Author: GIKorea

How did someone like this ever become a priest in the first place?:

A priest of the Anglican Church of Korea has been disqualified for openly wishing for President Yoon Suk-yeol’s plane to crash during his ongoing trip to Southeast Asia.

The Daejeon Diocese of the Anglican Church of Korea announced the disqualification of Father Kim Gyu-dong as a priest Monday after he called for a nationwide prayer for the crash of the presidential plane in his social media post.

President Yoon Suk-yeol accompanied by first lady Kim Keon-hee began a trip to Southeast Asia on Friday to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Group of 20 summits, and they are scheduled to return home Wednesday.

Kim recently uploaded a social media post about Yoon’s Southeast Asia trip, saying he wants the presidential plane to crash and wishes the entire nation would pray for the accident. Kim deleted the post later after his church was flooded with protests, explaining that the post was intended as a personal memo but was disclosed by mistake.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Chinese President Emperor Xi appears uninterested in helping South Korea reign in North Korea’s provocations which shows China has probably green lighted them to do them:

President Yoon Suk-yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday showed subtle differences in their perceptions toward North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. 

During the first Seoul-Beijing summit held in nearly three years, President Yoon called for China to play an “active and constructive role” in reining in North Korea to stop its provocations amid its continued launches of various missiles, despite international condemnation. 

In response, the Chinese leader urged South Korea to find its role and do as much as it can in order to get inter-Korean relations back on the right track.

According to South Korea’s presidential office, Yoon and Xi sat down for talks for 25 minutes on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia. The meeting was first of its kind since Dec. 23, 2019, when Yoon’s predecessor Moon Jae-in and Xi met on the sidelines of a trilateral summit between South Korea, China and Japan in Beijing.

During the summit, Yoon voiced worries that North Korea is waging unprecedented provocations with its missile launches and being set for another nuclear test, and asked China, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a neighboring country, to play an “active and constructive role.”

In response, Xi said that both South Korea and China have “common interests on the issues of the Korean Peninsula” and he hopes South Korea will do its part to improve inter-Korean relations actively.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

North Korea gets all the media attention with their ballistic missile tests, but China quietly over the past decade has developed far more advanced ballistic missiles than anything the Kim regime has. This movement of aircraft at Kadena Airbase is evidence of that reality:

The Air Force move to replace F-15 Eagle fighters with rotating units of more advanced fighters signals awareness that Okinawan bases won’t survive a conflict with China, according to a former Marine fighter pilot and diplomat.

A two-year phased withdrawal of two squadrons flying the supersonic aircraft from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, began Nov. 1, soon after the release of the new U.S. National Defense Strategy highlighting China as the American military’s “pacing” challenge.

“You can look at it (removal of the F-15s) as the USAF coming to grips with the reality that nothing on the first island chain, especially not Kadena, will be survivable in a conflict with China,” Steve Ganyard, a former deputy assistant secretary of state, told Stars and Stripes in an email Friday.

China’s massive military build-up includes an expanding arsenal of missiles with many of the weapons presumed to be aimed at U.S. bases in Japan. A 2017 report by Navy Cmdr. Thomas Shugart, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, for example, includes satellite imagery of Chinese missile test sites that appear to mimic Yokota, Kadena and Misawa air bases.

Around a dozen F-22 Raptor jets arrived on Okinawa Nov. 4 from the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, to start a six-month rotation while the F-15s head home. The Air Force described the Raptors as “backfill” for the retiring F-15s while the Defense Department decides on a long-term plan to fulfill its obligations to Japan.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The Trump diplomacy with North Korea ultimately did not amount to much, but one of the good things that happened was that the Kim regime handed over 55 Korean War remains that continue to be identified using DNA analysis:

He was killed on the battlefield aged just 27 while fighting in the Korean War in 1950. Now, 72 years later, U.S. Army Cpl. Tommie T. Hanks has finally been identified and accounted for.

Cpl. Hanks was originally from Fort Worth, Texas, and was reported missing in action on Nov. 26, 1950, after his unit was attacked by the enemy as it attempted to withdraw from east of the Ch’ongch’on River near Anju in North Korea, according to a statement from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) this week.

“Following the battle, his remains could not be recovered,” the DPAA said, and Hanks was declared “nonrecoverable” on Jan. 16, 1956.

However, after a historic meeting between former president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June 2018, Pyongyang turned over 55 boxes to U.S. authorities that “purported to contain the remains of American service members killed during the Korean War.”

The remains were taken to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where DPAA laboratory experts worked to identify the individuals. Scientists “used anthropological and isotope analysis” as well as DNA evidence to identify Hanks.

His body was finally accounted for in August 2022, the DPAA said, and it found “no evidence that he was ever a prisoner of war.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime still holds many more war remains that they keep as bargaining chips for future negotiations.

These electromagnetic wave detectors are not going to detect anything because the THAAD radar looks up towards the sky into space where a ballistic missile comes from. Pointing the THAAD radar at the ground towards a farm will not allow it to detect ballistic missiles. The claim made by activists has already been disproven with tests taken before, but the government is going to go ahead and continue to play this game for activists that will never be happy until the radar is removed:

 South Korea’s defense ministry has selected a successful bidder in its project to acquire and install electromagnetic wave detectors around the THAAD missile defense base in a southeastern county, officials said Sunday.

The ministry is to receive the delivery of eight electromagnetic wave detectors by April 28, 2023, under a promise made to residents in Seongju, 217 kilometers southeast of Seoul, home to an advanced U.S. missile defense system called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).

Five of those will be installed near the base to monitor the potentially hazardous electromagnetic waves of THAAD’s X-band radar around the clock, with the remainder to be set aside as spares.

The equipment is expected to be installed in the second quarter of next year, according to an official, who added that the ministry is in talks with local organizations on the exact locations.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but does the government provide electromagnetic wave tests for all the Korean Green Pine and Patriot radars spread out around the country?

After what happened at Itaewon I can understand why Gordon Ramsay’s team would be concerned about a crowd crush happening in a subway car with him in it:

Celebrity British chef Gordon Ramsey’s demeanor during his three-day visit in Seoul from Nov. 9 to 11 for the opening of his signature restaurant created a stir that continued even after he left the country. 

This time, he was at the center of controversy for his request to add security to his subway commute on Thursday. 

It was an unprecedented security request made by a celebrity regarding public transport, which came following the Itaewon disaster that claimed 157 lives in a deadly crowd crush on Oct. 29. 

News reports on the request triggered public outrage over the use of public resources to protect a foreign celebrity.

Gordon Ramsay Korea filed a request with police for one hour of “safety cooperation” during the British chef’s planned subway trip from 11 a.m. Thursday.

The company’s request did not mention stationing officers, but expressed concerns that the appearance of a foreign celebrity could lead to large crowds gathering in public spaces, officials from Seoul Metro, Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) and Seoul Subway Police told The Korea Times, Sunday.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.