Looking back it is amazing that 93,000 people fell for the “Workers’ Paradise” scam, but it was a very different time back in the 1960’s compared to today:

Eiko Kawasaki stood at the port of Niigata, the place from which she left for North Korea more than 60 years ago, and tossed chrysanthemum flowers into the sea to pray for her peers who could not come back. Then she burst into tears.

As a 17-year-old girl seeking a better life, Kawasaki joined a resettlement program led by North Korea that promised a “Paradise on Earth” — where everything was supposed to be free and those with Korean roots like her could live without facing discrimination.

Kawasaki was among some 93,000 ethnic Korean residents in Japan and their relatives who joined the program only to find the opposite of what was promised. Most were put to brutal manual labor at mines, in forests and on farms and faced discrimination because of Japan’s past colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

One of the rare survivors who made it back to Japan, her birthplace, Kawasaki, now 79, is on a mission to keep alive the tragic stories and memories of the deceived “resettlement” victims. 

She aspires to open a museum and revitalize a street in Niigata to commemorate the resettlement program under the auspices of Japanese and Korean friendship groups.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link, but it is likely that most of the 93,000 ethnic Koreans from Japan are dead considering their very low social status in North Korea that would have led them into forced labor and little food.

This is just another example of why there is a crime wave in America, the city government spends more time going after Hyundai to add more security to their cars instead of catching the criminals and putting them in jail:

Milwaukee, Wisconsin is grappling with an unprecedented spate of car thefts. Since last year, stolen vehicle reports in the city have more than doubled, according to WISN 12 ABC, and nearly tripled since 2019. At a rate of nearly 30 thefts per day, Milwaukee is on track to surpass 10,000 this year. By sheer volume, it outpaces Chicago—a city with six times Milwaukee’s population. Worryingly, at least half of the suspected thieves are minors, and they have an unusual penchant for easy-to-steal Hyundais and Kias. This has led the city to seriously consider suing the automakers under its public nuisance laws.

Vehicles from these two Korean makes account for two-thirds of thefts in the city, police say. WISN reports Kia and Hyundai thefts have exploded to 2,500 percent year-over-year as of June. Citing “car experts,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel identifies Kias (to which Hyundais are often mechanically similar) as popular targets as they can reportedly be broken into via the rear window without activating the car’s alarm. From there, thieves can enter the vehicle and peel open the steering column with a screwdriver, allowing them to start the car without a key. So many cars have been stolen in this way that parts to repair the steering column are reportedly back-ordered.

The Drive

You can read more at the link, but according to the article the city has only prosecuted 2% of the criminals that stole these cars. Additionally the article said this is leading to vigilanteism with people shooting at the cars that are stolen from them. If the prosecutors would put these people in jail that would be a deterrent to the thefts, but not prosecuting them just gives more crooks the green light to steal cars.

If you are in the military be careful what you like on social media because it could come back to haunt you:

Some activity barred by the new rules may be simpler to root out than others, he acknowledged. For example, the rules ban service members from sporting clothing, tattoos or other paraphernalia promoting extremism, financially supporting an extremist cause or distributing extremist literature or materials. 

However, service members could also be punished for their online actions, including posting, sharing or “liking” materials that “promote or otherwise endorse extremist activities” on the internet.

That is where a commanders’ discretion will be most important, Kirby said, noting that a service member, perhaps, could “like” a social media post by accident.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the Seongnam Development Scandal that has become a key issue in the Korean presidential race:

 An official at a public development company was found dead Tuesday in an apparent suicide amid a probe into a corruption-ridden development project, which political foes allege involves ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung. 

Police in Seongnam, south of Seoul, said they discovered the body of Kim Moon-ki, head of the development division at Seongnam Development Corp., in an office of the company in the city at around 8:30 p.m.

Police were searching for Kim after his family reported him missing at 8:13 p.m. Authorities are investigating the exact cause of death.

Kim has been probed over his possible involvement in a massive corruption scandal surrounding a public-private apartment development project in the city. It was launched in 2015 when Lee, presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, served as Seongnam mayor. 

Kim allegedly played a role in removing from the project contract a clause that would allow the city government to recoup excessive development profits from private investors.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

No word from the Marine Corps if this cluster infection is from the Omicron variant, but Japanese civilians with ties to the base did test positive for Omicron:

A third employee at Camp Hansen, a Marine Corps base on Okinawa, has tested positive for the omicron variant of the coronavirus as new cases on the installation approached 200 since Friday.

The worker, a resident of Uruma city in her 40s, was a close contact of the first positive case, though the genetic code of the virus infecting her differed from the first patient, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said at a press conference in Naha on Monday night.

The number of new COVID-19 cases at Camp Hansen has risen to “about 200,” up 20 from the previous day, Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday morning. Kihara said the Japanese government understands the concerns of Okinawans.

“U.S. Forces Japan is taking stricter measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” he said. “Considering the possibility of omicron variant cases, they are testing actively, tracing the close contacts, and isolating those who might be infected.”

A cluster of new cases emerged among newly arrived Marines in a rotational unit, according to Marine Corps Installations Pacific on Friday. Neither the Marines nor the Japanese government has commented publicly on whether the cluster included omicron cases. The installations command on Friday said the infected Marines had no contact with the population outside the base.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

We have already seen in China what an authoritarian government can do with this kind of technology. Fortunately South Korea is not an authoritarian government, but it doesn’t mean that someone in government would not be tempted to misuse this technology:

Controversy is arising over a city’s pilot project to combine AI-based facial recognition technology with thousands of surveillance cameras installed in the city to use in the contact tracing for COVID-19 patients. 

While the city government expects that the new system will help carry out swifter and more accurate epidemiological investigations, civic groups have expressed concerns over breaches of privacy and infringements of the personal information of infected people. 

Bucheon City Government in Gyeonggi Province is set to launch the project next month with funding from the Ministry of Science ICT. The local government received 1.6 billion won from the ministry, and allocated its own budget of 500 million won. 

As one of the most populated cities in the metropolitan area with more than 800,000 residents, Bucheon has the highest density of CCTV surveillance cameras in the country, according to city officials. With nearly 10,000 installed, there are 123 cameras per square kilometer. 

“The pilot project, if launched successfully, will drastically reduce the time and resources needed for the contact tracing of COVID-19 patients,” a city official in the Smart City Division, who is in charge of the project, told The Korea Times. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.