Justice in this case happened quickly:
A woman accused in the September killing of a U.S. soldier’s 3-year-old son was convicted Friday by a South Korean court and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Jamaica Eblacas, 30, was found guilty of killing the boy, Noa Calhoun, the son of Army Pvt. James and Kourtney Calhoun, by a three-judge panel at the Pyeongtaek Branch of the Suwon District Court.
Neither James nor Kourtney Calhoun appeared in court on Friday.
Eblacas admitted during a November court appearance to killing the child. She was charged with murder in conjunction with child abuse, which carries a minimum of three years in prison and a maximum penalty of death under South Korean law. Prosecutors had recommended a 30-year sentence.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
North Korea claims that their recent launch of two missiles from railway cars was a short notice training operation to test readiness of the unit:
North Korea said Saturday its railway-based missile regiment conducted a firing drill a day earlier, with two tactical guided missiles hitting a set target in the East Sea.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the unit in North Pyongan Province bordering China staged the drill aimed at “checking and judging the proficiency” in its action procedures.
It marks the North’s second known missile test using a railway launch platform since the last one in September, and the country’s third show of force this year.
“The regiment received a firepower mission at short notice from the General Staff in the morning on Friday before swiftly moving to the firing ground, and precisely struck the set target in the East Sea of Korea with two tactical guided missiles,” the KCNA said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
In the Stars & Stripes they have an article posted about how the Camp Humphreys garrison commander’s wife is a Korean adoptee who has returned to Korea for the first time since she was a baby:
Tara Graves celebrates her birthday Saturday in South Korea, her first since she was born here more than 45 years ago.
Graves, 46, a personal fitness trainer and the wife of Camp Humphreys commander Col. Seth Graves, is among tens of thousands of South Koreans adopted to families around the world in the decades following the 1950-53 Korean War.
In 2020, the Army sent the Graves family from Brussels to South Korea, where Seth took command of the largest U.S. military base overseas.
The new assignment hit home for Tara Graves: She had not been in South Korea since she was adopted at 6 months old, she told Stars and Stripes in December.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
These sanctions may make it harder for these North Koreans to do business, but it seems North Korea can just get new people to replace them if the sanctions make it to hard to do business for them:
The United States said Wednesday that it is designating six North Korean individuals related to North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs.
The Department of Treasury said it is designating five North Korean individuals — one based in Russia and four in China — for illegally procuring materials for the North’s WMD and ballistic missile programs.
The Department of State also designated an additional North Korean individual based in Russia for a similar reason.
“Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated five Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) individuals responsible for procuring goods for the DPRK’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile-related programs,” the treasury department said in a press release, referring to North Korea by its official name.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
I wonder if this Pfizer anti-viral pills will become a subject of conspiracy theories like their vaccine?:
The first batch of Pfizer Inc.’s antiviral COVID-19 treatment pills arrived in South Korea on Thursday as the country is working to stem the spread of coronavirus infections, health officials said.
The U.S. pharmaceutical giant’s oral pills for 21,000 people landed at Incheon airport, west of Seoul, at around 2 p.m. and were delivered to a logistics center in Ochang, 120 kilometers south of the capital, at 5:25 p.m., according to the authorities.
The Paxlovid pills will begin being administered to patients with compromised immune systems and those aged over 65 on Friday.
“They will be delivered to designated pharmacies and treatment centers across the country by tomorrow, or the day after,” Lim Sook-young, a senior official at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It wasn’t that long ago when in South Korea people were using human waste as fertilizer as well. North Korea is still just stuck decades in the past due to their isolationism:
North Korea is asking its citizens to use their own poop to make manure as the country faces widespread food shortages, reports say.
The country has long sourced its agricultural manure from China, but that trade, along with a number of other goods, ceased after North Korea closed its borders at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a result, North Korea has declared securing enough manure the first “struggle” of 2022, Daily NK reported.
State-run media has also been encouraging people to make “homemade” manure, The Daily Beast reported. A source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK that residents had started “producing fertilizer from human waste” after authorities launched a 10-day drive to increase production.
Citizens were told to produce a quota of 150 kilograms of manure, with people working in state factories told to provide 500 kilograms between January 4 and January 14, Daily NK reported.
The Insider
You can read more at the link.
