Author: GIKorea

It looks like there will be fewer Koreans studying in the United States this Fall:

International students in the United States on student visas cannot attend a university this fall if their studies are entirely online, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday.

In a statement, ICE announced that students on non-immigrant F-1 and M-1 visas who attend universities that operate entirely online amid the COVID-19 pandemic “may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States.”

“The U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester, nor will the U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States,” ICE said.

The agency added that F-1 students who attend schools that provide a mixture of online and in-person classes will be permitted to take some online courses.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the loss of these students coming to the U.S. will be a blow to the universities and local communities. This is because they will lose money from them staying in the dorms and spending money living in the community. Additionally I would not be surprised if many of these students just drop out since they can’t travel to the U.S. to attend thus the schools will lose the tuition money as well.

Here is what is likely coming to U.S. schools this Fall:

But classrooms looked nothing like before.  
   
Students now start their days by filling out an online self-diagnosis form before they go to school, which asks them if they are displaying any symptoms of the disease and whether they have visited any Covid-19 hot spots. A single tick of any box means they can’t go to school and must stay quarantined at home.  
   
In many cities, students go to school on staggered schedules to minimize physical contact near the front gates, and have their temperatures checked by a thermal imaging camera to screen anyone who records 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5 Fahrenheit) or higher.  
   
Masks should be worn at all times except during lunch, and desks that used to be placed in pairs are now spaced out. Study rooms have been shut and libraries now have the sole purpose of lending books.  
   
During lunchtime, students are prohibited from chatting and are either separated by plexiglass dividers or have to sit separated far from each other. 

When a student tests positive or a cluster of infections arise, the school in question as well as schools nearby close their doors again for a couple of days and resort back to e-learning.  
   
While high schools in the Seoul metropolitan area are required to run classrooms at two-thirds of their capacity, kindergartens through middle schools are required to run at one-third, which means more than half of the student body is at home on any given day, engaging in remote learning.  
   
The vast majority of students outside the Seoul metropolitan area go to school every day. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is the Stars & Stripes report on the ruckus in Busan caused by U.S. soldiers over the weekend:

The U.S. military expressed regret for “disruptive behavior” Tuesday after American troops allegedly caused a ruckus with a Fourth of July party that included fireworks on a popular beach in the southern city of Busan.

About 200 police were dispatched to break up the festivities Saturday on Haeundae Beach in Busan after receiving more than 70 complaints from local residents.

One soldier was briefly detained and fined for a misdemeanor after throwing a firework in the direction of police, then trying to flee the scene, according to the public affairs office at the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency.

Two traffic accidents and a drunken-driving case involving soldiers also were reported in the area on Saturday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the ruckus caused anti-U.S. civic groups to protest against the soldiers’ behavior in Seoul and Busan.

The good news is that none of these cases were community spread and instead from people flying into Korea:

Five people affiliated with the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) tested positive for Covid-19 late last week and over the weekend.  

Two dependents of USFK service members flew into Incheon International Airport on June 21 from Europe and were transported to Camp Humphreys, where they were tested. Their test results were negative, but they were still kept quarantined for two weeks. Near the end of their quarantine period, they were tested once more and were found to be infected.  

One newly assigned service member of the USFK, who arrived at Osan Air Base on July 1 on a U.S. government-chartered flight from Japan, tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival, according to the USFK.   

The fourth individual was a USFK contractor, who flew into Incheon airport from the United States on July 2. He tested positive on his first mandatory Covid-19 test.  

The fifth individual was a member of the USFK returning from a trip to the United States. He tested positive after arriving at Incheon airport on July 3.  

“Since testing positive, all five individuals have been moved to Camp Humphreys’ isolation barracks designated for confirmed Covid-19 cases,” USFK said in its statement on Friday. “USFK health professionals determined there was limited contact […] due to the service members and all others on the commercial and chartered flight being tested and immediately quarantined; thorough cleaning of Camp Humphreys’ quarantine rooms has been completed.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes news that the United Nations’ World Food Program plans to restart food aid to North Korea:

The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) will resume humanitarian food aid to 771,000 North Koreans, the Voice of America said Saturday, citing a WFP report. 

In the report, the WFP said it needs an estimated US$27.5 million from July to December to help the North handle the COVID-19 pandemic, and it lacks $3 million. 

The WFP said there was a need to find out what impact a two-month delay in North Korea reopening its schools had on the health of children in the reclusive state, given North Korean children usually receive 85 percent of their necessary nutrients from food provided by schools and public organizations.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but this food aid is just another sanctions busting scheme. The Kim regime can afford to feed their own people, but they choose not to. They would rather divert their resources to nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles and let the international community pick up the bill of feeding their malnourished people.

Not a good look for USFK:

 Dozens of foreigners presumed to be American citizens or soldiers created disturbances by setting off firecrackers at a renowned beach in Busan on Saturday night apparently in celebration of Independence Day in the United States, resulting in the brief detention of a soldier, police said Monday.

The foreigners shot numerous rounds of firecrackers into the sky and even towards citizens for two hours, beginning around 7 p.m., on and around Haeundae Beach in the southern port city in an apparent Fourth of July party, according to the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency.

Police received more than 70 reports of complaints from Busan citizens concerned about wild and dangerous acts by foreign people not wearing face masks particularly amid the ongoing social distancing campaign to stem the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

The foreigners, whom the police presumed to be American soldiers on vacation to celebrate the Fourth of July, were accused of shooting firecrackers towards citizens, as well as at nearby buildings, and mocking the police.

Indeed, six patrol cars and one team of police officers came to the scene of disturbances and attempted to disperse the foreigners, but some of them continued to set off firecrackers. In the process, one U.S. soldier in his 20s was briefly detained while fleeing after shooting firecrackers at citizens.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It appears the Korean left will deal with the comfort women scandal by attempting to erase any memory of it instead of holding those accountable for allowing the fraud to happen:

A shelter for surviving victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery is set to be closed after the last resident recently left the facility, the operator said Saturday.

Gil Won-ok, 92, left the shelter June 11 to stay at a church operated by her 61-year-old stepson, priest Hwang Sun-hee, according to the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance (Korea Council), the nongovernmental organization working for South Korea’s “comfort women,” that is currently mired in an alleged embezzlement scandal

The Korea Council said it has yet to decide when to close the shelter in Mapo District, western Seoul, and return it to the Myungsung Church, which owns the property.

The planned shutdown comes as the head of the shelter was found dead at her apartment in Paju, north of Seoul, early last month. 

Korea Times via a reader tip

You can read more at the link.