The fact that this was not leaked to the activist groups to and block the convoy means that the Moon administration sees no need to play the anti-US card yet:
Military vehicles transport equipment to the site of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) base in the town of Seongju, about 220 km south of Seoul, on May 29, 2020, as part of an upgrade, in this photo released by a group of residents and activists opposing the installation of the missile defense system.
New interceptor missiles were brought onto a U.S. THAAD missile defense base in South Korea on Friday as replacements, the defense ministry said, in a surprise overnight operation aimed at minimizing friction with local residents opposed to the base.
Also brought onto the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) base in the central town of Seongju were power generation equipment and other items to be used to improve the living conditions of troops stationed there, according to the ministry.
The ground transport operation, which began around 10 p.m. Thursday, ended around 6 a.m., officials said.
This is pretty sad when active duty military units are now on alert to respond to violence because local and state authorities are unwilling to stop it:
A member of the Minnesota National Guard stands guard by the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn. Friday, May 29, 2020. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced that he asked the Minnesota National Guard to be responsible for the safety of the State Capitol.
As unrest spread across dozens of American cities on Friday, the Pentagon took the rare step of ordering the Army to put several active-duty U.S. military police units on the ready to deploy to Minneapolis, where the police killing of George Floyd sparked the widespread protests.
Soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York have been ordered to be ready to deploy within four hours if called, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders. Soldiers in Fort Carson, in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas have been told to be ready within 24 hours. The people did not want their names used because they were not authorized to discuss the preparations.
You can read more at the link, but active duty servicemembers do not have policing powers due to the Posse Comitatus Act, the National Guard does though. This is why the Guard is called in to deal with situations like this.
If active duty units are sent, according to the article they will be deployed using the Insurrection Act of 1807. If you click the link you can read more about the act which essentially allows the government to deploy active duty troops if the Posse Comitatus Act fails to stop lawlessness, insurrections, or rebellions. I would be very surprised if these escalated to the point of needing active duty troops.
An FCO spokesperson"The UK has temporarily closed its embassy in #Pyongyang and our staff have departed the country. This decision has been made because the DPRK restrictions on entry to the country have made it impossible to rotate our staff&sustain the operation of the Embassy"
Clarifying suspicions Lawmaker-elect of the ruling Democratic Party Yoon Mi-hyang, who led an advocate group for the victims of the Japanese military’s sexual slavery during World War II, receives a barrage of questions from reporters after her news conference to make a stand on allegations raised by one of the victims at the National Assembly in Seoul on May 29, 2020. The news conference followed the exposure by Lee Yong-soo of alleged decadeslong exploitation of such victims, called “comfort women,” by the former head of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. (Yonhap)
Good job by the USFK civilian employee responding to an attempted suicide on the Mapo Bridge in Seoul:
Andres Torres, 34, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., poses outside his office at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2020.
Andres Torres was out for an early morning bike ride when he spotted two South Korean men perched dangerously on the tall barriers lining the Mapo Bridge in Seoul.
Torres, who works for the Defense Intelligence Agency on Yongsan Garrison, couldn’t remember the local emergency number (119) and doesn’t speak much Korean but felt he had to do something to keep them from jumping.
“I was just telling them, ‘This is not a good idea. You don’t want to do this. It’s a beautiful day outside,’” he said, describing the May 21 incident. “I just rambled, but at least I got their attention for a little bit.”
The city installed 8.5-foot-high, curved barriers along the bridge in 2016 to keep people from trying to jump as it had become a popular spot for suicide attempts. But the men had managed to climb on top.
I have always said that the Kim regime is not going to feel the real effect of sanctions until the Chinese banks are sanctioned. Hopefully this is a sign of the U.S. government more aggressively going after Chinese banks:
The U.S. government has charged 28 North Korean and five Chinese individuals with facilitating more than $2.5 billion in illegal payments for Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile program as part of a clandestine global network operating from countries including China, Russia, Libya and Thailand.
In a 50-page federal indictment unsealed Thursday in Washington, D.C., the Justice Department accused the individuals of acting as agents of North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank, in what officials say is the largest North Korean sanctions violations case charged by the U.S.
Working for the FTB — which is North Korea’s primary foreign currency bank and under sanctions for facilitating nuclear proliferation — the agents allegedly set up more than 250 front companies and covert bank branches around the world to mask payments transiting the U.S. financial system, including through several Chinese banks and for equipment from Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp., according to charging documents. (…….)
The massive enforcement action comes as United Nations experts have detailed North Korea’s widespread evasion of sanctions by using agents of state-owned and other banks overseas to facilitate a global web of illicit oil, arms and coal deals to bring in foreign currency. The efforts have been augmented through offshore, ship-to-ship transfers, large-scalecryptocurrency hacks and ransomware attacks.
A ROK Drop favorite Joshua Stanton from One Free Korea is quoted in the article:
“This adds to the already overwhelming evidence that China’s government is willfully assisting Kim Jong Un in his violations of North Korea sanctions,” said Joshua Stanton, a lawyer who helped write the 2016 law that strengthened North Korea sanctions.
“I’ll believe it’s ‘maximum pressure’ when those banks begin to face nine- and ten-digit penalties, like the ones President (Barack) Obama imposed on European banks that broke Iran sanctions,” Stanton said, and has advised House and Senate staffers on North Korea sanctions law.
According to the article no one is in custody because assuredly the North Koreans and Chinese won’t hand these people over. However, already $63 million in assets have been seized.
Maybe the politics of the coronavirus is finally causing our government to take real action against Chinese banks?
Airmen have a few more weeks to get their new uniforms:
The Air Force has delayed its switch to new color schemes for uniform boots, under garments and flag patches until September, citing “unnecessary stress” on its service members due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Airmen, including Space Force service members, by Sept. 1 must wear coyote brown boots and T-shirts and spice brown U.S. flag patches with their two-piece flight uniforms and utility uniforms in the operational camouflage pattern, better known as OCPs, according to a notice on the Air Force website. The original deadline was June 1.
Illegal Chinese entrant A Chinese national (C) in his 40s is taken by Coast Guard members to Taean Maritime Police Station in the western coastal city of Taean for a probe on May 27, 2020. He is one of six Chinese people who allegedly snuck into the country aboard a six-seat, 1.5-ton motorboat via the city on May 20. The others are still missing. (Yonhap)
The logistics warehouse cluster infection continues to grow:
South Korea said Thursday that it will beef up quarantine measures in the Seoul metropolitan area over the next two weeks to stem further spread of the new coronavirus in the densely populated area amid eased social distancing.
Under the measure, health authorities will apply a strong social distancing scheme in the capital city and surrounding areas through June 14.
Public facilities, including museums and art galleries in the region, will be shut down, with companies urged to adopt flexible work systems and follow quarantine rules.
Entertainment establishments such as bars and clubs in the metropolitan area will be strongly advised to close down over the period, according to Health Minister Park Neung-hoo.
You can read more at the link, but according to the article the ROK Health Minister is saying if they can’t get the cluster infection under control it could undermine the school reopenings that have been happening recently.
