This is a really bad situation and I had no idea that South Korea does so little to return children that are abducted:
On a cold Nov. 30 afternoon, when temperatures nosedived to minus seven degrees Celsius in Seoul, bringing with it the nation’s first cold wave alert of the season, John Sichi was walking on a treadmill in front of Dongdaemun Design Plaza in central Seoul. Undeterred by the biting winds, the U.S. citizen walked for nearly four hours.
Korea Times
Near the treadmill stood a placard reading, “Please let me see my children,” and a life-size cardboard cutout of his two kids ― a 5-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl.
People walking by approached him ― some with curiosity and some with empathy ― to see why a man would be walking on a treadmill in freezing weather. A woman handed him 10,000 won, probably assuming it was a fundraising campaign.
Sichi has been staging the treadmill protest since October in various spots in Seoul, in a desperate effort to find his missing children who have been allegedly abducted by his Korean wife.
His demand is simple: The Korean government should enforce court orders from both the U.S. and Korea that the children should be returned to the U.S.
You can read more at the link.
It looks like the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for all DOD service members may soon be coming to an end if this legislation passes and is signed by the President:
The final version of the fiscal 2023 defense authorization bill is likely to rescind Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III’s August 2021 memo ordering COVID-19 vaccines for most troops, a source familiar with the matter said Monday.
Ending the requirement, under which service members who aren’t fully vaccinated are subject to discharge, has been a top priority of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other senior Republicans in both chambers. McCarthy raised the issue with President Joe Biden in a meeting last week and reiterated over the weekend that the mandate should be repealed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
I don’t think this is a good analogy to compare truckers trying to get higher wages with the mafia state in North Korea:
President Yoon Suk-yeol has likened the ongoing truckers strike to North Korea’s nuclear threats, saying the government should respond sternly with principles like it does to protect the people from Pyongyang’s repeated actions of menace.
“If we had pursued (consistent) North Korea policies based on the principle of nuclear intolerance, we wouldn’t be facing North Korea’s nuclear threat as we do now,” he was quoted as saying by multiple officials, according to Yonhap News Agency on Monday.
“The vicious cycle will repeat if we give in to (their) illegal activities and violence,” he said, stressing union leadership should be sternly punished for blocking members from returning to work.
Korea Herald
What I can agree with is that the KCTU based on their past activities is sympathetic to the North Korean regime:
His party, the People Power Party, went further, claiming the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the umbrella group initiating the ongoing strike, “represents the interest of the North Korean regime.”
Park Jung-ha, a senior spokesperson of the People Power Party, accused the KCTU of taking orders from North Korea to initiate anti-US and anti-government struggles, denouncing that it should change its name to “Minrochong,” a North Korean way of referring to Minnochong, by which the KCTU is known in Korean.
Here is what the truckers are protesting about:
The truckers union has been on a general strike since Nov. 24, saying the government has failed to keep up its end of the bargain to continue the safe trucking freight rate system that both sides had agreed on in June to end an eight-day strike at the time. The safe trucking freight rate system is a measure that guarantees minimum cargo rates for truck drivers to prevent dangerous driving and overwork. It also imposes fines on shippers who pay less than the minimum rate. It was introduced as a three-year system in 2020 and expires at the end of this year.
I am supportive of higher pay for truck drivers, however what I don’t support is unions threatening and assaulting other truck drivers to prevent them from going to work.
Congratulations to Ms. Lee for her promotion:
Samsung Electronics appointed the company’s first female president during its annual executive reshuffle, indicating Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s intention to break the glass ceiling at his company.
Korea Times
The tech giant announced on Monday that Vice President Lee Young-hee was promoted to president to lead the global marketing office of the device eXperience (DX) division, which oversees the mobile device and home appliance businesses. She is credited for Samsung using purple, instead of blue, for its marketing campaign.
She also became Samsung Group’s first female president who is not related to late founder Lee Byung-chul. Hotel Shilla President and CEO Lee Boo-jin, the younger sister of the Samsung Electronics chairman, had been the only female president at Korea’s largest conglomerate.
You can read more at the link.
This drunken idiot gets to experience the full extent of the Korean court system:
A member of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) has been arrested after beating up a taxi driver so badly that the victim could not work for a number of days, according to the police in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province on Sunday.
Korea Times
The aggressor’s attack was recorded by a black-box video camera installed inside the taxi at about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 27. He threw punches at the victim, who is 58 years old, using both arms as the driver took the beating whilst trying to guard his head with his hands.
The American then returned to Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, right across the road from where the incident happened. The aggressor left his wallet on the back seat of the taxi, where his identification card was found. Officers from Seongnam Sujeong Police Station arrived at the scene after the soldier fled the scene. The authorities said that they will call in the aggressor to the police station for questioning.
You can read more at the link, but the assault happened after the Soldiers credit card was declined for payment. The driver for his part is smartly playing up his injuries as much as possible trying to get as much money from the U.S. military as he can.
