Author: GIKorea

This is just an extremely bizarre murder of a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier by a group of Navy Seals and U.S. Marines:

A Navy SEAL convicted in the death of a Green Beret soldier is under investigation by authorities for approaching his victim’s widow under a pseudonym at a Las Vegas party, allegedly requesting access to her room and telling her that the SEALs involved in her husband’s death were “good guys,” according to military documents and three people familiar with the case.

Chief Special Warfare Operator Adam C. Matthews faced a murder charge in the death of Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, and was wearing a Rambo costume at the time, according to the documents, which were obtained by The Washington Post. They were verified with three people familiar with the investigation, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.

The encounter adds a new layer of strangeness in the death of Melgar, a member of 3rd Special Forces Group who previously had deployed to Afghanistan. (………)

Melgar was strangled June 4, 2017, after a group of men that had been out drinking burst into his room in the Malian capital of Bamako with a sledgehammer with plans to choke him unconscious, bind him with duct tape and record a video of a Malian man sexually molesting him as part of a hazing plot, according to testimony by a Marine Raider convicted in the case.

Stars & Stripes

You would think Special Forces operators would have more important things to do than plotting how to sexually assault one of their own. What a disgrace.

The Hong Kong protests provide some great content to stuff onto USB sticks headed for North Korea. https://t.co/uQgg17jPBT

— 🇰🇷Edward Oh🇺🇸 (@EdwardHBOh) June 16, 2019

It is pretty clear that improving the human rights for North Koreans is not a concern for the Moon Jae-in administration:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is likely to have asked for Ojea Quintana, the United Nations’ special investigator on human rights in North Korea, to take a “toned-down” approach in handling North Korea’s human rights abuses.

Quintana is on a five-day trip to Seoul from Monday as he plans to meet with ranking ministerial officials including Second Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-ho and Vice Unification Minister Suh Ho.

“His visit is intended to gather relevant data on the status quo of the North’s human rights situation before the United Nations General Assembly convenes on the condition of North Korea’s human rights situation in October,” a foreign ministry official said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Moon Jae-in gave a speech in Swedish parliament. He denied #NorthKorea invaded #SouthKorea by saying "South&North never invaded another country in 5000- year history..only a sad history of pointing guns at each other." NKorea invaded SKorea on 1950-6-25.https://t.co/NKuOCzsfHK

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) June 15, 2019

It looks like Emperor President Xi has decided to crack down on North Korean defectors before his trip to North Korea this week:

A decade after leaving her family behind to flee North Korea, the defector was overwhelmed with excitement when she spoke to her 22-year-old son on the phone for the first time in May after he too escaped into China.

While speaking to him again on the phone days later, however, she listened in horror as the safe house where her son and four other North Korean escapees were hiding was raided by Chinese authorities.

“I heard voices, someone saying ‘shut up’ in Chinese,” said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her son’s safety. “Then the line was cut off, and I heard later he was caught.”

The woman, now living in South Korea, said she heard rumours her son is being held in a Chinese prison near the North Korean border, but has had no official news of his whereabouts.

At least 30 North Korean escapees have been rounded up in a string of raids across China since mid-April, according to family members and activist groups.

It is not clear whether this is part of a larger crackdown by China, but activists say the raids have disrupted parts of the informal network of brokers, charities, and middlemen who have been dubbed the North Korean “Underground Railroad”.

“The crackdown is severe,” said Y. H. Kim, chairman of the North Korea Refugees Human Rights Association of Korea.

Reuters

You can read more at the link.

Here we go again with the lifting of the USFK curfew:

The United States Forces Korea (USFK) has temporarily lifted an off-duty curfew on its troops here lasting between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., USFK chief Gen. Robert Abrams announced Monday, saying the suspension will be re-evaluated after 90 days.

The step follows a policy review ordered by the USFK general after he took charge of the USFK last November. After the three-month trial run, Abrams will determine whether to rescind or maintain the off-installation overnight curfew.

That would depend on troop behavior, morale and readiness factors, according to the USFK, stressing the importance of maintaining good relations with South Korea and “to continue enabling a culture of self-policing both on and off duty.”

“The suspension of curfew is to guarantee more of soldiers’ rights to have their own life as we share the perception that there has been a growing consciousness among soldiers” to follow Korean laws, a spokesman for United States Army Garrison (USAG) Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, told The Korea Times. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Korea Times claims the curfew was put in place after the 9/11 attacks. That is not true, there was a curfew in place for the 2nd Infantry Division before 9/11. However, each unit did have a limited number of Warrior Passes that could be given out to high performing soldiers.

Anyway my opinion on the whole curfew controversy is that there is going to eventually be an incident that happens. It is just simple math that with the thousands of U.S. military personnel in Korea odds are that somebody is going to do something stupid or criminal.

So when it happens is the command just going to reimplement the curfew? That is what happened the last time the curfew was lifted. If so why remove it in the first place?

Chinese Emperor President Xi has decided to make a visit to the vassal allied state of North Korea this week:

Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to North Korea this week, the North’s state media reported Monday, marking his first trip to Pyongyang since becoming president.

Xi is scheduled to pay a two-day visit to North Korea from Thursday at the invitation of its leader Kim Jong-un, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

It will be the first visit by a Chinese leader to its communist neighbor in 14 years. Though Xi visited North Korea in 2008, he was China’s vice president at that time.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this could be a sign that Kim Jong-un is preparing to agree to another summit with President Trump because Kim has traveled to China before other summits with the U.S. President.

This is a good point, I wonder how infiltrated South Korea’s military is by compromised Huawei hardware?:

Washington may refrain from sharing sensitive intelligence with South Korea unless it stops using telecom equipment from the Chinese communications giant Huawei, according to the U.S. State Department on Thursday. 

The statement came in response to the JoongAng Ilbo’s question to the State Department on comments made by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on a radio show on Wednesday. Pompeo told conservative pundit Mark Levin on the show that the level of alertness shown by Washington’s allies in Asia to the national security risk presented by China “varies.”

When the JoongAng Ilbo asked whether Pompeo’s remarks reflected the U.S. government’s official stance that it wants Seoul to stop buying communications equipment from Huawei, a State Department spokesperson answered through a written response that the United States would have to review whether to share sensitive information with an allied country if that country’s communications network included equipment obtained from an untrusted vendor.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Lotte to build #KoreanWar #Veterans Hall in Ethiopia, which sent 3,500 combat troops during the 1950-53 Korean War to help SK. It'll also establish a college fund for the vets' descendants. Lotte did the same in Thailand & Colombia, which also sent forces.https://t.co/3JADQechcW

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) June 11, 2019