I don’t think this is a smart political decision because Koreans I think have hit their limit on lockdowns and restrictions:
Ruling Democratic Party presidential nominee Lee Jae-myung asked the government on Tuesday to immediately tighten social distancing rules to curb the surge in coronavirus infections.
Lee issued the call in an “emergency statement” read by a spokesperson at DP headquarters, saying “it is time to take special measures beyond an all-out response.”
“Regrettably, we need to pause the return to normal temporarily,” he said, referring to the loosening of virus restrictions that began under a government initiative last month.
Lee said small business owners should be compensated in advance for the losses they are likely to suffer under the tightened rules.
Details of the strengthened measures should be determined in consultation with health authorities and experts, the spokesperson, Park Chan-dae, said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It looks like South Korea’s vaccine pass system is having some early struggles:
The government’s digital vaccine pass system malfunctioned for the second day on Tuesday, leading to a number of access failures during lunch time despite the addition of emergency servers to deal with heavy user traffic.
COOV, a government smartphone application that authenticates users’ vaccination status by QR codes, along with affiliated third party programs, such as Naver and Kakao talk, has been plagued with major connection issues since Monday, the first day of the government’s vaccine pass enforcement, as a result of heavy traffic.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said it added emergency servers to the system overnight to deal with increased traffic, but many workers and restaurants in Seoul’s office-heavy districts continued to experience outages for the second day around lunch time.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
South Korea has found another purchaser for their K-9 artillery system:
Australia and South Korea signed a $720 million defense deal Monday as South Korean President Moon Jae-in became the first foreign leader to visit Australia since the pandemic began.
Worth about 1 billion Australian dollars, the deal will see South Korean defense company Hanwha provide the Australian army with artillery weapons, supply vehicles and radars.
It’s the largest defense contract struck between Australia and an Asian nation, and comes at a time of heightened tensions between Australia and China. Australia recently announced a deal to build nuclear-powered submarines in a partnership with the U.S. and Britain — a move that China has strongly condemned.
Moon met with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during his visit, and the two leaders agreed to upgrade the formal ties between their nations to a “comprehensive strategic partnership.”
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
These two actually got off light in the Korean court system by not having to go to jail. However, they are probably being chaptered out of the Army with a possible bad conduct discharge:
Two American soldiers have been given suspended prison terms for smuggling cannabis into South Korea from the United States, a court said Monday.
One of the soldiers was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, suspended for 3 years, for hiding two cannabis cartridges in his baggage and flying to Incheon International Airport from Atlanta in April, the Suwon District Court said.
The other soldier received the same sentence for purchasing four cannabis cartridges and other cannabis products from an overseas website and attempting to smuggle them through an international flight in March.
The soldier was found to have again placed the same order for the drugs the following month after his first attempt was caught by customs authorities here.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but how much of a pothead are you that you get caught once and yet you try to order your marijuana again?
If this wasn’t in the Army Times you would think this was a Duffel Blog story:
The phrase “shell shocked” took on new meaning last week when a man in Gloucester, England, managed to lodge a 2-inch-wide World War II anti-tank shell inside his rectum.
The rectum’s owner, who (understandably) chose to remain anonymous, told medical staff at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital that the 57 mm round, part of the man’s WWII memorabilia collection, became embedded inside his anus after he “slipped and fell,” as one is known to do in England.
An explosive ordnance disposal squad was subsequently called to the hospital to ensure the munition was not in danger of detonating within the individual’s personal hurt locker. By the time EOD personnel arrived, doctors had already removed the shell.
Army Times
You can read more at the link, but I am definitely not buying the slipped and fell story.
This could get interesting if troops that received the first two vaccines shots decide to not get the booster. Will the military punish them like what has been done to unvaccinated personnel?:
The Pentagon said Friday that there are “active discussions” within the department about making the COVID-19 vaccine booster shots mandatory for service members, even as thousands refuse or seek exemptions from the initial shot requirement.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said there have been no final decisions on the matter, but added that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin “absolutely encourages people, if they can and if they qualify, to get the booster. But right now there is no requirement for it.”
The defense department in August announced that it would begin requiring all members of the military — including National Guard and Reserves — to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The military services sent out specific guidelines on the mandate, set their own deadlines and laid out the repercussions for those who refused and were not granted a medical, religious or administrative exemption.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
