Author: GIKorea

You have to like how this article published by Yonhap makes it seem like there was rampant crime caused by service members at Yongsan Garrison:

he pullout of the headquarters of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) from the Yongsan base in the heart of Seoul in June 2018 has created a bittersweet aftermath in the central Seoul district over the past year.

On the bright side, the Yongsan area around the former USFK compound has seen a steep fall in the number of assaults and other crimes committed by American service personnel and civilian workers and their families.

On the flip side, merchants in Itaewon and other commercial areas close to former USFK facilities have suffered a steep drop in customers and sales. (……..)

Police and residents have said the reduced number of American soldiers and crimes involving them in the Yongsan area were the most noticeable change in the past year.

According to data from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, the number of criminal offenses committed by USFK members filed in Seoul in relation to the Status of Forces Agreement fell 18.5 percent from 119 cases in 2017 to 97 in 2018. In the first five months of this year, there were a mere 25 cases.

“American soldiers used to frequently cause trouble during their visits to Itaewon, which has a lot of bars. After the relocation of USFK facilities, U.S. military-related incidents and accidents have significantly decreased,” said a police officer.

Another officer from the Yongsan Police Station said, “Until two years ago, police officers frequently traveled to airports to take custody of USFK soldiers caught attempting to leave the country with gun magazines and other illegal possessions. But there have been very few such reports after the relocation of the U.S. base.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but 119 criminal cases in 2017 does not tell me much. Were the majority of these parking tickets and traffic citations which have been used in the past to inflate the GI crime rate? As I have always said statistics showing convictions for major crimes is the best way to determine what the GI crime rate really is.

As far as traveling to the airport this makes no sense because the soldiers just moved south to Camp Humphreys. The soldiers are still there so if illegal possessions at the airport was a problem before it should still be a problem now, though I have never heard of anyone getting arrested for a gun magazine at the airport.

The rest of the article goes on with the usual complaints about how Yongsan Garrison is basically a toxic waste dump preventing the creation of Seoul’s version of Central Park. Of course the article made no mention of the fact that Yongsan Garrison has below average soil pollution levels.

I would think such a visit would only happen after a major denuclearization deal is struck. Though I am extremely skeptical of Kim ever fully denuclearizing, if he does commit to a real denuclearization deal he should be hosted at the White House:

U.S. President Donald Trump invited North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un to Washington, D.C., when the two leaders met at the Panmunjom truce village on Sunday. 

“I did,” Trump said when asked if he extended the invitation for Kim to come to the White House. “Actually, at some point it will all happen. When it all works out, at some point it will all happen.” 

Earlier he said, “I would invite him right now to the White House,” as the two leaders headed to Freedom House, on the southern side of the village, before holding private talks.

It was not clear if Kim accepted the offer. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Considering Korea’s defamation laws I am surprised these women are not getting sued and forced to pay the deadbeat dad:

Kim Jun-hee, 42, divorced her husband 16 years ago due to domestic violence. Her ex-husband paid her his court-ordered child support three times, then asked to see his children. When they met, he demanded that the children take a DNA test, saying that he could not trust whether they were actually his children. Since that meeting, he has not given any money to Kim or their children.

In early June, Kim joined Park Ji-young (alias) as she staged a protest against her ex-husband in front of his residence in central Seoul. Park posted a request to the members of the online community “For Childcare: Child Support Solution Association,” asking for support – five members joined, including Kim. According to Park, her ex-husband has never paid his mandatory child support or met with his children since their divorce 11 years ago.

“I have tried literally everything that I can, but there’s nothing I can do but stand outside his house like this,” said Park. “This whole building is his, but the court can’t force him to pay me because he turned over the legal possession to his parents. So legally, he’s broke, even though he flies off every weekend for golf trips.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but a Korean man who built a website to shame deadbeat dads was sued for defamation and forced to pay the deadbeats:

While the managers of the site stay anonymous, Koo Bon-chang, 56, is the public face of Bad Fathers. He helps parents list the names of their uncooperative former spouses and assists with protests. As a result, Koo had been reported by 15 people listed on the website for defamation and was charged with a 5 million won ($4,330) fine in May. The Korea Communications Commission did not shut down the site, however, stating that “its benefit to the public is bigger than the damage inflicted onto each individual.”

