Showing the colors of the Ukrainian flag is now the international version of virtue signaling:
Iconic landmarks across Seoul were lit up in the colors of the Ukrainian flag Sunday in support of the Eastern European nation under siege amid the Russian assault.
N Seoul Tower on Mount Namsan, Seoul City Hall, Sebitseom on the Han River and Seoullo Media Canvas glowed blue and yellow Sunday evening.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Lee Jae-myung is using the current war in Ukraine to claim the same thing can happen in Korea if Yoon Suk-yeol is elected:
Rival presidential candidates of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) clashed over their differing views of the lessons of Russia’s attack on Ukraine during their TV debate, Friday. The DPK’s Lee Jae-myung stressed a leader’s diplomatic capability, while the PPP’s Yoon Suk-yeol highlighted military deterrence to facilitate peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Yonhap
“A novice politician who only has six months of political experience became the country’s leader and caused a major clash by inciting Russia with a hasty promise of Ukraine’s NATO admission,” Lee said of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was an actor and comedian before he was elected as the country’s leader in April 2019.
“This is an example of a diplomatic failure. Yoon is too aggressive and rough in his diplomatic remarks, such as his pledge to establish South Korea’s capability to launch preemptive strikes (against North Korea).”
Lee’s comment came after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Sunday. Along with international condemnation of Russia’s moves, criticism is also mounting over Zelenskyy’s diplomatic miscalculation, which is being blamed for steering his country towards a clash with Russia.
Here is how Yoon responded to Lee’s remarks which criticized his attempts to sign an end of war declaration with North Korea:
On the other hand, PPP candidate Yoon criticized Ukraine’s reliance on diplomatic agreements to maintain peace and emphasized the importance of military power and strong alliances to guarantee national security.
“You can only prevent war when you have the capability for preemptive strikes and have the intent to do so … I believe the case of Ukraine shows that you cannot protect national security and peace with paper and ink,” Yoon said, referring to the Minsk agreements or a series of pacts that sought to end fighting with Russia-backed separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
“Candidate Lee and the current DPK administration stress the importance of an end-of-war declaration with North Korea, which will be done only on paper with ink. With North Korea refusing to give up its nuclear program, pushing forward the end-of-war declaration is the same as the case of Ukraine.”
You can read more at the link, but if Yoon really wanted to hit Lee even harder he should of mentioned how Ukraine gave up their nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees back in the 1990’s. Look how that paper and ink agreement worked out for them. Does anyone really think that North Korea will abide by any paper and ink agreement as well?
The Kim regime appears to have waited by the Beijing Olympics to end before restarting their missile test program. They also appear to have no hesitation about starting provocations with an actual major war going on in Ukraine:
North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, in the recalcitrant regime’s eighth show of force this year.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from around the Sunan area in Pyongyang at 7:52 a.m., and that the missile flew about 300 kilometers at a top altitude of 620 km.
The latest launch, the first in just under a month, came 10 days ahead of South Korea’s presidential election and amid the armed conflict in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of the country last week.
“For other specifics on the missile, the intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis,” the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters.
“Our military is tracking and monitoring related (North Korean) movements and maintaining a readiness posture,” it added.
The North is presumed to have fired the missile from a Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL) at a steep angle from the Sunan airfield, informed sources said, raising speculation it could be a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM).
The missile appears to be similar to the Pukguksong-2 missile, a road-mobile solid-fuel MRBM, known to be the North’s ground-based variant of its submarine-launched ballistic missile, the Pukguksong-1, according to observers.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
Here is the latest from President Moon on the full invasion the Russians have launched on Ukraine:
President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that South Korea will join international sanctions against Russia as he expressed regret over Russia’s attack on Ukraine, saying any use of armed force causing human casualties cannot be justified.
Moon also instructed the government to do everything possible to ensure the safety of South Korean nationals in Ukraine after he was briefed on the crisis in the wake of Russia’s attack, said Park Soo-hyun, senior presidential secretary for public communication.
“The use of armed forces causing human casualties cannot be justified under any circumstances. Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence must be guaranteed. Any dispute between countries should be resolved not through war but through dialogue and negotiation,” Moon was quoted as saying.
“As a responsible member of the international community, the Republic of Korea expresses support for international efforts, including economic sanctions, aimed at curbing armed invasion and resolving the situation peacefully, and will take part in them,” he said, referring to South Korea’s official name.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Condolences to the friends and family of Staff Sergeant Tyrell Harris:
An Air Force weapons-load crew chief stationed at Osan Air Base died over the weekend, the 51st Fighter Wing announced in a press release Tuesday.
Staff Sgt. Tyrell Harris, 34, was found unresponsive Saturday at his home in Pyeongtaek city and pronounced dead at a nearby South Korean hospital, according to the wing. The Maryland native was assigned to the 51st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.
The cause of death has not yet been determined, the press release said.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
Daily COVID cases in South Korea continue to rise, but over in Japan they have now fallen to less than 70,000 from their peak of over 100,000:
The coronavirus continued to infect tens of thousands of people across Japan on Wednesday, even though new case numbers overall are falling week after week.
Tokyo confirmed another 14,567 people had contracted COVID-19 on Wednesday, public broadcaster NHK reported. That’s about 3,100 more people than Tuesday and the highest one-day count since 16,129 on Friday.
However, Wednesday’s tally is 2,764 less than the count on Feb. 16, according to metropolitan government data online.
Japan on Tuesday reported a pandemic one-day record number of COVID-19-related deaths, 322, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Another 69,447 people across the country tested positive.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
