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147 remains of ROK Army veterans of the Korean War are finally returning home:

The largest repatriation of remains of South Korean soldiers who fought alongside U.S. troops in the Korean War is being held at 4 p.m. EDT today at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.

The soldiers’ remains are being returned to their homeland of South Korea after 67 years away, officials said.

“This, like the past repatriation, is due to the strong and long standing partnership between the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and [South Korea’s] Ministry of National Defense Agency for KIA Recovery and Identification,” said Lee Tucker, spokesman for the Defense Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency, said. “It is the incredible improvements in technology, advancements in forensic science and the strong partnership between DPAA and MAKRI which led to these identifications.”

Scientists with DPAA and MAKRI have conducted joint forensic investigations and were able to validate these 147 remains as being of South Korean origin, according to a Pentagon statement.

Military Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is some interesting coronavirus statistics from South Korea:

South Korea had released 4,811 fully recovered novel coronavirus patients from hospitals as of Saturday, up 283 from a day earlier, the KCDC said.

It marked the first time the number of cured people exceeded the number of quarantined patients since Jan. 20, when the virus was first detected on South Korean soil.

South Korea’s cure rate for people infected with the virus is 50 percent, an achievement that South Korean officials hailed in their fight against the contagious respiratory illness.

“The 50 percent cure rate is a small achievement that all in our society should celebrate, though we have a long way to go,” Yoon Tae-ho, director-general for public health policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said in a briefing.

South Korea said the number of imported cases out of the 146 newly confirmed patients came to 41 — 25 from Europe, 12 from the United States and Mexico, and four from Thailand.

The KCDC said the number of imported cases came to 363 out of the 9,478 confirmed cases.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the small number of infections brought by people traveling to South Korea is a small number compared to the amount of media reports it has been receiving. It is also good to hear that so many people in South Korea have recovered. Hopefully this trend continues.

It is ironic they are doing this after complaining about Japan putting a quarantine on South Korean travelers when the ROK had the second highest amount of infections behind China:

South Korea will conduct new coronavirus tests on all arrivals from Europe and require them to self-isolate for two weeks as part of ongoing efforts to guard against imported cases of the novel coronavirus, the country’s health authorities said Friday.

The measures, to be effective starting Sunday, are the latest in a series of stepped-up quarantine moves by the country amid growing concerns over a rise in imported virus cases. 

The country will require all returnees from European nations to get tested for the virus, and if a person arrives in South Korea from Europe for a long-term stay, he or she will be required to self-isolate at home for two weeks, even if they test negative for COVID-19, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

If the person has no home in South Korea, they will be sent to an isolation facility, according to Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official who is in charge of containment measures.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

President Trump is absolutely right about South Korea’s slow start, but I would not say South Korea had a “great number of deaths”. The mortality rate is very low in South Korea:

 U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that South Korea did a “good job” handling the coronavirus outbreak but also had “tremendous problems” at the start.

Trump made the remark at a White House press briefing as he defended his own administration’s response to the growing outbreak in the United States.

“I noticed a lot of people are talking about South Korea because they’ve done a good job on one side, but on the other side, tremendous problems at the beginning,” he said. “They had tremendous problems and great numbers of death.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but South Korea current has 8,236 positive infections with 75 deaths. That is a .009 mortality rate currently. As long as Americans handle this issue smartly by not getting the elderly and those with compromised immune systems infected the mortality rate should remain low in the U.S. as well.

Suki Kim has an article in the New Yorker that compares the Moon administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak to how the former Park administration responded to the Sewol ferry tragedy:

Three years after Moon campaigned on a promise of governing more effectively during an emergency than Park, the incumbent’s response to one has resembled that of his predecessor. After the ferry disaster, Park blamed the tragedy on the ship’s owner, a founder of a different religious group also considered a cult. After the Park administration issued an arrest warrant for the ferry owner, he went into hiding. Eventually, he was found dead, an apparent suicide. On March 1st, the city of Seoul, whose mayor, like Moon, is a member of the Democratic Party, asked prosecutors to charge Lee Man-hee, the founder of the Shincheonji Church, and the religious group’s other leaders for murder for their alleged role in spreading covid-19. 

The New Yorker

I recommend reading the whole thing at the link.

Look who is in Korea looking for money:

Questions have arisen from capital market observers as former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton revisited Korea this week in the capacity of the Rhone Group senior adviser and met with institutional investors here. (………..)

Market observers say Bolton’s latest trip showed the foreign midcap buyout firm has been anxious to utilize Korea’s liquidity for its fundraising.

Foreign news outlets have described Rhone as “low-profile,” because the size of its entire assets under management falls far short of the size of a single buyout fund managed by global PEFs.

Rhone managed assets worth 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) as of the first half of 2019.

The fact that Bolton’s visit was made amid the spread of coronavirus across East Asia is also mentioned as evidence of Rhone’s desperation.

After the virus outbreak, financial firms have canceled their investor roadshows overseas and foreign investors have become reluctant to visit Korea and other East Asian countries.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The removal of the spending cap at USFK commissaries in South Korea did not last long due to the black marketeers:

The U.S. military has reimposed monthly commissary purchase limits in South Korea, less than a month after a retiree was banned from bases over black marketing allegations.

The new policy, effective as of Jan. 23, means that commissary shoppers will again be limited to $800 for the main sponsor and $300 for additional family members per month. Anybody who needs to spend more must request an exception from squadron or battalion commanders.

The decision was based on purchasing trends showing that most authorized shoppers stayed “well below” the limits since the purchasing cap was lifted in September, U.S. Forces Korea said Tuesday in announcing the decision on social media.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

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