Author: GIKorea

Here is some possible good news that the Biden administration may not actually be preparing to go along with the Moon administration’s attempt to declare an end to the Korean War:

American officials have started calling the end-of-war declaration, a signature diplomatic goal of the Moon Jae-in administration, an end-of-war statement, which may not be good news for Seoul.  
   
“’Declaration’ or ‘statement,’ what really matters is what is stated inside,” a former diplomat told the JoongAng Ilbo on Monday. “But still, calling it a statement instead of a declaration does appear to lower its official standing.”  
   
Semantics are always important in diplomacy, and this choice of words seems to signify a reluctance by the U.S. to sign on to the idea, or its intention to downplay it.   
   
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was one of the first to refer to the declaration as a statement on Nov. 17. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It looks like ex-Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye will continue to rot in jail for at least another year:

President Moon Jae-in is unlikely to grant Christmas pardons to his predecessors Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak, a Blue House source told the JoongAng Ilbo Monday.    
   
“There will be no pardon for politicians, including former presidents,” the source, a high-ranking Blue House official, told the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity.    
   
The official cited public opinion, which is against pardons for former presidents.  
   
The source added that the idea is unpopular not only with the general public and the ruling Democratic Party, which was the opposition during the administrations of former presidents Lee and Park – both jailed for corruption – but even with the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), which worries that a pardon for either could be deadly for its chances in the March presidential election. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The Moon administration is messing with the hagwons, watch out there is going to be some angry ajummas:

Students and parents are protesting the government’s new vaccine pass system, saying it infringes upon adolescents’ right not to get vaccinated.    
   
Starting Monday, Korea’s vaccine pass systemwas expanded to hagwon (cram school) libraries, PC bang (internet cafes), public study rooms, movie theatres, restaurants and cafes — but only for adults using them.    
   
From Feb. 1, 12 to 18-year-olds — people born between the years 2003 and 2009 — will require vaccine passes to enter those places, unless they submit a negative PCR test that was conducted within the previous 48 hours, according to the Central Disaster Management Headquarters’ briefing Friday.    
   
In protest, an 18-year-old student in Daegu filed an online petition on the Blue House website Nov. 26, writing that the regulation is discriminatory against students and their right to an education.   (…..)

“The government has decided to more strongly advise vaccinations for minors because the situation has grown that much more dangerous over the past month,” said Son Young-rae, senior epidemiological strategist at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters.  
   
“As the necessity grew for more people to be vaccinated, we have decided to expand the vaccine pass system to include individuals from ages 12 to 18.”  
   
Son added that the infection rate for Covid among minors surpassed that for adults over the last four weeks.  
   
According to the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, 99.7 out of every 100,000 minors were infected from Nov. 1 to Dec. 1, compared to 76.9 out of every 100,000 adults.    
   
Yet, teens and their parents say that requiring a vaccine pass in places like hagwon, which are considered essential facilities for nearly all middle and high school students in Korea, is unfair.    
   
“Enforcing a vaccine pass system in hagwon is a violation of the children’s right to learn,” said Ms. Lee, 47, a mother of two in Seongbuk District, central Seoul.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Remember when the Moon administration said that they didn’t care if cases hit 10,000 when they began their “Living with COVID” strategy. It didn’t take long for them to back away from this strategy and the cases were no where near 10,000:

South Korea’s new coronavirus cases fell below 5,000 for the first time in three days Monday as the country reimposed toughened social distancing rules amid concerns over the spread of the omicron variant.

The country added 4,325 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total caseload to 477,358, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). 

Daily infections soared to a record high of 5,352 cases on Saturday before falling to 5,127 on Sunday. 

On Monday, the government began four-week stricter social distancing rules to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus and the omicron variant.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is a great program to thank U.S. military veterans that served in South Korea:

Nine U.S. veterans, who served in Korea following the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War, revisited the country last month along with their family members.

The revisit program, the first of its kind by the Korea Defense Veterans Association (KDVA) and the Korea-U.S. Alliance Foundation, was sponsored by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA). 

A total of 16 people made the five-day trip to Korea starting Nov. 29, visiting the Joint Security Area, Camp Casey, Camp Humphreys and Osan Air Base, where they served, according to the KDVA. 

Additionally, they participated in the ROK-U.S. Alliance Night in Seoul, co-hosted by Defense Minister Suh Wook and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Wednesday. ROK is an acronym for the Republic of Korea.

“I am honored to revisit Korea 30 years later since I served in Korea in 1991. I miss my old base, Camp Greaves, in the north of the Imjin River. It is closed now. But I cannot forget my days in Korea, and I am very proud of how advanced the ROK has become in the world, and think my service here was very valuable,” said Kevin Miller from Pennsylvania. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.