Author: GIKorea

I wonder what the U.S. government’s definition of a “certain limit” is compared to the Moon administration’s?:

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said her country and the United States determined that North Korea’s short-range missile launches in May did not “deserve” suspending talks with the regime.
Speaking Friday at a security forum in Bratislava, Slovakia, Kang said South Korea and the U.S. analyzed the launches in early May and “decided to take a cool headed approach about this.”
“We said this doesn’t deserve breaking the momentum for dialogue,” she told the forum in English, according to an AP transcript. “But if it reaches, the provocation reaches a certain limit and that cannot be tolerated, clearly it goes back to more pressure.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Below is a well made Youtube video that goes into the history of Samsung.

I did not realize that Samsung was founded as a truck company in Daegu by Lee Byung-chul who was chummy with the Imperial Japanese. He eventually moved his business down to Masan which was the main port the Japanese were using to export out of Korea.

After the colonial occupation Lee would go on to become friends with President Rhee Syngman and business continued to grow. Then during the Korean War business continued to thrive as he had contracts to move U.S. supplies and equipment with his trucks. After the war is when Samsung grew dramatically as it expanded into building construction and other industries to where today it is Korea’s flagship global business conglomerate.

There is more than just plastic straws that cause problems for bird and marine life, but this is a small way to start mitigating plastic pollution:

The debate on banning on single-use plastic straws to cut plastic waste is clashing with the pursuit of convenience.

As over 10 billion plastic straws are used every year in Korea, environmental groups are calling for a ban on disposable plastic products to reduce litter and other environmental consequences of plastic waste.

However, some claim such a move is premature given that an abrupt ban without proper alternatives can inconvenience consumers.

The Korean Federation for Environmental Movement held a press conference Tuesday, urging the government to ban use of plastic straws by law. It is gathering signatures both on and offline to support the plan.

“The current law does not recognize plastic straws as a disposable product thus they are not subjected to government rules on their free use at restaurants or coffee shops,” the environmental group said in its statement. “Plastic straws cause not only air pollution, but also soil contamination and harm to marine life.” 

Korea Times

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Which begs a fundamental question: if true that no amount of sanctions can convince NK to make the strategic decision to denuclearize, then why do we think unbridled concessions would? If we asked Kim what it would take for him to willingly go to zero, he wouldn’t have an answer. https://t.co/7n5QSpxLGp

— 🇰🇷Edward Oh🇺🇸 (@EdwardHBOh) June 5, 2019

As it turns out Emperor President Xi will not visit South Korea on this way to Japan for the G20 summit:

Chinese President Xi Jinping won’t visit South Korea on the occasion of the upcoming G-20 summit in Japan, a government official here said Friday.
“President Xi is not coming to South Korea” just before or after his trip to Osaka for the June 28-29 G-20 session, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The confirmation came amid multiple news reports here that Xi is expected to travel to South Korea on his way to Osaka or after travelling there.
A Cheong Wa Dae official indicated that President Moon Jae-in instead has a plan to sit down with Xi on the sidelines of the G-20.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

From Yonhap:

Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo met with the visiting commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) on Friday and discussed ways to boost a combined readiness posture and the bilateral alliance, the Seoul ministry said.
During his meeting with Gen. Richard Clarke in Seoul, Jeong said that the close cooperation between the special operations commands of the two countries has contributed to their staunch readiness posture, and he asked for continued support from the U.S. for ongoing diplomacy to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and permanent peace. 
Noting that his visit to South Korea helped him reaffirm the strong bilateral alliance and the joint defense posture, the U.S. general vowed to make the utmost efforts to further enhance the close partnership between the special operations commands of the two nations, according to the ministry.

Yonhap

If there should be massive protests against any world leader visiting South Korea, President Xi should be it. China is the country that most recently invaded and destroyed the country, not the Japanese and China continues to be the lifeline that supports North Korea, a country that is committed to the destruction of the ROK:

Chinese President Xi Jinping is rumored to be visiting Seoul this month for a summit with President Moon Jae-in. 

The JoongAng Ilbo, citing an unnamed diplomatic source, reported Thursday that Xi will visit Seoul to meet Moon before going to Osaka, Japan, in late June to participate in the G20 meeting, scheduled for two days from June 28.

Cheong Wa Dae and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said “nothing has been decided” on Xi’s possible trip to Seoul. They did however, say Seoul and Beijing have been working closely to realize his visit. 

“The Chinese government is known to be preparing a schedule for Xi’s visit to South Korea on the last week of this month before he participates in the G20 summit,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed diplomatic source as saying.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but another reason Koreans should be protesting Xi is that China continues to be the home of a modern day comfort women industry and yet the South Korean left will only protest Imperial Japanese comfort women polices from 75 years ago.

You throw in the Chinese fishing boats encroaching on ROK territory and murdering ROK Coast Guard personnel and the Chinese government sponsored assault on Korean citizens in Seoul ten years ago, there are plenty of reasons that Koreans should be unhappy with President Xi.

However, it is likely little if any protests will occur because China is a hard target to protest against because they will retaliate compared to the easy target that is Japan.