South Korea’s leftists continue to do the Kim regime’s bidding by trying to draw doubt on North Korea’s responsibility for the downing of KAL 858 back in 1987. The latest ridiculous attack is that they think ROK intelligence blamed North Korea to quickly for the bombing by pinning blame on the Kim regime three days after the terrorist attack:
Debris from KAL 858
South Korea’s spy agency drew up a document with details about North Korea’s involvement in the 1987 midair bombing of a Korean Air flight just three days after the bombing took place and killed all 115 people aboard, court records showed Monday.
The document of the then-Agency for National Security Planning was about the code-named Operation Rainbow aimed at taking advantage of the Nov. 29 bombing to sway public opinion in favor of the then-ruling party candidate in the presidential election just a few weeks away.
Three pages of the five-page document have been classified, and a journalist filed a suit demanding its full disclosure. But the Seoul Administrative Court recently rejected the demand, saying its disclosure could have negative effects on diplomatic relations with foreign countries.
Still, it has been confirmed during the process of the lawsuit that the document included specific details about the culprits — Kim Hyon-hee and her accomplice Kim Sung-il, who killed himself right after arrest — such as how they were arrested and what they did before the bombing.
In addition, the document also included information about Kim Sung-il’s link to North Korea, as well as strategies for using the case on the international stage, such as increasing cooperation with foreign countries, including those with close ties with the North.
The revelation could further deepen suspicions about how the spy agency was able to draw up such a detailed report just a few days after the bombing happened.
Critics and some bereaved families of the bombing have raised suspicions about North Korea’s involvement in the bombing, claiming there is no objective evidence except Kim Hyon-hee’s confession to prove it was the North that blew up the jet. [Yonhap]
There is more evidence of North Korea’s responsibility for the bombing than just Kim Hyon-hee’s confession. You can read my detailed account about the bombing at the below link:
As far as South Korea’s spy agency, why should anyone be surprised that three days after the bombing they were drawing up a document blaming North Korea for the bombing? Especially when they had a suspect in custody?
This is just another attempt by South Korean leftists to cover up North Korea’s responsibility for this terrorist attack. Two months ago they launched a libel lawsuit against Kim Hyon-hee to keep her quiet as well.
South Korean leftists believe Kim was not a terrorist, but instead a ROK government secret operative that intentionally bombed the plane. It seems like total absurdity that someone would think the ROK government would bomb and murder 115 of their own citizens, but remember South Korean leftists still think the ROK government murdered their own sailors by intentionally sinking the ROK naval ship the Cheonan in 2010 instead of a North Korean torpedo.
This is the lengths that South Korean leftists will go to defect blame on their political opposition instead of holding the real culprits, the Kim regime, responsible for the murder of these ROK citizens.
The timing of this space launch makes me wonder if the Moon administration is trying to give the Kim regime in North Korea a rationale to protest the sanctions on their own rocket launches:
South Korea plans to conduct the first test flight of its locally developed booster engine at the end of next month, the ICT ministry said Sunday, as part of a long-term effort to produce the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-2 (KSLV-2), a three-stage rocket.
The single-stage rocket, with a 75-ton thrust engine, developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is set to be launched between Oct. 25 and Oct. 31 from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, the Ministry of Science and ICT said.
It said the launch date has been set after examining all variables and that related countries and agencies, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization and International Maritime Organization, will be notified in advance
“Barring any unforeseen developments, the launch should take place on the primary date of Oct. 25,” the ministry said.
The rocket will fly for about 10 minutes, during which the performance of the new engine, control system and other parts will be monitored, the ministry said. It is expected to attain a sub-orbital altitude of over 100 kilometers some 160 seconds after launch and reach its apogee 300 seconds into the flight, before hitting international waters between South Korea’s Jeju Island and Japan’s Okinawa Island. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but after this launch the Kim regime can argue that they should be allowed to conduct peaceful space launches just like the ROK. The Chinese and Russians of course would support them, the Moon administration may even openly support them. So called peaceful space launches would give the North Koreans a way to get around sanctions to continue to perfect components of their ICBM technology.
