I had a cab driver do this to me before and I got out and thanked him for the free ride after recording his driver information:

A taxi driver has been fined for overcharging British passengers. 

According to police, the driver picked them up at the International Passenger Terminal in Busan Port on Wednesday morning, drove about two kilometers with the meter off and charged 20,000 won ($18), nearly four times the proper fare. 

When the passengers told their Korean guide about the incident, the guide reported the driver to the tourist police, a special unit committed to handling complaints from foreign visitors. 

Police confirmed the offense after looking at the vehicle’s dash cam and CCTV footage. The driver admitted he had overcharged the passengers.

Korea Times

I wonder how much the fine was? I doubt it was enough to discourage taxi drivers from continuing this activity.

I would expect the US will keep this defection very quiet until a way ahead on a second Trump-Kim summit is figured out:

The disappearance and alleged request for asylum by former North Korean defector Jo Song-gil are posing a challenge for North Korea and the United States as they prepare to meet, as the former acting ambassador to Italy is reportedly seeking asylum in the United States.

Washington remains mum over these reports from the Italian media, apparently wary of the fallout from the issue ahead of their possible second summit set to take place in the near future.

The U.S. Department of State declined to confirm anything on the reports on Friday that Jo, who has reportedly been in hiding for weeks, has expressed hopes to settle in the U.S.

The 44-year-old North Korean diplomat has been missing with his family since early November without prior notice. Jo’s specific whereabouts remain unknown. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but former diplomat defector Thae Yong-ho has request that Jo seek asylum in South Korea. Considering the Moon administration’s cozy relationship with the Kim regime I can understand why he doesn’t want to go to South Korea.

#China passed a five-year work plan to sinicize #Islam at a meeting on Saturday with representatives from 8 Islamic associations in China. They agreed to guide Islam to be compatible with socialism and implement measures to sinicize the religion. pic.twitter.com/usXq1EtiGC

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 5, 2019

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

Here is the response from the Finance Ministry about the claims of interfering in private companies and politics by a whistleblower:

The current and former finance ministers finally broke their silence over controversial claims by a whistle-blower that the ministry issued deficit-financing bonds unnecessarily and tried to change the CEO of Korea Tobacco & Ginseng (KT&G), a private sector company. 

Current Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Friday that the whistle-blower, former Finance Ministry employee Shin Jae-min, misunderstood what was going on because he had limited information as a low-level employee. Decisions by his predecessor Kim Dong-yeon would have considered all economic factors, he said, suggesting that political influence or pressure were not part of the picture. 

“When it comes to ‘facts’ there was no outside pressure,” Hong said. 

“[Former Finance Minister] Kim would have made decisions considering the various factors.” 

Hong said while whistle-blower Shin, who was working in the ministry’s treasury bureau, might have had his own thoughts on the issuing of bonds, former Finance Minister Kim had to make decisions with a long-term view with managing the government’s fiscal policy for the next five years.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the responses really don’t fully dispute the whistleblowers claims.

The more the native English-speaking waygook thinks these (admittedly horrible) slogans are horrible the more it’s apparent the waygook in question doesn’t know what he’s talking about, because he obviously thinks that if it’s in English he’s the target audience. https://t.co/RJYm35kr6n

— the oranckay (@oranckay) January 3, 2019

In response to Japan’s video about the claimed use of a fire control radar against a patrol plane, the ROK Ministry Defense has now released their own video disputing the claims:

The first criticism in the video is that the Japanese aircraft flew at a low and threatening altitude. Here is a screen capture from the ROK perspective of the patrol plane. Does this look like a threatening aircraft?:

The next claim is that Japan is wrong about being in compliance with international law. The ROK video shows that the altitude and distance level the Japanese aircraft maintained was applicable only to civil aircraft according to international law:

This actually discredits Korea’s criticism because then the Japanese patrol aircraft could then fly at whatever altitude it wanted if there is no international standard military aircraft are held to. If there was a military standard between the ROK and Japan I would think they would have included it in the video.

The next claim in the video is that the Korean ship did not use its fire control radar against the Japanese plane. The video says the ship only had its search radar on. To counter the Japanese claim of the use of a fire control radar the video focuses on the fact that no guns from the ship were pointed at the aircraft. This is a completely separate issue that the Japanese side has never claimed. The issue was the use of the fire control radar.

The video also asks that if the fire control radar was used why didn’t the plane use emergency measures to escape. Watching the Japanese video it is clear the crew knew no weapons were pointed at them and thus likely did not feel threatened by the Korean ship.

The next claim is that the Japanese radio communications were unclear. The video had just one short snippet of audio which was unclear. However, there was much more broadcasts by the Japanese plane. I can understand though how trying to understand English spoken with a Japanese accident over a radio could be difficult for the crew on the ROK ship to understand.

Regardless the whole radio issue is really not important compared to the fire control radar issue. The ROK video concludes demanding that the Japanese release their radar data. The technology that nation’s use to collect radar frequency data is sensitive information that I would be surprised is released. However supposedly the Japanese are now considering it:

The South Korean video is “awful,” a senior Defense Ministry official said, adding, “We have to keep rebutting.”
The official noted that the South Korean video did not include radio messages sent by the Japanese patrol plane to the South Korean destroyer, which had been on the Japanese video.
Depending on the responses of South Korea, Tokyo is considering releasing radar wavelength data, usually a military secret, as additional evidence for its claim, sources familiar with the situation said.
Frustration is growing among an increasing number of Japanese government officials at South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s failure to act to resolve tensions over the incident.

Japan Times

Overall in my opinion the ROK video is not convincing, but will likely serve well for the domestic audience in Korea. Does anyone else have any other opinions on the ROK video?

Finally what is really amazing about this whole issue is that between most other countries this would likely be resolved internally between defense ministries instead of being fought over on Youtube. However, as we have seen with so many issues between ROK and Japan domestic politics get involved. As I have said repeatedly the Chinese and the North Koreans are loving this.

It is not surprising that the Kim regime would have someone with strong ties to the regime elite serving as the ambassador to Italy because you would think they would have a higher level of loyalty:

According to an informed source who spoke to Asia Times on condition of anonymity, Jo – described as “more important than the ambassador” – is the son of the late deputy head of Pyongyang’s Organization and Guidance Department, or OGD.
The OGD, an ultra-select body of the Korea Workers Party’s Central Committee, was seen by inside sources as the most important state organ under the regime of the late Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011. Defectors such as Hwang Jang Yeop, the highest-level North Korean official ever to come to the South, and Jang Jin Sung, a former regime propaganda officer, considered the OGD of critical importance to state affairs.
Though it is not clear if the OGD is as central to Kim Jong Un’s governance as it was to his father’s, Jo, given his family connection, would be extremely well acquainted with Pyongyang’s top-level elites and the inner workings of and processes of the regime.
His present whereabouts are unknown, but he is thought to be under the protection of Italian authorities.

Asia Times

You can read more at the link.