The KNPA director was highly criticized by President Yoon after he approved a personnel reshuffle without running it by the President for approval. The KNPA director is a hold over from the prior Moon administration so he was probably going to get changed out anyway:
National Police Agency Commissioner General Kim Chang-yong offered to resign Monday, days after President Yoon Suk-yeol strongly chastised police over a recent personnel reshuffle flip-flopping.
Police released the names of new senior superintendents general a week earlier, only to reverse seven of the selections two hours later. Yoon rebuked police, calling the flip-flopping a “serious disturbance of national discipline.”
The resignation offer also came as police have protested the interior ministry’s plan to establish a “police bureau” to increase its control of the law enforcement agency set to take over greater investigative roles from the prosecution.
“I determined that resigning now would be the best way,” Kim said, offering an apology to the public and policemen for “failing” to safeguard the neutrality and independence of police.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
I hope they throw this guy in jail for the rest of his life. A message needs to be sent to these people who so easily sell out their country like this:
A retired U.S. Army helicopter pilot pleaded guilty Thursday in San Diego for selling sensitive aviation-related information to China, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
Shapour Moinian, 67, admitted in federal court to acting as an agent of a foreign government, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine, according to the Thursday news release.
He also pleaded guilty to making false statements during national security background checks, which carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 29. As part of the plea agreement, federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of no more than 20 months.
“The defendant admitted to being an unregistered agent of a foreign power, lying on his background check paperwork to obtain his security clearance, knowingly providing proprietary information to people controlled by the Chinese government, and willingly receiving payments from them,” Stacey Moy, the FBI agent in charge of the case, said in the news release.
“This is another example of how the Chinese government enhances its defense capabilities through the illicit exploitation of U.S. technology,” Moy said.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link, but of interest is that this guy was using a South Korean bank that the Chinese agents would put the money in. His stepdaughter would then take out the money from the bank for her dad.
The story for this webtoon sounds ridiculous, but it is cool that it is highlighting the Thai soldiers that fought in the Korean War:
Days after the 1950-53 Korean War broke out, Thailand became the first Asian nation to respond to the U.N.’s call for aid to South Korea.
Korea Times
Over the course of three years, it supplied the war-ravaged country with 40,000 tons of rice as food aid and dispatched 6,326 soldiers in army, navy and air force units to fight off waves of enemy attacks, according to the Ministry of National Defense.
After the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement on July 27, 1953, Thailand continued to maintain a combat unit in Korea until 1972.
A webtoon series that aims to revisit and celebrate this underappreciated historical legacy left by Thailand’s contribution to the Korean War will be launched later this year.
Kakao Entertainment and the Korean Cultural Center (KCC) in Thailand will unveil the series, titled “One Day, My Favorite K-Pop Idol Group Leader Disappeared!” (direct translation), on the Southeast Asian nation’s online platform in September, the company announced, Friday.
You can read more at the link.
It has been nearly five years since the last trilateral meeting, so it is great to see this coordination happening again:
President Yoon Suk-yeol will hold a trilateral meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Spain this week on the sidelines of a NATO summit, his office said Sunday.
The trilateral summit, set for Wednesday in Madrid, will be the first such gathering in four years and nine months since the last meeting was held in September 2017 on the margins of a U.N. General Assembly. No trilateral meeting has since taken place amid badly frayed relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
I am not sure how much more sternly the ROK can respond to North Korean provocations, but I guess we will soon find out:
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo vowed a stern response to any North Korean provocation, Saturday, as the nation observed the 72nd anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Korea Times
In a speech during a ceremony marking the anniversary, he said the North’s recent missile launches and nuclear weapon test preparations have escalated tensions beyond the Korean Peninsula and are posing a threat to international peace.
You can read more at the link.
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
Here is an interesting diplomatic development for South Korea since it shows that NATO countries recognize the ROK’s military capabilities as an alliance partner:
South Korea has decided to establish a mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, a presidential official said Wednesday ahead of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s participation in a NATO summit next week.
Yoon will attend the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 29 and 30, on his first overseas trip as president, National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han said during a press briefing.
South Korea is not a member of the military alliance but has been invited as a partner nation, along with countries, such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
The new NATO mission will be headed by the South Korean ambassador to Belgium, who currently also doubles as the ambassador to the European Union, a second presidential official said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
