Author: GIKorea

Any place with people packed into it is a risk to spread this virus, so the nightclubs and bars will likely be closed for a quite a while:

The Seoul city government on Saturday effectively suspended business at clubs and bars in the city after recent infections in the city’s popular multicultural neighborhood of Itaewon put health authorities on alert over a possibly bigger outbreak.

Under an administrative order that has gone into effect immediately, all clubs, bars, “room salons” and other nightlife establishments across the capital will be banned from hosting crowds of people, virtually suspending businesses at such venues.

“Such facilities have to suspend business immediately and will face strict punishment if they breach (the order),” Mayor Park Won-soon said in a press briefing, adding the order will remain in effect under further notice.

“Carelessness can lead to an explosion in infections — we clearly realized this through the group infections seen in the Itaewon club case,” Park said, urging businesses and the public to closely abide by quarantine measures.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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

Here is the latest on the USFK cost sharing issue:

US President Donald Trump told a press briefing Thursday that South Korea had agreed to pay “substantial money” to the US for the upkeep of the 28,500 American troops stationed here, repeating what he had told Reuters a week earlier. 

“It costs us a lot of money. And if we’re going to defend countries, they should also respect us by making a contribution,” Trump said.

The Trump administration is reportedly pushing Korea to pay about $1.3 billion, a whopping 49 percent more than Korea paid last year and roughly four times the amount that Seoul and Washington shook hands on for an interim deal last March.

Trump openly rejected the deal and has since pressed Korea to shoulder a greater share of the defense costs.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

I am surprised that the ROK military only has a total of 40 coronavirus cases considering the tight barracks conditions

A noncommissioned officer working at the Cyber Operations Command in Seoul has tested positive for the new coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases reported in the military to 40, the defense ministry said Friday.

The staff sergeant working at the command’s service support unit contracted the virus after visiting a club in Seoul’s popular multicultural neighborhood of Itaewon where a COVID-19 patient visited last week, according to the ministry.

Following the test result early Friday, the military restricted the movement of all service members of the unit, and health authorities were tracing the patient’s possible contacts.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Fortunately it appears so far that no one else on the plane was infected:

USFK commander Gen. Robert Abrams said Wednesday that he would not yet lift the military restrictions, which include a ban on nonessential travel off base and dining in at local restaurants and bars.

Many of the infections reported in recent weeks have been imported from abroad.

The American sailor landed at Osan Air Base on the charter flight on Wednesday and was transported to a barracks on Camp Humphreys for a mandatory 14-day quarantine, according to a press release from U.S. Forces Korea.

“Since testing positive, the sailor has been moved to Camp Humphreys’ isolation barracks designated for confirmed COVID-19 cases,” the command said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but this is a perfect example of why the 14 day quarantine is so important.

This is probably going to be a reoccurring reality with the opening of clubs, dealing with cluster infections:

Thirteen more cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed Friday, associated with a patient who visited clubs and bars in Seoul’s popular multicultural neighborhood of Itaewon over the weekend.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said that 14 of the patient’s contacts, including three foreign nationals and one Army officer, have so far tested positive for COVID-19. All patients are aged between 19 and 37.

The 29-year-old patient, whom health authorities consider the first patient in the cluster infection, visited five clubs and bars in Itaewon from Friday night to the early hours of Saturday last week.

Twelve of the 13 new cases were those who had visited the Itaewon clubs, with the number feared to rise, considering that at least 1,510 people were estimated to have visited the five nightlife establishments including King Club, Trunk Club and Club Queen.

Yonhap News

You can read more at the link.

The South Korean government is trying to get maximum political benefit from everyone pronouncing Kim Jong-un as dead:

 The recent brouhaha surrounding the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un showed how “fake news” can affect the economy, such as stock and financial markets, Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said Thursday.

Speculative reports about Kim’s health spread wildly after he failed to show up at a key national event last month. CNN reported Kim could be in “grave danger after surgery” while some other media outlets went as far as saying that he was believed to be in a coma or already dead.

South Korean officials, including the unification minister, repeatedly rejected such rumors as fake news, but speculation persisted until Kim appeared in public last week, smiling broadly and showing no signs of illness.

“We’ve witnessed the effect fake news has on the stock and financial markets,” the minister said during a press briefing.

“When analyzing intelligence, we cannot but take into consideration the effect it can have on the political situation and how it can actually affect the economy. What’s more important is to take responsibility in handling intelligence,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but just because the so called North Korea experts the media turns to was wrong about Kim Jong-un doesn’t mean every expert critical of anything the Moon administration does is wrong as well.