For anyone that has been waiting to see a Choi Soon-shil inspired movie hit the big the screen well here it is:
Choi Soon-sil and Jeong-Kyung-soon
The massive presidential scandal involving Choi Soon-sil, the central figure who allegedly abused former Korean President Park Geun-hye’s authority to amass wealth, will be made into a comedy movie.
“Gate” will be directed by Shin Jae-ho, a comedy-movie director. It will star renowned Korean actress Jeong Kyung-soon as “Aeree,” a character allegedly based on Choi, Park’s longtime friend.
Shin told The Korea Times: “I picked up the idea of the movie from the scandal, but I will not specify Aeree as Choi Soon-sil. Also, the movie’s main story is not about Aeree , but a small family living in a suburb.”
Shin dismissed the idea that the impeached former president was taken into account in the plot, saying there is a character in the movie “who talks to Aeree but she is not based on any real person.” [Korea Times]
Residents of Seongju County confront policemen on May 29, 2017, as they block the entry of trucks to the site picked for the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile defense system. Five trucks tried to enter the golf course in the county, 296 kilometers south of Seoul, that will host the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) for environmental inspection but then turned back. The deployment is fiercely opposed by local residents and some civic groups and religious organizations, including Won Buddhism which provided this photo. (Yonhap)
What Christopher Hill is advocating for has been tried before and does not work. Increasing defenses in South Korea is common sense and has long been going on, working with China has also been tried and it has not stopped the North Korean nuclear or missile threats:
Christopher Hill
No good military options exist on North Korea and the best way to deal with the provocative regime is to increase cooperation with China, former U.S. nuclear negotiator with North Korea Christopher Hill said Sunday.
Talk of pre-emptive strikes against the North have gained traction after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said earlier this month that diplomacy failed to disarm the North and the United States is considering a new range of options, including military ones.
“We say ‘everything is on the table’ is because basically none of the options are particularly good options,” the former negotiator said on New York’s AM 970 radio, according to the newspaper Hill. “There are no good military options.
“We’ve done a lot on sanctions. It’s the most sanctioned country in the world. That hasn’t worked. We tried to have negotiations with them. That hasn’t worked. But I think what could work is a much better understanding between the U.S. and China,” Hill said.
He expressed concerns about the rapidly worsening threats from the North.
“In the last few years, North Korea’s threat has really grown … now we are seeing them modernize their missile arsenal, such that it’s quite likely in the near future … North Korea will have a deliverable nuclear weapon. And then the question is, what are we all going to do about that?” Hill said.
“I wouldn’t want to be Donald Trump in 2020 and have to say … we couldn’t do anything,” he said. [Yonhap]
It seems to me that Mr. Hill should not be calling out President Trump when he could not stop the North Korean threat when he was in government.
If the North Koreans conduct this nuclear test it seems they must be pretty confident that no matter what they do before the upcoming ROK presidential election that a Korean left wing candidate is going to win. Typically North Korean provocations cause voters to rally behind a Korean right wing candidate, but this may be an indication of how discredited the Korean right is after the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye:
Another North Korean nuclear test is imminent, with preparations likely to wrap up this week, intelligence authorities in Seoul said Wednesday.
The test, North Korea’s sixth, could be conducted as early as next week
“We have intelligence that North Korea may conduct its sixth nuclear test in the first week of April and are in the process of confirming this,” said a South Korean military intelligence source who requested anonymity. “We have determined that North Korea is expected to finish all preparations for a nuclear test by March 31.”
There were expectations that the North could conduct a nuclear test ahead of the upcoming meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump expected to be held on April 6 and 7 at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
“We are analyzing that there is a high possibility that North Korea will conduct a nuclear test ahead of U.S. President Trump and Chinese President Xi’s summit in the United States,” another intelligence official said. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Via a reader tip comes this news that Constitutional Court judge involved who approved the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye has been given a prestigious position at Korea University:
Lee Jung-mi
Lee Jung-mi, the former acting chief justice of the Constitutional Court who impressed many with her grace under pressure as the court ruled on Park Geun-hye’s impeachment, will take up a chair at Korea University, her alma mater.
