It looks like the North Koreans are willing to give some time to the incoming Trump administration:
Choe Sun-hui
A top North Korean diplomat is reported to have told her American counterparts at a meeting in Switzerland that the North will refrain from provocations until the Donald J. Trump administration’s North Korea policy is further developed.
According to Radio Free Asia on Wednesday, Choe Son-hui, director general of the U.S. Affairs Department of the North’s Foreign Ministry and a top envoy to the six-party talks, said at a meeting with her American counterparts in Geneva last month that the North “would not take action that might close the door before seeing what emerges.”
Choe reportedly told the U.S. delegation that she hopes the Trump administration will review its policy toward the North while keeping her statement in mind. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
However, she caveated her statement by saying this:
Yet, according to meeting records obtained by RFA, Choe reportedly said that should the South and the United States conduct a joint military drill, the North’s response will have to be “very tough.”
Seoul and Washington are scheduled to hold their annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military exercises in February.
I wonder if this is a loan shark tactic that has come to Korea yet?:
A hand written loan slip. The interest rate of lending 2000 yuan is 100% for two month. One of the leaked photo circulated online.
It is an open secret that some online finance service platforms are asking female debtors to give them nude photos in exchange for a loan, or to extend the deadline of debt payment. Now, with the leaking of female debtors’ nude photos and videos online — thanks to the circulation of a 10-gigabytes file on the Chinese internet — the alarm has been sounded.
The zipped file contains photos and sex tapes of at least 161 women, the majority of which are college students between 17 to 23 years of age. Along with the visual materials are chat records and identity information — including relatives’ names and personal particulars.
The leaked documents come from Jiedaibao, a social network-based, online finance service platform, which facilitates one-on-one loans. Debtors must use their real identity in their profile, while the lenders can remain anonymous. The finance company has issued a statement denouncing any involvement with the leak, and is reportedly cooperating fully with the police in the investigation.
In order to get a loan, the young women were asked to take nude selfies holding their identity card; some were even asked to masturbate in front of the camera. In addition to this, other documents were shown — include student identity cards, and screenshots of university student user platforms. [Global Voices]
This screen capture from the North’s Korean Central TV on Dec. 7, 2016, shows blurs in its broadcast of a rally in downtown Seoul, apparently trying to hide tall buildings around the site. Pyongyang has been active in reporting weekend protests in South Korea demanding the president’s resignation, but analysts say it still didn’t want to show South Korea’s economic development to its people. (Yonhap)
Not to pile on President Park’s already bad week, but this is a pretty strange story:
Rep. Song Young-gil (far left) talks about the President’s toilet episode at a YouTube live talk show organized by main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea at the National Assembly. / Screen capture from YouTube
And on Dec. 8, a lawmaker revealed for the first time the President’s other “more private” attachment: a bacteria-free clean toilet.
“The President visited Incheon City Office when I was city mayor (2010-14),” said Rep. Song Young-gil, of the Minjoo Party of Korea.
He made the comment on Dec. 8, as a guest on a YouTube live talk show organized by the main opposition party at the National Assembly.
According to the informant, the office had reported to the President during the morning about the city’s current situations and the mayor’s performance.
After a luncheon at the office, they went outside for local canvassing with her.
“At one time, officials from the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae had asked me if the President could use my room for a brief rest,” Rep. Song said on the show, at which four other lawmakers were guests.
“I gladly agreed to the request. But then, the presidential secretaries again came to me and said the President wanted to replace a toilet in a restroom inside the room.
“I was totally dumbfounded.”
The story was surprising enough to turn heads toward him, with the show’s host, former party member Choi Min-hee, being particularly loud about the President’s newly found “surreal” penchant for hygiene.
“I guess the President simply did not want to share my toilet,” Rep. Song said, laughing. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but I have to wonder if President Park travels around with extra toilets and a plumber to install them as part of her entourage?
It is just amazing to me that Choi Soon-sil would leave a tablet computer with so much sensitive information on it in her former office with no password protection for anyone to open up and check out:
JTBC reporter Shim Su-mi reports where and how she found the tablet PC Thursday night. [JTBC]In its evening news program on Thursday, JTBC refuted rumors concerning how its reporter discovered presidential friend Choi Soon-sil’s tablet PC in October before anyone else, which proved to be a crucial piece of evidence against her.
Ko Young-tae, former head of The Blue K, a shell company suspected to be headed by Choi, accused JTBC during the parliamentary hearing on Wednesday of changing its statement on how it came to possess the tablet.
“JTBC first said that it found the tablet in a trash can in Germany, and then changed its statement to say that it found the tablet PC among things that Choi threw out of her house after being informed by Choi’s household manager,” Ko said in the hearing. “And then it changed its statement once more to say the tablet PC was found at my desk at my company.”
JTBC Newsroom anchor Sohn Suk-hee and JTBC reporter Suh Pok-hyun on Thursday evening provided explanations to rumors surrounding how the tablet was first discovered by its reporter.
An explanation was provided the first time that JTBC reported on the case, which was on Oct. 24, when Suh said during Newsroom, “JTBC reporters searched one of the offices that used to belong to Choi, and in one of them we found her tablet among things Choi left behind.”
Sohn and Suh provided the same explanation during the program on Thursday evening, and added that the tablet was first obtained by JTBC reporter Shim Su-mi, who visited the office of The Blue K in Sinsa-dong, southern Seoul, on Oct. 18.
According to JTBC, Shim found traces that both The Blue K and Widec Sports appear to be owned by Choi and found the former office of The Blue K before any other journalists. Shim received permission from the building manager and entered the office, finding a desk and the tablet there.
“The office was on sale for two months, and real estate agents could enter freely,” Suh said. “So the reporter entered an office that was not owned by anyone at the time.”
Shim, in finding the tablet, saw its charger was missing. She bought a charger for the tablet model, came back and opened six files, examined them and left the tablet there, according to JTBC.
She then returned two days later, for fear that the evidence inside could be destroyed by Choi or her confidants. She copied the files inside, and broke the news on Oct. 24. That same day, she handed the tablet over to prosecution.
At the parliamentary hearing Wednesday, a few lawmakers demanded JTBC reveal how it came to examine the tablet in the first place, as rumors that Ko or Choi’s ex-husband, Chung Yoon-hoi, chief of staff to Park from 1998 until 2004, gave it to JTBC. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
An Asiana Airlines flight from Incheon to New York was delayed for about an hour after two pilots were involved in a fight. / Yonhap
Asiana Airlines has come under fire for letting a co-pilot injured in a bloody fight, operate a flight bound for New York from Seoul last week, risking the safety of 275 passengers.
According to reports, a quarrel broke out between two co-pilots of flight OZ222 that was supposed to depart from Incheon International Airport for New York at 11 a.m. Friday.
The two punched and kicked each other, leaving one taken off the flight for medical treatment. Departure was delayed for about one hour.
The other co-pilot was also injured, but the company’s safety director left him on the flight after checking his condition. [Korea Times]
Defense Minister Han Min-koo (R) presides over a meeting of military leaders at the Joint Chiefs of Staff right after the National Assembly passed an impeachment bill against President Park Geun-hye in a vote of 234 for, 56 against and two abstentions on Dec. 9, 2016. (Photo courtesy of defense ministry) (Yonhap)
