Not even a global health crisis can stop North Korea from trying to catch a few headlines by launching missiles:
North Korea on Saturday fired two projectiles presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, the latest in a series of such launches this month.
They were fired northeastward from areas near its western county of Sonchon in North Pyongan Province at 6:45 a.m. and 6:50 a.m., respectively, the JCS said, adding that they flew around 410 kilometers, reaching a maximum altitude of around 50 km.
S. Korea, U.S. sign $60 bln currency swap dealA clerk scrutinizes US$100 banknotes at the headquarters of KEB Hana Bank in Seoul on March 20, 2020, to see whether there are any counterfeit bills. The previous day, the Bank of Korea said South Korea and the United States signed a $60 billion bilateral currency swap agreement, easing a liquidity crunch caused by the pandemic. (Yonhap)
I think all of us who closely follow Korea issues have noticed how the foreign press will not report on Moon administration scandals that are very similar and arguably worse than what former President Park Geun-hye was impeached for. This is in stark contrast to the massive interest the foreign press showed during the timeframe prior to the impeachment of President Park.
B.R. Myers
Well now ROK Drop favorite Professor B.R. Myers shares his opinion on why this is:
1) Since Trump was elected, most Western correspondents feel a moral duty to root openly for whatever main political figure in the host country they consider less Trump-like, who in this case is Moon. The same “mirror imaging” dictates that they root against South Korea’s main opposition party, to which they occasionally apply the label “far right,” although it’s well to the left of our Republicans, and most of its members voted in favor of impeaching Park in 2016.
2) When deciding which local stories merit attention, correspondents (and perhaps their editors) seem to follow the lead of the New York Times’ bilingual correspondent Choe Sang-hun, whose own record of stories over the past 10 or so years parallels the agenda of the once-opposition, now staunchly government-loyal Hankyoreh newspaper he used to write for. The language barrier also forces correspondents to rely on local assistants and interns who, like most young people here, get their news from the Naver portal, which has ties to the Blue House and steers clear of stories riling up the Moon-critical half of the country.
3) Foreign journalists are as reluctant as their local colleagues to annoy Moon’s excitable netizen base, especially since the orchestrated attacks in 2019 on a South Korean journalist for Bloomberg who had referred to his reputation in some quarters as a “spokesman for Pyongyang.” (The chairman of the ruling party denounced her as “a black-haired foreigner” for her “borderline traitorous” article.)
You can read much more at the link, but Professor Myers goes on to explain how the foreign media is giving favorable reporting to the Moon administration for how they are handling the coronavirus outbreak despite weeks of problems that Koreans were highly upset about similar to what you seeing going on in the U.S. now. The foreign media is also helping the Moon administration to scapegoat the Shincheonji Church for the coronavirus outbreak problems as well.
It is ironic they are doing this after complaining about Japan putting a quarantine on South Korean travelers when the ROK had the second highest amount of infections behind China:
Passengers arriving at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, are individually checked for fever by quarantine officials on March 19, 2020. (Yonhap)
South Korea will conduct new coronavirus tests on all arrivals from Europe and require them to self-isolate for two weeks as part of ongoing efforts to guard against imported cases of the novel coronavirus, the country’s health authorities said Friday.
The measures, to be effective starting Sunday, are the latest in a series of stepped-up quarantine moves by the country amid growing concerns over a rise in imported virus cases.
The country will require all returnees from European nations to get tested for the virus, and if a person arrives in South Korea from Europe for a long-term stay, he or she will be required to self-isolate at home for two weeks, even if they test negative for COVID-19, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
If the person has no home in South Korea, they will be sent to an isolation facility, according to Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official who is in charge of containment measures.
#UNCQuote “Of course we didn’t speak a word of their language. You could still wash people…dress their wounds. You could still make them comfortable. You don’t need to be able to talk. As long as you’re smiling and sympathetic, you can nurse people,” Nesta Bass, Canadian Nurse. pic.twitter.com/VMtAwFvr7Y
— United Nations Command 유엔군사령부/유엔사 (@UN_Command) March 18, 2020
N. Korean weather forecaster A North Korean weather forecaster reports on the North’s northern areas, in this photo taken from North Korea’s state-run Korean Central Television on March 18, 2020. (Yonhap)
U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Thursday it has completed sorting out its Korean employees that provide essential duties to be excluded from a potential furlough in case Seoul and Washington fail to work out a defense cost-sharing deal in time.
The USFK has warned that some of its 9,000 Korean workers could be forced to go on unpaid leave starting in April should Seoul and Washington fail to reach a deal on the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) that regulates their sharing of the upkeep of the 28,500-strong USFK on Korean soil.
“The USFK has completed its Partial Furlough Implementation Process analysis for Korean national employees who will be retained to provide life, health, safety and readiness services,” USFK said in a release, adding that it is reviewing the results with the union of the Korean employees.
It seems like there is more and more media articles targeting foreigners in South Korea in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic. There must be an election coming up:
Workers prepare to disinfect as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a local market in Seoul, Wednesday.
The government said Thursday it will deport foreigners who do not comply with COVID-19 measures despite being suspected or confirmed of having the coronavirus.
The Ministry of Justice has unveiled stronger measures against foreigners who do not follow health authorities’ requests to be tested, treated or quarantined.
“If they refuse to comply with requests by health officials, we will immediately enforce the new rules, including deportation and entry ban,” the ministry said.
If any foreigners cause financial damage by violating the health measures, the ministry said it will continue to seek compensation from them.
