Author: GIKorea

The Japanese government should just ignore something like this since it is in a private garden and not sponsored by the ROK government. Responding to this just drives further attention to it:

The foreign ministry said Tuesday that international courtesy for foreign leaders should be taken into consideration, after a local botanical garden reportedly installed a pair of bronze statues of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bowing on his knees before a wartime sexual slavery victim.

The garden in the eastern county of Pyeongchang plans to unveil the statues next month, according to local media reports. Its sculptor told local media that Japan must atone for wartime atrocities until South Korea accepts and forgives it. 

Japan has bristled at the statue, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga telling reporters Tuesday that the installation of such a statue, if true, is “unacceptable” and would “decisively affect” the relations between the two countries.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but if Japan is so upset about this then a private individual in Japan should make a statue of President Moon Jae-in bowing in forgiveness to a Vietnamese woman for the atrocities some ROK troops committed during the Vietnam War.

Since the North Koreans are already developing this capability it makes sense for the South Koreans to develop the same technology as well:

 South Korea announced Tuesday it has become able to develop solid-propellant space rockets under the new missile guidelines with the United States, saying the deal is expected to help sharply improve the military’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities and boost the space program of the private sector.

The allies agreed to lift the decades-old restrictions on Seoul’s use of solid fuels for its space rocket launch, effective as of the day, according to Kim Hyun-chong, deputy national security adviser.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the deal to acquire Asiana Airlines may fall through because of the ongoing pandemic:

Hyundai Development Company’s (HDC) planned takeover of Asiana Airlines appears to be on the brink of collapse, following the former’s official request for another round of due diligence on the cash-squeezed air carrier, aviation industry officials and analysts said Monday. 

HDC is putting the blame for the delay in negotiations on Kumho Industrial, which had decided to sell its airline unit, claiming that the latter has failed to send formal data related to the carrier’s financial status, despite repeated requests since early April.

This was seen by some industry officials as HDC making excuses in preparation for abandoning its planned acquisition of the indebted carrier, while others speculated that HDC may be moving to reduce the price.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the development of the Yongsan Park:

The idea of creating Yongsan Park became official in 2005 after the Roh Moo-hyun administration and the U.S. agreed to relocate troops there to Pyeongtaek. 

In 2007, the National Assembly passed a special act on the creation of the park and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport began allocating resources for it.

No one expected the relocation would take so long. 

One reason for the delay was that government had to find money to finance the Yongsan Relocation Plan ― which it was supposed to pay for. Occasional provocations from North Korea were also a factor that influenced the project. 

Now, the former U.S. site is more than 90 percent empty. 

The land ministry projects the park will be opened in 2027, but many, including the Ministry of National Defense responsible for the site return negotiations, are cautious, only saying it will largely depend on the talks which are expected to hit a stumbling block over the issue of soil contamination. 

The land ministry has got many things done so far.

In 2012, it selected a team of architects and urban planners to design the park ― the final version of the plan was made public last week and can be found at park.go.kr. 

The ministry is also carrying out aggressive public awareness campaigns about the park. 

In 2018, the ministry began offering tours of the garrison, inviting a limited number of residents to see the historic buildings and sites.

On Aug. 1, the ministry is opening up the 50,000 square meters of land that used to be a residential compound for U.S. military officers and their families. The land was returned to Korea in 1986 but instead of opening up to the public immediately, the government built new houses and rented them to USFK personnel until the end of last year.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but how many people think all of Yongsan Garrison will be turned into a park? I also wonder if the historic Imperial Japanese era buildings will be torn down as well.

It doesn’t matter if he had COVID-19 or not, the Kim regime is clearly using him for domestic propaganda to discourage defectors by claiming South Korea is filled with people running around with coronavirus:

Last week, a 24-year-old defector returned to North Korea the way he left in 2017, authorities say, but with a coronavirus pandemic raging in the background this time, his illicit trip drew far more attention.

South Korea has identified the man only by his surname, Kim, and said he was the “runaway” who North Korea accuses of illegally crossing their shared border last week with symptoms of COVID-19.

Facing a sexual assault investigation, Kim evaded high-tech South Korean border control systems by crawling through a drain pipe and swimming across the Han River to the North on July 19, the South Korean military has said. He appears to have spent several days there before being caught.

South Korean military chief Park Han-ki told parliament on Tuesday that Kim, who is 163 cm (5.35 ft) tall and weighs 54 kg (119 lb), cut his way through barbed wire fences installed at the end of the pipe leading to the river.

A Seoul official told Reuters that Kim is believed to have taken a similar path when he defected to the South in 2017, and authorities say he scoped out the area earlier in July, apparently in preparation.

Kim’s story as a defector begins and, so far, ends in the city of Kaesong, a North Korean border town that hosted a now-shuttered inter-Korean factory park and liaison office.

When that industrial project was shut down amid rising tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme in 2016, the economic shock prompted Kim to try his luck in the South in 2017, he said in a YouTube video filmed with a fellow defector in South Korea in June.

Reuters

You can read more at the link, but this defector had $16k in debt he piled up and the job he was pursuing dried up because the pandemic. It is kind of ironic he left Kaesong for economic reasons to end up in a financial straits in South Korea as well. The real reason though he defected appears to be the fact an arrest warrant was issued for a sexual assault he is accused of committing. Hopefully someone tells Kim Jong-un to make sure they keep this guy on the other side of the border this time because he clearly is a scumbag.

This is a very North Korean thing to do while the US and the ROK held a ceremony in commemoration of the Korean War armistice:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un handed out commemorative pistols, while the U.S.-led United Nations Command reaffirmed its commitment to seeking a “lasting peace” on the Korean Peninsula as the rival nations Monday marked the 67th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Only in Korea is an ambassador shaving off his mustache major news:

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris has figured out a way to stay cooler in a hot and humid Seoul while keeping his mask on amid the coronavirus pandemic ― go clean-shaven. 

Harris is now a mustache-free man after removing his signature facial hair at an old barbershop in central Seoul, a video posted on his Twitter page showed. 

In the video clip, the ambassador says he thought he had to do something to “get cooler” during the muggy and hot summer in the host country while at the same time complying with the coronavirus guideline by wearing a mask. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but this is only news because the Korean left using racist attacks tried to demonize Ambassador Harris as being a Japanese lackey because of his mustache.