Author: GIKorea

Here is a $8 million more dollars that the Kim regime does not have to spend on its people:

South Korea decided Friday to donate US$8 million to international agencies for aid projects in North Korea and allow a group of businesspeople to visit a shuttered joint industrial complex in the communist nation.
The decisions came as Seoul has been trying to keep the peace process with the North alive despite the North’s firing of missiles and projectiles earlier this month. Seoul is also formulating plans to send food aid to the impoverished North.
“The government decided to approve the businesspeople’s trip to North Korea as part of efforts to protect their property rights,” the unification ministry said in a press release. “We will make necessary efforts to make their trip to the Kaesong industrial complex go smoothly without any problem.”
“We also plan to provide $8 million through international agencies such as the WFP and UNICEF for projects to support the nutrition of children and pregnant women and their health,” it added, referring to the World Food Programme and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Seoul is saying they are sending the food aid to keep the peace process alive. So this is basically extortion money then to the Kim regime?

Back in May when the Korean government announced a resolution to the fight between taxi drivers and the Kakao ride sharing app, I predicted this issue would come up again. That is because this picture clearly indicates both sides were not happy with the agreement and tensions are now boiling over again:

After more taxi drivers resort to extreme methods of protest, an organization comprised of the government, ruling party and taxi companies was created to find a compromise. After 45 days of discussions, the taxi and carpool companies finally reached an agreement on March 7.

In their agreement, carpooling hours were limited to 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., weekends and national holidays excluded. For the taxi industry, parties agreed to reduce the number of taxi drivers with advanced age and implement a monthly salary for taxi drivers. Not all parts of the agreement were carried out accordingly. 

“After announcing that a social agreement was made, we haven’t had a working session, not one,” said Kang Shin-pyo, the leader of the National Taxi Labor Union, in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo. In the agreement, there was a section where parties agreed to create an organization for discussion between the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the companies.

The National Assembly has not made much progress either. The Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee held a subcommittee meeting to examine the bill on March 27, but could not reach a conclusion due to objections from the opposition Liberty Korea Party. The discussion is currently suspended.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The Moon administration’s response to their poor economic policies appears to be to just spend more money:

President Moon Jae-in ordered the government on Thursday to spend more aggressively to solve problems such as slowing growth, weak jobs and worsening demographic changes.

“There are many areas in which we are still inadequate where people could feel improvements in the overall quality of their lives,” Moon said during a government national fiscal strategy meeting in Sejong. “There’s a need for the [government] finances to take a bolder role, more than ever, in urgently solving our society’s structural problems from low growth, polarization [of the top and bottom tiers], jobs, low fertility rate and aging population.” 

Although this is the third meeting held under the current administration, it was the first time that the meeting was held in Sejong instead of at the Blue House. 

“We’re at a turning point where we have to look back on our achievements in the last two years and prepare for the remaining three years,” Moon said. 

Moon particularly stressed that low-income people outside of the employment market, such as those who run small businesses like restaurants and convenience stores, need help.

“Self-employed people and those in lower-income households are struggling the most and this hurts me,” Moon said. “There is a demand for a more aggressive fiscal role in expanding jobs, enhancement on job safety nets such as introducing a system where additional financial support is provided for those whose unemployment paychecks has ended and measures for self-employed businesses.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the whole reason small businesses are struggling and unemployment is up is because of the steep minimum wage increase that has raised labor costs and caused major job layoffs.

It's time for the annual worst drought in decades. https://t.co/hX8D3W75qT

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) May 15, 2019

Here is the latest update on the ever changing location of the CFC headquarters:

The United States told the Moon Jae-in administration that it wants to move the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command from its planned relocation site in Yongsan District, central Seoul, to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, government sources told the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday. 

“General Robert Abrams, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea and the commander of the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, recently told Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo about the change of plans,” the JoongAng Ilbo quoted a government source as saying in its Thursday edition. “The Ministry of National Defense is currently reviewing the proposal.”

The newspaper also said multiple government sources confirmed the U.S. military’s relocation plan. Originally, the United States planned to keep the Combined Forces Command (CFC) in Yongsan.

Other top U.S. military offices – the headquarters of the U.S. Forces Korea, United Nations Command and Eighth Army Command – have been relocated away from Yongsan to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek.

According to the sources, General Abrams had considered two options for relocating the CFC. One was to move it inside Camp Humphreys and the other was to keep it inside the U.S. military base in Yongsan until the United States completed the process of handing over wartime operational control of Korean troops to Korea. 

Seoul and Washington originally agreed to keep the CFC inside the compound of the Korean Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan. During a lecture on Jan. 4 last year, General Vincent Brooks, then the commander of the Korea-U.S. CFC and U.S. Forces Korea, said the CFC will remain in Seoul. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read much more at the link, but this is all coming down to who is going to have to commute. According to the article General Abrams is having to commute twice a week to Seoul from Camp Humphreys to execute his CFC duties. Additionally he says it is hard to find good staff officers to serve in CFC if they have to commute from Camp Humphreys where their families are.

Moving the CFC headquarters to Camp Humphreys means all the Koreans living in Seoul would be forced to commute down to Camp Humphreys. Additionally there is concern of having the CFC headquarters on a US military base after operational control of forces in Korea is supposed to be handed over to the ROK by 2022.

Another US President is heading to South Korea in the coming weeks:

U.S. President Donald Trump will visit South Korea next month for talks with President Moon Jae-in on the denuclearization of North Korea and alliance issues, Moon’s office announced Thursday amid growing concerns about the overall peace process.
Trump plans to visit South Korea in late June as part of his regional trip. He will travel to Osaka, Japan, for the two-day G-20 summit to open on June 28. 
The exact schedule for Trump’s second trip to South Korea as U.S. president remains unannounced. He made a state visit to South Korea in November 2017.
“The two leaders plan to discuss ways for the establishment of a permanent peace regime through the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the strengthening of the South Korea-U.S. alliance,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson, Ko Min-jung, said early Thursday morning (Seoul time).

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Has anyone tried this Blue Bottle Coffee before? I would never wait in line for over an hour just to get a cup of coffee, but that is what people are doing in Korea for Blue Bottle:

Blue Bottle Coffee finally came to Korea on May 3. The opening of the artisanal coffee shop in Seongsu-dong, Seoul had been the talk of the town for years and social media was flooded with posts awaiting its arrival. 

Before the opening of the store at 8:00 a.m., more than 300 people lined up in advance, some having been there all night, to be the first to try the coffee. Over 1,000 people were reported to have lined up for approximately three hours on that day. 

Sales of Blue Bottle Korea recorded around 60 million won ($50,400) in a single day, which is equal to the combined daily sales of 70 Blue Bottle stores across the globe. 

A week later, this reporter visited to find out what the fuss was all about. Upon arriving at 4:30 p.m. and despite being a Wednesday, there was already a long queue outside. 

When asked how long it would take to get in, a Blue Bottle staff member said it would take roughly 90 minutes from the end of the line. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the reporter that reviewed the coffee shop was not overly impressed.

#BulldogFocus
Soldiers with #IronSupport Battalion gathered for a Tactical Dining Out to build espirit de corps at Rodriguez Live Fire Complex, Republic of Korea, May 11. National Anthem performed by SGT Alon Humphrey, #BulldogBrigade PAO NCOIC.@1stArmoredDiv@2INFDIV @FORSCOM pic.twitter.com/iFxLafEDKP

— BulldogBrigade3abct (@3ABCT1AD) May 11, 2019