Author: GIKorea

Huawei is making it rain benjamins for people with connects to the Biden administration:

High-profile Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta, whose firm collapsed under scrutiny during special counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation, was paid $1 million by Huawei in 2021 as Beijing sought to soften the Biden administration’s position on the Chinese telecommunications giant.

Huawei appears to have hired Podesta effective as of July, with Senate lobbying disclosure forms showing he agreed to work for Huawei Technologies USA to lobby on “issues related to telecommunication services and impacted trade issues.” An October filing showed that the Chinese company paid Podesta $500,000 for the third quarter of 2021, and a filing this week showed he was paid another $500,000 in the fourth quarter. One filing said he was specifically lobbying the “White House Office,” while the other similarly said he was targeting the “Executive Office of the President.”

The Gazette via One Free Korea

You can read much more at the link, but ROK Heads may remember that the prior ROK Presidency of Park Geun-hye was brought down and impeached because her good friend Choi soon-sil was accepting money from Samsung into her sports foundation for influence with President Park. Both Park and Choi ended up going to prison. In the U.S. such lobbying activity is just another day in the office.

This is a pretty cool story that the young girl from the great Korean revenge movie, “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” is now an officer in the U.S. Army serving in Korea:

An American child actor who played an important role in a critically acclaimed South Korean film is now stationed in the country her grandparents emigrated from in the 1970s. 

“Because of them, I’m here now,” Army 1st Lt. Kirsten Kwon told Stars and Stripes earlier this month. “They’re the reason why I’m an American citizen.”

Kwon, 28, is the executive officer of the U.N. Command Honor Guard Company, roughly 50 service members who carry out the command’s ceremonies, such as dignified remains transfers, and provide security for high-ranking officers. (……..)

Kwon’s film career began at age 10 when a South Korean casting director heard her speaking English and asked her parents if they were interested in a role for her in an upcoming movie.

That film, “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance,” featured a star-studded cast and was directed by Park Chan-wook, who is described as “the man who put Korean cinema on the map,” according to a New York Times Style magazine column from 2017.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The Chinese are not going to be happy with Yoon’s foreign policy platform:

Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate of the main opposition conservative People Power Party (PPP), vowed, Monday, to “rebuild” Korea’s alliance with the U.S. to deal more effectively with both North Korea’s nuclear threats and other regional security and economic cooperation issues. 

He also said he would expand South Korea’s role in U.S.-led multilateral initiatives, including the Quadrilateral Strategic Dialogue, widely known as the “Quad.”

“I would focus on bolstering a comprehensive and strategic alliance with the United States based on the shared values and principles of freedom, democracy, the market economy, constitutionalism and human rights,” Yoon said during a press conference on his diplomacy and security policy pledges at party headquarters in Seoul.

“I will pursue open cooperation to expand common interests with related countries in the region by participating in working groups for vaccines, climate change and new technology under the Quad, a partnership between the U.S., Japan, Australia and India.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Yoon is not planning on joining the quad formerly. He also says he is willing to provide full economic support to North Korea if they denuclearize which we all know isn’t happening.

This is an unusual deal, good on South Korea for being trusted to do important work like this:

South Korea said Sunday it has signed a deal with Egypt to dismantle and restore the gateway of an ancient temple in the Egyptian city of Luxor.

South Korea plans to begin restoring the pylon and refurbish the access road of the Ramesseum, a mortuary temple of Pharaoh Ramses II, starting next year, according to the Cultural Heritage Administration.

The move came as Mostafa Waziry, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, requested the Cultural Heritage Administration to restore the Ramesseum during senior-level talks on Thursday.

On Friday, the two sides inked a memorandum of understanding during President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Cairo.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like servicemembers in Japan will be stuck on their bases for a little while longer:

The U.S. military authority in Japan has extended a stay-at-home order until Jan. 31 for its service members, civilian employees and their families as COVID-19 continues to spready quickly throughout the nation.

“This decision was made out of an abundance of caution to protect all personnel from rapid spread of COVID-19 in local communities,” U.S. Forces Japan announced on its website Friday. The original two-week order was scheduled to expire Monday.

Omicron, while creating milder symptoms and fewer hospitalizations than previous variants, continues to infect record numbers of people in Japan. But case counts within the U.S. military are flattening and, at many U.S. bases, numbers are falling, according to USFJ.

“The stringent COVID-19 mitigations implemented in December have effectively stalled the spread of the virus on U.S. installations,” said Friday’s statement.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the omicron variant has become the dominant strain in South Korea now judging the by the increasing case numbers despite enhanced social distancing measures being implemented:

 South Korea’s daily coronavirus cases on Sunday spiked to the second-largest figure since the pandemic outbreak, putting health authorities on alert amid the fast spread of the omicron variant.

The country added 7,630 new COVID-19 infections, including 7,343 local infections, raising the total caseload to 733,902, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

Sunday’s figure marks the second-largest tally since the daily record high of 7,848 on Dec. 15.

The daily tally surged at a fast pace last week from the 4,000 level to over 6,000 on Thursday and above 7,000 on Saturday, nearly doubling in less than a week.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but despite the increasing cases the Korean government has decided to lower the quarantine period from 10 to 7 days. This is arguably because too many people are being put out of work for too long thus impacting the economy.