Here is the latest on the online opinion rigging scandal in South Korea:

In the latest development of Korea’s own “fake news” case, an influential blogger charged with manipulating comments on the country’s most popular portal site may have collected donations for a ruling party lawmaker, according to files obtained by the police on Tuesday, deepening suspicions that the blogger may have masterminded his campaign on behalf of the Democratic Party.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency obtained the files from a USB drive belonging to a close associate of Kim Dong-won, the blogger known online as Druking. The finding is the latest in a police investigation of Druking’s alleged campaign to rig online opinion in favor of President Moon Jae-in during last year’s election.

According to the police, Druking and his team used software to fiddle with the comments section on Naver by increasing the number of “likes” on certain comments and giving the appearance that one opinion dominated on the forum. Druking allegedly used the software to help Moon win the election, but when the president’s office refused to grant patronage positions to some of his acquaintances after the election, the blogger turned on Moon by having his team like comments critical of the president.

The police arrested Druking in March for his anti-Moon campaign, and at his first trial hearing last week, the blogger admitted to the charge. Central to Druking’s online activities was a community he ran called Kyungkongmo. According to files from the USB drive, members of the online community collected over 30 million won ($27,800) to deliver to Rep. Kim Kyoung-soo, a Democratic Party lawmaker with close ties to President Moon. The police are investigating allegations that Kim may have worked with Druking to manipulate online opinion during last year’s election and that Kyungkongmo may have supplied the manpower.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I find it interesting that the police only cracked down on Druking after he turned on President Moon.  Why wasn’t he arrested before then?  Was his activities okay as long as they were targeted against Korean conservatives?

South Korea wants to build a $35 billion high-speed railway to connect North Korea with the world https://t.co/M8971oqLe4 via @businessinsider

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) May 10, 2018

President Moon Jae-in (L) attends an event to plant a tree at the South Korean embassy in Tokyo on May 9, 2018. (Yonhap)

Here is the statement put out after the trilateral summit in Tokyo:

Leaders from South Korea, Japan and China on Wednesday adopted a special statement in support of the Panmunjom Declaration, which was signed at the inter-Korean summit last month and confirmed the shared goal of the two Koreas of complete denuclearization.

The special statement was made following a trilateral meeting in Tokyo of President Moon Jae-in, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and Premier Li Keqiang of China, the first of its kind in more than two years. The last such three-way summit was held in November 2015 in Seoul.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

Here is what was agreed upon that really matters during the trilateral summit:

At the Moon-Abe talks, the latter made it clear that sanctions imposed on the North should not be lifted unless Pyongyang demonstrates concrete denuclearization measures, emphasizing that the closing down of a nuclear testing site and a halt in the firing of ballistic missiles were not sufficient for sanctions relief.

“It is the timing that matters when it comes to easing or withdrawing sanctions altogether on North Korea,” the prime minister was quoted as saying by the Blue House during the bilateral summit talk with Moon in the afternoon.

“We should not reward the North for just shutting down the Punggye-ri nuclear site or stopping the test-firing of intercontinental ballistic missiles. We need additional and substantive actions from the North,” said Abe.

On the matter of easing sanctions, Moon stressed Seoul could not move to ease sanctions unilaterally, noting that sanctions were international agreements in which Seoul took part.

“There could be worries that South Korea could make a unilateral move to ease sanctions independent of the international consensus. There is no need for such worries,” he said. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

Basically Prime Minister Abe is making the case that North Korea was rewarded in past agreements for doing little to nothing in return.  This time they should not be rewarded until they take real measures to denuclearize.

As expected the long awaited summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un will be held in Singapore:

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will take place in Singapore June 12.

“The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th,” Trump tweeted. “We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!”

Trump’s tweet came just hours after three American citizens were brought home from imprisonment in the communist country.

Their release cleared a major obstacle for the upcoming meeting, which will be the first between sitting leaders of the two countries.

Trump and Kim are expected to discuss the dismantlement of the regime’s nuclear weapons program.

Trump’s aim is the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea. Kim has repeatedly expressed his commitment to denuclearization, but it’s unclear on what terms.  [Yonhap]

I wonder how many Americans had to look on a map after hearing this news to figure out where Singapore is?

President Trump is as expected getting bashed for pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal with claims that it will impact his ability to negotiate with Kim Jong-un:

President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal is a major setback to US negotiating credibility and will complicate efforts to reach an agreement with Pyongyang over its own more advanced weapons programme, analysts say.

