Here is an interesting article about a Kunsan Airbase NCO who has a side gig as a professional wrestler in South Korea:
Tech. Sgt. Gregory Gauntt, 8th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Kunsan Air Base sprints before jumping into the wrestling ring in Goyang, South Korea, June 2, 2019
Over the past year, Tech. Sgt. Gregory Gauntt has established an alter ego as one of the most despised characters in South Korea. That’s Ryan Oshun, the persona that Gauntt, 33, adopts when he steps into the ring as the Pro Wrestling Society heavyweight champion. The noncommissioned officer in charge of fuels knowledge for Kunsan’s 8th Logistics Readiness Squadron calls Oshun “the guy you wouldn’t want to ever bring home to your mother, but the guy you want to be around because it would be super cool.” Before Gauntt started his yearlong stint in South Korea, he contacted Korea-based Pro Wrestling Society promoters and worked his way into their shows. He hopes the momentum he’s built establishing fans and enemies in Korea will continue when he returns to the States next month. “I hope wrestling in Korea will boost my résumé because I am now an international champion,” he said. “Maybe the stock behind my name is more, and I have more credibility now that I have traveled outside the U.S.”
Veteran to be buried in S. KoreaSouth Korean Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs Pi Woo-jin (R) bows before the remains of Albert Hugh McBride, a Canadian veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War, at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, on June 11, 2019, in this photo provided by the ministry. The remains will be buried at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in the southern port city of Busan the next day. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
That is what some Koreans are saying after this incident at a festival in Yongin:
A Japanese man has ignited controversy for wrapping himself in a Rising Sun flag at the “ULTRA Korea” festival in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on June 7-9.
The Japanese imperial military used the flag during World War II (1939-45) and the flag is regarded as a symbol of Japan’s wartime aggression. Many Koreans believe the flag should be banned.
Some Korean participants in the ULTRA Korea, Asia’s largest electronic dance music (EDM) festival, reportedly had “clashes” with the Japanese and reported him to the organization committee. But the committee did not take any tangible action, according to Professor Seo Kyung-duk, a top Korea promoter.
“The festival officials should have restrained the man. If he had not cooperated, they should have dragged him out,” Seo wrote on his Instagram Tuesday.
“The man will return to Japan and say he had no problem displaying a Rising Sun flag in Korea. The committee should make an official apology and promise to avoid a recurrence,” Seo wrote.
First of all this Japanese man was clearly trolling for a reaction and he got it.
Anyway the way I look at it is that if the Rising Sun flag is banned in South Korea then the North Korean and Chinese flags should be banned as well. Those two countries killed far more Koreans than Imperial Japan ever did and destroyed nearly the entire country during the Korean War.
It looks like President Trump is continuing his charm offensive with Kim Jong-un:
President Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House on Tuesday before departing for a trip to Iowa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Trump promised he wouldn’t allow the CIA to use spies against North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un after reports surfaced that Kim’s half brother had been a U.S. intelligence asset before he was assassinated in Malaysia. Kim Jong Nam was killed in February 2017 — allegedly while he was en route to meet a CIA contact — by two women who sprayed a nerve agent in his face. U.S. officials quickly placed the blame for the killing on North Korea. Trump, speaking to reporters on the White House lawn Tuesday before leaving on a campaign trip to Iowa, was asked about Kim Jong Nam’s spying, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. “I don’t know, I have not heard about that,” the president said, before contradicting himself and assuring Kim Jong Un that his administration wouldn’t do anything so underhanded. “I saw the information about the CIA with respect to his brother or half brother, and I would tell him that would not happen under my auspices, that’s for sure,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t let that happen under my auspices.”
The approval rating for the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) dropped below 30 percent last week. It rose above 30 percent in the first week of March for the first time since October 2016 and remained there for 13 weeks. The support rate for the LKP had reached a peak of 34.3 percent in the third week of May but dropped over the last two weeks.
In the latest poll of 2,002 adults over 19 conducted by Realmeter for four days from June 3 to 5 and on June 7, the LKP’s approval rating came to 29.6 percent, down 0.4 percentage points from the week earlier.
The approval rating for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) recorded 40.5 percent, down 0.5 percentage points from the previous week, while fluctuating between 38.7 and 40.2 percent for the past six weeks.
Opposition leader meets Korean War hero Hwang Kyo-ahn (R), leader of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, shakes hands with retired Gen. Paik Sun-yup, a Korean War hero, during their meeting at the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul on June 10, 2019. (Yonhap)
This is something that has been speculated on before and if true it would explain why the Kim regime took such risky measures to kill him inside a busy international airport:
Kim Jong-nam
“Several former U.S. officials said the half brother, who had lived outside of North Korea for many years and had no known power base in Pyongyang, was unlikely to be able to provide details of the secretive country’s inner workings,” the Journal said.
The former officials also said Kim Jong Nam had been almost certainly in contact with security services of other countries, particularly China’s, the Journal said. Kim Jong Nam’s role as a CIA informant is mentioned in a new book about Kim Jong Un, “The Great Successor,” by Washington Post reporter Anna Fifield that is due to be published on Tuesday. Fifield says Kim Jong Nam usually met his handlers in Singapore and Malaysia, citing a source with knowledge of the intelligence. The book says that security camera footage from Kim Jong Nam’s last trip to Malaysia showed him in a hotel elevator with an Asian-looking man who was reported to be a U.S. intelligence agent. It said Ki’s backpack contained $120,000 in cash, which could have been payment for intelligence-related activities, or earnings from his casino businesses.
It took two weeks but finally the sunken tour boat in Hungary has been lifted:
A joint rescue team from Korea and Hungary searches inside the Hableany, the sightseeing ship that sunk on May 29 in the Danube River, after the ship was salvaged on Tuesday. [YONHAP]
The Hungarian sightseeing boat carrying Korean tourists that tragically sank in the Danube River in Budapest nearly two weeks ago was salvaged Tuesday, leading to the immediate discovery of four more missing bodies.
The Hableany, which sank near Margaret Bridge in the Danube River in Budapest, was lifted by a large floating crane, the Clark Adam, after operations to fasten four cables to the hull of the vessel were completed the previous day.
Hungarian authorities began lifting the wreck around 6:40 a.m. local time. The wheelhouse of the boat could be seen above the surface of the water within half an hour and the deck and cabins were in view within two hours.
The Hableany, or Mermaid, carrying 33 Korean tourists and two Hungarian crew capsized on the evening of May 29 after it was struck by a larger Swiss ship, the Viking Sigyn, helmed by a Ukrainian captain. Seven survivors were rescued immediately after the sinking and seven bodies recovered.
