South Korea and the United States have decided to suspend the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) exercise slated for August, Seoul’s defense ministry said Tuesday, amid dialogue efforts to denuclearize North Korea.
Shortly after his Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his plan to stop “provocative, inappropriate and expensive” war games with the South, which Pyongyang has decried as an invasion rehearsal.
“Following close cooperation, South Korea and the U.S. decided to suspend all planning activities for the UFG, the defensive exercise slated for August,” the ministry said in a text message sent to reporters. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but remember these joint exercises like UFG can be turned right back on if the North Koreans shows signs of not negotiating in good faith.
It looks like Kim Jong-un is getting his next marching orders from Chinese Emperor President Xi:
A vehicle forming part of the convoy believed to be that of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is seen in Beijing June 19, 2018, in this still image taken from Reuters TV footage.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has touched down in Beijing, marking his third visit to China in as many months.
In a rare move, Chinese state media have already confirmed Kim is visiting from June 19 to 20. Kim’s arrival in Beijing, just one week after his summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore, signifies the importance North Korea is placing on its close neighbor and historic ally.
The North Korean leader touched down on Tuesday morning with reporters spotting Kim’s $1 million armored Mercedes at the airport before a motorcade entered Beijing’s streets.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also visited Beijing last week during which China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke of “the importance of China being a constructive participant in the next steps.” [Business Insider]
You can read more at the link, but something else to keep in mind is that Kim Jong-un must be feeling very secure at home considering the amount of trips he has been taken outside of the country.
Trump apparently believes (wrongly) he’s done something with the Korean War MIA issue that none of his predecessors has done before, in addition to treating it like a “mission accomplished” for simply having talked about it. https://t.co/RH2YZ70lOJ
Muslims pose at a mosque in Seoul on June 15, 2018, to mark Eid al-Fitr, an Islamic holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. (Yonhap)
Soccer legend Diego Maradona is being accused of making a racist gesture towards some Korean fans at the World Cup:
Argentinean football legend Diego Maradona, left, in a stand before the FIFA World Cup 2018 group D preliminary round game between Argentina and Iceland in Moscow on Saturday. EPA
Football legend Diego Maradona’s racist gesture toward young Korean fans is drawing a strong backlash in Korea.
Maradona, 57, has been accused of making a “clearly racist gesture” at the Spartak Stadium on Saturday, after Korean fans shouted and waved at him in joy.
ITV presenter Jacqui Oatley, who was there as part of the broadcaster’s coverage of the game between Argentina and Iceland, claimed on Twitter that Maradona “pulled his eyes to the side in a clearly racist gesture. All of us who saw it are stunned.” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but interestingly no one caught this on film. However, here is what Maradona said happened:
Responding to the accusation in a Facebook post on Sunday morning, Maradona said: “Today, in the stadium, among so many demonstrations of affection from the people, I was struck by a group of people around a fan who filmed us. “I saw an Asian boy wearing an Argentina T-shirt. I, from afar, tried to tell them how nice it seemed to me that even the Asians cheer for us. And that’s all, guys, come on.” [iNews]
I will let everyone make up their own minds if Maradona had racist intentions or not.
Removing the North Korean artillery from areas along the DMZ would be a huge concession by the Kim regime which is why I would be surprised to see this happen:
Military officials from the two Koreas hold rare talks at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom on June 14, 2018, in this photo released by the joint press corps. (Yonhap)
South Korea proposed that North Korea move its long-range artillery away from the heavily fortified border in an effort to reduce tensions during last week’s rare cross-border military talks, government sources here said Sunday.
During Thursday’s general-grade meeting, the first in more than a decade, Seoul made a series of suggestions, including relocating the artillery pieces to areas 30 to 40 kilometers away from the Military Demarcation Line separating the two Koreas, the insiders said.
The two sides held the talks to follow up on the Panmunjom Declaration from the April 27 inter-Korean summit at the truce village, which calls for joint efforts to alleviate military tensions and “practically eliminate the danger of war.”
