It looks like the gloves are finally beginning to come off in regards to dealing with China’s espionage:

Influential state media linked to China’s ruling Communist Party on Friday described Washington as a “despicable rogue” attempting to “stifle” China’s global rise by arranging for the arrest of a top executive at one of its major technology firms.Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies – China’s largest telecommunications equipment maker – was arrested in Vancouver on Dec. 1 as she changed planes. Canada’s Justice Department said Meng, 46, who is the daughter of the company’s founder, was detained due to an extradition request by the United States.

It provided no reason for why Meng was taken into custody but Canadian media reported she was arrested on suspicion of evading U.S. sanctions by selling American-made components to Iran. Several U.S. senators also made that connection. “There is ample evidence to suggest that no major Chinese company is independent of the Chinese government and Communist Party – and Huawei, which China’s government and military tout as a ‘national champion,’ is no exception,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in a statement. Warner said Huawei “poses a threat to our national security.”  [USA Today]

You can read more at the link, but the evading of sanctions may be the legal reason for her detainment, but I think the real reason so many countries in the west are mobilizing against China on this issue is because of the spy chips Huawei and other Chinese companies were allowing to be installed in their products.  Considering how may electronics parts come out of China major corporations and national leaders around the world have to wonder how much has China spied on them because of these chips?

With all that is going on I would recommend that no one travel to China because you know they are going to retaliate in some way and the most obvious way would be to arrest some Americans, especially a notable business leader for made up charges.

A suicide note was found at the scene. Lee’s body has been transferred to a hospital morgue.

Lee, 60, was being probed by the prosecution over his alleged involvement in the illegal surveilling of bereaved families of victims from a 2014 deadly ferry sinking that took more than 300 lives.

Prosecutors accused him of ordering his officers to collect information about any possible misconduct by the families to adversely affect the public’s sympathetic sentiment toward them.

As I have been saying watch and see if the Key Resolve exercise get scheduled to be executed this spring:

South Korea and the United States will likely suspend their joint field exercises next year amid the detente reached on the peninsula with North Korea.

Both sides are in discussions on whether to postpone their annual large-scale Foal Eagle combined tactical training exercise slated for March, but no official consensus has been reached yet.

“The military authorities may suspend major joint military exercises next year, including Foal Eagle, but nothing specific has been decided between the defense chiefs of the two countries,” a military official said Thursday without elaborating.

However, Seoul and Washing will carry out a series of computer-simulated command post exercises next year, as they do not pose a serious security threat to the North.

The two countries are known to be discussing conducting the Key Resolve computerized command post drill in March despite the possible suspension of its real time counterpart, Foal Eagle.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but the fact that Key Resolve is being discussed could be a signal that the Trump administration doesn’t think the denuclearization and subsequent peace overtures are serious.  This also gives the Trump administration a bargaining chip if a second Trump-Kim summit is held.

Luckily that is less than the North Korean regime spent on luxury goods last year. Problem solved. https://t.co/Cr1KpECemX

— Bruce Klingner (@BruceKlingner) December 5, 2018

It appears that the Blue House is going after anyone remotely connected with former President Park Geun-hye, here is the latest example:

The president of KAIST, Korea’s top science and engineering university, is the target of a government inquiry that some suspect to be politically motivated.

The Science Ministry on Tuesday issued a request to KAIST’s board of trustees that it suspend Shin Sung-chul, KAIST’s incumbent president, six days after it formally recommended he be criminally charged for embezzlement and breach of duty.

The board will decide whether to suspend Shin after an internal meeting next Thursday.

“I cannot help but feel devastated that such accusations are being brought up now,” Shin said at a press conference at KAIST on Tuesday. “We already received a detailed government audit at DGIST [his former workplace where the irregularities are supposed to have occurred] back in 2016.”

But analysts are claiming political motives are behind the investigation.

Shin’s alleged misconduct dates to his days as the founding president of the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST), a lesser known public science and engineering institute located in Daegu.

DGIST signed a memorandum of understanding with an American research institute in February 2012. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) – better known as Berkeley Lab – agreed to provide DGIST with cutting edge research equipment from its Center for X-ray Optics in exchange for research fees from DGIST.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but apparently money from DGIST was sent to Berkeley for the equipment that the government is claiming was public grant money.  Shin says the equipment was never supposed to be sent to DGIST for free by Berkeley and that public grants were not used to pay for it.

Here is why the Blue House is allegedly trying to get rid of Shin, he is an old elementary school friend of former President Park Geun-hye:

“Even if the government’s accusations are true, it is unclear how Shin can be accused of embezzlement when he himself did not take the money,” said Lee Byung-tae, a professor at KAIST’s Graduate School of Management. “Science Minister You Young-min himself said the issue was out of his hands, but this recent move looks like it has the Blue House behind it.”

