South Korean rapper T.O.P, a member of the South Korean boy band Big Bang, is being moved on a wheelchair from Ewha Womans University Medical Center in western Seoul to another hospital for recovery on June 9, 2017. He was treated at the hospital’s emergency room after he fell into a coma due to a drug overdose on June 6. (Yonhap)
This guy sounds creepy if the accusations are true:
A native English teacher at a high school in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, is under investigation for allegedly sexually harassing the female students, according to Heungdeok Police Station Thursday.
The teacher, whose identity is unknown, is accused of hugging the girls as a lesson in “foreign greeting.”
The school has suspended the teacher from teaching.
The students told police the teacher sexually harassed them verbally and physically.
The teacher denies the accusations, saying they are the result of misunderstanding cultural differences. [Korea Times]
Here is a power tip for everyone, don’t be giving unwanted hugs or having sexual conversations with high school students especially if you are a teacher.
It will be interesting to see if President Trump enforces his redline against a North Korean ICBM test because it looks like the Kim regime is testing the waters to see what the Trump administration’s response will be to this:
North Korea’s official newspaper claimed Saturday that a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile is not far away.
“The series of recent strategic weapons tests show that we are not too far away from test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile,” the Rodong Sinmun said in an editorial.
The claim indicates the regime has continued to advance its missile technology since its leader Kim Jong-un said during his annual address on Jan. 1 that the regime was in the final stage of developing ICBM technology. (…..)
“The great success of test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile, which we are sure to achieve, will mark a historic watershed moment in the failure of the U.S. hostile policy against us,” the editorial in the ruling Workers’ Party’s mouthpiece read. “Historically speaking, the U.S. has never dared to go to war with a country that possesses nuclear weapons or ICBMs.” [Yonhap]
The place is equidistant from Chuncheon (about 40 miles from Seoul) & Sokcho on the coast. Several NK drones crashed nearby in the past. pic.twitter.com/uFCG1pnWEx
The New Zealand Navy frigate Te Kaha arrives at South Korea’s port city of Busan on June 9, 2017, after a drill in Southeast Asia. The 3,600-ton vessel is armed with a 50-inch 54 caliber gun, Mk 41 vertical launch system for surface-to-air missiles, a Phalanx close-in weapons system and Mk 46 torpedoes. Te Kaha sailors will engage in various friendship activities with South Korea’s Navy personnel before departing on June 13. (Yonhap)
Like I have beens saying President Moon is not stupid and the THAAD is not going anywhere. The whole current environmental assessment issue with the THAAD deployment is just domestic politics:
Chung told reporters Friday that the decision to postpone the full deployment was a domestic measure to ensure a “transparent and democratic process.” He didn’t give a timeframe.
“Our government plans to deal with the THAAD deployment with a few principles while being fully aware of North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats,” Chung said. “The government has no intention to fundamentally change what it has promised under the Korea-U.S. alliance.”
“THAAD was a decision made to protect South Korea and U.S. Forces Korea from North Korea’s growing threats,” he added. “The government will not handle such a decision lightly just because there has been a government change.”
Many South Koreans oppose THAAD because they fear it will have negative economic and environmental effects while being positioned mainly to protect U.S. forces in southern areas. China also strongly objects to the anti-missile battery, fearing it can be used against its military. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but the talking point that the THAAD is just there to protect US forces in the southern sections of the country like much of the criticism of the THAAD is stupid. First of all it is the US-ROK alliance which means the THAAD will protect ROK assets as well. The US military is not going to let ROK bases get blown up. Secondly, if a nuclear warhead is launched at a US or ROK base at Busan for example, shooting the ballistic missile down protects the entire city not just the military base.
Finally the environmental concerns talking point has already been disproven and yet people continue to repeat it. The Congresswoman from the one other location in the world that has an forward deployed THAAD battery, has said Guam has had no problems with the system in the four years it has been there.
I don’t mind criticism of the THAAD deployment, but like so many other issues between the ROK and the US the criticism is largely not fact based.
Considering that this woman had to be extradited from France, that leads me to believe that she knows her money was embezzled, but we will see what the courts decide:
Yoo Sum-na, the daughter of the late Yoo Byung-eun, the de facto owner of the Sewol ferry, arrives at the Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office on June 7, 2017. (Yonhap)
A local court issued an arrest warrant on Friday for a daughter of a late businessman who controlled the operator of a sunken ferry that killed hundreds of passengers in 2014.
The Incheon District Court issued the warrant for Yoo Sum-na, the daughter of Yoo Byung-eun, the de facto owner of Cheonghaejin Marine Co., in light of risks that she “might flee or destroy evidence.”
She was arrested on charges of embezzling 4.6 billion won (US$4.09 million) from Cheonghaejin, the operator of Sewol.
The 51-year-old, who was extradited from France earlier this week, is said to deny the charges levied against her, claiming that the money her design company had received from her father’s company was “fair compensation for consulting services.”
She ran the company from June 2011 till December 2013 with a woman surnamed Ha who was close to her father. She is suspected to have coerced Cheonghaejin to pay her 2.5 billion won under the pretense of providing design consulting.
In another case, she is also accused of making another company of hers pay 2.1 billion won to a company founded by her brother without a justifiable reason. [Yonhap]
I never thought of this before, but yes Army units from Alaska would have a very limited amount of time to train in darkness since the best months weather wise to train have a lot of daylight:
A soldier from 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, wears chemical-resistant gear while training at Rodriguez Live Fire Range, South Korea, Sunday, June, 4, 2017.
Six hundred U.S. troops wrapped up a monthlong training rotation to South Korea Monday with something in short supply this time of year at their home station in Alaska — darkness.
Soldiers from the Fort Wainwright-based 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment “Bobcats” spent May living and training at the 3,390-acre Rodriguez Live Fire Range north of Seoul.
“We’re here to build our lethality,” battalion commander Lt. Col. R. Blake Lackey said Wednesday.
That includes being able to operate day and night, the latter being difficult in the Alaskan summer, he said.
“This time of year we’ll be training at 1:30 in the morning and it’s still daylight,” said Staff Sgt. Benjamin Moore, 34, a recon team leader with the battalion.
“When it’s dark in Alaska it’s winter and it’s pretty harsh,” the West Palm Beach, Fla., native added. “So it’s really difficult to get after some of the more basic and fundamental [requirements].”
The Korea rotation has taken the unit “to a higher level of readiness we didn’t think was possible,” Lackey said. [Stars & Stripes]
