It seems to me it would be a difficult precedent to start by holding first responders criminally responsible every time an emergency operation does not go well. Who would want to take the risk of being a first responder then? It appears that the Seoul court agrees with that assessment:

 A Seoul court on Monday acquitted a former maritime police chief of mishandling the rescue operation during the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 that killed more than 300 people.

The Seoul Central District Court found Kim Suk-kyoon, then-chief of the Korea Coast Guard, not guilty of professional negligence in one of the country’s worst peacetime disasters.

Nine others, who were in key posts of the organization at that time, were also acquitted of the same charge.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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

No surprise here:

North Korea ranked the lowest in a world democracy index last year for the 16th consecutive year, according to a recent report.

The reclusive regime placed at the bottom among the 167 countries reviewed, with an overall score of 1.08 out of 10, according to the Democracy Index 2020 published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research division of the British weekly The Economist.

The North has ranked the lowest in the EIU index since the agency began compiling related data in 2006.

The agency classified Pyongyang as an “authoritarian regime” out of four designations, which included “full democracy,” “flawed democracy” and “hybrid regime.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Some good news for Korean small business owners that have bore the brunt of COVID related shutdowns:

 The government decided Saturday to lower social distancing levels by one notch each for the greater Seoul area and the other regions next week, but kept tight vigilance to curb COVID-19 by retaining a ban on gatherings of five people or more.

Health authorities said that starting Monday, they plan to lower social distancing guidelines to Level 2 — the third highest in a five-tier system — for the greater Seoul area and Level 1.5 for other regions until Feb. 28.

They will also ease restrictions on restaurants, cafes, gyms and other public facilities in the Seoul metropolitan area to allow them to operate for one more hour until 10 p.m., amid complaints by pandemic-hit small business operators.

Entertainment facilities across the nation will also be allowed to operate until 10 p.m. on condition that they abide by key antivirus rules, such as wearing masks and keeping distance among their clients.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is a pretty strange disappearance case over at Yokota Airbase:

Britni, 31, said she’s posted dozens of fliers with her missing husband’s photograph around Yokota and in nearby areas and appealed, in her Facebook post, for help hanging more. A Facebook group about the search for Trevor has also been created.

Air Force investigators have removed Trevor’s possessions, including his laptops, from the couple’s home, which they share with two cats and a corgi, Britni told Stars and Stripes Sunday while walking through Yokota’s east side housing area. (……..)

That evening, Trevor told his wife he was going out at around 8 p.m. to search for a neighbor’s lost cat, which he’d earlier spotted near the base movie theater.

Gate guards report Trevor coming onto the base through its east gate at 9:09 p.m. while carrying a bag from a convenience store and talking on his cellphone, Britni said.

“We have been unable to track who he was talking to – it is nobody in our joint network, which really is the only network that I knew he had,” she said.

Britni said she last saw Trevor when he returned home at 1:30 a.m. Feb. 1 without his jacket.

The couple slept in separate bedrooms and Britni, who went to work the next morning, didn’t realize her husband was missing until she finished work and saw a message from somebody who had found his wallet near a vacant townhome on base, Britni said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read the rest at the link, but his jacket, shoes, mask, cellphone, keys and empty cans of alcohol were later found as well on base not far from the wallet. It appears he has a secret cellphone that he was talking to someone on and went out late at night to supposedly look for a cat, but doesn’t come back until 1:30 AM. It seems reasonable to conclude he was out meeting someone that night. Finding out who he met could determine where he went. Hopefully he turns up safe.