Thousands of members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) stage a rally at Gwanghwamun Plaza in downtown Seoul on June 30, 2017, demanding the government raise the minimum wage and employ all nonregular workers as regular employees. (Yonhap)
It seems like an inevitability that the ROK will end up paying more for the upkeep of the US-ROK alliance since it is an issue that President Trump continues to highlight:
President Moon Jae-in, left, shakes hand with U.S. President Donald Trump in their joint press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday. [YONHAP]President Moon Jae-in faced a demand on Friday by U.S. President Donald Trump to resolve trade imbalance between the two countries and pay more of the cost for the presence of U.S. troops in Korea, while winning assurances for stronger defense measures to deter North Korea’s rapidly advancing threats.
In the joint press conference that followed the Oval Office summit, Trump said the era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed. “And frankly, that patience is over,” he added. After calling upon regional powers and all responsible nations to implement sanctions and pressure North Korea to end its nuclear and missile programs, Trump said now the goal is “peace, stability and prosperity for the region.”
The United States will defend itself and its allies, Trump said, and as part of that commitment, he said he wants to ensure that the cost of U.S. military presence in South Korea is equitably shared. “Burden sharing is a very important factor,” he said. “A factor that is becoming more and more prevalent, certainly in this administration.”
Trump also spoke of a “fair and reciprocal economic relationship” with South Korea, while complaining that the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement has increased the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea by more than $11 billion. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Even if it is cheaper to permanently station a brigade in South Korea, the reason USFK has been citing for using a rotational brigade is increased readiness of the unit since it trains together, deploys together, and returns to its home station together:
The downsizing of the Army overseas has cost more money than expected because of a reliance on expensive rotational forces when forward-based units can perform the same roles more cheaply, according to a new U.S. Army War College report.
An examination of the costs of troop rotations during the past several years in Europe and South Korea undermines a decade-old Defense Department argument that shuttling units back and forth from the United States is a more efficient way of doing business than basing them overseas, said report author John R. Deni, a War College professor.
There also is evidence that the long rotations are taking a toll on troop morale, with units deployed to Europe and South Korea showing lower re-enlistment rates than their counterparts, the report found.
Deni, whose findings were the subject of a panel discussion Wednesday at the Atlantic Council in Washington, said the Army should base one additional armored brigade in Europe and one in South Korea along with aviation assets and enablers. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but one of the other positives of the rotational brigade is that if the Pentagon wants to reduce troop numbers on the peninsula it is much easier to do so with a rotational unit that is not sent instead of trying to pull a permanently stationed brigade off of the peninsula.
An alleged dirty trick that was used against President Moon during the presidential campaign has led to one arrest and maybe more to come:
Lee You-mi, a member of minor opposition People’s Party, enters the courthouse in Seoul for a court review on the prosecution’s request of her arrest warrant over false allegations she made against President Moon Jae-in’s son on June 29, 2017. (Yonhap)
A member of a minor opposition party was arrested Thursday for making false allegations about President Moon Jae-in’s son during the election campaign earlier this year.
A Seoul court approved the prosecution’s request for the arrest warrant for Lee You-mi, a member of the People’s Party, on charges of spreading misinformation in violation of the election law.
Lee is accused of fabricating a story in the lead up to the May 9 presidential election about an unfair hiring of Moon Joon-yong by a public agency in late 2006, when his father was a presidential secretary.
She had been held in custody for questioning by the prosecution since early this week.
Lee reportedly confessed to creating the anonymous tip-off by concocting an audio file and a captured screenshot of mobile phone chat disguising them as records of conversation with a man claiming to be a friend of Joon-yong’s exposing the alleged preferred treatment.
Lee handed them to a former senior party official named Lee Jun-seo. The prosecution has barred the official from overseas travel on suspicions that he is behind the smearing scheme. The prosecution is set to summon him for questioning this week. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but according to the article the former Presidential candidate for the people’s party Ahn Cheol-soo has not commented on this allegation yet. If a political party is going to try and play dirty tricks like this they had better hope they win because as we have seen before President’s in Korea will go after their enemies.
Took a lunchtime walk to the White House just in time to see the Trump-Moon motorcade pass by. Saw lots of pro-US-ROK supporters too. pic.twitter.com/Eex3vnKOCs
Citizens visit a memorial altar set up for the late American college student Otto Warmbier at a square in front of Busan Station in the South Korean port city on June 29, 2017. The 22-year-old University of Virginia student died six days after he returned to his home in Ohio in a coma from a 17-month detention in North Korea for allegedly stealing a political poster from a hotel. (Yonhap)
Is this the future of South Korea with people walking around with air masks because of how bad the pollution is?:
A forest in Hadong
The town of Hadong in southeastern South Korea will sell canned fresh mountain air in a tie-up with a Canadian company amid growing concerns about air pollution, municipality officials said Wednesday.
The municipality said it will hold a ceremony on Friday to mark the dedication of a plant on a site of 99 square meters in the town’s Uisin Village to produce canned air coming from Mount Jiri in the region.
According to them, the can of pure air with the trademark of Jiri Air, which carries eight liters of fresh air from the mountain, will be sold at a price of 15,000 won (around $13) each at drugstores across the country. The amount of the air in one can is equivalent to 160 lungfuls that a customer takes for a second.
Inhaling the air through a built-in mask makes customers feel like they are in a forest of cypresses as it has a cypress aroma.
The air comes from a forest 700 to 800 meters above sea level where no people live. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but if I was going to spend $13 on air I would not buy air from within South Korea where the entire peninsula receives yellow dust of some kind. This Canadian company could probably sell better air from Canada itself.
It looks like the US Air Force has added a new tool to their toolbox of weapons to deal with any North Korean contingency:
The U.S. military has deployed to South Korea state-of-the-art missiles equipped with precision strike capability for a possible North Korea contingency.
Multiple diplomatic sources said on Monday that to their knowledge, U.S. Forces Korea(USFK) recently put in place around ten Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles(JASSM) at its air base in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province.
It is also known that the missiles can be mounted on F-16 fighter jets deployed to South Korea on a regular and rotational basis.
The missiles are assessed to have precision strike ability to hit key facilities in Pyongyang when launched from south of the military demarcation line(MDL). [KBS Global]
So far so good for the Trump-Moon summit in Washington, D.C. I wonder when North Korea will commit some kind of provocation this week in response?:
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, center, poses with U.S. President Donald Trump, second from right, in their first meeting at the White House, Washington, D.C., Thursday, along with South Korean first lady Kim Jung-sook, second from left, and U.S. first lady Melania Trump. / Yonhap
President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump had “frank and serious” discussions on North Korea, a free trade deal and other issues in their first meeting over dinner at the White House, Friday, according to Cheong Wa Dae.
After the meeting, Trump wrote on Twitter that he discussed with Moon a “new trade deal,” indicating the U.S. request for a renegotiation of the countries’ bilateral free trade agreement.
Yoon Young-chan, Moon’s top press officer, refused to elaborate on this, only saying, “The leaders agreed to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, establish peace on the Korean Peninsula and ensure economic prosperity for both nations based on their strong alliance.”
It was the first time that Trump has invited a foreign head of state and the spouse to dinner at the White House since his inauguration in January, Cheong Wa Dae said. First lady Kim Jung-sook and U.S. first lady Melania Trump were also present. [Korea Times]
