It looks like the US is getting closer to getting Japan and South Korea to final conclude an intelligence sharing agreement which from a military perspective makes so much sense considering the common threat posed by North Korea:
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken speaks at a news conference at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on April 19, 2016. (Yonhap)
South Korea, the United States and Japan will look to expand their sharing of military intelligence in response to the growing threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, a top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken made the remarks in an interview with South Korean reporters, saying the three countries are boosting security cooperation to protect their citizens from any North Korean provocation.
“Information-sharing among us is one important element of being as safe and secure as possible,” he said. “And we will look for ways to deepen that information sharing as we move forward.”
The prospect of sharing military intelligence with Japan has been a sensitive issue in South Korea where there are still deep-seated reservations about the former colonial ruler. In 2012, the two sides tried to sign a General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) to share intelligence on North Korea, but the plan was scrapped, as critics accused the government of arranging the deal behind their backs. [Yonhap]
Via a reader tip (thanks MTB Rider!) comes this hilarious Chinese cartoon warning Chinese against dating foreigners because they could be spies! This is even funnier considering how the Chinese intelligence services are well known for using female spies to strike up romantic relationships with Americans that have access to sensitive information. Maybe the US military should publish a cartoon like this to hand out! 😉
DAVID: Dear, do you still need to keep secrets from me? I’m just taking a look to use in academic articles. XIAO LI: Uhh, OK then.
Are you a foreigner in China who likes to meet locals, and have been known to strike up romantic relationships with gifts and flattery? If so, you should know that you are showing the telltale signs of being a spy.
China is beefing up its defenses against foreign espionage, and they’re hoping to raise public awareness of this danger to national security with its first-ever National Security Education Day held last week.
As reported by China Law Translate, one of the propaganda materials released was called “Dangerous Love” that was seen in residential areas of Xicheng, Beijing.
The 16-panel cartoon follows the story of Xiaoli, a Chinese woman who works in an information department of the country’s civil service. Xiaoli is wooed by a foreigner named David who eventually convinces Xiaoli to hand over sensitive material. Police eventually confront Xiaoli with the revelation that David is in fact a spy, and that she herself is guilty of violating Chinese law regarding state secrets.
As with a number of recent Chinese propaganda releases, “Dangerous Love” uses cartoons as a way to make its content and intentions very clear to its readers. [The Nan Fang]
You can read the whole series of cartoons at the link.
A group of domestically produced tanks, dubbed “Heukpyo,” goes through an underwater river-crossing exercise in the South Han River in Yeoju, east of Seoul, on April 19, 2016. (Yonhap)
If you are a US government civilian employee working outside of the Seoul area you are about to get a cut in pay. According to the below article those losing their differential pay could lose around $300 a month:
Kim Yong-Sik, then a U.S. Forces Korea employee, checks boiler room machinery at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, Nov. 8, 2010. The U.S. recently eliminated a hardship differential allowance leading to a loss of income for nearly 3,000 Korea-based civilian employees.
In an unusual move, the U.S. has eliminated the post hardship differential allowance for some 2,800 Korea-based civilian government employees stationed outside the Seoul metropolitan area, according to a memo obtained by Stars and Stripes.
U.S. Forces Korea informed the employees about the pay reduction over the weekend in a letter dated April 15 and signed by chief of staff Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal. Vandal told the employees he was “very concerned about the effect this will have on you and your families” and promised to address the issue as quickly as possible.
The State Department determines the hardship differential – distributed for extremely difficult or unhealthy conditions or physical hardship – based on a questionnaire that is supposed to be administered by local installations. It has been 5 percent of basic compensation for most locations outside Seoul for the past several years.
“However, as a result of the latest (Department of State) review, the rate was reduced to 0 percent for all U.S. government civilians in Korea” as of April 3, according to the memo, which also said eligible employees will see start seeing the loss in paychecks this week.
Civilian employees in the Seoul metropolitan area were not affected since they did not receive the differential. [Stars & Stripes]
After all the inaccurate reporting by the Associated Press over the No Gun Ri issue in South Korea I keep a healthy bit of skepticism when reading an article like this. There is probably some truth to this especially considering the sexual assaults against deaf students at the Gwangju Inwha School that were uncovered a few years ago. However, how much truth there is to this story I just don’t know. What I do find interesting is how in the Korean media little is being mentioned about this story that is making huge headlines in the US:
In this undated image provided by the Committee Against Institutionalizing Disabled Persons, a civic group representing the former inmates at the Brothers Home, guards unload children from a truck in Busan, South Korea.
The 14-year-old boy in the black school jacket stared at his shoes, his heart pounding, as the policeman accused him of stealing a piece of bread.
Even now, more than 30 years later, Choi Seung-woo weeps when he describes all that happened next.
The policeman yanked down the boy’s pants and sparked a cigarette lighter near Choi’s genitals until he confessed to a crime he didn’t commit.
Then two men with clubs came and dragged Choi off to the Brothers Home, a mountainside institution where some of the worst human rights atrocities in modern South Korean history took place.
A guard in Choi’s dormitory raped him that night in 1982 – and the next, and the next. So began five hellish years of slave labour and near-daily assaults, years in which Choi saw men and women beaten to death, their bodies carted away like garbage.
Choi was one of thousands – the homeless, the drunk, but mostly children and the disabled – rounded up off the streets ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, which the ruling dictators saw as international validation of South Korea’s arrival as a modern country.
An Associated Press investigation shows that the abuse of these so-called vagrants at Brothers, the largest of dozens of such facilities, was much more vicious and widespread than previously known, based on hundreds of exclusive documents and dozens of interviews with officials and former inmates. [Associated Press]
People should be careful who they meet up with through Kakao:
A Korean man in his 20s got arrested for having multiple sexual activities with underage girls that he met through the social network.
Anaheim police department arrested a Korean man Mr. Kim last 29th of March for having sexual relationships and raping teen girls.
According to the Anaheim police, Kim contacted a 13-year-old girl through messaging app on the phone in 2014.
Kim then met the teen girl at a shopping mall in Irvine and took her to his house in La Habra and raped her.
The Anaheim police officers started sting operation and engaged in social network with Mr. Kim, disguised as the girl. Kim, thinking the officers were teenage girl, sent photos of his private body parts and offered her to have sexual activities.
Kim went out to the park in Anaheim not realizing the girl was actually the police officer and was arrested. [Korea Times]
Vogue International Editor Suzy Menkes poses in this photo provided by Conde Nast International on April 19, 2016. The globally renown fashion journalist visited South Korea to preside over the Conde Nast International Luxury Conference set for April 20-21 at Shilla Hotel in Seoul. (Yonhap)
