Author: GIKorea

This has to be frustrating for the crews effected to have to travel outside of the country to maintain their qualifications:

The U.S. military has had to send air crews off the peninsula for live-fire training due to local disputes with South Koreans over noise and other complaints, Gen. Robert Abrams said Thursday. (…..)

But he acknowledged that complaints by South Koreans who live near training facilities have caused a setback in live-fire training needed to maintain troop qualifications. 

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see if there is any North Korean reaction to this latest news from Woodward’s book:

The headless body of Kim Jong Un’s executed uncle was displayed to senior North Korean officials, US President Donald Trump told the author of an upcoming book on the US president.

Jang Song Thaek, the North Korean leader’s uncle by marriage and a hugely powerful figure within the regime, was purged for treason and corruption in 2013, in what was widely seen as Kim mercilessly asserting his authority.

Kim “tells me everything. Told me everything,” Trump told the Washington Post investigative journalist Bob Woodward, according to his forthcoming book “Rage”.

“He killed his uncle and he put the body right in the steps,” Trump said, in an apparent reference to a building used by senior officials.

“And the head was cut, sitting on the chest,” he added in excerpts from the book seen by AFP.

AFP

You can read more at the link, but with many stories from North Korea who knows how true they really are.

No matter how much more his numbers go down I don’t see President Moon replacing Choo Mi-ae because how well she has squashed every scandal against his administration:

The growing allegations surrounding Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae over her son’s military service are beginning to affect the approval ratings for President Moon Jae-in and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), as support for the President and the party has dropped significantly among men and the younger generation.

In a poll of 1,504 adults conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Wednesday, 45.7 percent of the respondents believed Moon was doing a good job, down 2.4 percentage points from a week before, while 49.5 percent disapproved of his job performance, an increase of 1.4 percentage points.

The decline was large among people in their 20s, whose support for Moon dropped by 5.7 percentage points; among men, by 9 percentage points; and among students, 10.7 percentage points.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the ruling party is trying to claim that Choo’s attempts for favorable treatment for her KATUSA son were just something any concerned parent would do. How many parents in Korea can call up the Defense Ministry and advocate for extended leaves, assignments in Seoul, and requests to be an interpreter at the Winter Olympics?

Here is what USFK Commander General Abrams had to say lately about North Korea’s coronavirus prevention methods:

North Korean authorities have issued shoot-to-kill orders to prevent the coronavirus entering the country from China, according to the commander of US forces in the South.

The impoverished North ― whose crumbling health system would struggle to cope with a major virus outbreak ― has not confirmed a single case of the disease that has swept the world since first emerging in China, the North’s key ally.

Pyongyang closed its border with China in January to try to prevent contamination, and in July state media said it had raised its state of emergency to the maximum level.

US Forces Korea (USFK) commander Robert Abrams said that the border shutdown had increased demand for smuggled goods, prompting authorities to intervene.

The North introduced a new “buffer zone, one or two kilometers up on the Chinese border,” Abrams told an online conference organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington on Thursday.

“They’ve got North Korean SOF (Special Operations Forces) out there. … Strike forces, they’ve got shoot-to-kill orders in place.”

The border closure had effectively “accelerated the effects” of economic sanctions imposed on the North over its nuclear programs, he added, with imports from China plunging 85 percent.

Korea Times

I bet former President Park Geun-hye probably wishes she could have banned anti-government rallies and jailed news media critical of her like the current Moon administration is doing:

The government on Friday banned rallies scheduled to be held by conservatives in central Seoul to mark National Foundation Day on Oct. 3, in response to fears of another spike in coronavirus cases.  
   
The National Police Agency (NPA) issued no-assembly orders for 78 rallies with more than 10 participants set to take place within prohibited zones. Police have received 291 requests to hold rallies on Oct. 3.  
   
The move was reported by the NPA to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters that day.  
   
Since Aug. 21, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has enforced a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people in the capital as a part of its social distancing measures to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Today is the 19th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. This is usually a day of solemn memorials, but in South Korea back in 2005 it was used as day to bash Americans and try to topple the statue of General MacArthur at Jayu Park. Let’s hope we never see such outrageous anti-American behavior ever again in South Korea.