Author: GIKorea

I actually yesterday watched the first episode of this series on Netflix, it is a pretty crazy show with hundreds of people getting killed in the very first episode:

 Netflix’s original Korean series “Squid Game” ranked first on the U.S. top 10 TV show list of the video streaming platform, a chart has showed, becoming the first Korean drama to reach the milestone.

The thriller, featuring South Korean actor Lee Jung-jae, made it to the top on the U.S. chart, as of Tuesday, according to streaming analytics firm FlixPatrol. (………….)

“Squid Game,” released on Sept. 17, is a thriller series about a group of people who risk their lives in a mysterious survival game to secure the prize money of 45.6 billion won (US$38.5 million).

You can read more at the link.

This makes sense that there would be a rise in breakthrough infections considering how many more people in South Korea continue to get vaccinated. Plus most of the breakthroughs are from the Johnson & Johnson one shot vaccine that has a lower efficacy rate than its mRNA counterparts:

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said Thursday that more than 5,000 COVID-19 breakthrough infections, mostly among young men who received Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine, have been detected as of Sept. 12. 

According to the KDCA, 5,880 people tested positive for COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated with the one-shot vaccine.

This means 40.2 people per 100,000 fully vaccinated patients have been subject to breakthrough infections. By age group, people in their 30s made up the largest ratio, of up to 110.1 per 100,000. (……)

From Aug. 29 to Sept. 11, 10.2 percent of new cases, or 20,895, were believed to be breakthrough infections.

By vaccine type, people getting Janssen shots made up the largest portion, with 161.2 out of 100,000 testing positive, followed by 33.5 people receiving Pfizer jabs, 27.6 receiving AstraZeneca and 24.2 receiving Moderna.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Yoon Seok-youl may be interested in bringing U.S. tactical nukes back to South Korea, but does the U.S. want to do this? If the U.S. military needs to use nuclear weapons in response to a North Korean nuclear attack it seems a submarine would be just as effective?:

Yoon Seok-youl, the leading opposition presidential contender, said Wednesday he will demand the United States redeploy its tactical nuclear weapons here and have nuclear sharing with South Korea if national security is threatened by North Korea’s nukes and missiles.

Unveiling 11 election pledges on diplomacy and security issues, former Prosecutor-General Yoon said he will make efforts to strengthen the Seoul-Washington alliance to deter the North’s evolving nuclear and missile capabilities.

Yoon of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) said he plans to seek consultation with the U.S. over the process to bring in U.S. nuclear strategic assets, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, when emergency situations occur on the Korean Peninsula.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here we go again with President Moon wanting a declaration to end the Korean War:

President Moon Jae-in once again renewed his call for a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War in an effort to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula, but the feasibility of his proposal is questionable, given the state of relations between the two Koreas and the U.S. 

During a speech at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Tuesday (EST), Moon proposed a trilateral or quadrilateral declaration to proclaim a formal end to the Korean War. 

The war ended in an armistice signed in 1953 by the U.S.-led United Nations Command, China and North Korea, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war.

“Today, I once again urge the community of nations to mobilize its strengths for the end-of-war declaration on the Korean Peninsula, and propose that the three parties of the two Koreas and the U.S., or the four parties of the two Koreas, the U.S. and China, come together and declare that the war on the Korean Peninsula is over,” Moon said. 

“When the parties involved in the Korean War stand together and proclaim an end to the war, I believe we can make irreversible progress in denuclearization and usher in an era of complete peace,” he added.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the rhetoric for ending the Korean War has been going on for years because both the Moon administration and the Kim regime in North Korea want the peace treaty because it then challenges the legitimacy of the U.S. military presence in South Korea.  If there is peace why is USFK needed? The Korean left and the Kim regime have always wanted the U.S. out of Korea and a peace treaty with little to nothing in return from North Korea is one path towards doing that.

The real question is if the Biden administration is going to take the bait on this or not? With all the bad headlines they may be eager for something that looks like a foreign policy victory by pursuing such a declaration. I guess we will see what happens.

It looks like China has been able to push off it Lehman Brothers moment to another day:

 China Evergrande agreed to settle interest payments on a domestic bond on Wednesday, while the Chinese central bank injected cash into the banking system, temporarily soothing fears of imminent contagion from the debt-laden property developer.

Evergrande (3333.HK), Asia’s biggest junk-bond issuer, is so entangled with China’s broader economy that its fate has kept global stock and bond markets on tenterhooks as late debt payments could trigger so-called cross-defaults.

Many financial institutions have exposure to Evergrande through direct loans and indirect holdings, while any defaults will also trigger sell-offs in the high-yield credit market.

In an effort to reassure investors, the People’s Bank of China’s injected 90 billion yuan to the banking system, signalling support for markets as they braced for what is expected to be one of China’s largest-ever debt restructurings.

Reuters

You can read more at the link, but trouble could still be coming in future days and weeks for Evergrande as they have other debt payment dates coming up.

Good news in Japan with COVID cases steeply dropping and the Japanese have been able to do this without any strict lockdown measures:

 The number of new coronavirus cases in Japan’s capital city fell below 300 Tuesday for the first time since June.

Tokyo reported another 253 newly infected people, the lowest figure in the virus-wracked metropolitan area since 236 on June 21, according to public broadcaster NHK and metro data online. For six consecutive days, the number of new infections has registered below 1,000 as the fifth and most extreme wave of COVID-19 appears to have waned.

Two U.S. military bases in Japan reported seven new cases on Tuesday.

Stars and Stripes

Like South Korea, Japan has been very good at keeping the COVID death rate low compared to other countries:

Japan on Monday reported 2,236 new coronavirus cases, and 23 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Japan has counted nearly 1.7 million individual cases and 17,427 deaths during the pandemic. 

More than half of its population, 53.23%, or 67.2 million, people are fully vaccinated, according to the Johns Hopkins center.

Japan has weathered the pandemic with a loss in fewer lives than other developed nations.

Argentina, a nation with a population 34% that of Japan’s, has suffered more than 5.2 million cases and 114,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

You can read more at the link.