It will be interesting to see if USFK gets tasked to do this or if the vaccines just get shipped to South Korea for the ROK military to do the vaccinating themselves:

The U.S. Department of Defense is working on details of how and when U.S. vaccines will be provided to South Korean troops working with U.S. Forces Korea, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday.

U.S. President Joe Biden made a surprise announcement Friday that the U.S. will help fully inoculate all 550,000 South Korean service members, who work closely with U.S. troops in South Korea on a daily basis.

“Obviously we support the president’s direction here to provide the vaccines to our ROK allies,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a press briefing. ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea’s official name.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Hopefully President Moon doesn’t have any summits in China anytime soon because it sounds like they CCP is not too happy with him right now:

China is aware that part of a joint statement from last week’s summit between South Korea and the United States is targeted at Beijing, though it made no mention of the country, the top Chinese envoy here said Monday.

Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming made the remarks amid expectations that the statement following the first in-person summit between Presidents Moon Jae-in and Joe Biden on Friday could stir unease in China, as it touches on sensitive issues involving the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

“There was no mention of China, but it’s not that (Beijing) is unaware it is targeting China,” Xing told reporters after a forum, noting he watched the summit between Moon and Biden unsatisfactorily.

“For instance, the Taiwan issue is an internal Chinese affair, but that was brought up. There exists no problem with the South China Sea as free transit is guaranteed. That’s a matter involving China and its neighboring countries,” he added.

The joint statement stressed “the importance of preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the first time the Taiwan issue has been included in a joint summit statement between Seoul and Washington. Still, it included no mention of China.

The statement also mentioned the freedom of navigation and overflights in the South China Sea, the lion’s share of which is claimed by China.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the CCP is also unhappy with South Korea increasing the range of their missiles and statements about the Quad.

According to this article Japanese citizens that worked even decades ago in the U.S. are receiving U.S. government sponsored coronavirus stimulus checks:

A 79-year-old man in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, received an official-looking piece of mail printed in English in late April. 

The addresser was the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Inside the envelope, he found a check for $1,400 (153,000 yen).

His wife also received a check for the same amount.

They are among the Japanese recipients of U.S. stimulus checks to boost the economy during the pandemic, who are at a loss of what to do with the surprise payments. 

According to a person who is related to a major bank, the bank’s call center has been inundated with inquiries about U.S. stimulus checks since May 11.

“As far as the bank is concerned, if a person wants to cash a check and the person’s identity is verified, we have to ask the U.S. side to pay,” the person said. “We don’t have a way to examine if the person is eligible to receive the check.” (…….) The man entertained the idea of pocketing the $2,800 and said to himself, “The United States has so much money to spare that it gives out (the checks) to foreigners like me who lived there about 40 years ago.”

Asahi Shimbun

You can read more at the link.

There has been an uptick in COVID cases in Okinawa with five of them being US military personnel:

Okinawa prefecture on Sunday reported 231 newly infected people, a pandemic one-day high for the prefecture, according to its coronavirus tracking website. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suge declared a state of emergency there starting Sunday until June 20, according to public broadcaster NHK.

The Okinawa prefectural government is asking individuals traveling to Okinawa to have a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their arrival, according to a Monday post on Yokota Air Base’s Facebook page.

“This is not a requirement, but travelers are advised to check with their airlines prior to any scheduled departures for any airline specific changes,” the message said.

Okinawa expects bars and restaurants that serve alcohol to close and shopping malls and sport clubs to close at 8 p.m., according to NHK.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but total COVID deaths on Okinawa rose to 146 since the pandemic started with 5 in the last seven days.

Considering the poor shape many North Korean ships are in, it is surprising more of the don’t sink like this:

 A North Korean ship presumed to be on a U.N. Security Council blacklist has sunk in waters off Japan, a source said Sunday. 

The 5,500-ton freighter Chongbong sank in waters off Shimane Prefecture in western Japan at around 2:32 p.m. on Saturday, according to the source from Japan’s maritime authorities.

The vessel appeared to have been on its way to Songrim Port in North Korea’s southwestern province of Hwanghae after leaving Chongjin, a port in its northeastern region.

It was said to have been carrying about 6,500 tons of iron when it sunk. All 21 crew members on board were rescued by a North Korean oil ship passing nearby, the source said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.