Author: GIKorea

This is the first time I have ever heard of U.S. Soldier falling from an apartment window before in South Korea:

A U.S. soldier in charge of one of the world’s most advanced missile systems died Wednesday outside her home near Camp Carroll, according to Eighth Army and South Korean police. 

Staff Sgt. Theresa Garris, 28, of Stroudsburg, Pa., was found unresponsive in Chilgok county by first responders, Eighth Army spokesman Lt. Col. Neil Penttila told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday.

Garris was discovered around 3 a.m. in the parking lot of her apartment, a Chilgok Police Station investigator told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday.

Initial evidence suggests Garris, who lived on the fourth floor, fell from her unit, the investigator said. South Korean officials customarily speak to the media on the condition of anonymity.

Garris served with 2nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade as a Patriot launching station enhanced operator and maintainer at Carroll, roughly 130 miles south of Seoul, Penttila said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the article says that foul play is not suspected.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section:

Yes this would have been an unconventional way to begin an introduction:

Former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo wrote in his new memoir that his secret meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un in 2018 began with a “joke about assassination.”

“This small, sweating, evil man tried to break the ice with all the charm you would expect from a mass murderer. ‘Mr. Director,’ he opened, ‘I didn’t think you’d show up. I know you’ve been trying to kill me,’” Pompeo’s memoir, which Fox News obtained a copy of, reads.  

“My team and I had prepared for this moment, but ‘a joke about assassination’ was not on the list of ‘things he may say when he greets you.’ But I was, after all, director of the CIA, so maybe his bon mot made sense,” he added. 

Pompeo’s memoir, “Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,” is set to be released on Jan. 24 amid speculation that the former Trump Cabinet secretary could announce a 2024 presidential run. Pompeo said last month that he will announce his 2024 plans this spring.

In the first chapter, obtained by Fox News, Pompeo writes his meeting with Kim was a “complete secret” and his goal was to “correct the failed efforts of the past that had not eliminated North Korea’s nuclear weapons of mass destruction.” After the North Korean leader opened with an assassination joke, Pompeo said he responded in kind.

“I decided to lean in with a little humor of my own: ‘Mr. Chairman, I’m still trying kill you.’ In the picture taken seconds after that exchange, Kim is still smiling. He seemed confident that I was kidding,” Pompeo said in the memoir.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is looking more likely that the indoor mask mandate will soon be repealed, however I don’t expect Koreans will be taking off their masks anytime soon:

The government will decide when to lift the indoor mask mandate this week, as the country is past the peak of the latest winter COVID-19 wave, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said Wednesday. 

“With this winter’s COVID-19 wave past its peak, the overall virus situation is stabilizing,” Lee said during a government virus response meeting. 

Taking the virus situation and other external factors into account, the government will determine when and to what extent the indoor mask mandate would be adjusted during the next virus response meeting scheduled for Friday, the minister noted.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is surprising that this doesn’t happen more around the THAAD base. The fact someone lost probably around a thousand dollars by losing their drone might deter others from trying this:

Military and police personnel resumed a search Wednesday for a presumed civilian drone thought to have crashed after flying near a U.S. THAAD missile defense unit in a southern county the previous day, officials said.

The authorities are conducting the search in areas close to the base in Seongju, 217 kilometers south of Seoul, while police are investigating who sent the drone and for what purpose.

The Army said chances appear low that the drone was mobilized for espionage. 

U.S. Forces Korea personnel are known to have first detected the drone flying toward the base at 12:54 p.m. Tuesday and used a jamming gun to bring it down, according to defense sources.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This could be bad news for opposition leader Lee Jae-myung:

A fugitive underwear tycoon nabbed in Thailand last week in connection with the prosecution’s ongoing investigation into opposition leader Lee Jae-myung’s corruption allegations returned home Tuesday.

Kim Seong-tae, former chairman of underwear maker Ssangbangwool Group, arrived at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, around 8:20 a.m. via an Asiana Airlines flight from Bangkok.

He was apprehended by Thai police at a golf club near Bangkok a week ago, roughly eight months after he fled the country amid several high-profile corruption investigations.

Kim has been long sought after by prosecutors as a key suspect in a number of high-profile corruption investigations, including alleged payment of Lee’s attorney expenses by proxy, suspected embezzlement of company funds and alleged transfer of cash to North Korea.

The 55-year-old Kim, handcuffed and flanked by prosecution investigators, was asked if he had any relationship with Lee, the chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), by reporters at the airport but flatly said he did not know him at all.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.