You can read more at the link.

This meeting makes me wonder why it was hastily announced at the last minute? It seems likely that with the letters the two leaders sent each other that they knew this meeting was a possibility. The only reason I can think of to delay announcing the meeting is either for security concerns or to prevent the U.S. news media from having time to create a negative narrative before the meeting. Since this happened so quick all the U.S. news media had time to do is report the news which is something they are not used to:

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed at a brief, hurriedly arranged meeting on the inter-Korean border Sunday that deadlocked denuclearization talks will resume. 

“We’ve agreed that we’re each going to designate a team. The teams will try to work out some details,” Trump said after talks with Kim behind closed doors in the truce village of Panmunjom. Trump and Kim sat down for nearly an hour, their first face-to-face meeting since a second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February ended prematurely and without a deal. 

U.S. negotiators will be led by Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun, according to Trump. He said the United States and North would start working over the next two to three weeks for a comprehensive deal – but that he does not want a rushed agreement. “We’re not looking for speed,” he said. “We’re looking to get it right.” 

Trump repeatedly stressed that tensions were rapidly reduced since he took office, and that the North is not conducting nuclear or long-range ballistic missile tests. 

“We are in a very good path,” Trump said. Asked if the United States will lift sanctions on the North, Trump said they will remain for now, but he looks forward to taking them off when progress is made. 

Before sitting down for the 50-minute private talks, Trump and Kim met each other at the military demarcation line, the de facto land border between the two Koreas that bisects the Joint Security Area of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). After a handshake, Trump crossed the line to join Kim on the northern side, becoming the first U.S. president to step on North Korean soil while in office. U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed at a brief, hurriedly arranged meeting on the inter-Korean border Sunday that deadlocked denuclearization talks will resume.  (……..)

“You are the first U.S. president in history to set foot on our soil,” Kim told Trump before the meeting. “It is an extraordinary decision to settle the unfortunate past and pioneer a great future.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but here is a CBS News video of the historic meeting:

I have to believe that during the 50 minute meeting that ROK President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un did the best sales job they could to get President Trump on board with allowing the Kaesong Industrial Park and Mt. Kumgang Tours to reopen in return for “Pretend Denuclearization“.

It will be interesting to see where this meeting leads to.

Via a reader tip comes news that the North Koreans that arrived undetected by the ROK authorities in Samcheok may not have been fishermen as claimed:

Mystery continues to shroud the defection of two North Korean sailors earlier this month after their wooden boat entered a South Korean harbor completely undetected, which set off a scandal over the lack of alertness by the South’s military. 

Jeon Dong-jin, a South Korean fisherman who saw the North Korean boat enter Samcheok Harbor in Gangwon on June 15 told the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday that he was first filled with curiosity at seeing North Koreans for the first time, but soon became afraid.  

“It reminded me of the time an armed North Korean squad infiltrated Gangneung in 1996,” he said, in reference to an incident in which 26 North Korean reconnaissance agents covertly landed near Gangneung, Gangwon, on a submarine but were hunted down by the South Korean army after being spotted. In the ensuing series of firefights that lasted from September to November that year, 12 South Korean soldiers and four civilians were killed, as well as 24 of the North’s agents. 

“If the North Koreans on the wooden dinghy had been armed agents, we would have all been killed,” said Jeon. 

Four North Koreans were on the boat at sea for six days – four in South Korean waters – until it moored at Samcheok. The first person to report the North Koreans did not belong to the military, but was instead a resident of the harbor city. After questioning, two of the crew defected to the South, while the other two returned to the North through the border village of Panmunjom on June 18. 

Many residents of the city are upset with the military’s inability to detect the boat’s infiltration. 

“In their words, [the military] said they were closely monitoring the [maritime border] with cutting edge technology, but in reality they did nothing while the dinghy entered the harbor,” said one resident, Jang Hyung-baek. “I can’t help but think we were tricked.” 

According to Captain Jeon, Samcheok residents remain particularly dubious about the claim that the North Korean sailors had been marooned on their vessel for almost a week. 

