Author: GIKorea

This article in The Diplomat really articulates why Japan and South Korea are having their current bitter trade dispute:

To understand why a free trade-dependent, rules-upholding country is apparently willing to undermine the rules of free trade with one of its most important trading partners, it may be useful to divide rules, norms, laws, treaties – the “stuff” of international order – between the content of what they regulate, e.g. trade, and the attributes that make them meaningful, e.g. mutual acceptance, reliability, and finality. In an ironic twist, Japan is using a particular subset of international rules, norms, laws, and treaties (specifically regulating trade) to fight for a common understanding that rules, norms, laws, and treaties (but especially those concerning historical issues) ought to be mutually accepted, reliable, and final once signed.

Even if the agreement reached in years or decades prior is not the preferred agreement of the current generation, there needs to be an acceptance of those agreements as constituted. Perhaps the only silver lining in all of this is that a liberal president rules in South Korea and a conservative prime minister leads Japan — “To forge an enduring deal,” Glosserman emphasizes, “this combination is what you need.” After having been burned twice – once after reaching an agreement with a dictatorship and once after reaching an agreement with a democratically-elected conservative administration – an agreement reached with a democratically-elected liberal administration may have greater weight in Japanese estimations of its future durability. But as Japan has abided by (would have abided by) these past agreements, Tokyo wants to see the initiative for another attempt come from South Korea.

Japan’s trade restriction on exports to South Korea is not Tokyo’s optimal policy, and it is not a long-term solution to Japan’s historical issues with South Korea. It is a desperate attempt by one country trying to get its valuable economic and security partner to commit to putting the relationship of today and the relationship of the future ahead of the issues of the past.

The Diplomat

You can read the rest at the link, but it is clear that the Japanese government’s patience has reached its limit on the ROK government backing out on signed deals that a new administration does not like.

With that said I don’t know how President Moon can back down now considering how strongly he has pushed anti-Japanese sentiment for domestic political purposes since he was elected. This leads me to believe this could drag on for quite some time.

Especially important for those who think are in a online romance with senior military leaders.

I’m married to the love of my life @ConnieAbrams . News alert: She is alive and well and remains the center of my universe.

Scammers will say anything to steal $$ from you. https://t.co/UEvHk4OgMZ

— Robert Abrams (@DogFaceSoldier) July 30, 2019

Considering that last year the US negotiators had to fight to get the ROK to pay $879 million for this year’s upkeep, I don’t expect them to pay $5 billion next year:

South Korea and the United States have agreed to conduct discussions in a “reasonable and fair” way on how to share the cost for the upkeep of American troops here, a foreign ministry official here said Tuesday.

The two sides talked about the upcoming negotiations over Seoul’s share of the cost for the stationing of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) for next year, when U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton visited Korea last week, the official said.

The local daily JoongAng Ilbo reported that Washington has tentatively decided to request that Seoul pay US$5 billion under a renewed bilateral cost-sharing arrangement for next year, more than a fivefold increase from the previous year.

“When U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton was visiting Korea on July 23 and 24, South Korea and the U.S. agreed to have consultations over the sharing of the defense cost in a reasonable and fair direction,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it would have been interesting to see the face of Moon administration officials when John Bolton dropped the $5 billion number.

According to the article more South Korean women are foregoing marriage and having kids which is contributing to a population decline:

Baeck Ha-na works in accounting during the week. On weekends, she’s a YouTube star in South Korea, promoting the “live-alone life.”

Baeck, whose YouTube channel in English is called “Solo-darity,” objects to being called a “mi-hon” — someone who is not yet married. She’s part of a growing and determined group of Korean women rejecting marriage and motherhood.

Such decisions are intensifying demographic and economic challenges for the government as the country faces one of the world’s lowest birth rates and a shortfall in pension funding that is getting harder to close with fewer workers joining the labor force.

“Society made me feel like a failure for being in my 30’s and not yet a wife or a mother,” Baeck said. “Instead of belonging to someone, I now have a more ambitious future for myself.”

Bloomberg

You can read more at the link.

This is a really good program that the South Korean government puts on every year:

South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs hosted Munson and more than 100 other veterans and family members from 16 nations to express the South’s appreciation for the sacrifices made during the three-year war.

