Police investigators come out of the Korean Air headquarters in Seoul on April 19, 2018, after searching and seizing evidence there in relation to the case of the airline’s executive Cho Hyun-min, who allegedly threw water in an ad company official’s face. (Yonhap)
Even if the two servicemembers involved poorly parked their vehicle it is no excuse for the horrible actions these two civilians took:
Judy Tucker is shown in a video attempting to reach past servicemember Stephanie Mitchell.
A 71-year-old woman was arrested after she lunged at and hit a pregnant servicemember at a Cheddar’s in Macon, Ga., police said. Videos of the Saturday incident, which police said was sparked by a disagreement over parking, have drawn millions of views as they spread across social media.
Judy Tucker was arrested on Saturday, charged with simple battery and released a few hours later on $650 bail. According to a Bibb County Sheriff’s Office report, Tucker told police that the incident with servicemembers Stephanie Mitchell and Treasure Sharpe, who are black, “all started because she was white and it was a race issue.” Tucker’s son approached the women when they were backing into a parking space and told them they “should learn how to park” and called them a profane name, the report quoted Mitchell as saying.
Mitchell said that, inside the restaurant, Tucker’s son again called them the profane name and said that they were black lesbians. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but the Tucker’s should be ashamed and embarrassed by their inappropriate and racist comments if the alleged actions are all true.
This seems like a long time after the fact to be complaining to the ROK Defense Ministry to clean up soil pollution:
Camp Sears in 2005.
The city government of Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, has demanded the defense ministry conduct an examination into soil contamination at a former U.S. military base site in the city, officials said Tuesday.
The Uijeongbu city government bought the former Camp Sears site from the defense ministry in 2012 after the land was returned to the ministry in 2007 under a base consolidation and relocation plan, known as the Land Partnership Program (LPP).
Nine oil tanks had existed on the base to supply oil to other American bases north of Seoul. When the site was returned, most of the land was contaminated, with total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) levels up to 73 times the maximum permissible levels.
The ministry commissioned the Korea Environment Corporation to clean up the site from 2009 and 2012 before the Uijeongbu city government purchased the land as part of a project to establish an administrative complex housing public and government agencies.
Last month, the city broke ground at the site to build a fire department headquarters.
But the construction was halted recently as oil residue was found at the site. Tests were conducted on samples taken from four locations at the site, and two of them had TPH levels of 836 mg per kilogram and 585 mg/kg, which is higher than the permissible 500 mg/kg, officials said. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but the ROK Defense Ministry wants tests to be done to prove the pollution is from military activity and not from someone dumping it there after the handover. Camp Sears was closed all the way back in 2005 and it was no secret that fuel tanks were on the base. Here is a 2011 picture of the fuel tanks from after the closure of Camp Sears:
You would think that the city would have done a thorough inspection for pollution around the old fuel tanks. On the old site of Camp Sears a number of government offices were built after its closure and maybe the ROK Defense Ministry is concerned that construction companies were dumping waste on that side of the camp?
I bet they all thought this was a great idea at the time:
A screenshot from a video of an Air National Guard master sergeant using a dinosaur hand puppet while reciting the oath of re-enlistment.
A Tennessee Air National Guard colonel has been demoted and forced to retire for leading a re-enlistment ceremony during which a senior noncommissioned officer recited her oath using a dinosaur hand puppet.
Maj. Gen. Terry Haston, the Tennessee Air Guard’s adjutant general, announced the demotion on Facebook Wednesday in the wake of an online firestorm sparked by a video of the ceremony.
Haston said the NCO — who took the oath Friday while the head of a Tyrannosaurus rex on her right hand mouthed her words — has been removed from her full-time position with the Tennessee Joint Public Affairs Office and that other administrative actions were being taken. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but this was some pretty harsh punishment for the Colonel involved in this to be demoted and forced to retire.
This photo provided by South Korea’s No. 2 air carrier Asiana Airlines Inc. on April 17, 2018, shows actress Lee Soo-min in an Asiana stewardess uniform. Asiana said it has signed a two-year modeling contract with the high school sophomore. (Yonhap)
Very rarely have I seen President Moon be criticized in the media, but it looks like he is finally facing some heat for his domestic job policies:
South Korea has been trapped in a paradox of employment.
Domestically, the more effort the government makes, the more difficult it is for young people to find decent jobs.
