Author: GIKorea

Tweet of the Day: Moon Frightened By NK Gunfire

Picture of the Day: New ROK Flag Flies Over Dokdo

New flag on Dokdo
New flag on DokdoCoast guard members stationed on South Korea’s easternmost Dokdo Islets hoist a new national flag on Aug. 16, 2019, replacing the one damaged by torrential downpours due to the now-extinct Typhoon Krosa. (Yonhap)

Why is North Korea Bashing President Moon After Launching Two More Missiles?

Apparently the North Koreans are not fans of President Moon’s peaceful reunification strategy:

North Korea on Friday launched a pair of unidentified projectiles into the East Sea while deriding South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s call for inter-Korean cooperation in his Liberation Day address Thursday. 

According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the rockets were fired Friday morning at 8:01 a.m. and 8:16 a.m. from an area near Tongchon, Kangwon Province. Each of the projectiles flew a distance of approximately 230 kilometers (143 miles) with a peak altitude of 30 kilometers at Mach 6.1, the JCS said.

No determination has yet been made to what kind of weapon was tested, but the speed and distance covered suggested the same type of short-range tactical ballistic missiles believed to have been tested Aug. 10.

This marked the sixth time Pyongyang conducted such tests in just under a month and the eighth time this year. The tests are ostensibly protests of joint exercises between the United States and South Korea. 

In this round, the launches were accompanied by a statement released by the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country (CPRC), one of the North’s agencies in charge of inter-Korean relations, that pilloried South Korea’s president without mentioning him by name. 

Calling his Thursday speech on the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese rule on “foolish” and a “citation of spiritual slogans,” the statement, attributed to a CPRC spokesperson, said Moon’s labeling of the North’s weapons tests as “worrisome acts” were “reckless remarks.”

“Even at this moment, there go on in South Korea joint military exercises against the DPRK,” the English-language statement continued, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name: the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea. “Does [Moon] have any face to talk about dialogue atmosphere, peaceful economy and peace-keeping mechanism?”

The release scoffed at the central idea in Moon’s address – the building of a “peace economy” through inter-Korean cooperation – saying the notion would “make the boiled head of a cow provoke a side-splitting laughter.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but what the Kim regime is essentially saying here is that if peaceful reunification is going to happen, it is going to happen on North Korean terms, not South Korean.

This is what reunification on North Korean terms looks like, it means a peace treaty that leads to the withdrawal of USFK, North Korea does not denuclearize, and South Korea carries the burden of rebuilding North Korea’s infrastructure, modernizing their military, and funding the Kim regime’s lavish lifestyle. 

There will be no political or social openness in North Korea in return, instead the ideological indoctrination will be strengthened by the “victory” over the Americans by getting them to withdraw and the tribute the South Korean “puppets” are paying to Kim Jong-un in preparation for North Korea’s final victory over the South. 

Tweet of the Day: Whole Nother Level of Dumb

Picture of the Day: Typhoon Krosa’s Course

Expected course of Typhoon Krosa
Expected course of Typhoon KrosaA satellite image shows Typhoon Krosa heading north towards Japan from the northwest Pacific Ocean on Aug. 14, 2019. The Korea Meteorological Administration said the typhoon is expected to pass through southern Japan and reach the East Sea on Aug. 15. It said parts of the Korean Peninsula could be affected by strong winds and heavy rainfall. (Yonhap)

Three People Killed By Fallen Elevator in Sokcho

Condolences to the friends and family of the victims of this terrible accident in Sokcho:

Rescue workers search the wreckage of a crashed elevator in an apartment construction site in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, Wednesday. Yonhap

Three people were killed and three injured as an elevator fell at an apartment construction site in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, Wednesday morning, rescue workers and reports said. 

The three were riding in the elevator when it dropped 15 floors to the ground at 8:28 a.m. The fourth also in the elevator survived the fall and was transported to hospital. 

