Author: GIKorea

I do not support aggression against South Korea’s riot police, especially since many of them are mandatory service conscripts. With that said the protests against the Moon administration are nothing like the violent protests we have seen Korean leftists commit in the past with little to no consequences:

State prosecutors on Friday sought a court warrant to arrest a conservative pastor for his alleged role in a violent anti-government protest.

Rev. Jun Kwang-hoon, chief of the Christian Council of Korea, led a mass rally in central Seoul on Oct. 3 calling for the resignations of a scandal-ridden justice minister and President Moon Jae-in.

Police have investigated the pastor, also chief of a coalition of conservative groups which organized the rally, on suspicions that he instigated protesters to use violence against police when they marched toward the adjacent presidential office.

Prosecutors requested a Seoul court issue arrest warrants for Jun and two other protest leaders on charges including obstruction of justice and breaching assembly and demonstration laws, according to legal sources with knowledge of the matter.

Hundreds of thousands participated in the rally in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul. Speakers on stage shouted radical phrases such as “Seize the Blue House” and “Arrest the president.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but when the Korean government did arrest a violent left wing KCTU protester last year they ended up letting him go. It will be interesting to see if the Korean courts do the same thing with this pastor.

In recent months I made my way up to Uijeongbu to visit friends and we ate dinner at a budaechigae restaurant near where the old USFK military bases Camp Kyle and Camp Sears were located. For people that have never seen Camp Kyle before, here is what it looked like before it closed in 2005:

From the restaurant I could look right into where Camp Kyle was once located. Currently there are no buildings standings and essentially the land is slowly being reclaimed by nature:

Long time ROK Heads may remember that Camp Kyle was at the center of environmental pollution claims made by the anti-US groups and the ROK media at the time. For example the ROK media was claiming that Camp Kyle was so polluted that people had to walk around in “anti-contamination suits” to protect themselves. I knew this was bogus and did something no one in the Korea media decided to do and actually visited Camp Kyle. Of course I saw no one wearing anti-contamination suits.

Regardless Camp Kyle remained one of the frontlines in the USFK pollution debate with the ROK government demanding that U.S. pay to decontaminate the soil at the camp. ROK Heads may remember that the pollution clean up costs have come up during the ongoing US-ROK alliance cost sharing negotiations this month.

After eating dinner we then took a walk around the Geumo-dong neighborhood towards where Camp Sears used to be located.

For those that have never been to Camp Sears here is how it looked back in 2005:

This is what Camp Sears looks like today:

Besides the typical commercial buildings that have gone up around the old camp, a couple of major government buildings have been constructed right on where Camp Sears was once located. The first is a Uijeongbu government service building:

The other is the Northern Gyeongi-do Provisional Police headquarters:

Around these buildings a number of parks have been constructed on the old Camp Sears property, however they are not being maintained:

You would think that with all the money spent on these new government buildings there would be enough money left over to pay a gardener:

Around the government buildings there is now a road that has been constructed, Cheongbo-ro which is named after the mountain behind the old camp, Cheonbosan:

A walk completely around the old camp and could find no sign of the existence of the former camp anywhere. Adjacent to Camp Sears there used to be an area that housed ROK Army fuel storage tanks. This property now has a major construction project underway on it:

After walking around Camp Sears we then walked over to the major Geumo-dong shopping district that has not changed much since 2005 when Camp Kyle and Sears closed.

The Home Plus remains the major shopping attraction in the Geumo-dong neighborhood:

It may be hard to believe, but prior to 2000 this shopping area was actually home to various farms. The closing of Camp Kyle and Camp Sears is just a continuation of South Korea’s incredible development. The camp’s are mostly a long forgotten memory for people that live there, just like the farms the shopping district now sits on top of.

#SouthKorean High School Students Speak Out Against Anti-Japan, Anti-U.S. Ideological Indoctrination by the Teachers’ Union Jeongyojohttps://t.co/CRvAtELasG

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) December 31, 2019

I think Ambassador Harris should troll the Korean leftists by growing out his mustache to look like Choi Jin-dong:

You can read the whole story about how Choi Jin-dong was identified at this link. The picture was taken in Moscow during a communist conference and the guns both are wearing were actually gifts from Lenin.

I hope no one is surprised by this news because the Kim regime is publicly stating what they have been hinting at doing for months:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un proclaimed Pyongyang will no longer be bound to a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) and would unveil a “new strategic weapon” soon.  

In a long-anticipated address delivered on the last day of the 5th plenary meeting of the 7th ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee, Kim unleashed a bitter condemnation of the United States for throttling the North Korean economy with sanctions, a posture that he said reflected a “hostile policy” that failed to respect its suspension of nuclear and ICBM tests in 2018.

“Under such condition, there is no ground for us to get unilaterally bound to the commitment any longer, the commitment to which there is no opposite party, and this is chilling our efforts for worldwide nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation,” Kim said.  

Kim vowed to bolster his country’s military muscle and build a “powerful nuclear deterrent capable of containing the nuclear threats from the United States and guaranteeing our long-term security,” though the “scope and depth” of that buildup “will be coordinated depending on the U.S. future attitude.

“The world will witness a new strategic weapon to be possessed by the DPRK in the near future,” Kim added, noting that Washington’s “impudent” stance vis-a-vis their negotiations has impelled the regime to “shift to a shocking action to make [the United States] pay for the pains sustained” by its people. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the only unexpected about this that probably should have been expected is that Iran is acting up at the same time. In other words nothing has changed with these two countries.

I do find it interesting that the Korean courts put former President Park Geun-hye n pre-trial confinement for fear of evidence destruction and fleeing the country, but they did not put Cho Kuk in jail. Is this a sign that the fix is in to protect him?:

Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk managed to avoid pretrial detention on Friday, as a local court turned down the prosecution’s request for an arrest warrant to investigate his alleged abuse of power during his service at the Blue House. 

Judge Kwon Deok-jin of the Seoul Eastern District Court announced his decision to reject the prosecutors’ request to take Cho into custody at 1 a.m. on Friday, saying Cho is not a flight risk and there is no possibility of evidence destruction, although the prosecution has proven the criminal charges against the former justice minister. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The Korean left now has a new agency to protect their allies from Korean prosecutors and to go after their political enemies with:

The National Assembly passed a bill Monday to create a new agency to investigate senior officials, a top item on President Moon Jae-in’s criminal justice reform agenda. 

The bill, drafted by a Democratic Party (DP) lawmaker and revised by a Justice Party lawmaker, was passed by 159 votes. Of the 176 lawmakers who participated in the vote, 14 opposed it and three abstained.  (…….)

The new agency is the first organization allowed to take over some of the prosecution’s indictment powers. It will investigate crimes allegedly committed by top officials in the administration and judiciary ranging from the president to judges and prosecutors. Lawmakers were excluded from its scope. 

Creating a new investigation agency for senior officials was the top legislative priority for Moon. Ever since taking office in May 2017, Moon, his aides and the DP have tirelessly pushed the initiative – along with other attempts to weaken the prosecution’s powers.  

The idea of a new agency investigating senior officials was first introduced in 2002 during the administration of former President Roh Moo-hyun, Moon’s ideological and political mentor.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but if this new agency was in operation when the Cho Kuk scandal hit does anyone think this Blue House appointed agency would have done much to investigate and indict him and his family for corruption?

Also notice the timing of the passing of this bill, they passed it during the New Year’s Eve holiday period when they knew few Koreans would be paying attention. Additionally remember that Korea is a rule by law country, not a rule of law country.

Happy New Year ROK Heads! I hope everyone has an awesome 2020!