I wonder if living conditions has anything to do with this spread of COVID-19 in Gangneung among migrant workers?:

 More than 40 foreign migrant workers in the east coast city of Gangneung tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday after preemptive coronavirus testing, municipal officials said.

The municipality of Gangneung, 240 kilometers east of Seoul, has so far conducted the preemptive testing on 743 migrant workers and 43 of them were diagnosed with the new coronavirus, the officials said.

By nationality, Russians accounted for 36 of the confirmed cases, with the others from Central Asian nations, they noted.

Yonhap

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North Korea tends to slowly build up towards a provocation cycle, so I would be surprised if they did anything bigger than what analysts are expecting:

Experts said Pyongyang may attempt to rattle its neighbors and the U.S. with a number of low-profile provocations before the May 21 summit between Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. These could involve the closure of North Korea’s own organization on inter-Korean relations or the launch of short-range missiles. (….)

Cheong said Pyongyang is expected to limit its level of provocation given the relatively moderate expressions in the statement from the North’s foreign ministry director. According to him, Kwon, who is known as a hardliner, has toned down his rhetoric by indirectly mentioning Biden as the “U.S. chief authority” and described the president’s remarks as “a blunder,” not a provocation. 

“Given the South Korea-U.S. summit is around the corner, there is a chance of one or two short-range missile launches by Pyongyang to pressure Seoul to exercise its influence on Washington’s North Korea policy,” Cheong said. 

Korea Times

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Kim Yo-jong is not happy with a ROK Drop favorite Park Sang-hak because his group continues leaflet activities into North Korea:

Kim Yo-jong also issued a statement blaming Seoul for letting a North Korean defectors organization fly anti-Kim regime leaflets into the country last week. 

In the statement carried by the North’s Korea Central News Agency, she called it “an intolerable provocation” and said “the South Korean authorities again did not stop the reckless acts of the defectors from the North, winking at them.” Kim warned of “a corresponding action,” without elaborating.

On Friday, Fighters for a Free North Korea, a group of North Korean defectors, claimed that it had flown balloons carrying leaflets, booklets and U.S. dollars across the border. This came weeks after South Korea criminalized such an act despite criticism from some U.S. lawmakers and international rights groups that the law banning anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaigns limited South Korea’s freedom of speech.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

ROK Heads may remember that Park Sang-hak has been the victim of multiple assassination attempts by North Korean agents and assaulted by Korean leftists. He has also had leftists intrude at his house and has been repeatedly arrested and harassed by the Moon administration in effort to stop his group’s activities. .

Japan’s has seen a recent surge in coronavirus cases which includes USFJ personnel:

U.S. Forces Japan reported 47 COVID-19 patients at 10 installations across Japan on April 27.

Sasebo Naval Base, on the southern island of Kyushu, reported via Facebook on Sunday that two people tested positive during a medical screening and were quarantined.

The Marine Corps had three new COVID-19 patients between Saturday and Monday, one each at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and Camps Hansen and Courtney, according to a Facebook post by Marine Corps Installations Pacific on Monday.

Stars & Stripes

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We are continuing to see the building up to a provocation cycle by the North Koreans:

North Korea on Sunday warned the United States will face “a very grave situation” because President Joe Biden “made a big blunder” in his recent speech by calling the North a security threat and revealing his intent to maintain a hostile policy toward it.

Last week, Biden, in his first address to Congress, called North Korea and Iran’s nuclear programs “a serious threat to America’s security and world security,” and said he’ll work with allies to address those problems through diplomacy and stern deterrence.

“His statement clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK as it had been done by the U.S. for over half a century,” Kwon Jong Gun, a senior North Korean Foreign Ministry official, said in a statement. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.

Associated Press

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