During the six-day revisit program that began Tuesday, the vets participated in numerous cultural events and tours, including a trip to the truce village of Panmunjom and other sites in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone.

They also laid white flowers on the headstones of fallen servicemembers at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in the southern city of Busan.

They were welcomed with a standing ovation and honored during the annual United Nations Forces participation day ceremony in Seoul, which was broadcast on national TV.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Moon's son-in-law bought a house in Seoul in 2010. #MoonJaein & his wife move in 2012-16. Moon moves in 2016 to another house. The son-in-law gives the house to his wife, Moon Da-hye, also Moon's daughter. 3 months later, Da-hye sells the house. Why such complex transactions? https://t.co/eBzbJBypsH

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) December 29, 2018

It looks like it is still a tough job market for younger and even middle aged Koreans. More part time work to older people and retirees is contributing to the the tight job market:

Korea has been losing its economic vitality as the Moon Jae-in administration’s efforts to boost employment have led to more part-time jobs for retirees and fewer full-time positions for young jobseekers, according to economists here and overseas, last Friday. 

Criticizing the government for its short-sighted labor policies, the economists urged the administration to devise long-term strategies for the country’s sustainable growth.

“The government’s labor policy is more like a measure to help senior citizens maintain their incomes,” said Lee Phil-sang, an economics professor at Seoul National University. “The economy lacks the ability to create jobs. It has lost the ability since the nation’s key industries have lost their global competitiveness.”

According to Statistics Korea, the number of employees in their 30s and 40s in June 2019 dropped by 32,000 and 182,000 respectively from a year earlier. The number of workers aged between 15 and 29 also decreased, by 4,000.

In addition, 66,000 people lost manufacturing jobs ― the number of workers in the sector has fallen for 15 straight months.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is just bizarre and creepy that a four star general would do something like this if true:

U.S. Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten’s chances of being confirmed as the military’s second-highest officer may come down to one thing next week: whether senators believe an Army colonel’s charges that he sexually assaulted her while she was under his command — accusations he denies.

Col. Kathryn Spletstoser has accused Hyten, who is currently responsible for the country’s nuclear arsenal as the head of U.S. Strategic Command, of making unwanted sexual contact with her on several occasions in 2017 while the two were traveling for work.

Both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee maintain that her account is plausible, but some members have also said they are wary of taking her uncorroborated word over the categorical denials of a decorated four-star Air Force general endorsed by high-ranking colleagues. (…………..)

Spletstoser’s public remarks would probably mirror much of what she has told the panel in private and alleged in a Washington Post interview: that Hyten had taken a liking to her when he took over U.S. Strategic Command in November 2016, picking her to be his “point person,” but that two months in, he started making overt and unwelcome advances during official overnight trips.

The first time was in January 2017, she alleges, when Hyten grabbed her left hand as she was exiting a work meeting in his hotel room in Palo Alto, California, pulling it in toward his groin so she could feel his erection before she moved her hand away. In June 2017, Spletstoser said that Hyten interrupted another work meeting in his Washington, D.C., hotel room to fondle her breasts and kiss her — and that she pushed him away and admonished him. That prompted Hyten to panic, she said, and ask her through tears: “Are you going to tell on me?” Though she felt he had clearly “crossed a line,” she assured him she would not, she said.

Yet it was during the Reagan National Defense Forum in December 2017 that Spletstoser said Hyten made his most aggressive move, arriving uninvited at her hotel room in workout clothes carrying a binder, and claiming he wanted to discuss work matters. Within minutes, Spletstoser said, Hyten had pinned her against him and begun “grinding on me hard, like he wants to take my clothes off and have sex . . . and then I realize, he’s ejaculating.”

Washington Post

You can read more at the link, but what complicates this issue is that Col. Spletstoser was given a letter of reprimand from investigators for toxic leadership behavior. She was also given a negative officer evaluation report from General Hyten which she was appealing when he was nominated for the Vice Chairman job and she then made the complaint against him.

Interestingly no one else has come forward to say they saw anything inappropriate. This turns this into a he said, she said situation and it will be interesting to see what happens because in this #metoo environment those accused of sexual misconduct are guilty until proven innocent.