“Except for one of them, who looked like he was deliberately growing a beard, the North Koreans were clean-shaven,” he said. “I’ve never heard of a case where people set adrift at sea shave themselves.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but just looking at how they are dressed in the picture indicates to me that this was a failed spy operation. They are clearly dressed to try and blend in with the ROK population, not as fishermen. The Moon administration will definitely want to continue to claim these are fishermen in order not to spoil the so called reconciliation mood that is going on right now.

I do find it interesting that the ROK repatriated two of the North Koreans right away while the other two stayed. If they were on a spy mission and were compromised and it is interesting that two of the spies took the chance to defect instead of going back to North Korea.

Worse than that is SK President @moonriver365 using children to pose with the man who ordered that #JamalKhashoggi be murdered. The @TheBlueHouseENG should be ashame & apologize. @KarenAttiah pic.twitter.com/7O7VxUgKVn

— Greg DeRego (@gregderego) June 26, 2019

I wonder if President Trump asked Ambassador Harris about that mustache?

I find it interesting that the Moon administration allows journalists that print facts to be arrested and languish in jail, but union allies that break the law they allow to go free:

Kim Myeong-hwan, the leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, a militant labor umbrella group, was released on bail Thursday, a week after being arrested on charges of masterminding assaults on police during outdoor rallies.

The Seoul Southern District Court approved Kim’s release on a bail of 100 million won ($86,360) but attached a condition under which he should only stay in his residence.

Kim was also ordered to obtain court approval before moving out of his residence or going on an overseas trip and to comply with a summons from the court.

The same court issued an arrest warrant last Friday for Kim, who was accused of overseeing violent illegal acts during KCTU members’ four protest rallies in front of the National Assembly compound on May 21 last year, as well as March 27 and April 2 and 3 this year.

During the protest rallies, labor activists knocked down parts of the fence surrounding the National Assembly in Seoul’s Yeouido, assaulted police officers, destroyed police equipment and attempted to force their way into the compound illegally to block the passage of labor bills, including those calling for extending statutory flextime from three to six months to minimize side effects of the government’s mandatory 52-hour workweek policy.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but the KCTU who is well known for their violence, pro-Kim regime stance, and anti-Americanism vowed to launch massive protests against the Moon administration if Kim was not released. Sure enough Kim is released while journalists languish in jail.

You would think with such a discrepancy the international media would be all over this, but very few are reporting on this.

Chinese Emperor President Xi during a G-20 summit meeting with President Moon is once again calling for the removal of the THAAD missile defense system from South Korea:

They talked about various pending issues for around 40 minutes through simultaneous translation.

Some thorny issues were raised as well, such as the China-U.S. dispute over cybersecurity related to 5G technology and the advanced U.S. missile defense system deployed in South Korea, called THAAD, according to a Cheong Wa Dae official.

Xi asked Moon to resolve the THAAD problem, as Beijing has been strongly opposed to its presence on the peninsula. Moon replied that it’s a matter linked with denuclearization.

At the outset of the talks, which pool media were allowed to cover, Xi said Beijing would contribute to maintaining regional peace and stability.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but China does not sound like much of a friend and promoting peace when it tells South Korea to disarm itself and make its citizens vulnerable to missile attacks from the thug regime the Chinese support.

If Kim Jong-un does meet with President Trump at the DMZ, it seems that should be taken as a sign that the regime believes a deal to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Kumgang Tours is a real possibility. Meeting with the President at the DMZ would be a perfect opportunity for Kim to make his case for reopening the complex directly to the U.S. President:

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he expects to have a “really interesting” visit to the inter-Korean border amid keen attention on the possibility of his meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un there.

He was speaking to pool reporters just before joining a welcome dinner hosted by President Moon Jae-in and first lady Kim Jung-sook at Cheong Wa Dae, Seoul’s presidential office, shortly after his arrival in South Korea.

On a potential three-way summit between the two Koreas and the U.S. during his tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Sunday, Trump said, “We’re gonna see. We are working things out right now.”

When a reporter asked him about whether he has “heard anything” from North Korea, he said, “We have. Yes.” He did not elaborate.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.