It looks like the ROK will not be selling its Surion helicopter to the Philippines:
Korea’s prospects of selling its first homegrown helicopter, the Surion, to the Philippines are dimming as the island country inclines toward buying a tried-and-tested U.S. model instead. A high-ranking military officer here said Tuesday, “The Philippine government gave higher grades to the U.S.’ UH-60 Blackhawk than the Surion in fuselage evaluations. We’re trying hard to sweeten the deal by adding more incentives, but it looks like everything is pretty much set.” Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the country concluded that purchasing Blackhawks is the “best option.”
It seems to me that if there is no money designated to pay the employees than of course they will need to be put on leave:
A U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) letter states the USFK will send 8,700 Korean employees on unpaid leave from April 15, 2019, if Seoul and Washington do not settle a deal on their defense cost-sharing by the end of this year. Courtesy of USFK Korean Employees Union
The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) has sent a letter to the union of its Korean employees stating that it will place them on unpaid leave from mid-April 2019, if the ongoing defense-cost sharing negotiations between Seoul and Washington are not settled by the end of this year.
In the letter to USFK Korean Employees Union President Choe Ung-sik, USFK headquarters’ Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Michael Minihan said, “Unfortunately, unless the ongoing SMA negotiations can be completed in a timely manner to avoid a lapse in labor funding, we will be required to issue a general furlough notice.”
“Unless a new SMA is agreed to, it will be necessary to implement the furlough effective April 15, 2019,” Minihan said.
This is viewed by some observers as an attempt to gain concessions from Korea as the negotiations over sharing the cost of stationing American troops here are making little headway. They say that the U.S. is “taking Korean workers hostage” to demand a bigger payment from the government.
Time has been running out in the negotiations in relation to the Special Measures Agreement (SMA), a five-year defense contract between Seoul and Washington. It will expire Dec. 31.
The notice may possibly affect as many as 8,700 whose wages are co-paid by both the government and the USFK.
Via a reader tip comes news that President Moon’s official aircraft was blacklisted by the US for traveling to North Korea:
President Moon Jae-in (center) shakes hands with Czech Presidential Office chief Jan Novák (left) on arrival in Prague on Nov. 27. /Newsis
President Moon Jae-in’s official airplane has been blacklisted by the U.S. because it had flown him to North Korea, it emerged Wednesday. The official plane even had to be cleared for a visit to the U.S. in September after it was slapped with a 180-day ban. One diplomatic source said, “A blacklisted plane can only travel to the U.S. by special permission.” U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in September 2017 that bans all aircraft that traveled to North Korea from entering the U.S. for 180 days. But exceptions can be made. A U.S. government official confirmed that Moon’s plane had to receive authorization even when Moon went to New York on Sept. 24 to attend the UN General Assembly and meet Trump.
You can read more at the link, but by getting the rail and roads connected with North Korea like President Moon has been pushing hard to do, he can avoid the aircraft blacklisting problem.
It is ironic that South Korea is holding defense drills against a threat that will never happen from the Japanese while at the same time opening up the DMZ and not training against the North Korean threat that is an actual threat to attack the entire country, not just a pile of rocks in the ocean:
Despite bad weather, South Korean troops kicked off a regular exercise Thursday to hone their combined capabilities to defend Dokdo, a pair of rocky islets in the East Sea. The two-day maritime drills involve the 3,200-ton Gwanggaeto the Great destroyer and several other Navy and Coast Guard ships. The military canceled a plan to mobilize such aircraft as F-15K fighter, P-3C maritime surveillance plane and UH-60 helicopter on the day due to inclement weather, according to a Navy official. It has also postponed a Marine Corps landing exercise until Friday.
Via a reader tip comes the below video of a conference held recently by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) think tank. The conference featured a number of ROK Drop favorites such as Dr. Tara O, Joshua Stanton from One Free Korea, David Maxwell, and Dr. Nicholas Eberstadt.
A lot of great points were made by the speakers during the conference. For example Dr. O points out the jailing of conservative media figures and how the ROK media is suppressing coverage of anti-Moon administration protests. For example below is a picture of a protest that was not covered by the media. She even discussed an example of how Kim Jong-un could become the President of South Korea if a confederation is created.
Dr. Tara O discusses freedom of speech in the ROK.
Joshua Stanton also provided a lot of great examples of how Korean politicians have suppressed the media though it is in overdrive now.
