Author: GIKorea

The North Koreans are still trying to get the ROK to cancel the Inter-Korean military agreement signed under the previous Moon administration with their provocations:

North Korea fired some 130 artillery shells into eastern and western maritime “buffer zones” Monday, in what Seoul called a violation of a 2018 bilateral military agreement, amid the South Korea-U.S. live-fire drills in a border region.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that it detected the artillery firings, thought to involve multiple rocket launchers, from Kumgang County in Kangwon Province and Jangsan Cape in South Hwanghae Province, from 2:59 p.m.

The shells splashed into the maritime buffer zones north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a de facto sea border, which were set under an inter-Korean military accord signed on Sept. 19, 2018, to reduce border tensions.

The JCS communicated warnings to the North multiple times, pointing out the violation of the military accord and calling for the immediate cessation of the provocation, the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if the ROK was to cancel the agreement the Kim regime could claim this as a “hostile act” as part of a justification for their long anticipated nuclear test.

Even if the ROK government lifts the indoor mask mandate I think most people will still be wearing masks indoors anyway. It just seems people are not so conditioned to wearing masks that they actually prefer to wear them indoors now:

A debate has reignited over the indoor face mask mandate following a move by the Daejeon city government to lift the requirement in the region, going against the nationwide directive that has been in place for over two years.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has requested the city government to refrain from making unilateral decisions in COVID-19 response measures. But Daejeon’s move has added pressure on the government to expedite its discussions on dropping the mask mandate, as the country is experiencing a less threatening winter surge than previous years.

The nationwide requirement to wear masks in indoor spaces such as offices, cafes, hospitals and public transportation was first implemented in October 2020. After the outdoor mask mandate was lifted in May of this year, there have been growing calls among the pandemic-weary public that the government should begin to ease the indoor requirement as well.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the ruling party is intending to continue the trend of putting ex-ROK Presidents in jail:

Following former national security adviser Suh Hoon’s arrest on Saturday for allegedly covering up North Korea’s killing of a South Korean official in the West Sea, clashes between ruling and opposition parties are intensifying, with eyes on whether the investigation will target former President Moon Jae-in.

The prosecution issued an arrest warrant Saturday at around 4:55 a.m. against former national security adviser and spy agency chief Suh after more than 10 hours of questioning, citing the “risk of Suh destroying evidence.” Suh was the first presidential aide of Moon to be arrested among those accused of mishandling of the death of South Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official Lee Dae-jun in September 2020.

The ruling party and an attorney representing the deceased official’s brother Lee Rae-jin are ramping up calls for justice over the former Moon administration’s labeling of Lee Dae-jun as a South Korean defector to North Korea. This had effectively relieved Seoul of its duty to protect Lee and acquitted Pyeongyang of its summary execution. Meanwhile, evidence that Lee was a defector remains under question.

The ruling People Power Party interim chief Chung Jin-suk said in a statement Saturday on social media that Moon’s statement last Thursday indicated that Moon should be held accountable for the border killing case.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but if the ruling party moves forward with trying to jail former President Moon it will pretty much be a guarantee that current President Yoon will be tried for something once the Korean left regains power.

With that all said it would be interesting to find out who in the Moon administration pushed to label the fishery official as a defector in order to not impact their North Korean appeasement strategy.

With the KCTU behind these protests I don’t know if these truckers are actually striking for improved pay or to crater the ROK economy because someone from the Korean right is President:

President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered his ministers, Sunday, to make preparations to expand executive orders to striking truckers in the refining and steel industries, with the government vowing to mobilize a maximum number of police to crack down on illegal protests by the unionized truckers.

“The government will not compromise with any forces that collectively resort to illegal acts and violence, and will hold them accountable for each of their infractions,” Yoon said during a ministerial meeting on the truckers’ strike. “Otherwise, damage stemming from chronic illegal strikes will be repeated in the future.”

Yoon added, “The government should crack down on these illegal acts and take stern measures by mobilizing the full administrative forces. … Also, ministers should prepare to expand the executive order to truckers who are involved in the refining and steel industries.”

The comments came after a strike by the Cargo Truckers Solidarity (CTS) stretched on for the 11th day as of Sunday. The CTS has been refusing to transport cargo since Nov. 24, demanding a permanent guarantee of a minimum freight rate by the government. 

The president signed an executive order last week to get unionized truckers to return to work. The strike, involving 2,500 truckers transporting mostly cement products, caused significant damage to the country’s construction industry. Losses have also been reported in the refining and steel industries. (……)

Referring to a nationwide strike by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) scheduled on Tuesday as “politically motivated,” Yoon ordered his ministers to crack down on illegal acts by “mobilizing the full administrative forces.”

Having more than 1 million members, the KCTU is one of Korea’s largest labor unions. It is also the umbrella organization of the CTS and plans to stage the nationwide strike on Tuesday to support the truckers.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Yoon administration has a good argument that this is politically motivated because why didn’t the KCTU conduct this strike when Moon Jae-in was president? Yoon has only been president for a few months and now they launch their strike?

I have hard time believing that Russia was ever going to “attack” Japan like this Newsweek report is claiming. An attack on Japan would trigger the US-Japan alliance which would lead to an overwhelming military response that would crush whatever attack Russia launched. With that all said, after what we have seen of the Russian performance in Ukraine, the Japanese military could probably defeat any Russian attack without American assistance:

Russia was preparing to attack Japan in the summer of 2021, months before President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an email featuring a letter from a whistleblower at Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), shared with Newsweek, reveals.

The email, dated March 17, was sent by the agent, dubbed the Wind of Change, to Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian human-rights activist who runs the anti-corruption website Gulagu.net, and is now exiled in France.

The FSB agent writes regular dispatches to Osechkin, revealing the anger and discontent inside the service over the war that began when Putin invaded neighboring Ukraine on February 24.

Newsweek

You can read more at the link, but what I can believe is that Russia may have been determining the likelihood of succeeding with a provocation against Japan such as sinking one of its naval ships. This would put Japan in tough spot because their constitution would not allow them to undertake offensive operations and thus the Japanese government would turn to the U.S. for support.

This would also put the U.S. in a tough spot because the Biden administration would have to determine if taking offensive action against Russia is worth it in response to a sunken Japanese ship. Putin would likely bet no offensive military action would be taken and instead toothless sanctions and sternly worded letters would be issued. The lack of a response from the U.S. would have put a strain on the U.S.-Japan alliance which is what their ultimate goal may have been. Additionally sinking a Japanese ship would be a morale boost for the Russian Pacific Fleet. I wonder if Putin wishes he would have initiated a provocation against Japan instead of his current disastrous war in Ukraine?

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.