U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) visits the home of Libba Patterson, whom he refers to as his “American mom,” in San Francisco, California, on Aug. 11, 2016. Patterson hosted teenager Ban at her home when he traveled to the United States in 1962 on a student visit program. Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, ends his 10 years as the U.N. chief at the end of this year. Standing behind them is Ban’s wife, Yoo Soon-taek. (Photo courtesy of the United Nations)
This has to be considered a disappointing Olympics for Korean soccer fans I would think considering they were knocked out by non-traditional soccer power like Honduras:
Forward Son Heung-min of South Korea looks astray after Honduras scored the match-winning goal in the second-half. Honduras won the game 1-0, knocking South Koreans out of the men’s football quarterfinals in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Saturday. / Yonhap
South Korea were knocked out of the Olympic men’s football quarterfinals Saturday with a 1-0 loss to Honduras.
Alberth Elis scored the game’s lone goal near the hour mark at Mineirao in Belo Horizonte, some 340 kilometers north of Rio de Janeiro.
South Korea won the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics. It remains the country’s only Olympic football medal. [Korea Times]
This would be just one more step to Japan and Korea putting the past behind them and hopefully moving forward to a more cooperative future:
This file photo shows a statue of a girl in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul which symbolizes the Korean women sexually enslaved at a young age by Japanese forces. (Yonhap)
Japan’s foreign minister pledged Friday to “swiftly” transfer funds to assist South Korean victims of the country’s colonial-era sexual enslavement, the foreign ministry here said, as the two neighbors ironed out the final details of a deal aimed at ending the decades-old feud over this painful issue.
Seoul’s top diplomat Yun Byung-se and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida held telephone talks earlier in the day before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the Japanese decision.
“Foreign Minister Kishida remarked that the Japanese government has decided to disburse the 1 billion yen (US$9.9 million) fund that will come from its government budget as soon as domestic procedures following the deal in December are finalized,” the foreign ministry here said in a statement.
The latest development came amid a delay in Japan’s transfer of the billion yen fund which the country committed to pay in a landmark deal reached with South Korea on Dec. 28 to put an end to the diplomatic feud over the so-called comfort women issue. [Yonhap]
Visitors at the 2016 Tomato Festival in Hwacheon, 118 kilometers northeast of Seoul, dive into a pool of the vegetable on Aug. 12, 2016. The festival opened on the same day and will continue to Aug. 15. (Photo courtesy of Hwacheon County) (Yonhap)
Via a reader tip comes an opinion piece from ROK Drop favorite Andrei Lankov in regards to why China is so vehemently opposed to the deployment of the THAAD battery to South Korea:
However, such a hard blow is unlikely to ever be delivered by China. This is because extreme pressure is more likely to bring about regime collapse than denuclearization, and regime collapse is not what the Chinese leaders want to see (an anarchy in a nuclear state nearby is not their idea of stability and success). And at any rate, the Chinese losses from such a scenario will be greater than the problems created by THAAD deployment. Minor pressure, however, is not going to solve the nuclear problem and hence it will not lead to THAAD re-deployment elsewhere.
In this context, China therefore acts reasonably: it does not increase its pressure on North Korea, but rather penalizes South Korea for THAAD deployment. Obviously, it is being done in expectation that a sufficiently persistent form of pressure will eventually make the South Korean government – well, perhaps, next one – re-consider its position on THAAD.
After all, being a democracy, South Korea is relatively susceptible to outside pressures. China looms large in the South Korean economy, so informal sanctions – which are very easy to introduce for the Chinese leaders – will have a noticeable impact on the lives of the common South Koreans who, unlike their northern brethren, can vote and who also have many other means to push the government in the direction they (rightly or wrongly) see as conducive to their interests. [NK News]
I recommend reading the whole thing at the link. Mr. Lankov is right about what he covers in his analysis. However, I think he did miss one thing. In my opinion the Chinese know very well that THAAD is not a risk to their strategic missile deterrent. Instead they see this an opportunity to create a wedge between the US and the ROK. A weakened US-ROK alliance is in China’s national interest which the reversing of course on THAAD has the potential of creating.
A British DJ has been arrested for drug smuggling in Korea:
A Grammy-nominated British DJ was arrested in Korea for alleged drug smuggling, police said Thursday.
Video footage shows him at a customs checkpoint at Incheon International Airport with a 1.5-liter bottle filled with an alleged illegal drug, they said.
Sources said he was Mark Lewis. Lewis, 52, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005 in the category of Best Electronic/Dance Album for “I Found U” that he produced.
Sources said Lewis allegedly smuggled 3.78 liters of gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), also known as the date rape drug, into Korea four times from January to June. The value is estimated at 370 million won ($340,000) and the quantity enough to dose 1,000 people. [Korea Times]
