Author: GIKorea

Another infectious disease has come into South Korea likely from North Korea:

South Korea was on alert Tuesday to prevent the spread of African swine fever after the first case of the animal disease was confirmed near the border with North Korea.

The agriculture ministry announced the beginning of operations to slaughter some 4,000 pigs as a precautionary step.

Kim Hyeon-soo, minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs, said quarantine officials are set to complete the culling of the pigs at three farms, including the one where the disease was detected, in Paju, just south of the inter-Korean border, by Tuesday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes news that the Russians are holding 80 North Koreans for illegal fishing in Russian waters:

Russia says the ships were engaged in illegal fishing off its coast, and that one of the vessels launched an “armed attack”. 

Three Russian border guards were reportedly wounded in a clash.

North Korea has yet to comment on the incident, but Russia’s Foreign Ministry has expressed “serious concern” and summoned the country’s top diplomat.

A spokesperson for the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said the two schooners were accompanied by 11 motorboats and were spotted poaching near the Yamato Bank, which lies between the Korean Peninsula, Russia and Japan.

Russia says they were caught in its Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (370km) from its coast.

MSN

Greenpeace is doing Greenpeace things:

Greenpeace is under police investigation for defacing an advertisement for Hyundai Motor in their war against pollution from cars.

A member of the environmental group climbed a 40-meter (131-foot) billboard for Hyundai Motor’s new Sonata sedan close to the automaker’s head office in Seoul on Monday morning and posted a message in large black hangul characters reading, “No more internal combustion engines.”

“Getting rid of internal combustion engines is a must to-do task in today’s environment,” said Lee In-sung, a climate campaigner for the local branch of the non-governmental environmental organization, which is headquartered in Amsterdam.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is some information to keep in mind when traveling on public transit in Seoul:

Seoul’s subway Line 2 is the most sexual crime-prone public area with 2,069 cases over the past five years. Among stations, Express Bus Terminal on Line 3 topped the list with 56 cases in the January-July period.

Rep. Han Sun-gyo of the main opposition Liberty Party of Korea revealed the figures on Sunday, citing National Police Agency data. 

Subway Line 9 was the second most prone with 1,479 cases since 2015, followed by Line 1 (848 cases), Line 4 (756 cases), Line 3 (407 cases), Line 5 (288 cases), Line 6 (163 cases) and Line 8 (41 cases). 

Noryangjin Station was the second most sexual crime-prone subway station (24 cases since July) after the Express Bus Terminal. Third was Yeouido (23 cases), followed by Sadang (21 cases), Seoul Station (20 cases), Gangnam (19 cases), Dongjak (18 cases) and Sindorim (17 cases).

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The suspension of the USFK curfew will continue for another 3 months for all Soldiers except for those in the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team:

 American troops in South Korea received at least three more months without a curfew after Gen. Robert Abrams extended the temporary suspension of the policy on Tuesday.

However, the 1-5 a.m. off-installation curfew has been slapped back on the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, also known as the “Greywolf Brigade,” which began a nine-month rotation in South Korea in early June.

Abrams, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said the temporary reprieve has been going well, but he’s not ready to make it permanent.

“The vast majority of our personnel have conducted themselves appropriately, but I felt it was important to implement an additional 90 days to ensure we are making the correct decision regarding the curfew,” he said in a statement.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the article didn’t say but I assume there must have been enough incidents of misbehavior in the brigade to warrant being subject to the curfew again.

Here is the latest on the South Korea-Japan spat:

Japan did not ask South Korea for intelligence on North Korea’s recent launch of two “unidentified projectiles” after Seoul ended its military information sharing pact with Tokyo. 

Political analysts in Seoul said Sunday the key motivation behind the silence was because it did not want to be viewed as seeking help to acquire classified information after the termination of the pact, commonly known as GSOMIA, Aug. 22.

However Tokyo seems fully capable of monitoring North Korea’s military activities in cooperation with the United States and does not need to work with South Korea, they added. 

Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) and Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) have yet to finalize their assessment of the projectiles’ maximum altitude and speed ― two key pieces of information when analyzing the specifications of North Korean missiles or projectiles.

“I think Japan is curious to know about North Korean projectiles last week but does not want to appear to be begging for help from the South,” Shin In-kyun, president of the Korea Defense Network said. “This is why Japan has not asked for related information on the projectiles. It is as simple as that.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but maybe the Japanese are not bother to ask the ROK because they already received their intelligence information from the United States?

I would love to know what the context is in regards to these maps that were found on these government websites. This sounds like more stirring of the pot to get anti-Japanese issues back in the headlines: