Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section. I hope for all my American readers that they are having a great Thanksgiving weekend.

Russia has slowly been reducing the personnel in their embassy in South Korea to where now they are down to only two diplomats:

 Russia has withdrawn most of its embassy staff in North Korea, a Seoul official said Thursday, as pandemic-driven shortages of everyday commodities and anti-virus restrictions have driven many foreign diplomats out of the impoverished country.

NK News, a media outlet on the North, reported earlier dozens of Russia’s embassy personnel left Pyongyang on Wednesday via train, leaving behind only two diplomats, including Ambassador Alexander Matsegora, and other technicians.

“Russia used to have a large embassy that could originally station around 100 people, but the government understands that most of them have left,” the official at the unification ministry told reporters on the customary condition of anonymity.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if they had to use a hand pushed trolley to leave North Korea like the prior diplomats.

It is going to be interesting to see if the Moon administration will continue its living with COVID strategy with the various record highs in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths:

South Korea’s new coronavirus cases fell below 4,000 on Thursday, a day after hitting an all time-high of 4,115. But critical cases and deaths climbed to fresh highs, fueling worries about the virus spread ahead of another pandemic winter.

The country reported 3,938 new COVID-19 cases, including 3,917 local infections, raising the total caseload to 429,002, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

Critically ill patients hit an all-time high of 612, up 26 from the previous record set a day earlier. The same figure averaged 498 for the seven days ending Sunday.

The country added 39 more deaths from COVID-19, the highest number since the start of the fourth wave of the pandemic in July, bringing the death toll to 3,401, with the fatality rate standing at 0.79 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I think the numbers will eventually go down because my theory is that the lockdowns mitigated people who conduct high risk activity in places like bars and Noraebangs from getting sick. With the restrictions lifted I think these people conducting high risk activities are getting sick. Eventually the growth in case numbers from this high risk population will be reduced due to prior infection and thus an overall reduction in case numbers. South Korea is getting bad press right now but give it a few weeks and I think eventually the cases will go down.

Here is another case of a USFK service member ruining his career by drunk driving. I have little sympathy for these drunk drivers in Korea with the abundant mass transit available:

 An American airman stationed in South Korea is under suspicion of driving under the influence after crashing into a parked car and attempting to flee the scene, local police said.

A 42-year-old technical sergeant assigned to Osan Air Base is under investigation from the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul, a senior police officer told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday. The officer declined to provide the service member’s name due to the country’s identity protection laws.

Police said the airman is suspected of hitting a parked car in a backstreet of a neighborhood shopping area frequented by foreigners and young adults at around 8:55 p.m. Friday. The owner of the parked car, an unnamed Korean man, drove after the service member while calling the police.

“I am chasing a hit-and-run foreigner,” the caller said, according to the senior police officer.

Authorities apprehended the airman roughly 10 minutes after the crash, the police officer said, adding that the service member was compliant but had “much alcohol on his breath.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This is one of these cases where the is guy is guilty of something for causing the death of his girlfriend while driving drunk, it is just a matter of determining what he is guilty of:

The prosecution has asked a local court to hand down a sentence for a 15-year jail term to a man who “intentionally” caused a car crash on Jeju Island which led to the death of his girlfriend in the passenger seat. 

Lawyers representing the man, however, claimed the prosecution lacks sufficient evidence for him to be found guilty of murder.

During a hearing at the Jeju District Court, Monday, the prosecution sought the jail term for the man, 34, alleging willful negligence on his part. 

On Sept. 10, 2019, the man was driving a convertible car with the victim, 28, as a passenger, during their trip to the resort island. The man was found to be driving under the influence with a blood alcohol level of 0.118 percent, far above the level that warrants cancellation of a driver’s license. The car hopped a curb and rammed into a farming vehicle parked on the side of the road. The woman, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was thrown from the car as the roof of the convertible was open.

She suffered severe head wounds and underwent surgery three times after the accident but remained unconscious until she died on Aug. 23, 2020.

The bereaved family and the prosecution claimed the man caused the accident deliberately because she had refused his demands to end the relationship multiple times. The couple were quarreling over the issue moments before the accident, with their conversation recorded on the victim’s phone.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.