I don’t think North Korea policy positions are going to do little to drive voters to vote for you when crime, inflation, and illegal immigration is what most people care about:
Washington’s foreign policy on North Korea is emerging as one of the key issues of the GOP primary as Nikki Haley tries to draw a contrast between her tough stance on the regime and that of her rival in the presidential race, Donald Trump.
Heading into a significant test as she takes on the former president in Tuesday’s (local time) New Hampshire primary, Haley’s campaign team will start airing a three-minute ad featuring the mother of Otto Warmbier, a college student who died in 2017 after being imprisoned by North Korea.
“He was taken hostage, tortured and murdered by the government of North Korea,” Cynthia Warmbier, who spoke at Haley’s campaign event last year, is shown telling the crowd there.
“When we were begging the Obama administration for help, they told us to be quiet and be patient. Nikki told us the opposite. She told me it’s OK to be afraid, like I am now, but I had to push through the fear.”
His mother describes Haley, who was serving as the country’s U.N. ambassador at that time, as a leader with strength and compassion.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
The government is still indicting people over the Itaewon crowd crushing tragedy:
Prosecutors have indicted two police officers over the bungled response to the deadly 2022 crowd crush in the district of Itaewon, officials said Monday.
The indictment of the two officers who were overseeing patrol duties at a precinct station in Itaewon came a year and three months after the crowd crush on Oct. 29, 2022, which killed 159 people on a Halloween weekend in the district’s entertainment neighborhood.
The Seoul Western District Prosecutors Office has charged them with professional negligence resulting in death, accusing them of failing to properly respond to 11 emergency calls seeking police help in the last hours of the deadly accident.
One of them was also charged with entering a false record of visiting the accident site on that day into the police intranet, the officials said.
The two are the last government officials to be indicted in connection with the crowd crush, among the 23 that a special police investigation team referred to the prosecution in January 2023.
Last week, the prosecution indicted Kim Kwang-ho, the chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, on charges of professional negligence for the botched disaster response, making him the highest-ranking government official indicted in connection with the crowd crush.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
The Kim regime has found a new and inventive way to raise tensions on the peninsula. They know that anything they claim that has the word “nuclear” in it the media widely publish even without any evidence to support it:
A set of file photos, carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on April 8, 2023, show the North testing an underwater nuclear-capable attack drone named the Haeil from April 4-7. (Yonhap)
The United States on Friday called on North Korea to refrain from further “provocative” and “destabilizing” actions, and to return to dialogue, after Pyongyang claimed to have tested an underwater nuclear weapons system under development.
The North’s defense ministry said the country conducted an “important” test of the Haeil-5-23 system, denouncing this week’s naval drills between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan as “reckless confrontation hysteria,” according to the Korean Central News Agency.
“We call on the DPRK to refrain from further provocative, destabilizing actions and return to diplomacy,” a State Department spokesperson said in response to a question from Yonhap News Agency. DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Yonhap
Considering the war on fish the North Koreans have waged in the East Sea with all their missile launches, they could really win the war on the fish if they start detonating underwater nuclear devices.
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
These regulations which are probably intended to help Korean tech companies at the expense of U.S. companies would also benefit Chinese tech companies as well in Korea:
Fair Trade Commission Chairman Han Ki Jeong, right, speaks with American Chamber of Commerce in Korea Chairman James Kim during a special luncheon event at Grand Hyatt Seoul in this March 2023 file photo. Yonhap
The Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s drive to regulate market-dominant online platforms could be evolving into a potential diplomatic dispute with the U.S., according to industry officials, Thursday.
The U.S. state and commerce departments reportedly raised their concerns regarding South Korea’s proposed regulations. They conveyed these concerns by sending messages to Yoon’s office, the foreign ministry, and the trade ministry late last year.
Although a Fair Trade Commission (FTC) official in charge of the matter said the agency has not received an official comment from Washington, Seoul is said to be trying to persuade the U.S. government by emphasizing that there is no intention of imposing regulations more strictly on foreign firms in favor of domestic companies.
The primary concern for U.S. firms revolves around the potential that the upcoming competition policy rules might inadvertently favor Chinese late movers, like Aliexpress and Temu, which are not expected to be affected by the regulation due to their relatively low market shares.
“It now appears the European Union’s approach is contagious, as Korea’s pro-tech government has tabled a Digital Markets Act-like bill that would unfairly target U.S. platforms while giving Chinese platforms a pass, a policy very much not in U.S. companies’ interests,” the Center for Strategic & International Studies said in a report on Jan. 11. “Korea’s proposed act and the bills under discussion set limits that unfairly target U.S. companies which will, in turn end up helping Chinese companies gain larger market share.”
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
