Author: GIKorea

It is very easy to imagine North Korea using a drone attack against an infrastructure target in South Korea as part of a provocation strategy and then deny they did it. Remember this is the same country that torpedoed a ROK naval ship killing dozens of sailors, then denied they did it and still had people in South Korea making excuses for them:

The devastating drone attack on a Saudi oil field by Yemeni rebels has raised concerns that vital South Korean installations could be similarly vulnerable to attack drones from North Korea. 

Some pundits believe North Korea has steadily improved its drone capabilities since leader Kim Jong-un took power, although so far only a few crashed unmanned aerial vehicles used for surveillance were found here.

But at recent military parades, the North has unveiled ostensibly self-destructing UAVs and, once armed, could potentially aim them at Cheong Wa Dae, Army headquarters and other key military installations.

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but considering how far they have flown drones before into South Korea the ability to successfully conduct such an attack is there.

It would be interesting to see what accomplishments President Moon thinks should be enshrined in his own multi-million dollar library:

The government until a few days ago planned to spend W17.2 billion in taxpayers’ money to build a library dedicated to the life and career of Moon Jae-in in Busan once the president leaves office (US$1=W1,192). It would be the first of its kind paid for with taxpayers’ money. So far the country has been content to store documents and other materials related to all previous presidents in a library in Sejong administrative city that opened in 2016. There is a separate library and museum dedicated to Kim Dae-jung, a vastly more distinguished figure than the incumbent, but it was paid for with his Nobel Peace Prize money.

Moon’s own library was to be built on a sprawling 5,000 sq.m plot of land in the southern port city. The existing library in Sejong employs 64 staff, yet the government will have to hire more than 20 staff just to look after the Moon collection. The Moon administration is starting to behave as if it is on a mission to empty the government’s coffers over ever less useful projects.

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Is anyone surprised that Cho Kuk lied about his daughter’s academic fraud:

Justice Minister Cho Kuk’s daughter did take credit for a controversial medical research paper in her application to Korea University in 2010, the JoongAng Ilbo reported Tuesday – which Cho himself denied in his confirmation hearing on Sept. 6.

The research paper from Dankook University’s Medical Science Research Institute credited Cho’s daughter as first author even though she was just a high school intern.

“During a raid of Korea University, the prosecution seized records concerning the 2010 admission process, including a list of materials that Cho’s daughter had submitted as a part of her application,” a university official told the JoongAng Ilbo.

Although the application itself and other submitted materials were discarded because the five-year mandatory archive period had passed, the list of materials she submitted remained, the official said.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but you would think the university’s his daughter applied to would find it odd that a high school student was the lead author of a medical research paper.

Thanksgiving fashion for South Korean women, The Current Year:

1. "I'm single."
2. "I graduate next year."
3. "I'm preparing for work."

Suggested No. 4: "I like cats." pic.twitter.com/a0rliR9Y47

— King Baeksu (@KingBaeksu) September 14, 2019

The Moon administration is sending their Foreign Minister to try and lobby the USFK commander on the USFK cost sharing issue:

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will meet with United States Forces Korea (USFK) commander Robert Abrams, Friday, at the new USFK headquarters in Camp Humphreys, to discuss pending security affairs here.

Kang’s visit to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, located about 70 kilometers south of Seoul, is the first since 2017. The visit to the U.S. military base comes at a crucial time when the allies are on the verge of starting their defense cost-sharing negotiations, known as the Special Measures Agreement (SMA).

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The top story in Korea that is headlining all its news outlets is the announcement that the Hwaseong Serial Killer has been identified after all these years:

Police may have solved one of the Korea’s most mysterious cold cases: the serial rapes and murders of nine women in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, in the late 1980s.  

According to Ban Ki-soo, a chief investigator at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency on Thursday, newly analyzed DNA evidence from three of the nine cases matched the DNA of a 56-year-old convict surnamed Lee currently serving a life sentence in Busan for a different murder he committed in 1994.  

This discovery could very well bring a resolution to one of the most notorious serial rape and murder sprees in Korean criminal history, which terrified Korea from 1986 to 1991 and remained unsolved for three decades.  

Yet the suspect, who was in his 20s at the time of the killings, can no longer be charged for any of those crimes since the statute of limitations for the last of the murders expired in April 2006. He has denied responsibility for all nine murders, police said.

Lee is serving a life sentence in the Busan Penitentiary for raping and murdering his wife’s sister, aged 20 at his home in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, in January 1994. According to press reports, he is a model prisoner with a taciturn personality who is eligible for parole.

A 10-victim rape and murder spree of the late 1980s and early 1990s terrified the nation — particularly due to the authorities’ inability to find a culprit — and was compared to the so-called Zodiac killings in California in the late 1960s. The killings gave rise to copycat crimes and inspired one of the most iconic blockbusters of Korean cinema, “Memories of Murder.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but here is a video report of the announcement from Arirang News:

The suspect could have likely been identified sooner if the investigators back when the crimes happened did not discard so much evidence such as cigarette butts found at the scene that would have much DNA evidence. Instead modern day forensic scientists using new technology were able to extract DNA from the victim’s clothes that were saved as evidence to make this DNA match.

For those that haven’t I highly recommend watching the Korean movie, Memories of Murder which uses a dramatized account of the investigation to show how incompetent it was and the killer’s impact on Korean society back then.

What I have not been able to find out is if the identified killer was even a suspect during the time of the killings? The police back then had many suspects that they were trying to pin the murder on, so it would be interesting to see if this guy was even on the police’s radar back then.

The South Korean government really wants people to get used to shopping with reusable bags:

Plastic waste is a nagging headache for Asia’s fourth-largest economy. After banning plastic cups and bags, the government is now moving to ban paper boxes and packaging tapes.

Starting November, supermarkets will stop providing paper boxes and tape that shoppers can use to carry their groceries home, a move meant to encourage shoppers to use reusable shopping bags and reduce the plastic tape and string used for packing boxes, according to the environment ministry.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the supermarkets must love the fact they can increase profits by selling the reusable bags all the while claiming they care about the environment.

#MoonJaein again says "south side," instead of #SouthKorea. He used the same term when he went to Pyongyang. This time, it's on TV during Korean Thanksgiving day. Is he ashamed of South Korea?https://t.co/6nXmRRef4R

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) September 15, 2019