HongKongers write on social media re the police using force ag/citizens standing up to China. Some are writing it in Korean to appeal to South Korea. But the #Moon administration & the so-called "democracy activists" who are in power now are eerily silent.https://t.co/nPFm8iHHdo
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) June 14, 2019
The findings from this recent poll are especially troubling when you consider that last year a different poll found that 78% of South Koreans said they trusted Kim Jong-un. It would be interesting though if someone polled these two questions together to the Korean public. However, such polling numbers may seem to make no sense that Koreans would trust the leader of country committed to their destruction over a country that has no hostile intentions towards them, but for anyone that has followed Korea and Japan issues it makes perfect sense:
Three-quarters of Japanese do not trust their South Korean neighbours – and the feeling is mutual, a study has found.
A record 74 per cent of Japanese were now distrustful of South Koreans, found the study by the Yomiuri Shimbunin Japan
and the Hankook Ilbo in Korea. That was more than at any time since the study was first conducted in 1996 and well above last year’s figure of 60 per cent. Meanwhile, 75 per cent of South Koreans
had no trust in the Japanese, down from 79 per cent last year.
Those personal sentiments appeared to mirror a strained diplomatic relationship between the two countries. Some 83 per cent of Japanese respondents thought bilateral relations were bad, up from 63 per cent last year, while 82 per cent of Koreans thought the same, up from 69 per cent last year.
South China Morning Post
You can read much more at the link, but the reasons for the distrust are the usual ones, the Japanese did not apologize enough for World War II and the Japanese say they are tired of apologizing over and over again. Then there is always the Dokdo craziness.
As I have long said there is no reason for the South Korean political left to give up their anti-Japanese stance. It is even hard for the South Korean right to do so, though the prior President Park Geun-hye tried and the current government scrapped the deal she made with Japan. The issue is too great of punching bag for politicians to turn to when they need to deflect attention from domestic issues. How many times have we seen a Korean politician under domestic pressure show up on Dokdo?
This is all why I have long believed that if Japanese Prime Minister Abe was really clever he should apologize for war time sexual slavery once again, but this time in a large public speech to draw maximum media attention. During this speech then announce that Japan to atone for its past sins would become a champion of women’s rights beginning with the plight of modern day sexual slavery of North Korean women in China that both the South Korean and Chinese governments choose to ignore.
North Korean women trafficked in the sex industry in China are the modern day comfort women that the Chinese and South Koreans do nothing to stop. Japan becoming an advocate for these women would expose the current hypocrisy of their critics on this issue.
Such a stance would make it difficult for the political demagogues in South Korean to bring up more demands for apologies when it would reflect negatively on their own current human rights failures. It would no doubt be a bold measure, but I see no other way of ending the current impasse.
What this will lead to is small business owners hiring foreigners instead of Koreans that will ultimately create higher unemployment:
Small business owners want the government to introduce a lower minimum wage for foreign workers in Korea.
At Monday’s public hearing on next year’s minimum wage in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, representatives of employers said “steep” minimum wage hikes over the past two years have pushed many small businesses to the edge and that the government should help them by adopting a “different” wage system for foreign workers.
Song Young-soo, a small business owner in Gwangju, was among participants who reportedlyvoiced the need for a lower minimum wage for foreign employees, who they say show lower labor productivity than Korean workers mainly because of communication problems.
According to a Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business survey early this year, the productivity of an average foreign worker (E-9 visa holder) was 87.5 percent of a Korean worker.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
The KSC is definitely a unique an important part of the USFK team:
The Korean Service Corps Battalion recently unveiled its memorial monument at a rededication ceremony after relocating the solid stone tribute south to its new headquarters at Camp Humphreys.
In 1985, the monument was established on Camp Kim, a small base just outside the gates of Yongsan Garrison in Seoul. Camp Kim closed in 2018 and was converted into a center for visitors to learn about base history at the new Yongsan Park Gallery.
