Great job by all the Soldiers involved in donating these Christmas presents:

 U.S. soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division marched on Thursday with rucksacks filled with toys and other gifts to donate to South Korean orphanages for Christmas.

The temperature at 6:30 a.m. stood at 23 degrees Fahrenheit when about 60 soldiers and their family members began their 3-mile trek at Camp Humphreys, the largest U.S. military base overseas.

The marchers filled their rucksacks with the gifts they planned to donate, then shouldered their loads and hiked to 2nd ID headquarters. They left their gifts under a Christmas tree in the lobby.

Some participants wore the Army’s duty uniform during the march, while others wore festive hats and Christmas-themed outfits that included flashing lights. One person wore a sweatshirt that said, “Merry Christmas You Filthy Leg,” an apparent reference to a quote from the holiday movie “Home Alone 2” and the endearing moniker for troops who are not Airborne qualified.

Amanda Nguyen, an adviser for the 2nd ID Soldier and Family Readiness Group, reached out to local orphanages and organized the event. Nguyen, who grew up in a military family, said she was gifted toys through a similar event as a child because her family could not afford them.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here is some good news for small business owners in South Korea:

South Korea is unlikely to reimpose tighter social distancing rules despite surging COVID-19 infections, as the government is set to announce new measures to help tame the latest wave of infections, a senior presidential official said Thursday. 

The new measures will be announced Friday as the nation is battling to contain virus infections, with daily cases standing at a record high of more than 5,200 earlier in the day. 

“Rather than a drastic tightening of distancing rules, (the government) will announce measures on how to fine-tune (current measures),” Park Soo-hyun, senior presidential secretary for communication, told a KBS YouTube channel.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

President Moon continues to push hard for an end of war declaration for the Korean War before he exits office early next year:

The scheduled visit to China by President Moon Jae-in’s top security advisor is widely believed to be seeking Beijing’s support and cooperation for the President’s proposal of declaring an official end to the Korean War. However, experts say it remains to be seen how actively China will work on the issue, given the complex geopolitical situation.

Cheong Wa Dae said, Wednesday, that National Security Advisor Suh Hoon will visit Tianjin from Thursday to Friday for talks with his Chinese counterparts, at the invitation of the Chinese Communist Party’s head of foreign affairs, Yang Jiechi.

The presidential office said that Suh’s trip will be a reciprocal visit for Yang’s visit to Busan in August last year, and the two will discuss, “South Korea-China relations, Korean Peninsula issues, regional and international affairs and other topics of mutual interests.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

You can read more about the KAL 858 bombing from my DMZ Flashpoints article.

The US Defense Secretary is in Korea to discuss the transfer of OPCON to South Korea:

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Seoul on Wednesday for annual security talks with his South Korean counterpart on the envisioned wartime operational control (OPCON) transfer, North Korean threats and the bilateral alliance.

Austin landed at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, for a three-day trip on the eve of the 53rd Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) at the defense ministry here.

This year’s SCM comes days after Washington concluded nine months of a global defense posture review, calling for tighter cooperation with allies to confront security challenges from an increasingly assertive China and a recalcitrant North Korea.

At the SCM, Seoul’s Defense Minister Suh Wook and Austin are expected to discuss when and how to conduct the full operational capability (FOC) assessment — the second part of a three-phase program designed to verify if South Korea is ready to retake wartime OPCON.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The virus spread continues in South Korea:

 South Korea’s new coronavirus cases topped 5,000 for the first time Wednesday and the number of critically ill patients hit a fresh high amid concerns over the global spread of the new virus variant.

The country reported 5,123 new COVID-19 cases, including 5,075 local infections, raising the total caseload to 452,350, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The country’s previous highest daily number of cases was 4,115 last Wednesday

South Korea added 34 more deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, raising the death toll to 3,658. The fatality rate stood at 0.81 percent, up from 0.78 percent reported a month earlier.

Critically ill patients also reached an all-time high of 723, marking the first time the number breached the 700 mark. The previous daily record was 661 reported Tuesday.

Of the total, 610 of them are aged 60 or over, accounting for 84.4 percent, followed by 66 in their 50s and 25 in their 40s, the KDCA said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I think it is important to put these numbers into context. For example Sweden a country of just over 10 million people recorded a daily case number of over 6,000 cases on November 30th. The fact that South Korea has hit 5,000 cases with five times the population of Sweden shows it is not that bad and Korea can handle the increased cases numbers.

This has to be the largest rape case I have ever heard of:

Nearly 70 foreign students at a local university have been accused of alleged statutory rape of a teenage girl, according to police, Tuesday. 

Gangwon Provincial Police Agency said it is questioning 69 foreign students and graduates of a university in the province for allegedly engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with the middle school student on nearly a 100 occasions since last December.

The students were all of foreign nationalities, including those from Nepal and Bangladesh.

According to the police, they lured the victim into having sex through social media by offering snacks and asking her to hang out at their house. The law enforcement authorities viewed this as statutory rape as the students were aware of the fact that the victim was a minor. 

Under the Korean law, adults who engage in sexual activity with a child younger than 16, or the age of consent, may be charged with child sexual abuse or rape, if they were aware of the victim’s age at the time of the incident.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Apparently the homes on Yongsan Garrison that were handed back to the Korean government are now a popular location for the Korean public to go and take pictures at:

These brick townhouses were once home to American officers and their families, but South Korea has gained control of this tract of land on the southeastern tip of the Army’s Yongsan Garrison, nearly two decades after the U.S. and Korea set in motion a plan to relocate the bulk of America’s troops in the country to a location south of Seoul and return the property to the government. 

The village, which consists of 18 buildings, is now open to the public, and it is crowded with people who came to get a glimpse of the inside of the garrison and to snap selfies against the backdrop of American-style, two- and three-story townhouses.

Korea Times