Lee added that Shin’s decision to appoint Lim as a professor was completely within the realm of his discretion as university president. If wrongdoing is indeed clear, the board of trustees at KAIST can easily decide on their own to fire Shin, Lee said.

Shin has refused to step down from his position, saying he would make that decision once the board meets and reaches a conclusion.

An elementary school colleague of former President Park Geun-hye, Shin became KAIST’s president last February amid a controversial selection process in which he was accused of being a political appointment. Shin has not complained of political persecution.

The Executive Editor for the Hankyoreh, Kim Jong-gu has written an open letter to the New York Times complaining about their bias against President Trump:

But as I read the newspaper’s reporting, I discovered that the Times’ reputation wasn’t grounded in fact. The pages of the newspaper were swamped with articles that openly supported Kerry. I also sincerely wanted Bush to lose the race, but the Times’ one-sided reporting made the allegations of bias in the South Korean press look like small potatoes.  (…………….)

As a South Korean citizen, however, I can’t help noticing a paradox: President Trump’s outsider status, his profound hostility to the foreign policy establishment, and his gambler-like drive to win have in fact improved the chances of peace on the Korean Peninsula. I find Trump’s unfiltered language, his wild behavior and his arrogant egotism as disgusting as anyone else. But there’s one thing for which he deserves credit, and that’s his boldness in negotiating with North Korea.

The Times is widely regarded as a progressive-leaning newspaper. Progressives believe in peace; they believe in reconciliation and win-win arrangements, not confrontation and quarrels. Obviously, it will be very difficult to bring about North Korea’s denuclearization and impossible to predict the outcome. Just as obviously, it’s the job of the press to offer a clear-headed analysis of these efforts and raise concerns when they fall short.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link, but it is a bit laughable that the Hankyoreh is complaining about bias when they are well known for being the most left wing biased major newspaper in South Korea.

I did find this statement quite entertaining from the article: “Progressives believe in peace; they believe in reconciliation and win-win arrangements, not confrontation and quarrels.”  Are South Korean conservative journalists thrown in jail for disagreeing with President Moon a sign of liberal “reconciliation”?  Is using labor unions to attack conservatives something that should be considered non-confrontational?  I could go on and on about the hypocrisy in the article which just shows the Hankyoreh should be the last newspaper in South Korea to complain about bias anywhere else.

Lets hope the five missing Marines are found:

Two U.S. Marine aircraft crashed early Thursday during a refueling drill, leaving five crew members missing after two were rescued off the coast of Kochi Prefecture later in the day.

A KC-130 air-refueling tanker and an F/A-18 fighter jet were involved in what the military termed a “mishap” in the early morning hours. One crew member was rescued later in the morning by the Maritime Self Defense Force and sent to a hospital, while another was rescued later in the day, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry. The Marine Corps said the second marine had been transported to a local hospital. One of the two was a crew member of the F/A-18.  [Japan Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the Moon administration’s attempt to take out another political rival using South Korea libel laws:

Prosecutors summoned the wife of Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung for questioning on Tuesday over allegations that she defamed her husband’s political rivals online.

Kim Hye-kyung, who police identified as the owner of the Twitter handle @08_hkkim, told reporters she was tired and frustrated at being wrongly accused as she entered the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi.

“I only hope the truth is revealed,” she said, echoing the words of her husband who underwent his own 13-hour interrogation last week over a number of different criminal accusations.

A police investigation into Kim’s case revealed last month that the @08_hkkim Twitter account posted thousands of political messages supporting Lee and defaming his political rivals. Some of the political figures publicly defamed were Rep. Jeon Hae-cheol of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and President Moon Jae-in.

Prosecutors say that Kim may be charged with spreading false information about Jeon in the run up to the Gyeonggi gubernatorial election in June and smearing the reputation of Moon’s son, Moon Joon-yong, with allegations that he obtained a public sector job through his father’s influence.

Both Kim and the governor deny the accusations, claiming that she never operated the Twitter account.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but with a Twitter handle with her named attached to it she obviously wasn’t trying to hide her identity if it was her.  On the other hand it could have been someone else who set up the Twitter handle to set her up.  After all the misinformation we saw over the “discovery” of the PC tablet that brought down President Park, anything is possible.

By the way I do like how the prosecutors are going after Governor Lee Jae-myung, a political rival to President Moon Jae-in than they were after fellow Governor Kim Kyoung-soo for his part in the far worse Druking Scandal.  I have always said South Korea is not a rule of law country, but instead a rule by law country which means it helps to be the President’s close friend in regards to Governor Kim.

I've been called a free speech "absolutist" & I embrace the label. But no society can remain free if it allows some people to threaten violence against others for the peaceful expression of their views. A society that does so selectively commits censorship by proxy. #juchejugend https://t.co/ZETAzwrTzB

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) December 3, 2018