I wonder how many young people in "Hell Chosun" would like them to have one-way tickets. Not saying it's my preference, but just sayin'. https://t.co/Sla2mJgJBU
Jeju Island has been the epicenter of the refugee issue in South Korea and this weekend protesters faced off against each other in Seoul. However, judging by the size of the protests few people apparently cared enough about this issue to join the protesters:
Anti-refugee protesters march to the National Human Rights Commission while demanding abolishment of the Refugee Act, in Jongno, central Seoul on Sunday. (Yonhap)
Two contrasting rallies, in support of and opposition to the Refugee Act, took place across from each other in Jongno in central Seoul on Sunday. The movements came two days after the Justice Ministry granted one-year humanitarian stay permits to 23 Yemeni asylum seekers.
Under the rain, some 200 rallygoers demanded the government grant greater legal refugee status to more asylum seekers, and called for efforts to reduce discriminations against asylum seekers, in front of Bosingak.
Just across the road, some 300 protesters gathered in front of Jongno Tower to chant for the abolishment of the Refugee Act, and chanted that the government should protect the interests of Koreans. [Korea Herald]
Here is another example that Americans in Korea should take note of, you don’t have the same right to self defense in the ROK as you would in the US:
A man has received a prison sentence for assaulting a driver who attacked him first.
The Seoul Eastern District Court sentenced the man, 39, to eight months in prison Saturday for retaliating against a driver, 52, who hit him first with a weapon after an argument about the driver’s driving style.
On the other hand, the court gave the driver a suspended prison sentence.
According to the prosecution, the driver hit the younger guy with a “blunt weapon” in anger last September after repeatedly being told to drive slowly.
But the younger man took the weapon from the driver and attacked him back with it, leaving the older man with injuries requiring six weeks of medical treatment.
The younger man claimed he acted in self-defense, but the court said he had other options, including simply running away from the situation. Judge Jang Dong-min said the behavior should be considered an assault that was obviously beyond what should be allowed under the self-defense law. [Korea Times]
The bottom line on self defense in Korea is that if you have to defend yourself, use as little force as possible even if someone is trying to kill you. There have been numerous examples over the years of victims of criminal activities being convicted by a Korean court for defending themselves. The self defense law is even worse for foreigners when the Korean assailant can just lie and the police will likely blame the foreigner for the altercation.
Here are a few examples involving USFK servicemembers:
Well President Moon is the person that said that people need to shake off the “stereotype that the private sector creates jobs.” This is what that belief leads to:
The government spent more than W50 trillion in 2017 and this year on its futile attempts to create jobs (US$1=W1,119). A lawmaker who is among candidates to become head of the ruling party blames the high unemployment on the W22 trillion the Lee Myung-bak administration spent a decade ago to dredge the four major rivers and waterways in the country. But the Moon Jae-in administration has spent twice as much money and only 5,000 jobs were created in July. In the past, when the government did not spend a single penny on job creation, jobs increased by around 300,000. Unemployment now stands above 1 million for the seventh straight month, while a record 1 million small businesses are expected to close this year.
W50 trillion is an astronomical amount of money. Not many countries have a total budget that size. After spending that much, the government needs to show some results, but there has been no progress whatsoever. So where has the money gone?
A closer look at the government’s job-stimulus objectives this year gives a vague idea. The government is paying W6 trillion to support the unemployed, while another W4 trillion is going into measures aimed at prodding the jobless to find work. That means around half of this year’s budget earmarked for job creation has in fact gone into supporting the unemployed and forcing companies to keep workers they do not need. And the W2 trillion allocated for job training is focused on short-term positions.
In fact, most of the jobs the government claims to have created have been short-term positions. About half of jobs it created last year by spending W11 trillion from the supplementary budget were for senior citizens, although the government said it aimed to boost youth employment. And those jobs will vanish as soon as government funding dries up. A study by the Labor Ministry shows that six out of 10 workers who found jobs through government programs quit in less than a year. Taxpayers’ money effectively turned into salaries for the jobless. [Chosun Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but you have to love how the Korean left is trying to blame former President Lee Myung-bak for high unemployment when he has been out of office for nearly seven years.
