I think President Trump has a far different definition of what “reasonable” means than President Moon:
NEW YORK, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in told U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday that his government is open to sharing the cost of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) on a “reasonable and fair” level, a Cheong Wa Dae official said after their summit here.
You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see if President Moon tries to raise anti-US sentiment like he has done with Japan if he can’t get Trump to back down on significantly increasing the ROK’s cost sharing amount each year.
1/ As we have expected last year, the current pro-NK jusapa govt is at the tipping point. These lawless Jucheist ppl are collapsing by their corruption cases. There are still a lot more to come. Cho Kuk is a breaking point of Moon govt. https://t.co/RUNak8yoS6
Here is the latest on the gender wars in South Korea:
On the same street corner in Seoul where 10,000 South Korean women rallied last October to demand an end to spy cameras and sexual violence, the leader of a new activist group addressed a small group of angry young men.
“We are a group for legal justice, anti-hate, and true gender equality,” Moon Sung-ho boomed into a microphone to a crowd of a few dozen men waving placards.
As feminist issues come to the fore in deeply patriarchal South Korea, there’s a growing discontent among young men thatthey’re being left behind. Moon, who leads Dang Dang We, a group “fighting for justice for men,” is one of them.
He started his group last year after a 39-year-old business owner was sentenced to six months in prison for grabbing a woman’s buttocks in a Korean soup restaurant. The case provoked outrage that a man could be convicted on no evidence beyond the victim’s claims.
A facility that was plagued by corruption and mismanagement to construct is closer to fully opening:
After years of delays, the U.S. military held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday for a new, $275 million hospital, marking a turning point in the relocation of most American forces to this expanded base south of Seoul.
The opening of the 68-bed Brian D. Allgood Army Community Hospital, also known as BAACH, allows its namesake facility on Yongsan Garrison in Seoul to close. The new hospital, which had already offered outpatient services, will officially open for inpatients on Nov. 15.
The U.S. military broke ground for the hospital and ambulatory care center in November 2012 on land that had been used for helicopter hangars. But construction problems and quality control issues filled the years that followed, as the South Korean contractor Samsung C&T Corp. struggled to meet rigid U.S. standards.
Well I guess if you can’t get North Korea to denuclearize you can just change the definition to make it look like they are denuclearizing:
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha responds to questions at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, Monday, about issues South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump will discuss during their summit Tuesday (KST). Yonhap
The United States and North Korea are in talks to agree on a “mutually-acceptable” definition for “denuclearization,” South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Monday (KST) in a briefing at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel.
“Since the breakdown in Hanoi, yes, there has been a lot of discussion between Washington and Pyongyang over the issue of the desired end state for denuclearization, and the clarification of actual denuclearization. Lots of interpretations have been used regarding denuclearization as there are different definitions. The upcoming working-level discussions between Washington and Pyongyang will look into that issue, seriously and thoroughly, to gain a clear concept of the term,” the foreign minister said responding to a question from The Korea Times.
SKorea has imposed a 513% tariff on imported rice for years. It's ridiculous.
As a member state of the WTO, SKorea is obligated to import rice even if doesn't want to. In 2014, it had to import up to 409,000 tonnes of rice.https://t.co/CnCL80tYQZ
Beer festival in SeoulPeople enjoy drinking beer during the 5th Sinchon Beer Festival on Yonsei Street in western Seoul on Sept. 20, 2019, the opening day of the event. It is to be held from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. through Sept. 22. (Yonhap)
I would think that USFK understands this is not about turning over land, but instead the Moon administration scoring political points for standing up to the big, bad Americans before National Assembly elections next year:
The U.S. military wants to set the record straight as it faces South Korean pressure to expedite the handover of bases as part of a drawn-out relocation plan.
U.S. Forces Korea is ready to turn over more than half of the bases now, including parts of Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, the command said Wednesday in a rare public display of frustration.
South Korea “recently announced that it desired to expedite the return process of 26 U.S. military installations,” USFK said. “Fifteen of the 26 U.S. military installations, including four sites specifically requested for transfer at the earliest possible date … have been vacated, closed and available for transfer to the (South Korean) government.”
“Two parcels of Yongsan Garrison have been vacated, closed and available for transfer since 2014 with another three parcels since summer 2019 for a total of five parcels available now,” it added.
You can read the rest at the link, but the ROK government is stating that they are not accepting the hand over of the facilities that USFK has vacated because of environmental concerns knowing full well that the Status of Forces Agreement states that the ROK will accept the land “as is”.
This is a standard play call from the Korean left wing playbook. They demand the turn over of USFK facilities, but when USFK tries to do just that they play delay games declaring the property is polluted. This allows activists and politicians to grandstand and claim how USFK is polluting Korea and if it wasn’t for left wing politicians and activists they would get away with it, so donate and vote for us.
Back during the last big hand over of land during the left wing Roh Moo-hyun administration they kept claiming that the bases in the 2nd Infantry Division area were too polluted to be handed over. For example it was claimed that Camp Kyle was a no use area that required people to enter the base with anti-contamination suits. I knew this was misinformation and walked over to Camp Kyle and took a picture of people walking around with out anti-contamination suits. The propaganda got so bad that a blockbuster Korean horror movie based on the premise that USFK pollution created the monster that was going around killing Koreans.
Expect more misinformation in the coming months about how polluted the U.S. bases are and that South Korea should not pay one dime extra in US-ROK alliance upkeep costs because of it. The Korean left is likely not going to want this issued resolved until after not only next year’s National Assembly elections, but possibly the 2022 ROK Presidential election as well.
It seems to me that whatever evidence that would have existed would have been long removed from the house by now:
Investigators enter the residence of Justice Minister Cho Kuk in south Seoul on Sept. 23, 2019 as part of prosecutors’ probe into allegations of corruption involving his family. (Yonhap)
The prosecution raided the residence of Justice Minister Cho Kuk on Monday as part of a widening probe into corruption allegations involving his family, including suspected forgery by his wife.
State prosecutors are looking into allegations that Cho’s wife forged a college presidential citation to help her daughter enroll in a medical school. Cho’s wife was indicted on those charges early this month.
Investigators were sent to his house earlier in the day to collect computer hard drives and documents.
The prosecution is probing suspicions that his wife, a professor surnamed Chung, may have sought to destroy evidence linked to the alleged forgery and Cho may have aided and abetted such acts.