“Not long after the Korean War broke out, Lt. Gen. Walton A. Walker quickly reached the conclusion that combat troops needed help in critical areas of logistics,” Eighth Army commander Lt. Gen. Michael Bills said in his dedication speech Sunday.
On July 25, 1950, South Korean President Syngman Rhee established what would become the Korean Service Corps to provide critically needed support to the beleaguered U.S. forces in Korea, Bills said. Four U.S. divisions, driven south by North Korean troops, were holding a perimeter that month around the port city known today as Busan.“This monument was a labor of love by the KSC to honor the sacrifices of their fellow members,” Bills said. “The monument was not purchased or donated; it took over seven years of dedicated service to complete. The stone itself was mined from Baegun Mountain to symbolize the loss of KSC lives at that very mountain during the Chinese spring offensive of 1951.”
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
Never leave behind a fallen comrade. Our solemn duty is to do all we can to recover the remains of our missing in action. https://t.co/7pFBlVAIVe
— Robert Abrams (@DogFaceSoldier) June 11, 2019
Congratulations to Command Sergeant Major Grinston:
Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston, who has been in the service for more than 30 years, has been selected to be the 16th sergeant major of the Army, the service announced Tuesday.
Stars & Stripes
Grinston is the senior enlisted leader for U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., and he will be sworn in to his new role at the Pentagon on Aug. 16, according to the Army. Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel Dailey, who has been in his position since 2015, is retiring.
“I look forward to working with Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston,” Army Secretary Mark Esper said in a prepared statement. “The Army is in the midst of a renaissance, and he is a great choice to carry on our readiness, modernization and reform efforts.”
You can read more at the link.
It looks like there may be a fourth Inter-Korean Summit before President Trump visits South Korea on June 30th:
A senior presidential aide said Thursday that discussions are underway with officials from Pyongyang regarding another inter-Korean summit, before U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned meeting with President Moon Jae-in, June 30.
“It’s evident that the U.S. president didn’t rule out the possibility of another meeting between President Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ahead of his planned visit here at the end of June. President Moon earlier raised this idea at his April summit with Trump in Washington. South Korea and the U.S. are united on that idea,” the official told reporters in a briefing.
“My understanding is that the U.S. president didn’t say anything on the usefulness and necessity of another inter-Korean summit,” the senior aide said, adding announcements will be made once the discussions are completed.
Moon renewed his call late Wednesday (KST) for a fourth summit with Kim Jong-un ahead of his meeting with Trump.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link, but I am not sure what they would talk about? Are they going to coordinate how they plan to persuade President Trump into signing a “pretend denuclearization” deal? Talk about how to avoid international sanctions?
Anyone else have any guesses on what they could possibly talk about?
The attacks on these ships just happens to occur while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is visiting:
Two oil tankers were damaged in a suspected attack off the Gulf of Oman early Thursday, prompting the rescue of dozens of crew members.
The U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet told Reuters it was assisting two tankers in the Gulf of Oman after receiving two distress calls. Details of the incident were unclear, but one of the operators made an unconfirmed report that a torpedo had hit its ship, Reuters reported.
“We are aware of the reported attack on tankers in the Gulf of Oman. U.S. Naval Forces in the region received two separate distress calls at 6:12 a.m. local time and a second one at 7:00 a.m.,” Joshua Frey of the Fifth Fleet said. The Fleet did not blame anyone for the attack.
One of the vessels involved was identified as the MT Front Altair, a Marshall Islands-flagged but Norwegian-owned crude oil tanker carrying naphtha, a petrochemical product, to Japan.
Fox News
A South Korean Hyundai ship based in Dubai actually rescued the crew of the Front Altair.
The obvious play here is that the Iranians attacked these ships because they did not like whatever message they received from Prime Minister Abe on behalf of President Trump. The Iranians have long threatened to shut down the Straits of Hormuz and cause world oil prices to surge and this is a reminder of that fact.
