Author: GIKorea

Look who is taking over US Army Pacific:

 Gen. Charles Flynn took command of U.S. Army Pacific on Friday, vowing to continue transforming the 90,000-soldier force into one that can meet the challenge of a rising China.

“Today, as China trends on an increasingly concerning path, presenting challenge to the free and open Pacific, the Army is charged to change once more,” Flynn said during a livestreamed ceremony at Fort Shafter. Media were not allowed to attend the event.

Flynn — the younger brother of Michael Flynn, who briefly served as national security adviser under former President Donald Trump — took the reins from Gen. Paul LaCamera, who will move on to command U.S. Forces Korea.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Don’t expect to see any gay pride flags flying on U.S. military installations this month:

The Defense Department will not make an exception to its unauthorized-flag policy to allow military bases to fly rainbow flags for Pride month, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday.

June is gay pride month, which supporters often mark with displays of rainbow flags. However, a July 16 Pentagon policy that banned the display of unofficial flags on military installations means the unauthorized Pride flag will not fly on bases this month, Kirby said.

“The department will maintain the existing policy from July of 2020 regarding the display or depiction of unofficial flags, so there won’t be an exception made this month for the Pride flag,” Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon.

Stars & Stripes via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but I can understand why the Pentagon upheld this ban because who knows what other exceptions people may want in the future for other events. The article did say that the State Department is going to allow gay pride flags to fly this month though.

Here is the latest on Christopher Ahn who was a North Korean activist that broke into the North Korean embassy in Spain:

Warmbier, along with her husband Fred, appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom last week to ask the U.S. government to stop the extradition of Ahn, who served in Fallujah, Iraq, and was arrested when he returned from Spain in 2019.

He was part of an activist group that helps high-level North Korean diplomats and officials defect. Spanish authorities are asking the Biden administration to send Ahn back to face charges that he and his group broke into the North Korean embassy in Madrid. 

But Ahn and the group, Free Joseon, or Free North Korea, maintain that they were invited in as part of a planned mission to help Kim’s ambassador defect, but the diplomat got cold feet at the last moment. 

Fox News

You can read more at the link, but the fear is that be extraditing Ahn that he will be more vulnerable to being killed by North Korea. Considering Kim Jong-un had has own brother killed inside a international airport, it is easy to believe they could pull off a hit job on Ahn as well.

I believe Putin just like his buddies in Beijing don’t want the North Korean problem solved because it ties up so many U.S. military and diplomatic assets to deal with that would be otherwise focused on them:

Putin made the remark during a virtual session with chiefs of global news agencies at an annual economic forum in St. Petersburg on Friday (Russia time), as the nuclear negotiations between the North and the United States remain deadlocked after the breakdown of the Hanoi summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and then U.S. President Donald Trump in early 2019. 

“The North Korean nuclear problem is not going to be resolved by pressuring the North and toughening the sanctions against it,” Putin said through an interpreter when asked by Cho Sung-boo, CEO and president of Yonhap News Agency in Seoul to comment on Moscow’s stance on North Korean nuclear issues.

“Only by ensuring the security of its people, and with patience and a careful approach, should we be able to resolve this problem,” he said. 

Moscow has favored a phased-in approach to denuclearize the North that would come with reciprocal steps, including a partial lifting of U.N. sanctions, as the regime takes measures to roll back its nuclear program.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the Korean wartime forced labor lawsuits against Japanese business firms:

 A local court on Monday dismissed a damages suit launched by 85 South Korean victims of wartime forced labor in Japan and their families against 16 Japanese companies, saying the plaintiffs don’t have litigation rights.

The Seoul Central District Court said South Korean wartime forced laborers cannot claim individual legal rights to damages from Japan, while deciding to reject their collective suit.

The 85 forced labor victims and their families started their damages suit against 16 Japanese companies, including Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., Nissan Chemical Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., in 2015.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is interesting how this ruling is the complete opposite of what the Korean Supreme Court ruled for in favor of compensation for a different lawsuit a couple of years ago.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.