Apparently some people are upset at KBS for highlighting the looks of the biracial child of Korean soccer player Park Joo-ho:
Park Joo-ho and his family. Capture from Naver TV account of “The Return of Superman.”
KBS2’s reality show “The Return of Superman” has sparked a controversy for promoting “lookism” to market a four-year-old biracial girl on Aug. 19.
National football star Park Joo-ho appeared with his biracial daughter, Park Na-eun.
Park married Swiss woman Anna when Park was a player of FC Basel from 2011-13. Anna gave birth to their first daughter Na-eun in 2015.
Na-eun was an instant hit. But the show put excessive emphasis on her appearance, describing her as “pretty even when eating.”
Then it compared and contrasted her to Suri Cruise, daughter of Hollywood heavyweight Tom Cruise. The narrator said, “Na-eun looks better than Suri in my eyes.”
The aim of the program was to show how fathers care for their children without help from mothers, but it has long deviated, showing cute children in order to gain higher ratings.
“Looks are not everything,” commented a viewer. Another wrote: “Lookism is so deeply rooted in some people ― they do not even know what the problem is.” [Korea Times]
It was only a matter of time before some lawyers would round up BMW owners in Korea and start launching lawsuits. What is interesting is that they are calling on President Trump to do the investigating for them since he is supposedly hostile to German auto manufacturers:
Ha Jong-sun of Barun Law, who is leading a class action suit against BMW over fire-prone engines, speaks during a press conference at the law firm’s office in Seoul, Monday. The lawyer said BMW drivers in Korea would file lawsuits against government officials and send letters to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Donald Trump. / Yonhap
BMW drivers in Korea sent letters to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Donald Trump to urge the German and U.S. authorities to investigate the cause of engine fires in BMW vehicles, an attorney for the drivers said Monday.
The so-called “BMW fire victims group” consisting of 1,000 BMW car owners in Korea also said they are considering filing lawsuits against government officials at the transport and environment ministries for their alleged dereliction of duty.
“We decided to send letters to Merkel via German Ambassador to Korea Stephan Auer to ask the German government and prosecutors to investigate BMW headquarters for its alleged concealment of the defect,” Ha Jong-sun of Barun Law told reporters at the law firm’s office in Seoul.
The lawyer added the victims would send letters to Trump to call on him to issue an executive order to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board to initiate its own investigation into potential defects in exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR) valves and coolers in BMW’s SUVs.
“Accordingly there is an immediate need to check the safety of EGR valves and coolers in X3, X5 and X6 diesel SUVs sold in the U.S. to prevent fatal car fires and save innocent lives on U.S. highways and roads,” Lee Gwang-deok said in the letter.
The victims plan to ship a burnt BMW vehicle to the U.S., as the cause of its fire has not been discovered in Korea.
They expect the U.S. president to take an appropriate measure, considering he has been hostile toward German carmakers. [Korea Times]
GIs have been dealing with shady landlords for decades, but in my opinion things have actually improved though it appears foreign students are now a bigger target:
Some landlords are targeting international students.
International students here are increasingly falling victim to real estate-related fraud.
In one case, a Vietnamese student, 28, didn’t get her room deposit of 5 million won back because her landlord said she didn’t pay any monthly rent. But she claimed she paid six months’ rent in a lump sum but didn’t receive a receipt.
“The real estate procedure is complicated for international students,” one Chinese international student, surnamed Jing, told Dong-A Ilbo. “And it is harder to understand the jargon when they speak in Korean.”
Foreign students, now numbering 120,000 here, often fall victim to the fraud.
The paper cites four types. The first is a makeshift contract. Instead of a standard template contract, the landlords arbitrarily draw up one that does not protect the rights of foreign tenants.
The second is the cash transaction.
The third is the imposition of repair costs on the tenants. In the second and third cases, the landlord tries to take advantage of the foreign students’ inability to speak Korean or lack of related knowledge.
The fourth is a conflict when a student sublets a room to another tenant without a contract, which a landlord can use as an excuse to eject the tenants. [Korea Times]
