The Lone Star issue continues to make headlines.  This time it is about how Lone Star bribed an activist group leader to essentially shut up.  So if there was any doubt, everyone now knows it is illegal to bribe activist groups in South Korea:

A local court sentenced the head of a private watchdog to two years in prison for taking bribes from Lone Star Funds in return for dropping protests over the U.S. firm’s local deal and trying to help it settle a stock manipulation trial.

The Seoul Central District Court ordered Jang Hwa-sik, the head of Spec Watch Korea, also to forfeit 800 million won (US$681,000), he received in 2011 from Yoo Hoe-won, former head of Lone Star’s local unit.

“Despite fairness and integrity expected for him as an executive of an organization whose nature is clearly of public concern, he used his position in taking the heavy amount of financial reward,” the court said.

Jang, formerly a head of the labor union at Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), had led protests against Lone Star’s profit taking in the firm’s purchase and reselling of KEB.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Sounds like another news item that Park Sang-hak and his team should send across the DMZ for North Korean citizens to read about:

An extravagant mansion for former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il that cost Pyongyang tens of millions of dollars to build in 2010 has been torn down, and new construction is underway, according to satellite images from May.

The No. 15 Official Residence where Kim Jong Un‘s mother, Ko Young Hee, once lived also is the childhood home of the current North Korean leader.

Curtis Melvin of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, who used the satellite imagery in his analysis, told Radio Free Asia the roof on the north side of the building has been torn down and a landscaping project has begun in a garden section of the compound, South Korean newspaper Donga Ilbo reported.

Two satellite images were compared to produce the analysis: the first from Jan. 14 and the second from May 20 show the progress on the roof and the garden.

The residence cost tens of millions of dollars to build five years ago, and roads and railways for the former leader’s exclusive use also were built. Underground tunnels for electric trains are connected to office buildings in the compound.  [UPI]

You can read more at the link, but you have to love the power that Google Earth provides average citizens to note things like this.

https://twitter.com/Max_Fisher/status/631295068565958657

A clerk sorts out 100-yuan Chinese banknotes at the headquarters of Korea Exchange Bank in Seoul on Aug. 12, 2015. The South Korean won hit a 46-month low against the U.S. dollar following China’s second devaluation of its currency on the same day. The local currency closed at 1,190.8 won against the greenback, down 11.7 won from the previous session and the lowest close since the 1,194.0. won recorded on Oct. 4, 2011. (Yonhap)

The comfort women issue appears to be bringing out the crazy in people now, just like the Dokdo issue:

An elderly man set himself on fire near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul Wednesday and is in critical condition, a police officer said.

The incident took place around 12:40 p.m. when Choi Heon-yeol suddenly set himself on fire in front of the embassy before being put out by people nearby.

More than 2,500 people were holding a weekly rally there for the elderly Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japan’s World War II soldiers.

The 81-year-old has since been transported to a hospital specializing in burns in southwestern Seoul, where he lies unconscious.

“More than half of his body is burned, 40 percent of which are third-degree,” doctor Yang Hyeong-tae of Hallym University Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The ROK probably should have never stopped clearing shrubbery around the DMZ in the first place considering North Korea’s long history of border incursions and provocations:

Han’s remarks came as the South’s military is preparing to take preliminary steps to pave the way for offensive operations within the 250-kilometer stretch of the four-kilometer-wide buffer zone.

It is considering forest burning in some areas, an operational practice the South decided to stop in 2001 following inter-Korean working-level military talks.

An official explained that burning shrubs will help the military secure a view of North Korea’s guard posts and reconnaissance activities ahead of launching offensive operations within the area. The official said if it is conducted, the burning operation would be carried out in the fall to avoid southerly wind.

Amid such considerations, a South Korea-U.S. joint artillery live fire drill began on Wednesday.

Running through the end of this month, the drill will see the participation of cutting-edge weapons, including South Korea’s K-2 tanks and FA-50 fighter jets as well as the U.S.’ Paladin self-propelled howitzers, Apache helicopters and A-10 attack aircraft.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link.

For some people thinking of moving to Korea this health insurance change needs to be something to be aware of:

The government will strengthen national health insurance eligibility requirements for overseas Koreans and foreigners beginning in October to prevent abuse of the system.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Wednesday that it will enact revisions to ordinances so that overseas Koreans and foreigners who enter the country for work will only be eligible to enroll in national health insurance after a three-month stay.

However, those who enter the country for study, marriage or other purposes that make it clear that they are going to stay in the country for more than three months may continue to immediately join the health insurance.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link.

U.S. and ROK forces to hold unscheduled live-fire drills near North Korean border after DMZ ambush HT @ISNJH @140DPRK http://t.co/1ZJ4FYz558

— Andrew NK (@northkoreafront) August 12, 2015

The photo shows a ceremony being held to launch the Navy’s sixth next-generation frigate Gwangju at the dock of STX Offshore and Shipbuilding Co. in Changwon, southeastern South Korea, on Aug. 11, 2015. The 2,300-ton ship is equipped with three-dimension scanning radar, a sonar torpedo detecting system as well as anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles. (Yonhap)

Gen. Curtis Scaparroti (L), the new commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, along with South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Choi Yoon-hee (C), comforts Ssg. Kim Jung-won at the Army’s hospital in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, on Aug. 12, 2015, in this photo released by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Kim is one of the two South Korean staff sergeants who were seriously injured on Aug. 4 as they stepped on three wooden-box land mines on the southern side of the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas. South Korea has accused North Korea of intentionally burying the mines. (Yonhap)