Author: GIKorea

The difference between the propaganda leaflets war now going on is that in South Korea people would just laugh at North Korean propaganda while in North Korea, the activists that launch their propaganda balloons is a threat to state stability:

The North’s Korean Central News Agency website showed pictures of North Korean workers sorting printed propaganda flyers in piles. One of them showed pictures of President Moon Jae-in with dirty cigarette butts in a plastic bag.

“It is very regrettable that North Korea unveiled via a media outlet its plan to send massive anti-South Korea leaflets, and we demand its immediate halt,” the ministry said in a statement. 

“Such acts by North Korea are a clear violation of the inter-Korean agreement, a step that does not resolve wrong practices between the two Koreas but rather exacerbates them,” it said, stressing that it does no good for inter-Korean relations or the peace process on the Korean Peninsula. 

It also said the government has vowed to sternly deal with anti-Pyongyang leafleting by some civic groups and stepped up control near the border towns to crack down on the activities.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

It appears that the U.S.’s efforts to go after Chinese telecom giant Huawei for their state sponsored spying is having a great positive business impact for Samsung:

The move announced on Friday comes as the tech giant is dominating the network equipment sector at a time when telecom companies in different countries are shunning Huawei, the top supplier of network equipment, over security concerns.     
   
“Samsung is rapidly expanding its customer pool, signing four new 5G contracts in the last seven months, including with operators in Canada, the United States and New Zealand,” it said in a statement.    
   
Back in March, Samsung announced it will supply 5G new radio solutions, including Massive MIMO radios, to Spark New Zealand, the largest telecom provider in the country. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the coronavirus spread in South Korea:

South Korea’s virus fight is dragging on, with a steady rise in new virus cases and untraceable infections, along with a spike in imported cases. Health authorities warned that another possible wave of infections and “hidden” virus spreaders across the country may strain the country’s containment efforts.

The country added 49 new cases on Friday, including 32 local infections, raising the total caseload to 12,306, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

The number of new daily COVID-19 cases marks a slight slowdown from a three-week high of 59 a day earlier.

Of the locally transmitted cases, 26 were reported in the densely populated Seoul and nearby metropolitan areas, around half of the country’s 50-million population lives.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but something never mentioned in these articles is if the infection level is such that the hospitals can’t keep up. It appears that the hospitals are doing fine considering the death toll right now is 280 people:

Health authorities said that the country may roll back to strict distancing in daily life if the number of new cases falls back to single digits.

There were no additional deaths, keeping the total death toll to 280.

The fatality rate came to 2.27 percent, but it shot up to 25.65 percent for those aged 80 and above.

Health authorities said it is worrisome that South Korea has been experiencing a hike in the portion of elderly among new patients.

Patients aged 50 and above accounted for a whopping 55 percent of new infections in the first two weeks of June, marking a drastic rise from only 12 percent posted a month earlier.

It seems to me this will just be the new normal until herd immunity happens and the virus runs its course. The key will be making sure the hospitals are not overwhelmed so the most critical patients can be treated which the numbers are showing South Korea is doing a great job of.

The Galwan Valley incident this past week between China and India reminds a lot of what happened during the 1976 DMZ Axe Murder Incident. Instead of axes the Chinese used these improvised weapons to murder the Indian troops that were conducting duties in an area of the valley the Chinese claim was there’s.

An image has emerged showing a crude weapon purportedly used by Chinese forces in the fatal brawl along China’s disputed border with India on Monday.

The fight in the Galwan Valley left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead and raised tensions between the two powers.

China did not acknowledge any casualties among its forces. Both sides accused the other of an incursion.

The border between the two nations in the region is poorly demarcated and can shift with topographical changes.

The image that emerged on Thursday showed crude weapons that appeared to be made from iron rods studded with nails. It was passed to the BBC by a senior Indian military official on the India-China border, who said the weapons had been used by the Chinese.

Defence analyst Ajai Shukla, who first tweeted the image, described the use of such weapons as “barbarism”. The absence of firearms in the clash dates back to a 1996 agreement between the two sides that guns and explosives be prohibited along the disputed stretch of the border, to deter escalation.

The image was widely shared on Twitter in India, prompting outrage from many social media users. Neither Chinese or Indian officials commented on it.

Media reports said troops clashed on ridges at a height of nearly 4,267m (14,000 ft) along a steep terrain, with some soldiers falling into the fast-flowing Galwan river in sub-zero temperatures.

BBC News

You can read more at the link, but with the DMZ Axe Murder Incident, U.S. troops were trimming a tree on the North Korean side of the JSA which prompted what many believe was a planned attack by the North Koreans. I would not be surprised if this attack has long been planned by the Chinese as well considering the use of these improvised weapons. With all the coronavirus and economic issues in China, what better way to divert domestic attention by stoking nationalism by killing a few Indian troops?

Currently it doesn’t appear that the Indians are about to mount a strong response like the U.S. did after the DMZ Axe Murder Incident. If they don’t this will only embolden the Chinese to further take action either against India again or in a place like the South China Sea against other nations they have border disputes with.

Via Flickr user m20wc51. Hat Tip to Don for the link.

It appears we may be beginning to see the playing of the anti-U.S. card by the Korean left:

Amid deteriorating inter-Korean relations, a South Korea-U.S. working group is taking flak for hampering progress in bilateral ties due to its excessively harsh standards adopted on North Korea. 

Critics say unlike its initial goal of coordinating policy on the North, the group is obsessed with whether Seoul-driven initiatives to engage with Pyongyang violate economic sanctions on the reclusive state, with some even calling for its breakup.

The working group, co-chaired by Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs and U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun, was set up in November 2018 following three inter-Korean summits earlier that year. 

Upon its establishment, the government had high hopes that it would be in close communication with the U.S. via the organization. But due to Washington’s stern stance that inter-Korean economic cooperation should proceed in step with significant progress in denuclearizing the North, the group has been more focused on whether inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation violate international and U.S. sanctions.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration has been holding off on playing the anti-U.S. card because of the efforts of the Trump administration to work out a deal with North Korea. However, no deal to end sanctions was ever reached. The Kim regime has lost patience thinks now is the time to pressure the Moon administration to unilaterally violate sanctions. This is because the Moon administration firmly won the April parliamentary elections and the Trump administration is bogged down with a number of issues.

To unilaterally violate sanctions the Moon administration will need to set conditions to blame the U.S. for the new tensions with North Korea. Sending out the activist groups to blame the South Korea-U.S. Work Group is just the start of this effort.