Kim Jong-un seems to really be enjoying bringing his daughter around with him on these visits now:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited the barracks of the country’s general-grade officers together with his daughter to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the armed forces, according to state media Wednesday.
In a speech at a banquet Tuesday following his visit, Kim praised the Korean People’s Army (KPA) as “the strongest troops in the world,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“For the everlasting peace, prosperity and development on this land, we’ve developed great and absolute power while enduring so many sufferings and pain,” Kim said, apparently pointing to the North’s nuclear force.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but Kim did not make any comments towards the ROK and the United States.
It is amazing how far the Cho Kuk family has fallen for something likely many other Korean politicians and other in positions of power are guilty of as well:
Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and his daughter Cho Min have been facing criticism over their unrepentant attitude toward the high-profile corruption scandal involving their family.
According to legal sources, Tuesday, the Seoul Central District Court reprimanded Cho Kuk while sentencing him to two years in prison last Friday, saying he has never reflected on his wrongdoings.
The former minister, who was indicted in 2019, was found guilty of multiple charges, including using his influence to help his two children gain entry into universities and graduate schools. The court, however, did not immediately incarcerate him, citing escape was not a concern.
“Cho Kuk has continued to argue against objective evidence even after he stood before this court,” the court said in its ruling. “He has continued to turn a blind eye to his wrongdoings and never reflected on them. Consequently, imposing harsh penalties on him is unavoidable.”
The court said the corruption involving his children’s school admission was contrary to social expectations and obligation as a renowned professor, and that it damaged justice in the country’s school admissions system.
Cho Kuk was an outspoken liberal law professor at Seoul National University until he served under the previous Moon Jae-in administration.
On the same day, the court gave another year in prison to the former minister’s wife Chung Kyung-sim ― who is already serving a four-year sentence for academic fraud ― on related charges.
Despite their parents’ conviction, Cho Min said she did not feel ashamed of herself at all, during an interview with left-leaning broadcaster Kim Ou-joon.The interview, filmed Friday, the day her father was convicted, was aired on Monday through Kim’s YouTube channel. It marked the first time that Cho Min had shown her face since the corruption scandal involving the family made headlines in 2019.
Korea Times
“Prosecutors, media and political circles were so harsh to my family for the past four years,” Cho Min said.
The younger Cho passed the state exam to become a doctor and graduated from the medical school of Pusan National University (PNU) located in the southern port city of Busan in 2021.
But the medical school decided to revoke her admission in the same year following her mother’s conviction over forging her daughter’s academic records to gain entry to the school.
Cho Min has filed a lawsuit, requesting the court to cancel this decision, with trials still underway.
You can read more at the link, but I can under why the daughter is unrepentant because she has a lot to lose if she doesn’t win her court case by not becoming a doctor.
Add this to the list of things you can’t do in South Korea, sell a K-Pop star’s lost hat:
Prosecutors have summarily indicted a former foreign ministry employee on charges of attempting to sell BTS member Jungkook‘s lost hat online for 10 million won (US$7,950), legal sources said Tuesday.
The former government employee, whose identity has been withheld, allegedly shared a photo of the bucket hat on an online flea market, claiming the K-pop superstar had left it at the ministry building in Seoul when he visited to apply for a passport.
The seller further said he had acquired the ownership of the hat since no one came to claim it for six months after it was reported as lost property. Following controversies, he deleted the post and surrendered voluntarily to police.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office investigating the case has summarily indicted him, seeking a punishment of fines for embezzlement charges.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It is interesting that the ROK government is using the same argument that the Japanese have been using to deny paying reparations to individual Koreans for World War II era atrocities, that a post-war agreement between the ROK, the US and Vietnam nullified these claims:
A district court has ruled in favor of a Vietnamese national who filed a lawsuit against the Korean government for the 1968 atrocities committed by Korean troops against Vietnamese civilians during the Vietnam War.
Korea Times
It is the first time that a Korean court ruled against the Korean government regarding the atrocities committed by the ROK Marine Corps.
On Tuesday, the Central District Court ordered the Korean government to pay approximately 3 million won and losses incurred by the delay.
“(Then) the soldiers of the 2nd Korean Marine Brigade entered the plaintiff’s house and threatened the family members at gunpoint to force them outside. And then they fired at them. The court acknowledges that the family members of the plaintiff were killed on the spot and the plaintiff was seriously wounded as a consequence,” the ruling reads. “This is obviously illegal.”
The court denied the Korean government’s claim that a Vietnamese national cannot file a lawsuit against the Korean government as stated in the military accord signed among Korea, the United States and Vietnam, saying that the agreement signed by military authorities and government institutions itself didn’t make Vietnamese civilians ineligible to seek compensation from the Korean government.
You can read more at the link, but considering what is alleged to have happened the compensation is very low:
Nguyen Thi Thanh, 62, filed a compensation suit against the Korean government in 2020. As a victim of a wartime massacre by Korean marines, she has sought an apology from the Korean government along with 3,000,100 won ($2393) in compensation ― the minimum amount required for a court ruling.
The troops in question were from the 2nd Marine Division, also known as Blue Dragon Division. They allegedly killed 74 unarmed civilians in the villages of Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat of Qu?ng Nam Province in Vietnam, where Nguyen lived, on Feb. 12, 1968.
“Korean soldiers shouted and threatened families with grenades to come outside,” Nguyen said at the Seoul Central District Court, last August. She is the first Vietnamese to testify about the atrocities before a Korean court.
You can read the rest at the link.
Any guesses on where these Thai tourists went:
A total of 23 Thai tourists have gone out of contact after arriving at Muan International Airport in southwestern South Korea over the past week, the justice ministry said Monday.
The ministry said 10 Thais disappeared soon after landing at the Muan airport in Muan, 385 kilometers south of Seoul, on a chartered flight from the Southeast Asian country Monday morning. It said all efforts are under way to find the missing Thais.
Earlier, 13 out of 174 Thai tourists who arrived at Muan International Airport last week have not shown up for their return flight and remained out of contact, according to the ministry.
The 174 Thais landed at the Muan airport on a chartered flight last Monday to visit major tourist attractions in South Jeolla Province.
But 13 of them disappeared soon after their arrival at the airport and did not board their return flight slated for Sunday, the ministry said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It looks like the Kim regime wants to play balloon games just like the Xi regime in China:
A suspected North Korean weather balloon entered South Korea’s airspace earlier this week, prompting Seoul’s military to strengthen its monitoring activities, according to a Seoul official Monday.
Korea Times
The balloon measuring around 2 meters in length was spotted flying over the South Korean territory on Sunday afternoon and appears to have left the South hours later, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The military did not take specific air defense steps, such as sending fighter jets to the scene, as it deemed the balloon as having no intention for spying activities.
You can read more at the link.
