Author: GIKorea

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section. I hope everyone has a great Christmas holiday.

Here is some surprising news because the Moon administration had previously said they would not do this:

 President Moon Jae-in said Friday that he granted a special pardon to former President Park Geun-hye, currently serving a 22-year prison term for corruption, to bolster national unity and in consideration of her deteriorating health. 

Moon said he decided to pardon Park and exonerate former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook because there is “desperate need for national unity and humble inclusiveness,” presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee told reporters. 

“In the case of ex-President Park, it was taken into consideration that her health deteriorated a lot because (she) has served almost five years of her sentence,” Moon was quoted as saying by the spokesperson. 

Pardoning Park came as a surprise because Moon had ruled out the possibility of granting a pardon to Park.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but politically the Moon administration must have felt they had to do this if they wanted to exonerate Han Myeong-sook of corruption. It would have looked hypocritical to exonerate Han for corruption while leaving Park in jail. It is a even a worse look when one considers that Park was sent to jail for the corruption of her friend, Choi Soon-sil who took donations from business conglomerates into two sports foundations that were believed to be bribes for political favors. Choi materially benefited from the donations, but Park never did.

That is unlike Han who received $731,400 from a businessman for political favors. In the spectrum of Korean political corruption this case is actually on the low side, however the case took her out politically. Han has been a good Soldier for many years for the Korean left and the exoneration allows her to return to public life if she so chooses.

Not a good look for USFJ:

U.S. forces in Japan did not test their personnel for COVID-19 prior to their departure from the United States, a move that goes against Tokyo’s request for American military personnel to follow the nation’s border control measures, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Thursday.

A government source said Tokyo was “still checking” if COVID-19 testing was not conducted for military personnel stationed at all U.S. military bases in Japan before their arrival, adding that tests were not conducted for military personnel at U.S. Marine Corps’ Camp Hansen in Okinawa Prefecture. A total of 227 people at the base had been infected as of Thursday morning.

Matsuno’s comments came as the Japanese government on Wednesday urged the U.S. military to adhere to coronavirus testing and quarantine rules.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Wednesday that he had voiced “strong regret” to the commander of U.S. Forces Japan, Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp, over anti-infection procedures for American military arrivals.

Japan’s borders are closed to almost all foreign nationals except for residents. Incoming travelers must get tested within 72 hours before departure and on arrival, then isolate for two weeks at home or in hotels.

Japan Times

You can read more at the link, but what I don’t understand is that personnel flying to Japan via Patriot Express flights have to get tested before boarding. Maybe these personnel at Camp Hansen flew in as a complete unit via military aircraft and got around testing that way?

Japan’s low COVID case numbers is finally catching the attention of researchers:

As the omicron variant surges around the world, Japan’s overall coronavirus cases and deaths have been plummeting. And no one seems to know exactly why.

Call it the hunt for a potential “X factor,” such as genetics, that may explain the trend and inform how Japan could deal with the next wave. While the new highly transmissible omicron variant has appeared in the country and experts suspect there is already some community spread, the overall transmission rate of the virus and coronavirus-related deaths in Japan have remained low.

“Honestly, we do not know the exact reason behind the sudden drop in covid deaths in Japan,” said Taro Yamamoto, professor of global health at Nagasaki University’s Institute of Tropical Medicine.

Washington Post

According to the article Japan has ranged from 60-200 daily COVID cases over the past month in a country of 127 million people. Compared to Korea a country of 51 million that over the past month has had daily case counts from 5,000-7000+. The article goes on to discuss why South Korea and Japan are having such different case numbers:

Japan has now vaccinated most of its population and has widespread masking, which may explain the current low numbers. But so does neighboring South Korea, where authorities are rescinding reopening plans because of a spike in infections and record numbers of serious and critical cases. And Japan has barely begun rolling out its booster shots, lagging behind other countries in the region, including South Korea.

“Obviously vaccination, masking and social distancing are surely factors, but those alone cannot explain it, especially when comparing the situation to South Korea,” Yamamoto said. “It is unclear yet whether there is a factor X that exists specific to Japanese or East Asian people, but in determining this we hope it can help us to understand and control the virus.”

You can read more at the link, but lets wait a few months and see how omicron impacts Japan. If Japan is able to escape an omicron wave than I will be very impressed.

Looking back it is amazing that 93,000 people fell for the “Workers’ Paradise” scam, but it was a very different time back in the 1960’s compared to today:

Eiko Kawasaki stood at the port of Niigata, the place from which she left for North Korea more than 60 years ago, and tossed chrysanthemum flowers into the sea to pray for her peers who could not come back. Then she burst into tears.

As a 17-year-old girl seeking a better life, Kawasaki joined a resettlement program led by North Korea that promised a “Paradise on Earth” — where everything was supposed to be free and those with Korean roots like her could live without facing discrimination.

Kawasaki was among some 93,000 ethnic Korean residents in Japan and their relatives who joined the program only to find the opposite of what was promised. Most were put to brutal manual labor at mines, in forests and on farms and faced discrimination because of Japan’s past colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

One of the rare survivors who made it back to Japan, her birthplace, Kawasaki, now 79, is on a mission to keep alive the tragic stories and memories of the deceived “resettlement” victims. 

She aspires to open a museum and revitalize a street in Niigata to commemorate the resettlement program under the auspices of Japanese and Korean friendship groups.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link, but it is likely that most of the 93,000 ethnic Koreans from Japan are dead considering their very low social status in North Korea that would have led them into forced labor and little food.