Author: GIKorea

Typhoon Haishen has thankfully decreased in strength, but it is still going to be a strong storm people need to prepare for:

While no longer a super typhoon, Haishen was the first in 2020 to reach that status as it started swinging towards Japan and South Korea.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) defines a super typhoon as one that reaches maximum sustained one-minute surface winds of at least 150 mph (241.4 km/h), which is equivalent to a Category 4 or 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale in the Atlantic basin.

On Saturday morning, the JTWC said Haishen’s maximum sustained winds are 212 km/h, with gusts reaching as high as 259 km/h — equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane.

Haishen could hit or at least pass very close to Japan Sunday as the equivalent of a Category 2 storm before tracking into South Korea as a Category 1 storm by Monday morning.

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the gulags will have a few local Wonsan party officials added to it, regardless of if the flooding was really their fault or not:

North Korea has vowed to punish local officials over a typhoon that hit the eastern coast on Wednesday.

A Workers’ Party newspaper blamed authorities in the coastal city of Wonsan for failing to prepare for Typhoon Maysak, and accused them of having an “irresponsible attitude”.

The paper did not say how many were missing, injured or dead, but said there were “dozens of casualties”.

It claimed officials failed to follow orders given by the ruling party.

Local authorities in Wonsan had been instructed to “immediately organise a project to thoroughly identify properties at risk and evacuate all residents”, Saturday’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper said.

“A decision was made to impose severe party, administrative, and legal punishment to those responsible for the casualties.”

BBC

You can read more at the link.

Hopefully this doesn’t lead to a cluster infection scenario on Osan Airbase:

A South Korean contractor who works at Osan Air Base tested positive for the coronavirus on Saturday, the U.S. military said, reporting its first local transmission in nearly five months.

The contractor, who last visited the base on Thursday, “was tested after a workplace exposure at his spouse’s place of employment,” which was not on Osan, U.S. Forces Korea said in a press release.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

To all my American readers, I hope you have a great Labor Day weekend.

Virtual learning for most students in the Seoul metro area will continue until at September 20th:

The Ministry of Education said on Friday that schools in Seoul and its surrounding cities will remain online-only until Sept. 20, in accordance with the government’s decision to extend stricter social distancing rules in the area.

The measure will apply to all kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools in the metropolitan area — Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province. But high school seniors are not subject to the policy in order to prepare for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), the yearly national university entrance exam slated for Dec. 3. 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Australia has been flirting with deciding to buy the K9 self propelled howitzer system for over a decade and now it looks like they have finally made a decision:

Korea’s prized K-9 self-propelled howitzer was selected as the sole preferred bid for a massive artillery modernization project by the Australian Army, said the weapon’s manufacturer on Thursday.  
   
Hanwha Defense, one of Korea’s leading arms makers, said it expects to export 30 K-9 howitzers and 15 K-10 armored ammunition resupply vehicles (ARVs) under a contract valued at around one trillion won ($960 million).  
   
A final deal is set to be signed after prices are negotiated with the Australian government following its review of Hanhwa Defense’s bid, the company said.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but