Author: GIKorea

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:

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.

Yonhap

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.

This is a pretty cool experience for all the Soldiers that got to participate in this:

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.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

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:

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.

Yonhap

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.

Japan Today

You can read more at the link, but it has now been reported the religious body that Yamagami was angered with was the Unification Church:

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.

Medium

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.

Very shocking news out of Japan yesterday that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and killed by an assassin. Even odder about this assassination is that the killer says he did not do it for political reasons:

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the victim of a fatal gun attack while taking part in a campaign event for the House of Councillors election in Nara City on Friday. He was 67.

After being shot at around 11:30 a.m., he was confirmed dead at 5:03 p.m. at Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, where he was transported by ambulance and a medical helicopter immediately after the attack.

According to doctors, Abe suffered a wound deep enough to reach the heart, and when he was brought to the hospital, he was in cardiopulmonary arrest, making rescue quite difficult.

He had two gunshot wounds to his neck. The medical team tried to stop the bleeding and gave him a large amount of blood through transfusions, but his heartbeat did not resume, the doctors said at a press conference on Friday evening.

Police sources had earlier said Abe was shot from behind in the upper back and elsewhere. Two shots were heard, according to witnesses.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, of Nara City, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder at 11:32 a.m. Yamagami is believed to have shot Abe at close range and a gun has been recovered, according to a police officer.

“I had no grudge against former Prime Minister Abe for his political beliefs,” Yamagami was quoted as telling the police during questioning, according to Nara prefectural police sources.

Yomiuri

You can read more at the link, but according to NHK they are saying Yamagami was dissatisfied with the prime minister and that is why he decided to kill him, but it was not because of his politics. Supposedly Yamagami thought Abe had ties to an organization he has a grudge against. The whole thing is bizarre which may mean this guy might just be a nut job trying to make himself famous like so many of the loser mass shooters we have in the U.S.

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