Author: GIKorea

Here is another example of a Tom Hanks like stranding at an airport:

A man seeking asylum status in Korea was allowed to leave Incheon International Airport and enter the country after being stuck there for 14 months, as his refugee application had been denied. 

Incheon District Court made a ruling, Tuesday, to allow temporary dismissal of his status as an “internee” and granted him the right to stay at a local hospital in order to undergo medical treatment. 

The man, whose nationality was not revealed, from his home country due to political persecution and arrived at Incheon International Airport in February 2020. But his refugee application was denied by the Ministry of Justice, as the final destination of his flight was another country, with Korea as a transfer point. Refugees can make applications as asylum seekers at immigration checkpoints. 

Since that time, he had been living in the transit zone of the airport. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if these cafe’s market themselves as a COVID safe juicy girl experience?:

South Korean parents of young students are reacting nervously to the recent openings of sex doll experience shops or cafes in their neighborhoods around the country.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling last June in favor of the importation of life-size sex dolls, several hundreds of new businesses have reportedly opened nationwide offering in-store experiences with the sex toys.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Korea has always been really good at remembering veterans from the Korean War:

The death of a 91-year-old Ethiopian Korean War veteran has set off a wave of remembrance in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang, home to some of the fiercest fighting during the war.  
   
According to the Chilgok county government on Monday, local residents have set up banners commemorating the service of Melese Tessema, who passed away earlier this month due to complications of Covid-19.  
   
“We pray for the repose of the Ethiopian Korean War Veterans’ Association’s late president, Melese Tessema,” read one banner in the county.   (……)
   
Last year, the county government organized a 6037 Campaign –– named for the 6,037 soldiers in the Kagnew Battalions dispatched by Emperor Haile Selassie to fight in Korea –– to deliver 100,000 face masks to surviving Ethiopian Korean War veterans and their families.  
   
The Chilgok county chief sent a message of condolence to Melese’s funeral, which was read in Amharic by a local resident who had studied in Korea.  
   
Messages of condolence were also posted by Korean celebrities.  (…..)
   
Ethiopia is the only African country that dispatched ground troops to fight as part of the United Nations Command during the Korean War. Out of its 6,037 soldiers, 122 were killed and another 536 wounded. Some 130 Ethiopian veterans of the war are still alive today.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.
  

Like other places in the world there has been a spring time surge in the coronavirus in Japan that has effected the US military troops as well:

U.S. bases in Japan reported another 26 people had contracted the coronavirus between April 7 and 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The Marine Corps announced 16 new cases on Okinawa and one at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni near Hiroshima. Kadena Air Base reported another eight patients between April 7 and Monday. Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo said one person tested positive sometime between Saturday and Tuesday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It seems that if a major provocation was coming there would be more a of a build up towards it than what we have seen lately. I guess we will see soon enough what the Kim regime decides to do:

In what could be a pivotal week on the Korean Peninsula, there is interest whether North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un would opt for any provocation as the country marks the birthday of Kim Il Sung Thursday and Washington finalizes its Pyongyang policy review.  
   
The U.S. Congress is also set to hold a rare hearing Thursday on Seoul’s controversial law banning sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, a move seen by observers as the United States pressuring both Koreas on human rights, an issue prioritized by the Joe Biden administration.  
   
The Day of the Sun, which takes place on April 15 each year, is North Korea’s biggest national holiday, and this year marks the 109th birthday of the country’s founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current leader.  
   
Pyongyang has also often marked the occasion with flashy military parades, such as one in 2017 showcasing its new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at a parade to mark the 105th birthday of Kim Il Sung. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

If the Biden administration did ask South Korea to join the Quad forum I think it shows how little they understand the geopolitical dynamics in the region:

South Korea’s presidential office on Sunday denied as “incorrect” a Japanese report that the United States asked Seoul to join the US-led Quad forum.

The Yomiuri Shimbun, a major Japanese daily, reported earlier in the day that US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had strongly requested Seoul join the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue group, also known as Quad, during a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Suh Hoon early this month.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.