Here is the new Interpol chief, hopefully he has a better fate than the last one:
This file photo shows Kim Jong-yang, the newly elected president of Interpol. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s Kim Jong-yang has been elected as new chief of global police organization Interpol, officials in Seoul said Wednesday.
Kim, who had served as chief of South Korea’s Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency and vice president of Interpol, will become the first South Korean to head the global police body.
Kim will replace Meng Hongwei of China, who disappeared two months ago. The election was held in Dubai on the final day of Interpol’s general assembly.
Kim, 57, is to serve as president of Interpol for the remainder of Meng’s term, until November 2020, according to officials at the National Police Agency of Korea and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder how much influence the Moon administration has on Kim Jong-yang? I wonder because North Korea is well known for the international criminal enterprises they run to bring in foreign currency to the Kim regime. A South Korean running Interpol with ties to the Moon administration may decide to turn a blind eye to these activities in order to not upset the so called “peace mood” on the peninsula.
S.Korea plan to get rid of 284Km of borderline barbed wire fences and 8299 military facilities bc of mil agreement btw two Koreas and need to spend 330 million USD for this process. <- SK have spend money to build all this and now reverse all history. https://t.co/3AEb718kn6
Philippine Marine Corps chief Alvin Parreno (C) listens to a South Korean military officer as he visits the South Korean Marine Corps’ 1st Division in the southeastern city of Pohang on Nov. 13, 2018, to inspect major military equipment, including amphibious assault landing vehicles, in this photo released by the Marine Corps Command. (Yonhap)
You have to love the hypocrisy of this statement from North Korea in regards to their frustration with the Trump administration for not dropping sanctions for little to nothing in return:
South Korean soldiers leave a guard post in the demilitarized zone. (South Korean Defense Ministry/Getty Images)
“These acts by the U.S. apparently came from a medieval-era way of thinking that only threatening, coercive and barbarian tactics could enhance its negotiating leverage,” DPRK Today, a state-sponsored website, said Monday, also complaining about recent military exercises with Japan involving nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and bombers. Those “illogical” tactics won’t work, it said. [Washington Post]
This statement is coming from the regime that has launched countless threats, provocations, and attacks over to the decades against South Korea and the US. Here is what the ROK government has to say:
In Seoul, the government is wary of criticizing the United States directly. But behind the scenes there is a real sense that Washington needs to move the needle forward by building trust with the North.
So why is it always that the US need to build trust with North Korea? The Kim regime are the ones that have broken multiple agreements. The onus is on them to build trust with the United States not the other way around. The easiest way to build trust is by disclosing their nuclear sites and allow inspectors to begin to dismantle them. If this happens I have no doubt the Trump administration will drop sanctions.
The fact that they Kim regime are not doing this shows they have no desire to denuclearize. They clearly believe that they can have it both ways by having sanctions dropped and then pretend to denuclearize. By the time anyone catches on to the fact that they don’t plan to denuclearize, they will have had an influx of cash and moved so far forward on their confederation strategy with the Moon administration in South Korea that any reimplementing of sanctions will be too late.
I would love to see someone in the media interview a victim’s family member from the Cheonan attack about this protest in support of Kim Jong-un in downtown Seoul:
South Koreans stage a rally praising North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in front of the KT building in Gwanghwamun Square, central Seoul, on Sunday. The rally was organized by the Paektu Praise Committee, a radical activist group. Participants in the rally wear flower headpieces as they hold up signs welcoming Kim’s possible visit to Seoul. [NEWS1]A pro-North Korean group staged a rally praising North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Gwanghwamun Square, central Seoul, on Sunday, despite being reported multiple times for violating the National Security Act.
The rally was organized by the Paektu Praise Committee, a radical activist group. It was not stopped by police even after conservative groups filed complaints against the organization for praising the North Korean leader, which is a violation of South Korea’s National Security Law.
