The coronavirus issues within USFK has continued to spread, now to Kunsan Airbase:

U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) on Friday imposed movement restrictions on all individuals affiliated with its air base in the western city of Gunsan due to the recent coronavirus outbreak there.

Under the order, travel to and from Kunsan Air Base is prohibited until Monday, though members can be granted exceptions “to perform assigned and authorized duties and missions only,” USFK said in a Facebook post.

The directive came a day after three service members on the base tested positive for COVID-19.

One service member was confirmed to have been infected, then two of his colleagues tested positive after coming into direct contact with him, according to U.S. military.

Up until Friday, USFK had reported a total of 648 COVID-19 patients among its population.

USFK also has enforced a “shelter in place” directive through Sunday that calls on service members at the Yongsan garrison in central Seoul to stay at home except for necessary activities.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I am assuming the Japanese government is not appealing the ruling because they don’t recognize it in the first place:

The Japanese government will not appeal a Seoul court order to compensate South Korean women who were forced to work in military brothels during World War II, its foreign minister said Friday.

Toshimitsu Motegi made the remarks hours before a midnight deadline to file an appeal against the landmark ruling, which rekindled diplomatic tensions between the two neighbors. 

On Jan. 8, the Seoul Central District Court ordered Tokyo to pay financial reparations of 100 million won (US$91,300) each to 12 so-called comfort women, in the country’s first ruling of its kind.

The ruling will be finalized at 12 a.m. Saturday if the defendant, the Japanese government, does not appeal by then. 

During a press conference, Motegi also said that he would like to reiterate his government’s position on the issue, once the ruling is confirmed, without giving more details.

Tokyo has maintained that the case should be dropped based on state immunity, a legal doctrine that allows a state to be immune from a civil suit in foreign courts. 

But the Seoul court dismissed the claim, saying it should not apply to “systematic crimes against humanity” and war crimes.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but using this logic from the Korean courts, should the American government assist Native-American tribes with suing colonial powers in North America like the British and Spanish for “systemic crimes against humanity” that occurred to them?

It will be interesting to see what Japan decides to do with the Olympic Games, but I wonder if an NBA like “bubble” for the athletes would be doable in Japan:

 Japan’s government has privately concluded the Tokyo Olympics will have to be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, The Times reported, citing an unnamed senior member of the ruling coalition.

The government’s focus is now on securing the Games for Tokyo in the next available year, 2032, the newspaper said. Japan has been hit less severely by the pandemic than many other advanced economies, but a recent surge in cases has spurred it to close its borders to non-resident foreigners and declare a state of emergency in Tokyo and major cities.

About 80 percent of people in Japan do not want the Games to be held this summer, recent opinion polls show, over fears the influx of athletes will spread the virus further.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Good luck trying to get President Moon to ever agree to this even though it makes sense from a national security perspective. The fact that Japan is part of it is just one reason why the Korean left can never agree to do this:

Harry Harris, in his farewell to South Korea as the U.S. ambassador, expressed the hope that the Asian country will join the U.S. and its other allies to stop China’s “malign influence” although not necessarily in the form of an expanded Quad.

Harris hinted that the door still remains open for the South to join the Quad, a security coalition of the U.S., Japan, Australia and India, which he described as a “natural grouping” based on shared views and therefore can be expanded.

“I believe the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a malign influence in the region and the world,” he told The Korea Times in an exclusive interview, Jan. 20, at Habib House, the official residence of the U.S. ambassador. “And I believe that it’s important for democratic countries to call out China when China does things that are contrary to democratic, accepted rules to the world.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the

U.S. State Secretary nominee Antony Blinken hinted Tuesday (local time) that the Joe Biden administration may entirely rethink its policies toward North Korea, claiming that under Donald trump the situation with Pyongyang has deteriorated considerably.

Blinken did not specify what policies the United States will adopt in dealing with the totalitarian state during his confirmation hearing, however, as Biden and members of his foreign policy team have been critical of Trump’s handling of the Kim Jong-un regime, his comments are seen as heralding a big shift from their predecessor’s dealings with the North. 

“I think we have to review and we intend to review the entire approach and policy toward North Korea because this is a hard problem that has plagued administration after administration, and it’s a problem that has not gotten better,” Blinken said before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

“In fact, it’s gotten worse.”

Kim Yeoul-soo, chief of the Security Strategy Office at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, said the remarks broadly meant a shift in foreign policy in accordance with the change of administration from Trump to Biden. 

“I think Blinken meant a shift from top-down diplomacy to a bottom-up approach and from bilateral negotiations to multilateral talks,” he said.

Kim also said that the nominee’s remarks at the hearing likely indicated the Biden team may pursue a nuclear deal similar to the one with Iran in 2015 when dealing with the North’s nuclear program as he wrote in an op-ed piece in the New York Times in 2018. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Iran deal would pretty much give the Kim regime what they want, keep their nukes and get sanctioned drops for just playing nice for awhile. They can then reinvest all the money coming in from the dropping of sanctions into their military and strategic programs.

The real item of interest will be if the Biden administration will pursue a peace treaty. If so this will once again play into the Kim regime’s confederation strategy and signal the beginning of the end for USFK.