Author: GIKorea

This story about an Army National Guard officer who stole a tracked vehicle and went joyriding in Virginia continues to get weirder:

The Army National Guard officer accused of stealing an armored personnel carrier from Fort Pickett last June is scheduled to go on trial May 20.
But Joshua Yabut’s trial has been put on hold because the 30-year-old first lieutenant plans to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, according to WTVR. A new hearing in Nottoway County, Virginia, is set for July 2.
Yabut is accused of stealing the military vehicle and leading police on a more than 60-mile chase to Richmond, Virginia, while under the influence of drugs. He said he had permission to take the APC, but Virginia National Guard officials denied that in initial reports.

Army Times

Here is where it gets weirder:

Yabut’s case took another twist in January when he violated the terms of his bond and traveled to Iraq, somehow losing his ankle monitoring bracelet along the way.

He used his valid military ID to board a flight at Naval Station Norfolk before flying commercially from Charlotte, North Carolina, the rest of the way to Baghdad. He returned to Norfolk two days later, according to WTVR. His military ID is no longer valid and he was put back behind bars.

His ultimate destination was Iraq but here was his itinerary:

• Norfolk, Virginia to Jacksonville, Florida
• Jacksonville to Charlotte, North Carolina
• Charlotte to Toronto, Ontario
• Toronto to Keflavik, Iceland
• Iceland to Berlin, Germany
• Berlin to Istanbul, Turkey
• Istanbul to Iraq on Jan. 26.

You can read more at the link, about how he researched being a terrorist and building pressure cooker bombs.

Something to keep in mind that these jobless numbers have probably been modified as much as possible to make it not look as bad since President Moon fired the prior head of Statistics Korea and replaced her with an ally. The actual jobless is probably far worse:

Over 1.24 million people remained jobless in April, the highest in 19 years, a clear indication of the tightening job market amid an economic slowdown here, government data showed Wednesday. 

Statistics Korea said the number of jobless stood at 1,245,000, up 84,000 from a year earlier and the highest number since June 1999 when the agency began compiling related data. 

The jobless rate also jumped to 4.4 percent in April, up 0.3 percentage points year-on-year, the highest since 2000 when it stood at 4.5 percent. 

The rate for those aged between 15 and 29 reached 11.5 percent, up 0.8 percentage points from a year earlier, also the highest since April 2000. 

You can read more at the link.

Considering that former Presidents George Bush and Roh Moo-hyun’s last meeting ended in a testy exchange about North Korea, Poongsan Corp. must be providing him a pretty nice travel package to attend this memorial service:

Former U.S. President George W. Bush plans to visit South Korea next week to attend a memorial service to mark the 10th anniversary of former President Roh Moo-hyun’s death, an official said Monday.

Bush is expected to participate in the memorial event to be held on May 23 at Bongha Village in Gimhae, some 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, hometown of the late president, according to a foundation set up in honor of Roh.

Bush was Roh’s U.S. counterpart during the South Korean president’s presidency from 2003 to 2008.

“His attendance of the memorial service has been confirmed. We will reveal details later this week,” an official at the Roh Moo-hyun foundation said.

In May 2009, Roh jumped to his death off a cliff behind his retirement home amid a widening probe by prosecutors over allegations that members of his family accepted illicit funds.

Bush’s planned visit is believed to be arranged by local arms manufacturer Poongsan Corp., which has long ties with the Bush family.

He reportedly will visit Seoul for affairs related to the company. Bush’s side is believed to have expressed his intent to participate in the memorial service through the company. 

Korea Times

12-mile ruck march, part of basic military training, maybe no more for #SouthKorean military, which is cutting basic training to 5 weeks.https://t.co/H0gMRNV1Wn

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) May 13, 2019

I am very suspicious of this story because I find it hard to believe there is a population of Asiatic black bears living in a stretch of land 4 kilometers wide. This just seems very convenient when the Moon administration has been pushing to turn the DMZ into a so called “Eco-Peace Park“:

A rare Asiatic black bear cub has been photographed while crossing a stream in the Demilitarized Zone, highlighting the heavily fortified Korean border area’s role as a unique haven for wildlife.
The photo of the bear, which was captured by a motion-sensor camera in October, emerged as the fate of the DMZ is in question amid efforts to improve relations between the two Koreas and persuade the North to abandon its nuclear weapons.
The 2.5-mile wide, 155-mile long strip of land has been largely a no-go zone for more than six decades due to land mines and barbed wire-lined fences in place since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice instead of a peace treaty.
Untouched by development, animals and plants have thrived with little human contact in the protected ecosystem that includes wetlands, forests, mountains and coastlines.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if this bear is a cub from bears reintroduced into the wild in South Korea and wandered into the DMZ from another area in Gangwon-do.

Remember how the Moon administration said they would get public opinion before agreeing to food aid to North Korea? Well as expected public opinion to them is getting their food aid plan agreed to by fellow leftist groups:

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul discussed the issue of providing food aid to North Korea with civic groups here, Tuesday, as part of a first step in reviewing the project.

Seventeen people from three organizations, including the Korea Conference of Religions for Peace, participated in the discussion.

The three groups are favorable toward the government providing humanitarian aid to the North. In a joint statement, they said South Korea should never ignore the devastating food shortage there despite ongoing military and political tension between the two Koreas.

“As of now, the unification ministry is focusing on receiving opinions. We will decide on the project’s timing, method and scale afterwards,” a ministry official said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but some how I doubt anyone from these groups asked the Unification Minister how come the Kim regime cannot purchase food for their people, but can buy $640 million of luxury goods from China?

This editorial in the North Korean state controlled newspaper is clearly intended to send a message to the Moon administration to violate international sanctions:

Pyongyang’s state media on Sunday condemned the South for citing humanitarian reasons for its plans to provide food aid to the North, saying Seoul is “playing with empty words” rather than attempting to tackle “fundamental issues” in their relationship. 

The editorial from Arirang Meari – a state-run outlet in Pyongyang that mainly covers inter-Korean issues – criticized the South for being “entangled with an external environment” and putting off the implementation of their joint declarations from earlier summits. Calling the South’s references to humanitarianism “empty words” and “showing off,” the piece went on say that making a “big deal out of a few counts of humanitarian cooperation projects” was an “insult to public opinion and an act lacking respect and ethics.

“[The South] must not make a mockery out of the historic inter-Korean joint declaration with a trivial counts of goods trading or human exchanges,” the essay continued. “If [South Korea] is truly interested in improving inter-Korean relations as a primary party to national issues, it must boldly divorce itself from a policy of foreign dependence and fulfill its duty to the people by actively sticking by the inter-Korean declarations.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime is trying to push the Moon administration to unilaterally restart joint projects such as the Kaesong Industrial Park that would violate international sanctions.

At my first Korean baseball game and please can I stay here forever thanks bye pic.twitter.com/ZjfEQ6doNh

— William Gallo (@GalloVOA) May 12, 2019