North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) talks to Chinese President Xi Jinping at a banquet in Beijing on June 19, 2018, in this photo carried by North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun the following day. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s military has put off its own simulation-based exercise, scheduled for next week, in order to help maintain the momentum of talks with North Korea, a defense official said Wednesday.
The annual command-post practice, called Taegeuk, was scheduled to begin next Tuesday for a three-day run.
“We have decided to postpone it,” the official said, requesting anonymity. “We will review ways to conduct it at the most appropriate time and in the optimal manner.”
It means this year’s exercise has been postponed indefinitely.
The Taegeuk training, launched in 1995, has been held in May or June every year, led by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
This year would be the first time for the military to delay its opening. [Yonhap]
It has long been known by Korea watchers that President Moon Jae-in’s Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok has prolific communist and pro-North Korean past. Over at One Free Korea, Dr. Tara O has a guest post that provides detailed background information that shows how immersed Im was in communist ideology before entering the Blue House. What I found really interesting was how during the Roo Moo-hyun administration Im founded a group that collected royalties for the Kim regime in North Korea:
Im Jong-seok
In 2005, Im Jong-seok founded and led as chairman, the South-North Economic and Cultural Cooperation Foundation (남북경제문화협력재단). The Foundation has been collecting royalties from MBC, KBS, SBS, and other TV and online broadcasters for North Korean TV footage. According to the Ministry of Unification, the foundation collected an estimated $1,876,700 over 13 years and transferred the royalties to North Korea until the Cheonan sinking in 2010. It is still collecting royalties on behalf of North Korea’s Chosun Central Broadcasting Commission, with the plans to transfer the money once the sanctions are lifted. The foundation even called the Ministry of Defense Public Affairs and demanded royalties for using the missile test footage in July 2017. North Korea does not pay for footage from South Korean broadcasts.
The foundation also has other revenue streams. One is membership and the other is education & research. It collects about 32,700,000 Won (~$30,000) on average for its annual membership. It also became a contractor to the Seoul City and Seongdong District governments, developing South-North “peace education” programs. What is interesting is that the contract with Seoul City was signed on the same day as when Park Won-soon, Seoul City Mayor, appointed Im Jong-seok as the Deputy Mayor on June 11, 2014. Im was the campaign manager for Park prior to that in 2014, and successfully led to Park Won-soon’s re-election. [One Free Korea]
You can read much more at the link where Dr. O in painstaking detail lists all of Im Jong-seok’s communist and pro-North Korean ties. Does anyone think that Im Jong-seok who less than a decade ago was collecting royalties to send to the Kim regime is interested in being an honest broker now between the US and North Korea?
I think everyone should be highly skeptical of the claims made by these two men:
Kim Ilsun and Jeong Choong-Je broadcast on TePyung TV youtube channel on June 1st, with Mr. Jeong holding his book Operation Golden Lily.
On June 1, 2018, Professor Kim Ilsun and Mr. Jeong Choong-je were featured in a live video broadcast about Operation Golden Lily on the TePyung TV YouTube channel. During that broadcast, Mr. Jeong, a nonfiction writer, talked about how there were hundreds of tons of gold ingots buried in the Moonhyun-dong neighborhood of Busan, South Korea. This gold, which was hidden there in 1945 by the Japanese empire, was found on March 2, 2002 by Mr. Jeong. However, Mr. Jeong was then robbed and falsely accused and imprisoned by a group of people who colluded with former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun and current occupier of the Blue House Moon Jae-in. [Tepyung.com]
You can read more at the link, but Professor Kim and Mr. Jeong is claiming that threats are being made against them in response to his book to try and silence him. The below Youtube video from their lawyer Eugene Kim lays out their claims:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsP8_wAJ4E4
I am highly skeptical of what these two men and their lawyer is claiming without evidence. For example where in the Moonhyun-dong neighborhood is this tunnel? Why haven’t third party experts been allowed to examine it? Did anyone take pictures of the so called gold when it was found? In 2002 smartphones had not been invented yet, but you would think people would have taken pictures of the gold. Finally what evidence do they have that Moon Jae-in was even involved if the heist did happen?
When people like this make such sensational claims without hard evidence this actually helps the Korean left make the Korean right look like a bunch crazies and that is what this group looks like right now.
That's because from what we can see so far, it looks like a really shitty deal — far worse than the Iran JCPOA, far worse than Agreed Frameworks I & II, almost sure to consolidate Kim Jong-un's domestic control, nuclear status & hegemony over South Korea. https://t.co/4qVpZlCYw7
Singer Insooni (L) poses at an event at Haemil School in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province, to help students from multicultural backgrounds. (Yonhap)
ROK Heads may remember that last June Insooni had to cancel a concert for US 2nd Infantry soldiers due to anti-American protests and threats made against her and other Korean performers by the left wing Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.
I wonder if she will ever reschedule another concert for American soldiers?
Here is the latest crackdown by the ROK government on illegal immigrant workers in South Korea:
Migrant workers are caught working illegally in Korea. Courtesy of Ministry of Justice
The Korean government is cracking down on undocumented migrant workers across the country.
The Ministry of Justice said Friday its main target is foreigners who work here illegally after entering the country through visa-waiver programs ahead of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
According to the ministry, the number of undocumented migrant workers surged to 312,346 in May from 251,041 in December 2017.
More than 14,600 undocumented migrant workers have been caught this year, up 7.3 percent from the same period last year; many were Thai women who took advantage of the visa-waiver programs to work at massage parlors and bars here.
Illegal immigrants, if caught, are deported immediately and their employers could face a maximum of three years in prison or a fine of 20 million won ($18,000).
The ministry said the crackdown will continue throughout the year. [Korea Times]
ROK Heads may remember that South Korea launched an immigration reform measure two years ago that caused many illegal immigrants to self deport, but it appears the need for more prostitutes prior to the Winter Olympics caused a surge in illegal immigration again.
Like clockwork here comes surrogates for the Kim regime asking the Trump administration to remove sanctions for little to nothing in return:
Russia called on the United States and its allies on Friday to remove individual economic sanctions they imposed on North Korea besides the ones put forward in the name of the United Nations in line with easing tensions in the region.
“Russia supports the lifting of secondary boycotts that amount to unilateral sanctions, as we maintain a negative stance on those measures against North Korea taken by a slew of countries that circumvented the U.N. Security Council,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a briefing. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but if anything the Trump administration should be preparing for more sanctions to implement to further pressure the regime to take real measures towards denuclearization, not removing sanctions.
After opening the article bashing the President Trump for the recent Singapore summit, the article then goes on to explain that the summit was a huge success in the opinion of South Koreans:
In South Korea, however, the prism is different. Discussions center less on Trump’s achievements or lack of them, or his failures to live up to his own word, and more on the possibilities his summit opened up — in particular his new relationship with Kim. Which is why they welcome phone calls between the pair.
Singapore was not a failure for many in South Korea, but an opportunity.
According to a Gallup survey of more than 1,000 people two days after the summit, two thirds of the population said they think the Kim/Trump meeting was a success. Only one in 10 thought it a failure. [CNN]
