There was a horrible accident over the weekend outside of Yongsan Garrison’s Gate 13:
Military Police investigate the site of a fatal car crash outside Gate 13 at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday, June 9, 2018.
An American family headed to a high school graduation ceremony on Yongsan Garrison was struck by tragedy on Saturday when their car was involved in a fatal collision with a motorcycle.
The crash, which occurred outside Gate 13, killed two people — one American and the South Korean motorcycle driver — and injured another American, garrison spokesman Wes Hayes told Stars and Stripes.
Hayes declined to identify the casualties and said the cause of the crash remained under investigation.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to all the victims of this tragic accident today,” Hayes said.
Many members of the community gathered at a chapel on post after the graduation ceremony to console each other and grieve.
A person at the chapel said the fatality was an American girl who was with her family on the way to watch her brother graduate from Seoul American High School. Her father, a civilian, was reportedly in critical condition. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but hat tip to ROK Head Guitard for leaving the below link that shows the aftermath of this accident:
This next video shows the injured American father asking for help:
Condolences to all the family and friends effected by this tragic accident.
It seems too early in the negotiations to commit to any troop cuts within USFK, but if North Korea does take serious measures to eliminate their nuclear program I could see this happening at some point in the future. I guess we will see what happens once the summit is complete:
President Trump
Concerns are rising that U.S. President Donald Trump may use reducing the number of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea as a bargaining chip for a denuclearization deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Since taking office early last year, Trump has called for the need to scale down the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), as he believes Washington is not properly compensated for maintaining the troops here.
Trump has, for this reason, urged South Korea to take a bigger share in paying maintenance costs for the USFK during the ongoing negotiation to renew the five-year defense-cost-sharing for the American troops here. Under his “America First” policy, he said Seoul should take on more of the burden when renewing the agreement which expires at the end of this year.
“Less publicly, but still privately, Trump continues to say he does not agree with the argument that U.S. troops in South Korea are strategically necessary, and he thinks the U.S. gets nothing back from paying to keep them there,” Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin said in a recent column, citing administration officials and those who have had conversations with Trump regarding the issue.
“He (Trump) often asks his generals to explain the rationale for America’s deployments in Asia and expresses dissatisfaction with their answers.”
The White House and Pentagon denied the possibility for Trump to bring the agenda of downsizing U.S. troops to the dialogue table on Tuesday morning when the historic Washington-Pyongyang summit takes place in Singapore. [Korea Times]
This is a perfect example of how messed up North Korea’s priorities are. The Kim regime can supposedly launch a nuclear missile that can threaten most of the world, but they can’t maintain one aircraft to fly to Singapore:
The Air China Boeing 747 that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took to Singapore on Sunday (June 10) is the private jet of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Hong Kong’s Apple Daily reported Monday (June 11).
Kim’s usual mode of transport is his own aircraft, the Chammae-1, but he appears to have sought help from China due to safety concerns regarding the condition of his jet. [AsiaOne]
You can read more at the link, but I would have to think this is quite embarrassing for Kim Jong-un to have to hitch a ride to possibly the most important summit he may ever attend.
However, he was all smiles when meeting with Singapore’s Prime Minister:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for the first time on Sunday.
A South Korean tourist visiting Australia is very lucky to be alive:
In this image taken from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation video, South Korean backpacker Han Joo-hee, 25, center, is assisted to a hospital after being rescued by helicopter, Thursday, in Tully, Queensland, Australia. Australian Broadcasting Corporation via AP
A South Korean tourist was found safe and “in good spirits” six days after falling into a deep ravine while taking photos from a mountaintop in northeastern Australia, officials said.
Rescuers said the chances of survival for 25-year-old Han Joo-hee had been “near zero” after spending nearly a week without food in the remote area.
Han disappeaered on June 1 after telling friends she was going to climb Mount Tyson, a peak in bushland south of Cairns in northern Queensland state, police said.
She was not reported missing until Wednesday, when police, soldiers and emergency crews launched a search, finally locating her Thursday stuck in a deep ravine near a waterfall.
She was winched to safety by helicopter and taken to a local hospital suffering only minor injuries. [Korea Times]
I’ve always been for an official end to the war w/o conditions JUST TO GET THE NORTH & ITS APOLOGISTS TO STFU. They blame everything abt NK’s behavior on the “ongoing” war.
“Radios tuned only to state channel? Because there’s still just an armistice, didn’t you know?” https://t.co/hZhdFgqnXh
I wonder what Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was thinking in this photograph from the recent G7 summit in Canada? Anyone want to provide a caption?
Here is an article in the New York Times about the image makeover that President Moon has helped Kim Jong-un achieve over the past year. I think this below passage from the article shows the example of either mass mental illness or effective control of the ROK media by the Moon administration if 77% of South Koreans actually think the Kim regime is trustworthy:
A caricature of Mr. Kim in Seoul, South Korea, last month. Recent surveys show increasing numbers of South Koreans see Mr. Kim as trustworthy.CreditAhn Young-Joon/Associated Press
The summit meeting mainly rehashed old inter-Korean agreements that had never been kept, producing only a vaguely worded commitment to denuclearization and peace. But the images made the event a success, providing momentum for warmed ties between the two countries and redefining Mr. Kim in the eyes of many South Koreans.
The next morning, a South Korean newspaper filled its front and back pages with a photograph showing Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim crossing the border hand in hand. Mr. Kim, formerly vilified as the region’s most dangerous leader, was considered “trustworthy” by 77 percent of South Koreans following the meeting, according to a survey by the Korea Research Center.
“Chairman Kim’s popularity has risen rapidly among South Koreans, and so have the expectations,” Mr. Moon told Mr. Kim last month when they met for the second time at Panmunjom. He said the summit meeting especially strengthened Mr. Kim’s image among younger South Koreans, who have shaped their views of North Korea through the past decade of inter-Korean tensions and have become increasingly skeptical of reconciliation, much less reunification, with the North. [New York Times]
What this means is that when Kim Jong-un eventually renegs on getting rid of his nuclear weapons he will blame the Americans and the Moon administration will make sure that 77% of South Koreans will agree with him.
Singapore is well known for a being a strict rule of law country and some KBS reporters just found that out:
Police check a car entering the Shangri-La Hotel at the hotel’s entrance on June 3. Singapore has tightened security arrangements in and around the Donald Trump-Kim Jong-un summit venue and hotels ahead of the June 12 meeting. / Korea Times photo by Jeong Min-seung
Two South Korean journalists will be expelled from Singapore Saturday for trespassing into the residence of the North Korean ambassador to Singapore, according to multiple sources, Saturday.
They arrived in Singapore a week ago ahead of the historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12.
“The Singapore Police Force has decided to expel two Korean journalists over the criminal tresspass,” a source close to the police told The Korea Times asking not to be named.
The decision came a day after the police said in a statement Friday that they were investigating three journalists representing Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and their interpreter after receiving a report of a case of criminal trespass at about 3.50pm,Thursday.
Among them, the two journalists from KBS who entered the residence without permission were arrested on site.
“There is another man from KBS involved in the incident but he is not subject to punishment because he was waiting outside of the residence,” he added. “Still, he will voluntarily have to leave Singapore.” [Korea Times]
