Objection to new U.S. envoy’s assignment A protestor stages a solo rally near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on July 11, 2022, to express her objection to the assignment of new U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg, claiming the envoy is homosexual. (Yonhap)
It is good to see this change in tone from the ROK military:
This photo, taken on July 5, 2022, shows Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum saluting during his inauguration ceremony at the JCS headquarters in Seoul. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
South Korea’s top military officer said Monday the country’s missile forces are capable of dealing a “fatal” blow to a potential enemy, in an apparent message of deterrence against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
In a meeting with reporters, new Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum commented on his visit last week to a unit of the Army Missile Strategic Command, which he said was designed to deliver such a warning.
“As North Korea has undertaken various strategic provocations and is threatening the Republic of Korea … I thought I should send a different message to the enemy,” Kim said, referring to South Korea by its official name.
“Missiles that our Republic of Korea possesses are at a considerable level. I thought (the visit) carried and should carry a warning message that (South Korea) is capable of sending a fatal blow to the enemy,” he added.
It was this time last year when the Delta variant surge happened and now it appears the world is entering the BA.5 variant surge this summer:
A COVID-19 testing station in Seoul is crowded with people on July 11, 2022. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s new coronavirus cases surged to a two-month high of over 37,000 on Tuesday, driven by the spread of a highly contagious new omicron subvariant and deepening concerns over another virus wave.
The country added 37,360 new COVID-19 infections, including 260 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,561,861, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
Tuesday’s figure is the highest since May 11, when the daily count came to 43,908 in the aftermath of the omicron wave. It also more than doubled from 19,371 cases logged a week earlier, as the country has seen an upturn in infections from end-June.
You can read more at the link, but like I have been saying for a long time the daily case rate should not be the number people focus on, it should be hospital rates. With all these tens of thousands of daily cases, according to the article only 74 people are hospitalized. Despite this fact I expect governments to consider returning to the usual protocols of enforced mask wear, social distancing, etc. Already on Okinawa the government there is leaning in that direction.
China’s Foreign Minister told Penny Wong the Coalition government was the “root cause” of Canberra and Beijing’s spectacular bilateral breakdown and said four things need change to get the relationship “back on track”.
Taekwondo performance A taekwondo demonstration team from the Army performs during the opening ceremony of a taekwondo competition in Wonju, Gangwon Province, on July 9, 2022, for elementary, middle and high school students from around the country, in this photo provided by the Wonju city government. (Yonhap)
This is a pretty cool experience for all the Soldiers that got to participate in this:
South Korean celebrity chef Baek Jong-won cooks for U.S. and South Korean troops at the Provider Grill dining facility on Camp Humphreys, South Korea, June 28, 2022. (David Choi/Stars and Stripes)
Around 500 U.S. and South Korean troops were treated recently to a meal of Korean food specially prepared by a celebrity chef at their dining facility.
Chef Baek Jong-won, who owns several restaurants and cafes in South Korea, and three other Korean entertainers cooked at the Provider Grill dining facility on June 28 for Baek’s TV show, “Backpacker.” Service members waited in line outside the DFAC for more than an hour to sample the marquee chow.
Each episode of “Backpacker” centers on a theme, such as feeding hundreds of soldiers at a South Korean military base using a limited supply of ingredients or cooking meals for Buddhist monks at a temple.
Baek’s crew and supporting cast are usually kept in the dark about the location and ingredients they’ll be cooking until the day of filming. However, Camp Humphreys’ security requirements meant Baek knew his destination for the day.
New US ambassador Philip Goldberg, the new U.S. ambassador to South Korea, arrives at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, west of Seoul, on July 10, 2022. (Yonhap)
I think the ROK needs to pay attention to this threat because the balloon activists are giving the Kim regime the rationale to launch a provocation:
This photo taken on June 7, 2022, and provided by Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK) shows a member of the defector group sending balloons from Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province carrying pain relief medication and banners denouncing the North’s claim that leaflets sent from the South are responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea. (Yonhap)
A North Korean propaganda outlet on Saturday lashed out at defector groups for sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets, warning of a reaction that could go beyond the explosion of an inter-Korean liaison office two years ago.
The Tongil Shinbo, a weekly North Korean publication, also criticized the Yoon Suk-yeol government for speaking out about human rights in North Korea and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
There could be an action that would exceed the blowup of the liaison office in its border town of Kaesong on June 16, 2020, if North Korean defector groups continue to send goods and leaflets to the North, the newspaper said.
You can read more at the link, but I find the anger over the balloon activists ironic considering for decades North Korea used to be the ones sending propaganda balloons into South Korea. I am old enough to remember when they used to do this and when the leaflets were found we had to turn them in and could not keep them.
It is absolutely bizarre that Shinzo Abe who was demonized by many in South Korea ends up being killed by a Japanese citizens angry because he believed Abe was friendly with a Korean church:
The man who fatally shot former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told police that his mother had made a “huge donation” to a religious body, and he harbored a grudge against the group, which he believed was associated with the Japanese leader, investigative sources said Saturday.
A day after the death of Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, one of the sources also quoted Tetsuya Yamagami as saying something to the effect of “initially, I intended to attack an executive of the group” but decided to target Abe instead.
The Unification Church also known as the “Moonies” had ties to Shinzo Abe:
The Unification Church was founded in 1954 in Seoul by Sun Myung Moon who claimed to be the messiah. It has approximately 3 million members worldwide. In the U.S., it is known as the Moonies where it was famous for young church members who left school and careers to devote themselves to the church, especially fundraising, offering flowers in exchange for donations. (…..)
In Japan, the church is known as Touitsu Kyokai 統一教会 where it is famous for its mass weddings, including one in 1988 marrying 8,000 Japanese among the 13,000 brides and grooms that hadn’t even met each other until just before the ceremony.
You can read more at the link, but Abe had spoken at Moonie events before and the church provided his political party with campaign workers. It appears this was all enough to send Yamagami over the edge to target Abe after his mother gave the Unification Church an unknown amount of money that he probably thought should have gone to a loser like himself.
