Author: GIKorea

Here is the latest map that is being claimed to show Dokdo as Korean territory:

Spain has shown President Moon Jae-in an old map that describes Dokdo as part of the territory of Korea, according to Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday (local time). 

The map showing came amid Japan’s renewed territorial claim over Dokdo, Korea’s easternmost islets, on its website for the Tokyo Olympics. 

According to presidential spokeswoman Park Kyung-mee, Moon visited the Spanish senate library after delivering a speech at the senate.

The library officials showed Moon the map, titled “Royaume de Coree” (Kingdom of Korea), which was made by French geographer and cartographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville (1697-1782), in 1737 when the territory was known as the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910). 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I doubt this map depicts Dokdo. Just looking at the map the islands are not even geographically where they should be and according to the article the island that is supposedly Dokdo was not even spelled right. When you think about it why would a Spanish cartographer include Dokdo on this map back then as Korean territory when they would have just been worthless rocks? The only thing that makes Dokdo valuable today is the territorial waters that it brings with it in modern times which did not exist back then.

This high rate of vaccination of personnel is putting USFK pretty close to herd immunity:

Three American service members and a dependent have tested positive for the new coronavirus upon their arrival here, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Thursday. 

One of the service members arrived at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, around 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on a U.S. government-chartered flight, while the others traveled via commercial flights, according to the U.S. military.

All of them have since been transferred to isolation facilities designated for COVID-19 patients, it said.

“Despite the recent confirmed cases, USFK remains at a high level of readiness with more than 75 percent of its affiliated community vaccinated and less than 1 percent of its active duty service members currently confirmed positive with COVID-19,” it said in a release.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but an interesting statistic which will be probably never hear is how many of the USFK personnel who tested positive on arrival were previously vaccinated?

This is actually a really brilliant move by the conservative opposition party in Korea because it demonstrates that the old guard many Koreans are fed up with is transitioning power to the younger generation:

The election of a young new leader is giving a boost to the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), with it seeing the highest gains in support in years and positive signs of a potential “conservative big tent” to counter the liberal ruling bloc ahead of next March’s presidential election. 

Public attention to the rise of the 36-year-old Lee Jun-seok and his victory at the party convention is pushing the party’s support rate. According to a survey of 2,512 adults conducted last week by local pollster Realmeter, and released Monday, 39.1 percent of respondents said they supported the PPP, while 29.2 percent said were behind the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK)

Political watchers believe the PPP has succeeded in responding to the growing public calls for change and innovation in politics by electing the youngest-ever party chairman, and it is now being recognized by the public as an alternative political force that could hold the supermajority DPK in check. Even before Lee’s rise, the DPK was already losing public support due to corruption and land speculation scandals involving high-profile government officials and party members.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

People on the Internet want to further cancel the Lee twins:

Lee Da-yeong, a professional volleyball player who was suspended for bullying her teammates during her middle school days, along with her twin sister, Lee Jae-yeong, has faced criticism over news about her plans to transfer to the Greek league. 

Public criticism is mounting that it is irresponsible for her to “run away” from the scandal and keep enjoying star athlete status, without even fully apologizing to the victims.

Turkish sports agency CAAN recently announced on its website that Lee Da-yeong signed a contract with PAOK Thessaloniki Greece, and she would become the first Korean player to play in the Greek league.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Lee twins have already been suspended from their professional team in Korea and from the national Olympic team. All this for bullying that allegedly happened in middle school. Yes you heard that right middle school!

Someone still has their feeling hurt from middle school which has greatly impacted the lives of these two athletes. People change a lot from middle school to adulthood; it seems to me an apology and leading an anti-bullying campaign would be sufficient response to this instead of the suspensions they received. Additionally I believe they have a right to earn a living and apparently Greece is an option one of the twins wants to take to do just that; so she should be allowed to do that.

This is an interesting project by the Mexican government to help identify ethnic Mexicans that served in the Korean War:

The support from the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Mexico has been critical in finding four Mexican veterans alive to recognize their service. This led to the establishment of the first Association of Mexican Veterans of the Korean War on April 24, at the residence of the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Mexico, Suh Jeong-in.

I had the opportunity to meet the first president of the Association, Jose Villarreal, at his home near Mexico City, in January. He narrated some personal stories of the war and gave me a copy of his handwritten memoirs. When he arrived in Korea, he kept asking himself: “Did I come here to die?” From the United Nations coalition side, after Korean and American citizens, more Mexicans died than anybody else.

I have also been in close contact with veteran Roberto Sierra, since he is the father of a colleague ambassador of Mexico, and who never talked to his family about the atrocities he encountered during the war. He sheds tears while recounting the excruciating 40 days he spent in a hole behind enemy lines. It is never too late to recognize their trials and heroism.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Yeonmi Park has an interesting take on her time at Columbia University:

One of several hundred North Korean defectors settled in the United States, Park, 27, transferred to Columbia University from a South Korean university in 2016 and was deeply disturbed by what she found. 

“I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think,” Park said in an interview with Fox News. “I realized, wow, this is insane. I thought America was different but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying.”

Those similarities include anti-Western sentiment, collective guilt and suffocating political correctness.  

Yeonmi saw red flags immediately upon arriving at the school.

During orientation, she was scolded by a university staff member for admitting she enjoyed classic literature such as Jane Austen. 

“I said ‘I love those books.’ I thought it was a good thing,” recalled Park. 

“Then she said, ‘Did you know those writers had a colonial mindset? They were racists and bigots and are subconsciously brainwashing you.’”

It only got worse from there as Yeonmi realized that every one of her classes at the Ivy League school was infected with what she saw as anti-American propaganda, reminiscent to the sort she had grown up with. (…….)

“Even North Korea is not this nuts,” she admitted. “North Korea was pretty crazy, but not this crazy.”

Fox News via a reader tip

Here is how she wraps up the article:

“North Koreans, we don’t have Internet, we don’t have access to any of these great thinkers, we don’t know anything. But here, while having everything, people choose to be brainwashed. And they deny it.”

Having come to America with high hopes and expectations, Yeonmi expressed her disappointment. 

“You guys have lost common sense to degree that I as a North Korean cannot even comprehend,” she said. 

“Where are we going from here?” she wondered. “There’s no rule of law, no morality, nothing is good or bad anymore, it’s complete chaos.”

“I guess that’s what they want, to destroy every single thing and rebuild into a Communist paradise.”

A pretty interesting perspective on the direction of America from Yeonmi Park.

It sounds like this guy should be doing something else other than working for the Pentagon:

The headline hardly stood out on the website of the hyper-nationalistic Chinese newspaper.

“Why US will lose a war with China over Taiwan island,” announced the April 27 op-ed in the Global Times, which also referred to Taiwan’s democratically elected leaders as “renegade secessionists” and called U.S. Congress interest “corrupt.”

What was unusual about the article was its author.

Franz Gayl isn’t just an American. He is a celebrated whistleblower — whose conduct was praised by then-Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. — and a retired Marine major working at the Pentagon.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.