the first time for Kim, who assumed power in late 2011, to attend a multilateral diplomatic event. His grandfather and the North’s founder Kim Il-sung attended a military parade in Beijing in 1959.

The decision by Kim to attend China’s military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, alongside Putin and Xi, was announced days after both South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump expressed their eagerness to resume diplomacy with North Korea in their high-stakes summit in Washington.

Yonhap

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Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comment section.

This accolade comes after leading the U.S. box office last week after a two day limited theater release:

The animated sensation “KPop Demon Hunters” has officially become Netflix’s most-watched movie of all time.

The film has amassed 236 million views since its release on June 20, surpassing the previous record holder, the action-comedy “Red Notice,” which had 230.9 million views, according to Netflix.

Produced by Sony Pictures Animation, the Netflix original film centers on Huntr/x, who live a double life, balancing their music careers with their duties as warriors who protect the world from demonic spirits, like the overlord Gwi-Ma and the soul-stealing Saja Boys.

The film’s soundtrack has also achieved a historic milestone, becoming the first ever to have four songs — “Golden,” “Your Idol,” “Soda Pop” and “How It’s Done” — simultaneously in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

More good news on the birth rate issue in South Korea:

The number of babies born in South Korea rose at the fastest pace on record in June, government data showed Wednesday, a positive sign for a country struggling with an ultralow birth rate.

A total of 19,953 babies were born in June, up 9.4 percent from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea.

It marked the steepest on-year increase for any June since 1981 when the agency began compiling relevant data.

June also marked the 12th consecutive month of on-year growth, though the monthly number of newborns fell below the 20,000 mark for the first time in three months.

The country’s total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, went up by 0.06 from a year earlier to 0.76 in June on the back of increased childbirths among women aged 35-39.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It would be interesting to learn what part of the trade deal that President Lee was trying to renegotiate:

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Seoul and Washington agreed to keep last month’s bilateral trade deal unchanged though there was a “problem,” as he held summit talks with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Washington the previous day.

Trump made the remarks during a Cabinet meeting, while touting a series of agreements that his administration has reached with countries to reduce America’s trade deficits and boost federal coffers.

“I heard there was a problem with South Korea, but we met yesterday, and they are done. We didn’t do it. We just kept the same deal. He honored the deal,” he said.

“They wanted to see if … well, I don’t even want to say it, but they wanted to see if they could do something. But they honored the deal, which is nice,” he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Lee administration will not be able to jail Han Duck-soo at least in the near term:

A Seoul court on Wednesday rejected a warrant to arrest former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo over his alleged role in former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched imposition of martial law.

The Seoul Central District Court denied the warrant sought by the team of special counsel Cho Eun-suk, saying there is room for legal dispute regarding key facts and the legal assessment of the suspect’s actions.

Han is facing charges of abetting the ringleader of an insurrection, falsifying and destroying official documents, perjury, and other offenses.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.