This is pretty gross:
Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Tuesday it will open an investigation into the shocking discovery of a dead tree frog in a lunch dish provided to students at a high school in the capital the previous day.
Korea Times
The incident occurred at the unnamed high school in western Seoul, where students were appalled to find a tree frog carcass in radish kimchi, a popular Korean fermented side dish, served with their lunch Monday.
The school sent a letter of apology to all students and their parents, saying the contaminated kimchi was discovered after being delivered by a supplier to the school as a finished product. The school said it discarded all the radish kimchi products stored in the school cafeteria and terminated its contract with the food supplier.
You can read more at the link.
Here is the latest from the Dokdo front:
Rosy prospects of enhanced three-way cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the United States against North Korea’s growing threats face uncertainty as a long-running territorial dispute once again pits Seoul and Tokyo against each other.
Korea Times
Japan’s claim to Dokdo, South Korea’s easternmost islets, and other historical issues regarding its wartime atrocities, continue to overshadow their bilateral ties, dashing Washington’s hopes for trilateral cooperation.
South Korea’s new president and the U.S. leader, who visited Asia recently, have tried to change these dynamics, as evidenced by last week’s unprecedented joint statement by their foreign ministers condemning Pyongyang’s ballistic missile launches.
The Japanese foreign ministry lodged a protest against South Korea’s marine survey around Dokdo for the second straight day, Sunday and Monday.
According to Japanese media reports, the ministry confirmed that a Korean research vessel had thrown something like a wire into the sea in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone and that South Korea had acknowledged the marine survey.
However, South Korea’s foreign ministry rejected the claim, saying that it was unacceptable. The ministry also said that the survey was a legitimate activity in accordance with domestic and international laws.
You can read more at the link.
I hope everyone has a good Memorial Day weekend. Make sure to give at least a thought this weekend to all the U.S. military servicemembers who made the ultimate sacrifice before starting up the BBQ grills.
This agreement is basically Chinese style neo-colonialism. I guess we will see if Chinese money will be enough to pay off the leaders of these countries to agree to this new style of colonialism:
China wants 10 small Pacific nations to endorse a sweeping agreement covering everything from security to fisheries in what one leader warns is a “game-changing” bid by Beijing to wrest control of the region.
A draft of the agreement obtained by The Associated Press shows that China wants to train Pacific police officers, team up on “traditional and non-traditional security” and expand law enforcement cooperation.
China also wants to jointly develop a marine plan for fisheries — which would include the Pacific’s lucrative tuna catch — increase cooperation on running the region’s internet networks, and set up cultural Confucius Institutes and classrooms. China also mentions the possibility of setting up a free trade area with the Pacific nations.
China’s move comes as Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a 20-strong delegation begin a visit to the region this week.
Wang is visiting seven of the countries he hopes will endorse the “Common Development Vision” — the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea.
Wang is also holding virtual meetings with the other three potential signatories — the Cook Islands, Niue and the Federated States of Micronesia. He is hoping the countries will endorse the pre-written agreement as part of a joint communique after a scheduled May 30 meeting in Fiji he is holding with the foreign ministers from each of the 10 countries.
But Micronesia’s President David Panuelo has written an eight-page letter to the leaders of other Pacific nations saying his nation won’t be endorsing the plan and warning of dire consequences if others do.
Panuelo said in his letter, which the AP has obtained, that behind attractive words in the agreement like “equity” and “justice” are many worrying details.
Among other concerns, he said, is that the agreement opens the door for China to own and control the region’s fisheries and communications infrastructure. He said China could intercept emails and listen in on phone calls.
Panuelo said in his letter that the agreement is “an intent to shift those of us with diplomatic relations with China very close to Beijing’s orbit, intrinsically tying the whole of our economies and societies to them.”
He warns the agreement would needlessly heighten geopolitical tensions and threaten regional stability.
Associated Press
You can read more at the link.
The Pentagon’s independent commission has released what the names of Army bases named after Confederate generals will now be:
The Army will now have bases named after women and African Americans if Congress and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approve the recommendations offered Tuesday by an independent commission assigned to make the selections.
Congress mandated last year that an appointed Naming Commission come up with potential new names for nine Army installations that now honor Confederate generals from the Civil War.
The nine bases are all in former Confederate states and were named during the 1910s and 1940s amid the South’s Jim Crow era.
Stars & Stripes
Here is what the new names are:
— Fort Bragg, N.C., to Fort Liberty
— Fort Polk, La., to Fort Johnson after Sgt. William Henry Johnson
— Fort Benning, Ga., to Fort Moore for Lt. Gen. Hal and Julia Moore
— Fort Gordon, Ga., to Fort Eisenhower for former President Dwight Eisenhower
— Fort A.P. Hill, Va., to Fort Walker after Dr. Mary Walker
— Fort Hood, Texas, to Fort Cavazos after Gen. Richard Cavazos
— Fort Pickett, Va., to Fort Barfoot for Tech. Sgt. Van T. Barfoot
— Fort Rucker, Ala., to Fort Novosel after Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael J. Novosel, Sr
— Fort Lee, Va., to Fort Gregg-Adams after Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams
It will definitely take some time to get used to these new names, but after a decade most people will likely forget what the old names were. My favorites on this list are probably Fort Moore and Fort Eisenhower. Both are definitely worthy of a base named after them. Fort Johnson is another good one because any other military hero is better than having a base named after Polk who was an extremely poor leader during the Civil War.
It looks like a seventh nuclear test by North Korea will happen in the near term:
North Korea has been testing a nuclear triggering device apparently in preparation for what would be the country’s seventh nuclear test, a senior presidential official said Wednesday.
The experiments have been taking place at a location away from Punggye-ri, the site of all six North Korean nuclear tests to date, said Kim Tae-hyo, first deputy director of the National Security Office, without naming the place.
“Operation tests of a nuclear detonation device, which are to prepare for the seventh nuclear test at Punggye-ri, are being detected,” Kim told reporters. “The possibility of an imminent nuclear test in the next day or two is low, but after that, there is certainly a possibility.”
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
