Author: GIKorea

This would make for a great Dog the Bounty Hunter episode hunting this guy down:

South Korean prosecutors said Sunday that Do Kwon, the wanted founder of Terraform Labs accused of fraud following the massive collapse of the firm’s cryptocurrencies in May, is “obviously on the run” and not cooperating with the investigation.

The remarks came in response to Kwon’s claim in a tweet that “I am not ‘on the run’ or anything similar — for any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide.”

On Saturday, Singapore police’s statement said the Terraform founder and CEO is no longer in Singapore.

The blockchain firm has been under investigation for alleged fraud and tax evasion after investors in its cryptocurrencies — TerraUSD and Luna — filed complaints against Kwon in May, accusing him of a Ponzi scheme over the loss of billions of won following the crash of both coins earlier that month.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It will definitely be a sign of improving relations if South Korea takes the Japanese up on this offer of joining their fleet review. Considering that the Yoon administration will probably get hammered domestically for joining this fleet review, hopefully the Japanese offer something equal in value in return for ROK participation:

South Korea’s Defense Ministry is considering an invitation from Japan to stage a naval fleet review together, but old enmities and unresolved disputes stand in the way, according to South Korea’s defense minister.

South Korea is determined to build “future-oriented” ties with Japan and their military relationship “should be improved” if mutual cooperation, along with that of the United States, can boost security in the region, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup told Yonhap News on Wednesday.

“Japan-[South Korea] defense cooperation is under the influence of the overall relations between Japan and South Korea,” he said. “The conditions to improve Japan-[South Korea] ties are currently being set.”

But cooperation between the two countries have been hampered by long-standing territorial and historical differences, Lee said.

Stars & Stripes

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It has been five years and the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan is back conducting exercises with the ROK Navy in response to a North Korean provocation:

The USS Ronald Reagan, the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered supercarrier, will arrive at the southeastern port city of Busan later this week for joint military drills with South Korea amid mounting nuclear threats from North Korea. 

According to military sources Sunday, the Nimitz-class supercarrier will take part in combined exercises with the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy in the East Sea this month for the first time since 2017, when Pyongyang conducted its sixth nuclear weapons test.

The move comes immediately after the two allies issued a joint statement Friday (local time), after holding a meeting in Washington to denounce the North for passing a law earlier this month to grant its military the right to use nuclear weapons preemptively. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also called the nation’s nuclear status “irreversible,” leaving no room for negotiation on the issue.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It appears that this typhoon is not going to impact South Korea as much as previously expected, but if it does veer and hit the country, President Yoon is setting himself up for criticism if he is not here when a natural disaster hits:

After forming in the ocean off the Philippines on Sept. 13, Nanmadol developed into a typhoon the following day and started moving north with a “weak” intensity and wind speeds of between 17 m/s and 24 m/s. The intensity grew to very strong on Sunday morning.

President Yoon Suk-yeol told his officials to remain wary of Nanmadol as he stepped on the presidential jet Sunday morning to leave for the U.K., his first stop on a weeklong official trip. 

Yoon instructed Interior Minister Lee Sang-min to prepare the country for the approaching typhoon, according to Lee Jae-myeong, the vice-spokesperson of the presidential office.

With much of the country’s essential industrial infrastructure still recovering from the impact of Hinnamnor, including a POSCO steel plant in North Gyeongsang Province, the president ordered the interior minister to “thoroughly prepare for the typhoon at all costs as the country has been under threats from back-to-back natural disasters.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is going to be an upcoming week of poor weather across Japan and southern areas of South Korea:

Typhoon Nanmadol, currently passing the waters east of Japan’s Okinawa, is expected to grow stronger Saturday before coming closer to South Korea in the next couple of days, the state weather agency said. 

With a central atmospheric pressure of 920 hectopascals and a maximum wind speed of 53 meters per second, this year’s 14th typhoon was passing waters 520 kilometers east of Okinawa at 9 a.m., according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).

Nanmadol, currently a “very strong” typhoon, was forecast to develop into a “super strong” one later in the day.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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