It looks like people in Seoul can probably expect new restrictions in the coming days:

South Korea confirmed over 1,000 new coronavirus cases Tuesday for the first time in six months amid a resurgence in the Seoul metropolitan area, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The country reported 1,006 more COVID-19 cases from 12 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the number is expected to further rise when the daily total is announced Wednesday morning.

The figure shot up to over 1,000 for the first time since Jan. 3 when the nation was undergoing a third wave of the pandemic, raising concerns over the fourth wave hitting in the summer.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

You would think she would be keeping a very low profile after the fall out from her first altercation, but here we go again:

The wife of the Belgian ambassador to South Korea, who faced assault charges in Seoul earlier this year, was involved in an altercation with a street sweeper in the city Monday morning, police said.

Police said Xiang Xueqiu, the spouse of Ambassador Peter Lescouhier, got into a fight with the cleaner in a park in central Seoul after the cleaner’s broom touched Xiang.

Police said the two apparently traded blows, but when officers arrived on the scene, neither wanted the other punished.

Xiang was taken to a nearby hospital after the cleaner shoved her to the ground. The cleaner later visited a police precinct to report that Xiang had slapped the sweeper in the face, and sought help on pressing charges.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I can only imagine the phone call the Belgium ambassador must have received from his Foreign Ministry after this latest incident.

This is what the Korean left does, re-write history to fit their political narratives:

Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung, a frontrunner among candidates for president from the ruling Democratic Party (DP), made bombshell remarks last week. In a trip to Andong, North Gyeongsang, his hometown, Lee said, “Pro-Japanese forces maintained their ruling system in collaboration with the U.S. occupation force in Korea after its liberation from Japanese rule.” His portrayal of South Korea as a country that “could not be founded in a clean way from the start” has stirred much controversy after Kim Won-wung, chairman of the Heritage of Korean Independence, called the American forces an “occupation force” and the Soviet forces a “liberation force” in a virtual speech to high school students earlier. Even after his comment triggered a sensation, Gov. Lee claimed that the U.S. forces defined themselves as an “occupying force,” urging his opponents to first reflect on their “lack of knowledge about history.”

The historical perspectives Lee has demonstrated are very inappropriate — and dangerous — for a presidential hopeful. His distorted view of history seems to have originated from the now-defunct theory widely shared by democracy activists in the past. But Lee’s views are wrong. While the Soviet military government established a Communist regime led by its puppet Kim Il Sung in North Korea, a divergent mix of the anti-Communist faction, the nationalist faction and the socialist faction fiercely competed with one another under the rule of the U.S. military government in South Korea.

Lee’s claim that South Korea was ruled by pro-Japanese forces after liberation is also misleading. The heads of the three branches of the government were all independence fighters. Our founding president Syngman Rhee and Shin Ik-hee, the founding speaker of the National Assembly, both fought against Japanese rule as top officials of the Provisional Government in China. Our first Chief Justice Kim Byung-ro also served as chairman of an influential anti-Japanese group. Ministers of the first government led by Syngman Rhee also were mostly independence fighters.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the term liberation force I think is more appropriate to describe the US forces that moved into South Korea after the defeat of the Imperial Japanese during World War II. However, Korean leftists like the term occupation force that carries negative connotations while using liberation force to describe the Soviets. It is almost like the leftists wish the Soviet Union occupied the entire peninsula after World War II.

As far as the pro-Japanese comments, the US military initially kept Japanese government administrators in place until they could be replaced by a new Korean government. Would Lee Jae-Myung have preferred the disaster that was de-Bathification in Iraq when all the government officials were fired that help lead to the post-war chaos in that country? The keeping of Japanese administrator temporarily ended up being a wise decision that led to a smoother transition of power to the new ROK government.

It looks like the Korean left is not getting their way on cancelling the upcoming US-ROK exercise:

Pentagon spokesperson John Supple nixed the possibility of postponing U.S.-Korea joint military exercises scheduled in August, after dozens of ruling Democratic Party (DP) lawmakers requested a delay.  
   
“There has been no change to the schedule of our planned training events,” Supple told Radio Free Asia on Friday. “Military readiness is a top priority of the secretary of defense. Our combined military training events are a principal method of ensuring our combined alliance readiness.”   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Well that didn’t take long for South Korean authorities to reverse the removal of mask mandates for vaccinated people that went into effect on July 1st:

Facemasks will remain mandatory in the greater Seoul area — even for vaccinated people — due to a recent surge in virus cases.  
   
In addition, drinking will be banned outdoors after 10 p.m. in parks and riversides in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi.  
   
A planned relaxation of measures has been called off as health authorities deal with a spike in new Covid cases.  
   
More than 80 percent of new cases have been registered in greater Seoul, and the proportion of patients in their 20s and 30s — who are not yet eligible for vaccinations — is on the rise.  
   
As a result, authorities decided to keep mask mandates both indoors and outdoors in the greater Seoul area. From July 1, people who received at least one Covid-19 shot were supposed to be exempted from the outdoor mask mandate. That is no longer the case in the greater Seoul area, but is in most other parts of the country. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but if authorities are trying to encourage people to get vaccinated this is not the way to do it.

It will be interesting to see if the Korean and international media will trash the KCTU for not following coronavirus restrictions like they did back in August against a conservative rally:

South Korea’s major umbrella labor union pressed ahead with a massive street rally Saturday in central Seoul despite the government’s warning of a stern response.

Around 8,000 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) gathered in the Jongno district, ignoring the government’s call to cancel the assembly feared to affect the fight against COVID-19. The country is struggling to contain a resurgence of coronavirus cases.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.