In other words, President Moon Jae-in’s job policies are limiting the creation of new, quality jobs in the private sector.
Last year, Moon implemented a supplementary budget of 11.2 trillion won ($10.5 billion) to create jobs and formulated another extra budget plan of 3.9 trillion won early this month. However, the job market situation has taken a turn for the worse.
The jobless rate reached 4.5 percent in March, the highest level in 17 years. The number of jobs created came to 112,000 from the same month a year ago, sharply down from January’s 334,000.
Internationally, Korea is isolated in its job market recovery.
Many big economies, including the U.S. and Japan, are showing handsome figures in employment, while Korea’s labor market has stayed in the doldrums.
The jobless rate for the U.S. stood at 4.1 percent in March, the lowest level in 17 years. Japan’s unemployment rate was at 2.5 percent in the same month, similar to 2.4 percent in February, the lowest in nearly 25 years.
The employment fiasco for Asia’s fourth-largest economy is the outcome of a toxic mixture of three forces ― Moon’s contradictory policies, market uncertainties and technology.
First, a surge in the unemployment rate is paradoxically associated with Moon’s job policies.
The Moon administration has been trying to take the initiative in job creation rather than encouraging the private sector to hire new employees.
Moon has focused on creating jobs in the public sector by hiring more civil servants and turning irregular workers into regular ones. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but I never did see how adding a bunch of government jobs without a justification for them would help the economy?
It will be interesting to hear what the details of this were if they are ever released:
Mike Pompeo
CIA Director Mike Pompeo made a top-secret visit to North Korea over Easter weekend as an envoy for President Trump to meet with that country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, according to two people with direct knowledge of the trip.
The extraordinary meeting between one of Trump’s most trusted emissaries and the authoritarian head of a rogue state was part of an effort to lay the groundwork for direct talks between Trump and Kim about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the highly classified nature of the talks.
The clandestine mission, which has not previously been reported, came soon after Pompeo was nominated to be secretary of state. [Washington Post]
It seems to me people are getting way ahead of themselves in regards to the upcoming Inter-Korean Summit ending the Korean War:
South and North Korea are discussing plans to announce an official end to the military conflict between the two countries that are still technically at war, the Munhwa Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unidentified South Korean official.
At next week’s summit between South Korea President Moon Jae-in and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, the two neighbors may release a joint statement saying they will seek to ease military tension and to end confrontation, according to the report. [Bloomberg]
Before people get all euphoric about the end of the Korean War it is important to realize South Korea cannot negotiate an end to the Korean War because they are not a signatory to the Armistice Agreement. They will need China, the United States, and United Nations to agree to it as well. So what exactly is being negotiated?:
“We are devising and discussing various ways to develop the security situation surrounding the peninsula into a permanent peace regime,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “One such way may be changing the armistice agreement to a peace treaty, and we are reviewing the possibility of it.”
But he said South Korea alone cannot decide on ending the war as the issue requires close discussion with countries directly involved, including North Korea.
Although the armistice was signed by North Korea, China and the United Nations Command, without South Korea, the official said it is undeniable South Korea is one of the countries directly involved.
“But the two Koreas alone cannot decide on signing a peace treaty, so we may have to seek a three-party or four-party agreement if necessary.”
He noted that when Moon’s special envoys visited Pyongyang in March, Kim himself said his country would not take military action against the South.
“In the joint declaration to be announced by Moon and Kim after the summit, we want to include an agreement to ban hostilities, although it is not known yet whether we can use the term ‘end of the war,'” the official said. “However, we expect to include such an agreement in some form of expression.” [Korea Times]
That is the key term being negotiated, “a ban on hostilities”. I would be surprised if President Trump signs up for a peace treaty ending the war without verifiable denuclearization by North Korea. The Kim regime probably understands this as well. I think what the Kim regime may be trying to do is at least get an agreement to ban hostilities in order to make it more difficult for President Trump to launch a strike when they inevitably break whatever agreement they sign up for.
If the past is any indication of the future, they will break the agreement after receiving the aid they want and blame the US or ROK for its failure for some imaginary reason. The ban on hostilities could then possibly constrain the US President from responding militarily while the Kim regime continues to break the agreement. If the US does strike anyway the Kim regime can then claim that the US broke the hostility agreement and thus justify them expanding their nuclear program and taking whatever hostilities they want. In the minds of the Kim regime, they win either way.
