Great day for surfingTwo windsurfers enjoy themselves at a beach on Jeju Island, a resort island in southern South Korea, on a windy April 24, 2021. (Yonhap)
It will be interesting to see if Lee has his sentenced reduced for facilitating a vaccine deal that now shields the Moon administration from the heavy criticism they had been receiving:
Lee Jae-yong walks into the Seoul High Court on Jan. 18. (Yonhap)
After South Korea closed a deal with Pfizer to obtain additional doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, Samsung Electronics’ de facto chief, Lee Jae-yong, is receiving much attention in local media for his reported role in facilitating talks between the two sides.
Seoul announced Friday that it had secured enough additional vaccine for 20 million people in a deal that soothed public worries over a shortage. Adding to those worries were the reported side effects associated with the AstraZeneca jabs — the mainstay of the country’s inoculation campaign.
According to the DongA Ilbo and multiple other media outlets, the vice chairman of Samsung, in prison since January for bribing former President Park Geun-hye, acted as a bridge between the Korean government and Pfizer.
While the Moon Jae-in government had no channels with the top leadership of the US vaccine developer until early December, Lee used his personal network and sought the help of Shantanu Narayen, chairman of the US computer software company Adobe, who was an independent director of Pfizer.
You can read more at the link, but for those that have followed Lee Jae-yong’s legal issues he was essentially jailed because he was caught in the middle of the political battles between the Korean left and right. He was jailed because it was alleged that former President Park made demands to Lee that Samsung give money to a sport agency to sponsor her friend’s daughter’s Olympic equestrian training. In return the Park administration was alleged to have smothered over Lee’s acquisition of Samsung from his then ailing father.
I have no idea if Lee is guilty of what he is accused of, but what I do know is that Korea is a rule by law nation instead of a rule of law nation. If powers that be want him guilty they can make it happen. The same powers that be can find a way to get him released as well. We will see if that happens in the coming months because I doubt they will announce it right after this vaccine deal.
It appeared that when Trump was in office he did not have a good relationship with Moon and his latest remarks validate this:
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, left, shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump at the InterContinental Barclay hotel during the United Nations General Assembly on Sep. 23, 2019, in New York. AP-Yonhap
Former president Donald Trump on Friday accused his South Korean counterpart of ripping off the United States, while continuing to highlight his supposed friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“Kim Jong-un of North Korea, who I have gotten to know (and like) under the most trying of circumstances, never respected the current President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in,” Trump said in a statement.
“President Moon was weak as a leader and as a negotiator, except when it came to the continued, long term military ripoff of the USA… We were treated like fools for decades, however, I got them to pay billions of dollars more for the military protection and services we render.”
“The Biden Administration is not even going to ask for the additional billions South Korea agreed to pay us,” Trump added, referring to current President Joe Biden.
This analysis is based on a lot of wishful thinking. South Korea is a rich country that fared well at first but failed to buy vaccines because of our leaders' hubris. Good luck convincing Congress to share vaccines with us when there are many Americans who need the vaccines. https://t.co/TS2qSeALYE
COVID-19 self-testing kits An employee demonstrates how to use a COVID-19 self-test kit at a plant of biotech firm Humasis in Gunpo, south of Seoul, on April 23, 2021. South Korea’s drug safety agency granted conditional approval for two types of COVID-19 self-test kits, developed by two local biotech firms SD Biosensor and Humasis, as a supplementary tool to boost its testing capacity amid spiking cases. (Yonhap)
Park Sang-hak and the Fighters for a Free North Korea are planning on launching more leaflets to North Korea despite the Moon administration’s vows to stop them:
Park Sang-his
A North Korean defector group said Friday it plans to send thousands of leaflets to North Korea next week despite a recently enacted ban on such leafleting.
Park Sang-hak, a defector who heads Fighters for a Free North Korea, told Yonhap News Agency on Friday that his group plans to send leaflets across the border at an unannounced time and location from this Sunday to May 1.
“The leaflets will include a message criticizing their three-generation hereditary dictatorship and telling them to give out at least the minimum amount of food required for North Korean people,” he said.
You can read more at the link, but I guess we will see if the Moon administration decides to jail these activists or not. The new law they past can give people up to three years in jail for sending leaflets to North Korea. Park Sang-hak is probably hoping they try and do that to highlight how authoritarian the law is.
Her is the latest on the Belgian Ambassador’s wife slapping an employee who mistakenly thought she was shoplifting:
The photo on the right shows the face of the apparel store employee, who was allegedly assaulted by the wife of Belgian Ambassador to Seoul Peter Lescouhier. Yonhap
Belgian Ambassador to Seoul Peter Lescouhier apologized Thursday over an assault incident involving his wife, promising to cooperate with an ongoing police probe as soon as his wife recovers from an illness.
Police have been looking into allegations that Lescouhier’s wife slapped an apparel store employee in the face and another employee in the back of her head early this month. The employees had asked the wife if she paid for the clothes she was wearing at the time because the shop was selling the same apparel.
You can read more at the link, but the picture shows that she slapped the employee pretty hard. Additionally according to the article the ambassador’s wife had a stroke last week.
It would be interesting to see what the Biden administration would ask for diplomatically in return for this favor if they do indeed grant this request from the Moon administration:
Work to unload 250,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine from a UPS cargo plane is under way at Incheon International Airport, Wednesday. Yonhap
As a “swap” deal with the United States is emerging as a temporary fix to address Korea’s shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, Seoul will find itself in the position of looking at how to return Washington’s favor diplomatically, according to diplomatic observers, Thursday.
With a mere 3.41 percent of the country’s 52 million population having received shots since the government began its vaccination campaign Feb. 26, due to the shortage, Korea has turned to its long-time ally for help as the U.S. has enough vaccines for every single American, according to President Joseph Biden.