About 50 members of the Paektu Praise Committee participated in Sunday’s rally. During the protest, members praised Kim in speeches and dedicated a dance performance in his name. Some of the speakers were children and teenagers. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but what a disgrace the Korean far left is praising a ruthless killer like Kim Jong-un.
It looks like the Moon administration is about to scrap an agreement made with the Japanese to settle the comfort women issue:
The Seoul office of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation (Yonhap)
The South Korean government is expected to announce a decision this week to dismantle a controversial foundation related to Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women, an official said Tuesday.
The planned shutdown of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation, funded by Japan, is seen as Seoul’s move to effectively discard a 2015 accord between the neighboring countries on the “comfort women” issue.
Many Korean women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. Some historians put the number at as many as 200,000. Korea was under Japan’s brutal colonization from 1910-45.
In late 2015, the then-Park Geun-hye administration signed the agreement to resolve the history issue. They launched the foundation, intended to help the victims and their families, the following year. Japan offered 1 billion yen (US$8.9 million). [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but as usual the South Korean is more than willing to scrap agreements and demonize the Japanese who have been nothing but great neighbors to the ROK since Imperial Japan’s destruction during World War II.
Meanwhile the Korean left continues to suck up to the Kim regime in North Korea that nearly destroyed the ROK during the Korean War and has launched numerous deadly attacks and provocations since then.
The North Korean economy should be put into receivership, like the Teamster's Union was in the 70s. Freeze all state actors' assets & release them to buy food, medicine & EAR-99 consumer goods only. Appoint an honest & experienced auditor to manage it. Call it coal-for-food. https://t.co/3QJXImP5wZ
In this photo, released by the South Korean defense ministry on Nov. 20, 2018, a North Korean guard post is demolished inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the Koreas. North Korea exploded 10 guard posts in the DMZ the same day as part of an inter-Korean agreement to withdraw them to reduce tensions and prevent accidental clashes, Seoul’s defense ministry said. (Yonhap)
So what do people think of France’s new mandatory service law?:
The mandatory part of national service will last a month, while the second, longer phase will be more closely focused on defence and security
The French government has introduced a plan to bring back national service for all 16-year-olds.
It was an idea put forward by Emmanuel Macron in his presidential campaign, to promote a sense of civic duty and national unity among French youth.
But some remain unconvinced of the benefits.
The new national service will cover all 16-year-olds, girls as well as boys, and will be divided into two distinct phases.
National service in two parts
The first phase is a mandatory one-month placement with a focus on civic culture, which the government says will “enable young people to create new relationships and develop their role in society”.
Voluntary teaching and working with charities are among the options being looked at, alongside traditional military preparation with the police, fire service or army.
The second phase is a voluntary placement of at least three months and up to a year, in which young people will be encouraged to serve “in an area linked to defence and security” – but again, they could opt to carry out volunteer work linked to heritage, the environment or social care. [BBC]
You can read more at the link, but it seems this more like a long summer camp than national service. I guess it is better than nothing. It will be interesting to see how this turns out because I assume there will be legal challenges to it.
My theory on the current US-ROK cost sharing negotiations is that this will ultimately be tied to a successful second Trump-Kim summit and US dropping sanctions on North Korea. If the Trump administration drops sanctions I suspect that the Moon administration will cut a favorable US-ROK cost sharing deal to pay back President Trump. If sanctions are not dropped the Moon administration will likely continue to play hardball on this issue:
South Korea and the United States failed to reach a deal on sharing the cost of American troops stationed on the peninsula in formal negotiations last week, a government official here said Monday.
Senior diplomats of the two sides had three-day talks on the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) to set the amount of Seoul’s financial contributions for the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was the ninth round of bargaining, as the existing accord, which took effect in 2014, is to expire at the end of this year.
“There was some progress, but no final agreement was reached,” the foreign ministry official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.
Differences remain over how much Seoul will pay and some other issues, although the work to draw up a joint statement moved forward in general, he added. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link and draw your own conclusions.