“We conveyed our position to the North that in light of consultations between the North and the United States over the denuclearization issue, we have to craft measures to drastically reduce military tensions by removing practical threats,” a source said on condition of anonymity.
“I understand that (the South) suggested moving the North’s artillery that threatens the Seoul metropolitan area to rear areas so as to actively implement the Panmunjom Declaration,” the source added.
According to a 2016 South Korean defense white paper, the North has 14,100 artillery pieces, including 5,500 multiple rocket launchers, a majority of which have been deployed near the border.
Pyongyang is known to possess a variety of rocket systems, including 170 mm-caliber self-propelled howitzers and 240 mm multiple rocket launchers that can easily target Seoul and surrounding areas.
The North’s longer-range 300 mm multiple rocket launcher is seen as more formidable, as it is capable of reaching key U.S. military installations in Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province and the headquarters of the South’s Army, Navy and Air Force in the Gyeryongdae military compound in South Chungcheong Province. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but North Korea’s artillery has been their source of deterrence for decades. If it wasn’t for North Korea’s artillery threat on Seoul a regime change war would have likely happened by now considering the outrageous provocations the Kim regime has committed over the years.
Removing the artillery from its carefully hardened positions on the DMZ would ultimately be a threat to regime security which is why I would be surprised to see this happen.
I have long been following this lawsuit here at the ROK Drop and now the lawsuit has forced Harvard to release how they select their applicants. The way the admissions process is set up it makes it harder for Asian-Americans to be accepted to the prestigious university:
In an intense legal battle over the role of race in Harvard University’s admissions policies, a group that is suing the school says Harvard lowers the rankings of Asian-American applicants in a way that is unconstitutional.
Harvard says that its admissions process is legal — and it notes that the plaintiff group, the Students for Fair Admissions, is backed by the same activist who previously challenged the University of Texas’ affirmative action policy.
The SFFA says Harvard uses “racial balancing” as part of its formula for admitting students and that the practice is illegal. In response, Harvard says the group is misinterpreting data that the highly competitive school shared about how it chooses students.
Citing a 2013 analysis by Harvard’s Office of Institutional Research, the SFFA said in a federal court filing on Friday that if academics were the only criterion, Asian-American students would have made up more than 43 percent of students who were admitted, rather than the actual 18.7 percent.
Even if other criteria — such as legacy students, athletic recruiting and extracurricular and personal attributes — are included, the plaintiffs say, the number of Asian-Americans at Harvard would still have risen to more than 26 percent.
Saying that the admission rate for whites outpaced that of Asian-Americans over a 10-year period — despite outperforming them in only the “personal” ratings — the plaintiffs allege that “being Asian American actually decreases the chances of admissions.” [NPR]
So how does Harvard justify not admitting Asian-Americans based on their academic performance? By penalizing them for their “personalities”:
Harvard consistently rated Asian-American applicants lower than others on traits like “positive personality,” likability, courage, kindness and being “widely respected,” according to an analysis of more than 160,000 student records filed Friday by a group representing Asian-American students in a lawsuit against the university.
Asian-Americans scored higher than applicants of any other racial or ethnic group on admissions measures like test scores, grades and extracurricular activities, according to the analysis commissioned by a group that opposes all race-based admissions criteria. But the students’ personal ratings significantly dragged down their chances of being admitted, the analysis found. [New York Times]
I am not sure how an admission personnel can make an accurate determination about someones “courage” or “liability” from an application packet. I think it is arguable that the personality scores are being used as a way to manipulate the stupid body to reflect what the university wants it to look like.
Could you imagine what the uproar would be if a university for example in the South was using personality scores to limit the number of African-American students? I do find it interesting that since it is Asian-Americans being affected by Harvard’s policies that the usual race hustlers we see in the spotlight for issues like this are no where to be found.
Former President Lee Myung-bak enters the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul on June 15, 2018, to attend a hearing in his trial on alleged corruption. (Yonhap)