Trump is set to hold a much-anticipated and unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the coming weeks to negotiate over Pyongyang’s arsenal, after it last year carried out by far its most powerful nuclear test to date and launched missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

But the US president Tuesday pulled Washington out of the 2015 accord with Teheran, pouring scorn on the “disastrous” agreement and describing it an “embarrassment” to the United States ― although European signatories and the IAEA say Iran has complied with its obligations.

Antony Blinken, who was deputy secretary of state under Barack Obama, said the White House move “makes getting to yes with North Korea that much more challenging”.

“Why would Kim … believe any commitments President Trump makes when he arbitrarily tears up an agreement with which the other party is complying?” he asked on Twitter.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but it can be argued that if the Obama administration thought the Iran nuclear deal was so great why did they not try and lobby the Senate to consent to the treaty as the Constitution requires?  Consent from the Senate would have made it much harder for the President to withdraw from the treaty.  This is what I will be looking for if President Trump is able to strike a deal with the North Koreans; will he try to get consent from the Senate?

As far as impacts to negotiating with Kim Jong-un, I think it is arguable that Trump is sending a message that North Korea will need to agree to denuclearize or there will not be a deal.

Mao's grandson, rumored to have been killed in a North Korean bus accident, just showed up at a shipbuilding institute looking quite alive https://t.co/FxM017ZkIO pic.twitter.com/Ek8tFD2FuO

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) May 6, 2018

U.S. Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Terrence O’shaughnessy (R) reviews the military at the Gyeryongdae military complex in South Chungcheong Province on May 9, 2018. On his right is Gen. Lee Wang-keun, South Korea’s Air Force chief of staff. (Photo courtesy of the Air Force) (Yonhap)

This really shouldn’t be surprising to anyone, the only thing surprising is how open this South Korean diplomat was about how pro-American diplomats have been marginalized in the Moon administration:

The Foreign Ministry Tuesday admonished the new ambassador to Vietnam, Kim Do-hyun, for his critical remarks about the United States during an interview with a vernacular Korean paper.

The remarks in question are as follows: “The reason why the inter-Korean summit was successful is because pro-United States diplomats were not put in charge. … a majority of Korean diplomats have thought they could get promoted if they were close to Americans and if not, they would have no future.”

A ministry spokesman said, “Ambassador Kim went to his post several days ago. Since he will have many chances to have interviews with media, we have internally taken necessary steps.”

He said that he didn’t reveal what steps were taken but didn’t object when asked whether it was tantamount to a “verbal warning.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I infer from Kim’s remarks that the Moon administration has marginalized diplomats considered pro-US and are only using North Korean sympathizers to interact with the Kim regime.  This is not surprising considering the Moon administration has many left wing North Korean sympathizers.  For example President Moon’s Chief of Staff, Im Jeong-seok is a former supporter of North Korea’s juche philosophy.

It looks like Kim Jong-un has paid the price for admission to a summit with President Trump:

President Trump announced on Wednesday that three Americans who were being held by North Korea have been released.

“I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting,” Trump tweeted early Wednesday. “They seem to be in good health.”

Pompeo flew to Pyongyang on Tuesday to meet with Kim Jong Un ahead of Trump’s planned summit with the North Korean leader. Trump described it as a “good meeting” and said a date and time for his summit with Kim has been set.  [Yahoo News]

I am glad these guys are back and I am sure it is a relief for all the families involved, however I hope the media does not treat them as some kind of heroes.  I have said this repeatedly, but I have little sympathy for people stupid enough to travel to North Korea in the first place.  Anyone going to North Korea takes the chance of the regime detaining at anytime for the most arbitrary things in order to use them as political pawns.

Here are the three Americans that were detained and I would not be surprised if the real crimes all three of them committed was promoting Christianity in North Korea:

• Kim Dong-chul: Supposed Christian missionary that North Korea accused of spying for South Korea.
• Tony Kim: He worked at a university in China and was teaching a course at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) for a few months before being detained at the airport when he attempted to fly back to China.  He was accused of the crime of trying to overthrow the government.
• Kim Hak-song: He is an ordained as an evangelical Christian pastor affiliated with the Oriental Mission Church in Los Angeles. Like Tony Kim, he was working as a professor at PUST before being detained on unspecified charges.