Virus resurgence Citizens form a long line to get tested at a COVID-19 testing station at the Olympic Park in southern Seoul on July 7, 2021, amid mass infections at a department store in the area and the resurgence of the virus nationwide. (Yonhap)
It looks like soon the remaining 30% of US military personnel not vaccinated will have to get the shot:
The Army is directing commands to prepare to administer mandatory COVID-19 vaccines as soon as Sept. 1, Army Times is reporting.
The Department of the Army Headquarters has sent an executive order to commands that the vaccines will become mandatory “on or around 01 September 2021 pending full Food and Drug Administration licensure.”
A former Korea Herald chairman appears to have had enough of COVID protocols in Korea:
Hong Jung-wook, a former chairman of the Korea Herald and ex-lawmaker, who is now chairman of the food company Organica, has caused a stir after calling Korea’s COVID-19 control measures “totalitarian” while praising the speed of the U.S.’s vaccination drive and return to normal daily life in his latest Facebook post.
Hong wrote July 5 that it took him less than five minutes at customs upon arriving in New York to check his health regarding COVID-19 and that wearing a mask was optional.
“The country that has seen the world’s highest number of casualties due to COVID-19 is now returning to daily life quickly,” he said. “On the other hand, it takes about an hour to enter Korea. For even vaccinated people like me, they have me write in an app, call me and send me text messages every day, only to hear me say, ‘no symptoms.'”
Hong, who served in the National Assembly from 2008-2012, said that Korea’s disease control authorities should put more effort into vaccinating citizens instead of into trying to control them.
Isolation exemptions Entrants who have gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 pass through an exit exclusive for such passengers upon arrival at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, on July 6, 2021, as they were exempted from a two-week isolation. (Yonhap)
It looks like people in Seoul can probably expect new restrictions in the coming days:
People stand in line to get COVID-19 testing at a temporary screening station in western Seoul on July 6, 2021.
South Korea confirmed over 1,000 new coronavirus cases Tuesday for the first time in six months amid a resurgence in the Seoul metropolitan area, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
The country reported 1,006 more COVID-19 cases from 12 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the number is expected to further rise when the daily total is announced Wednesday morning.
The figure shot up to over 1,000 for the first time since Jan. 3 when the nation was undergoing a third wave of the pandemic, raising concerns over the fourth wave hitting in the summer.
You would think she would be keeping a very low profile after the fall out from her first altercation, but here we go again:
The wife of the Belgian ambassador to South Korea, who faced assault charges in Seoul earlier this year, was involved in an altercation with a street sweeper in the city Monday morning, police said.
Police said Xiang Xueqiu, the spouse of Ambassador Peter Lescouhier, got into a fight with the cleaner in a park in central Seoul after the cleaner’s broom touched Xiang.
Police said the two apparently traded blows, but when officers arrived on the scene, neither wanted the other punished.
Xiang was taken to a nearby hospital after the cleaner shoved her to the ground. The cleaner later visited a police precinct to report that Xiang had slapped the sweeper in the face, and sought help on pressing charges.
You can read more at the link, but I can only imagine the phone call the Belgium ambassador must have received from his Foreign Ministry after this latest incident.
This is what the Korean left does, re-write history to fit their political narratives:
Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung, a frontrunner among candidates for president from the ruling Democratic Party (DP), made bombshell remarks last week. In a trip to Andong, North Gyeongsang, his hometown, Lee said, “Pro-Japanese forces maintained their ruling system in collaboration with the U.S. occupation force in Korea after its liberation from Japanese rule.” His portrayal of South Korea as a country that “could not be founded in a clean way from the start” has stirred much controversy after Kim Won-wung, chairman of the Heritage of Korean Independence, called the American forces an “occupation force” and the Soviet forces a “liberation force” in a virtual speech to high school students earlier. Even after his comment triggered a sensation, Gov. Lee claimed that the U.S. forces defined themselves as an “occupying force,” urging his opponents to first reflect on their “lack of knowledge about history.”
The historical perspectives Lee has demonstrated are very inappropriate — and dangerous — for a presidential hopeful. His distorted view of history seems to have originated from the now-defunct theory widely shared by democracy activists in the past. But Lee’s views are wrong. While the Soviet military government established a Communist regime led by its puppet Kim Il Sung in North Korea, a divergent mix of the anti-Communist faction, the nationalist faction and the socialist faction fiercely competed with one another under the rule of the U.S. military government in South Korea.
Lee’s claim that South Korea was ruled by pro-Japanese forces after liberation is also misleading. The heads of the three branches of the government were all independence fighters. Our founding president Syngman Rhee and Shin Ik-hee, the founding speaker of the National Assembly, both fought against Japanese rule as top officials of the Provisional Government in China. Our first Chief Justice Kim Byung-ro also served as chairman of an influential anti-Japanese group. Ministers of the first government led by Syngman Rhee also were mostly independence fighters.
You can read more at the link, but the term liberation force I think is more appropriate to describe the US forces that moved into South Korea after the defeat of the Imperial Japanese during World War II. However, Korean leftists like the term occupation force that carries negative connotations while using liberation force to describe the Soviets. It is almost like the leftists wish the Soviet Union occupied the entire peninsula after World War II.
As far as the pro-Japanese comments, the US military initially kept Japanese government administrators in place until they could be replaced by a new Korean government. Would Lee Jae-Myung have preferred the disaster that was de-Bathification in Iraq when all the government officials were fired that help lead to the post-war chaos in that country? The keeping of Japanese administrator temporarily ended up being a wise decision that led to a smoother transition of power to the new ROK government.
Daecheon Beach opens Daecheon Beach in the western city of Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province, opens to the public on July 3, 2021, in this photo provide by the city government. The beach will be open until Aug. 22. (Yonhap)