Lee will teach at the university’s law school for a year from April 1, Korea University said on Thursday. [Chosun Ilbo]
I think it is a very fair question to ask whether Lee would have been given this position if she had decided the other way on the impeachment? Considering she took this job so quickly after stepping down she must have known that this was something being offered when she was making her decision on impeachment. Would she have been able to take this job if she decided the other way with protesters and the media hounding her every move?
Presidential hopefuls of the conservative Bareun Party — Yoo Seong-min (L), a lawmaker of the party, and Gyeonggi Gov. Nam Kyung-pil — pose for a photo prior to a TV debate in Seoul on March 25, 2017. South Korea is preparing for the May 9 presidential election after the ouster of President Park Geun-hye on March 10. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
Here is the latest theory on the so called real reason the Chinese are upset with the THAAD deployment to South Korea:
The second hypothesis is, I think, more convincing, and one where Beijing may have legitimate concern about the Gyeongsangbuk-do AN/TPY-2 radar upsetting U.S.-China strategic nuclear stability. Specifically, China may — correctly or incorrectly — fear that its nuclear second-strike capability is significantly degraded as a result of a third U.S. AN/TPY-2 radar going up specifically near the southern tip of the Korean peninsula.
To avoid the need for a massive nuclear build-up and to feel comfortable with its several hundred or so nuclear warheads for targeting, China needs to feel comfortable enough its intercontinental ballistic missiles can reliably penetrate U.S. antiballistic missile countermeasures. [The Diplomat]
It does not matter what radar is in Korea because the Ground-based Missile Defense (GMD) system fielded by the United States is not designed to shoot down complex ICBMs like the Chinese and Russians both have. It is designed to intercept non-complex ICBMs from rogue nations like North Korea and Iran.
Here is the part of the article where somebody let out the “good idea fairy”:
Li’s proposed solution for the United States was simple enough: the United States could “deploy its Green Pine radar or another radar with similar capabilities to guide the THAAD interceptors.” Li add that the “THAAD TPY-2 radar does not provide more capability to protect the ROK from the North Korean missile threat relative to a Green Pine-level radar since the TPY-2 radar’s detection range goes too far beyond North Korean territory.” It’s unclear also if a Green Pine radar would synergize with the existing AN/TPY-2s in Japan.
First of all Green Pine is not a US radar, it is an Israeli radar that was sold to the ROK. The ROK has two of these radars deployed on the peninsula. THAAD is not designed or tested to use anything but the AN/TPY-2 radar. If you want to know why the THAAD system uses the AN/TPY-2 radar doing a search on Youtube is a good place to begin. The Green Pine radar is designed to work with the Israeli Arrow system. These are two completely different systems with their own complex hardware and software that cannot be mix and matched.
The reason why China is opposed to THAAD is the simplest answer which is they are attempting to create a wedge in the US-ROK alliance. The Chinese feel that that the US is trying to recreate the old USSR containment strategy against them and thus are taking actions to counter this. They have made inroads within the Philippines at countering US influence there are are now focusing on the ROK. With a left wing politician expected to be elected in a couple of months in the ROK we will see if this strategy works for the Chinese.
I don’t think we will see much fake news before the election because the Korean left does not have any serious challengers to the Presidency since they took out Ban Ki-moon with arguably fake news already:
Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn speaks during a meeting of related ministers on preparation for the May 9 presidential election at the central government complex in Seoul on March 27, 2017. (Yonhap)
Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Monday called for a stern crackdown on fake news and other election crimes with the presidential election 43 days away.
During a meeting of related ministers on preparation for the May 9 election day, Hwang also instructed the government to employ a “zero-tolerance” principle against any civil servants violating their obligation to remain politically neutral.
“We have to come up with extraordinary measures including a special task force to tackle fake news and malicious propaganda which are election crimes that could inflict great damages (on victims),” Hwang said. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but could you imagine if there was a fake news crackdown in the US? It has gotten so bad now that the US President responds to fake news with his own fake news so the media stops talking about the other fake news.