The remaining two ― foreign workers from Uzkekistan ― were on the ground and hit by debris when the elevator fell. They were also taken to hospital. All casualties were workers. 

It was not immediately known what caused one of the two elevators, installed outside the 30-story building, to fall. Police said that the workers were working to dissemble the elevators.

Korea Times

Korean Conservatives Complain About Trump Administration Demanding More Money for US-ROK Alliance Upkeep

It is strange times in Korea when the conservative politicians are complaining about President Trump and the Korean left don’t like him either, but they really don’t know why:

Korean conservatives are generally pro-U.S. and advocates of a strong Seoul-Washington alliance. 

Yet their alliance appears to be cracking following U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks on issues crucial for South Korea. The real estate developer-turned-politician has expressed his interest in trading the blood-forged alliance for an increase in national revenue and appears to favor North Korea over the South. 

Last Friday he even made fun of South Korea ― along with Japan and the European Union ― mimicking the Korean accent before his deep-pocketed supporters. 

Their sense of humiliation has seen even pro-U.S. conservative politicians speak out to slam Trump. Some lashed out at the president, calling him “empty-headed” or “too inept to figure out what’s right and wrong.”

“With the ‘money is everything’ mind of a merchant, Trump seems to be confused about what is his ally and foe,” Rep. Cho Kyung-tae of the main opposition Liberty Party of Korea (LPK) said on a radio show Tuesday. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: Investigation of Korean War Memorial?

Picture of the Day: ROK Sailors Celebrate Liberation Day

Sailors pose with flags to mark Liberation Day
Sailors pose with flags to mark Liberation DaySailors of the Korean Navy’s First Fleet pose with the South Korean flag in front of the guided missile frigate Gangwon as they mark Liberation Day in the port of Donghae, 280 kilometers east of Seoul, on Aug. 14, 2019. (Yonhap)

Is South Korea’s Announcement of Defense Upgrades Just a Negotiating Ploy?

Here are the defense upgrades that the ROK government plans to invest in:

Seen in this photo captured from a Wikimedia page is a F-35B stealth fighter preparing to land on a ship.

 South Korea plans to add two more ground-based anti-missile early warning radars and begin building three Aegis-equipped destroyers in the next five years in an effort to better detect and intercept incoming missiles from North Korea, the defense ministry said Wednesday.

The plan was one of the key projects that the ministry unveiled in its five-year defense blueprint for 2020-2024 amid heightened concerns about North Korea’s missile capabilities in the wake of a series of test-firings of what Pyongyang claimed were new weapons. (……..)

It will also seek to enhance its multi-layered interception capabilities by deploying the improved version of interceptors — Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 and Cheolmae-II missiles, while wrapping up the development of L-SAM, a long-range surface-to-air missile.

With a goal to boost its “strategic target strike” capabilities against nuclear and missile facilities, the ministry vowed to secure more precision-guided missiles to be launched from the ground, the sea, submarines and fighter jets.

The development of additional non-lethal weapons will also be pushed for, such as electromagnetic pulse bombs and blackout ones, to neutralize North Korea’s electric power system in contingencies, according to the ministry. 

In order to “significantly” boost reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities of its own, the ministry also vowed to deploy five military satellites by 2023 and multiple mid- and high-altitude drones over the next five years. South Korea plans to add two more ground-based anti-missile early warning radars and begin building three Aegis-equipped destroyers in the next five years in an effort to better detect and intercept incoming missiles from North Korea, the defense ministry said Wednesday.

The plan was one of the key projects that the ministry unveiled in its five-year defense blueprint for 2020-2024 amid heightened concerns about North Korea’s missile capabilities in the wake of a series of test-firings of what Pyongyang claimed were new weapons. (……..)

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but does anyone really think the Moon administration will purchase all these capabilities? This announcement almost sounds like a negotiating tactic to stop the Trump administration from demanding that the ROK pay more for the upkeep of the US-ROK alliance.