To be fair this is nothing new in modern societies with politicians using welfare handouts to get votes:

The government’s cash handouts as part of welfare benefits will reach a record W33 trillion next year (US$1=W1,130). The cash handouts for people in need have increased by W10 trillion in the two years since President Moon Jae-in came into office, with the total number of recipients reaching 10 million or one out of five citizens.

There are no fewer than 50 different types of welfare benefits ranging from basic pension payments for the 5.39 million elderly people to child benefits for 2.3 million people, living cost subsidies for 1.58 million low-income households and financial support for some 100,000 young jobseekers. Of course the government should provide for the needy, but the current administration’s cash welfare programs are like showering gifts of money on all comers.

In reality they are money for votes. Opposition parties do not want to sit idle and take the blows, and the Liberty Korea Party has already promised to boost next year’s proposed budget by W7 trillion to expand childcare support and others to keep up.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

That + neutralizing SK as a threat to KJU's legitimacy by (1) extinguishing speech that criticizes NK & (2) ensuring that SK media smuggled into NK are either not anti-NK or affirmatively pro-NK.
Goal isn't occupation; it's political supremacy, which looks increasingly plausible. https://t.co/siDMRG7UVq

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) November 22, 2018

It is pretty amazing that General Paik Sun-yup is now 99 years old and still going strong:

The U.S. Eighth Army held a surprise birthday party on Wednesday for General Paik Sun-yup, one of the most celebrated commanders of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The celebration of Paik’s 98th birthday — or the celebrated 99th by Korean count — was held at the Ministry of National Defense Convention Center in central Seoul with nearly the full roster of American representatives in Korea in attendance, including U.S. Ambassador to Korea Harry Harris and the new commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Gen. Robert B. Abrams.

Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Park Han-ki and Commander of the First ROK Army Park Jong-jin were also present to congratulate the general.

Jeong presented Paik with a ceremonial military baton inlaid with mother-of-pearl as a birthday gift. Crouching before Paik, who was in a wheelchair, Gen. Abrams handed him a booklet of congratulatory messages and photographs from all current and former commanders of the USFK.

“You are like the foundation of the U.S-Korea alliance,” Abrams told Paik.

The two men share a unique connection that goes back to the Korean War. Abram’s father was Creighton Williams Abrams, a U.S. Army general who fought in Korea alongside Paik.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I had the chance to talk to General Paik many years ago and got him to sign a copy of his book,From Pusan to Panmunjon (Memories of War).  He was fascinating to talk to because his great memory of events that occurred and people he met during the Korean War.  If you haven’t read his book I highly recommend reading it because of the ROK perspective it provides in regards to events during the Korean War.

It looks like there was another security incident at Camp Humphreys this weekend:

Camp Humphreys, the main U.S. military base in South Korea, closed one of its main access gates this weekend after an incident with a car.

The incident happened about 2 p.m. Saturday and did not involve a gate runner, said garrison spokesman Steven Hoover. He declined to provide more details pending the ongoing investigation.

A photo posted on Facebook showed a four-door car that appeared to have smashed into a raised barrier at the Dongchang-ri gate on Saturday, with the concertina wire and concrete walls that surround the garrison in the background. [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Has anyone asked President Moon what he thinks about his new best friend locking away whole families in prison camps?:

Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s secretary Kim Ok, once rumored to be the late ruler’s secret fourth wife, appears to have been sent to a prison camp, a local government official exclusively told the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday.

South Korean intelligence authorities concluded that Kim Ok was imprisoned after Kim Jong-il died in December 2011, according to the source, who requested anonymity. Kim Ok appears to have been sent to a prison camp for political criminals in 2014 for her links to Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Jang was once considered the second most powerful man in the regime.

Jang was executed on Dec. 12, 2013, nearly two years after Kim Jong-un took power following his father’s death. At the time, Jang served as vice chairman of the Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission and chief of the Central Administrative Department. He was apprehended in November 2013 along with his close aides, kicked out of the party and tried in a special military tribunal. He was found guilty of “anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts in a bid to overthrow the leadership of the party and state and the socialist system,” in the words of North Korea’s official media.

Kim Ok is still alive, the South Korean government official said. Her close family members were all imprisoned as well, according to the source, but it is not known whether they’re still alive.

Kim Ok, who is 53, was seen shadowing Kim Jong-il inside and outside North Korea wherever he went. This caused local analysts to believe she was the late leader’s fourth wife, though North Korean media identified her as his secretary. She was so close to Kim Jong-il that when he visited China in May 2011, she sat next to him in his private vehicle.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

So many people said the police was investigating their bank accounts for donations, and here's one. This is so illegal, yet the police is told to do this & they comply. #MoonJaein -Im Jong-seok admin of #SouthKorea is suppressing the freedom of assembly. https://t.co/Fc5K7fK56C

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) November 23, 2018

The demilitarization of the ironically named Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) continues:

Military construction crews from North and South Korea, building the first central inter-Korean road in 65 years, met today at Arrowhead Hill in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and shook hands.

Arrowhead Hill was the place of one of the bloodiest battle sites of the war is now the first.

In October South and North Korea troops began the task of removing land mines from the Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom as well as the Arrowhead Hill (Hwasalmeori) region in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, where joint exhumation of the remains of Korean War MIA/POW are set to take place. (Hani.co.kr)

On Thursday troops from the North and South met and shook hands on Arrowhead Hill.  [Gateway Pundit via a reader tip]

It seems that taxi drivers going on strike actually encourages people to use carpooling apps even more:

Taxi drivers from four interest groups gathered outside the National Assembly Thursday to protest Kakao’s move to introduce a carpooling service.

The drivers are demanding legislators make the proposed business illegal, claiming that the service will threaten their livelihoods.

The collective move came after a 24-hour strike on Oct. 18. The strike itself was called two days after Kakao made public on Oct. 16 its plans to introduce the Kakao T carpooling service and began recruiting drivers.

Kakao has not been dissuaded. After the strike, it released an app for carpooling drivers and added a tab for the carpooling service to its existing Kakao T taxi app.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but instead of trying to get the government to give them special treatment, it seems the taxi cab drivers should improve their business model to compete with the ride sharing apps instead.