Author: GIKorea

I guess the Vice President was trying to keep this secret in order to not give the North Koreans time to plan a provocation during her visit:

In meeting after meeting with Asian leaders Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized the U.S. commitment to regional security and the White House disclosed that she would visit the Demilitarized Zone dividing the rival Koreas.

An official said Harris would tour the border area between South and North Korea on Thursday, at the end of her trip to Asia. The visit comes amid persistent concerns about North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.

North Korea test-fired a short-range ballistic missile shortly before Harris left Washington, an apparent response to joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea that include the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the DMZ in August, and then-President Donald Trump went in 2019 when he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. President Joe Biden did not go when he was in South Korea earlier this year.

Harris’ plan, which had been kept under wraps by her team, was unexpectedly revealed during a meeting with South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Tuesday. A White House official rushed to confirm details of her trip afterward.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I actually finished watching this series a few days ago and it was okay. It is ironic that it is number one for a non-English series when the series actually has a lot of English spoken in it. Overall, I thought Narco-Saints should have been a movie, but was instead dragged out into a six part series with a lot of filler content. Many of the gunfights were also ridiculous and video game like in my opinion. It was no where near as good as any of the Narcos series put out by Netflix:

Netflix’s new South Korean series “Narco-Saints” has risen to the top of the streamer’s latest weekly viewership chart for non-English TV shows in its second week.

The undercover crime thriller, released on Sept. 9, marked 62.7 million hours of viewing for the week of Sept. 12-18 to lead the official top 10 list for non-English TV programs available on the service, according to Netflix on Wednesday.

It gained four notches from fifth place a week earlier, ending the seven-week-long reign by the smash-hit Korean legal drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo.”

The six-part series about a businessman who takes undercover missions to capture a drug kingpin in a South American country is the ninth Korean-language show that has topped the weekly chart for the category, including the global sensation “Squid Game” (2021) and “All of Us Are Dead” (2022).

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

President Yoon says that reports of him using a cuss word to describe the U.S. Congress is untrue:

 President Yoon Suk-yeol said Monday that untrue media reports of his remarks caught on hot mic damaged South Korea’s alliance with the United States in his first response to the controversy.

Last week, Yoon was caught on video making a remark privately to aides in New York that appeared to include vulgar words. Though the recording was not clear due to noise, many thought Yoon was talking about U.S. Congress and U.S. President Joe Biden.

But Yoon’s office rejected the claim, saying he was referring to South Korea’s opposition-controlled National Assembly without mentioning U.S. Congress or Biden. Yoon’s ruling People Power Party also claimed people misheard Yoon’s remarks because the video had a subtitle misrepresenting them.

“Damaging the alliance with untrue media reports would be putting people in danger,” Yoon told reporters, adding that how such incorrect reports have circulated should be clearly verified.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I guess the Korean National Assembly is the expletives that Yoon was referring to, so everyone should feel better about his remarks?

There was a horrible fire yesterday in Daejeon that unfortunately caused seven people to be killed:

The death toll from an outlet mall fire in the central city of Daejeon has risen to seven, with one person under medical treatment after sustaining serious injuries, officials said Monday.

The blaze at Hyundai Premium Outlet in Daejeon, about 160 kilometers south of Seoul, is believed to have started from the basement parking lot at 7:45 a.m. and spread quickly on cardboard boxes, sending dark smoke filling the entire floor, according to witnesses and survivors. The fire was completely extinguished around 3 p.m.

Two men, one in his 50s and the other in his 30s, were found with serious injuries and sent to a hospital but were later pronounced dead in the morning. Five more people were later found dead while another person was sent to a hospital after sustaining serious injuries, according to the officials.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

South Korea is taking longer than other countries to drop their COVID protocols, but they appear to be realizing that the protocols are arguably more detrimental to the population than the virus:

The government is expected to speed up the pace of its COVID-19 exit strategy after its decision to lift all outdoor mask mandates starting Monday. 

The next steps are likely to range from ending the post-arrival PCR test to resuming face-to-face visits at nursing hospitals, and it is considering a step-by-step easing of the seven-day quarantine for infected patients. 

Until Sunday, those at outdoor gatherings of 50 or more people, such as sporting events, had to wear masks, but it is no longer required, according to the government.

“We are clearly overcoming the hurdle of the recent resurgence of the coronavirus,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said during a government meeting at the Government Complex in Sejong, Friday. The government plans to map out a new set of low-risk quarantine measures to solve the public’s inconveniences based on feedback from experts, the prime minister said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I expect we will still see many Koreans masked up outdoors even with the dropping of this mandate.

As long as the COVID virus continues to mutate herd immunity to it will continue to be a fantasy despite such a high level of antibodies in the Korean population:

While a recent government study found that almost all Koreans have developed antibodies against the coronavirus either by vaccination or natural infection, this finding does not mean that the population has achieved herd immunity, according to health officials.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) unveiled on Friday the results of its latest study, which showed that 97.4 percent of those surveyed had antibodies against the spike protein (S) of the coronavirus. The survey, co-organized with the Korea National Institute of Health (NIH), involved some 10,000 people aged five and above living in 17 cities and provinces. 

A COVID-19 antibody test checks whether an individual has developed S-antibodies or nucleocapsid protein (N)-antibodies. S-antibodies are produced either through natural infection or vaccination, while the N-antibodies are formed only through natural infection. 

Although the vast majority of the population has developed antibodies against the coronavirus, people should still remain vigilant and receive an updated booster shot, health officials warn. (……)

He also said that the latest study has only confirmed the presence of antibodies for the original COVID-19 virus, not for the Omicron variant and its subvariants.

“Antibodies diminish over time and the possible emergence of new variants may weaken the protection offered by antibodies from a previous variant,” he said, explaining that inoculation via a booster shot is essential after four months or longer following either infection or vaccination.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but calling for more booster shots is probably going to fall on deaf ears for most people at this point.