Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
Not only is this officer likely going to jail, but the cryptocurrency he received has dropped by more than half its value now:
A special operations officer in the South Korean army allegedly traded military secrets to a North Korean hacker in exchange for nearly $70,000 in cryptocurrency, according to a South Korean military affidavit.
The army captain, identified in the redacted affidavit only as Kim, his surname, was arrested April 6 and charged with violating the National Security Act, military prosecutors state in the document.
The allegations against Kim are “absolutely shameful,” said a former South Korean special forces officer and former commander of a joint support group.
“In my 19 year-career in the military, this is the first time I’ve heard this kind of news,” Lee Kwan Woo, a former commander in the Eighth Army’s U.S.-South Korea joint support group, told Stars and Stripes by phone Wednesday. “Special forces officers and noncommissioned officers are trained on security — all of those members are trained very seriously to keep security.”
Kim attended South Korea’s school of infantry in 2015, according to military records cited in the affidavit. He then served as a platoon leader for a reconnaissance company in 2016 and five years later became a company commander in the 13th Special Mission Brigade, according to Lee a special operations group specifically trained to capture or kill leaders in North Korea.
In March 2020, an unidentified former classmate approached Kim with an offer of money in exchange for military information for a third party, according to the affidavit. Kim declined the offer, saying such an act is illegal, the affidavit states.
Around six months later, Kim, now in financial straits due to online gambling, accepted his classmates’ offer, the affidavit said. The classmate introduced Kim to Boris, a man who claimed to be an ethnic Korean living in China.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link, but it is not surprising that the North Koreans were targeting someone with a bad gambling habit. It makes me wonder how they knew he had a bad gambling habit? Did they hack into the online gambling websites to monitor who has gambling problems that they might be able to exploit?
This is another sign that Korea’s conservative People Power Party continues to be on the rise in the wake of the election of Yoon Suk-yeol:
Leaders of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) on Thursday offered to quit the interim leadership committee en masse following the party’s crushing defeat in this week’s local elections.
Rep. Yoon Ho-jung and Park Ji-hyun, the DP’s co-interim chiefs, announced that all eight members of the party’s emergency leadership committee will step down to take responsibility for the defeat in Wednesday’s local elections.
The PPP won 12 out of 17 key races for big city mayors and provincial governors, including Seoul, while the DP won only five key races — three in its stronghold of the Jeolla provinces, as well as Gyeonggi and Jeju governorships.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but of note in this election is that Lee Jae-myung who ran against President Yoon was elected to a National Assembly seat out of Incheon and former Presidential Candidate who sided with Yoon was elected to a National Assembly seat in Bundang.
If anyone even cares at this point, South Korea’s daily COVID numbers have steeply declined:
South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases fell to below 16,000 Wednesday amid a slowing virus trend, as authorities take steps for a return to pre-pandemic normalcy.
The country added 15,797 COVID-19 infections, including 44 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,119,415, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
The daily cases have marked a steady decline since the all-time daily high of more than 620,000 in mid-March. The infection numbers have fallen to five digits or under since April 21.
The death toll came to 24,197, up 21 from Tuesday, with the fatality rate at 0.13 percent.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
BTS supposedly caused one of the largest gaggles of press reporters ever seen at the White House during the Biden Administration:
South Korean supergroup BTS highlighted the need to respect one another as they made their first visit to the White House on Tuesday for a rare meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.
The group also joined White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a daily press briefing before meeting with the U.S. president.
“It is a great honor to be invited to the White House today to discuss the important issues of anti-Asian hate crimes, Asian inclusion and diversity,” group member RM said in the press briefing.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It will be interesting to see if South Korea agrees to this because they would indirectly be seen by Russia as supporting the Ukrainians with arms:
The South Korean government has been reviewing the export of artillery shells to Canada in a bid to help the country replenish its depleted weapons stocks sent to Ukraine.
Canada recently asked if South Korea is able to export 100,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery ammunition through a diplomatic channel, a South Korean senior official at the Defense Ministry confirmed to The Korea Herald on Monday.
The South Korean official said the government has not yet formally begun procedures to proceed with the export. But the military has been reviewing whether it is capable of supplying the artillery shells in light of its weapons stocks and readiness posture.
Canada made the request to fill up its ammunition stocks which have been exhausted due to its lethal aid to war-torn Ukraine, according to the official.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
