It can be argued that Lee Man-hee’s acquittal shows that the government was looking for a scapegoat to blame for the first major COVID outbreak last spring and he was the easy mark:

A local court on Wednesday acquitted the leader of a minor religious sect of charges of obstructing the government’s response to COVID-19 during an outbreak at his church last year.

Lee Man-hee, the 89-year-old founder of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, was indicted in August on charges of misleading health authorities on the size and locations of the church’s gatherings in February, which were blamed for a massive spike in coronavirus cases in the country.

Prosecutors sought a five-year prison sentence and a 3 million won (US$2,738) fine for Lee, saying he mocked the government’s authority and obstructed its efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Kim Yo-jong must not have liked the reports about her being demoted because she has lashed out at the South Korean military for monitoring their parade preparations:

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un harshly criticized South Korea’s military for closely tracking its military parade believed to have taken place in Pyongyang to celebrate a rare party congress.

On Monday, Seoul’s military officials said signs were detected that the North carried out a military parade in central Pyongyang Sunday night in time for the eighth congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, which has been under way since its opening last week. 

“What is weird is that the joint chiefs of staff of South Korea made a senseless statement that they captured the north opening a military parade at midnight on Jan. 10 and they are in the middle of making precision tracking,” Kim Yo-jong was quoted as saying in a statement released by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday.

“They are the idiot and top the world’s list in misbehavior as they are only keen on things provoking world laughter,” she added.

Kim added that the North is only holding a military parade in the capital city and not conducting any military exercises “targeting anybody nor launch of anything.”

“Do they really have nothing else to do but let their military body make ‘precision tracking’ of the celebrations in the North?” she said.

She warned the South Korean authorities, saying “all these things must surely be reckoned up in the future.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This seems pretty naive on Moon’s part to the political realities in the U.S. that incoming President Biden is going to follow any policy that Trump advocated for:

South Korea proposed to the incoming Joe Biden administration a reopening of dialogue with North Korea in the spirit of the 2018 Singapore summit, according to a senior official in Seoul on Monday.  
   
The official told the JoongAng Ilbo that Seoul cast outgoing President Donald Trump’s agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at Singapore in June 2018 as a success, and encouraged new talks along similar lines.  
   
It was not revealed to whom in the Biden camp the message was relayed, or how, although the recipients are believed to be diplomatic figures associated with the president-elect. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Korean workers on U.S. military bases are the first Koreans to be vaccinated against COVID-19:

One of the first Koreans to be vaccinated against Covid-19, a Korean employee of a U.S. Army base in North Gyeongsang, spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo about having chills and muscle pains after a shot of Moderna’s vaccine — side effects familiar from flu shots.  
   
“I had muscle pains in my left arm, where I got the shot, for about two days,” a man in his 50s who works on the U.S. Army base in Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang, told the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday.  
   
“Some of my coworkers reported having mild fevers,” he continued, “but most of our side effects did not last more than two days.”  
   
The first shipment of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines for the U.S. Forces Korea arrived in the country in late December. The South Korean government said that Korean soldiers and civilians working on the U.S. Army bases can take the shots if they wish to.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the DPK is testing the waters to implement some of their socialist ideas:

Debates are rising over ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) chief Lee Nak-yon’s proposal for a profit-sharing scheme aimed at encouraging profitable companies to distribute their earnings to those hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Although the ruling side is stressing that it will not twist anyone’s arm and will instead offer various incentives, such as corporate tax breaks, to those voluntarily adopting the scheme, the opposition is critical of the idea, claiming that it goes against market economy principles. Plus, business owners are also skeptical of the proposal, saying there are no clear criteria on which companies are profitable. 

There is speculation that tech companies such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, the nation’s top mobile messenger operator Kakao Corp., and Woowa Brothers, the operator of delivery app Baedal Minjok, would be subject to the scheme, as the companies have seen their sales grow amid the prolonged pandemic.

“In Europe, those who are prosperous in the pandemic are called economic winners from the COVID-19 crisis and are required to fulfill their social responsibility,” Lee said during Monday’s party meeting. 

“Now we need to discuss various ways for profit-making companies to help those plagued by the coronavirus.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I thought that was the job of the government to help those struggling because of the coronavirus? Additionally if a company is profitable during the pandemic it is likely the vast majority of their employees are working. If business owners want to give out increased bonuses because of the pandemic that should be their own decision.

The government should be helping the small businesses that are shutdown or at reduced operations because of the pandemic. If they need more funds to do that then that is what the power to tax is for. It just seems like the DPK just doesn’t want to make a case for raising taxes and instead pressure these companies to give up their profits instead.

Has Kim Yo-jong’s profile risen too much that her brother is trying to now reduce it or have intelligence analysts just been wrong about her status?:

 The demotion of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister at an ongoing party congress is raising questions over whether it signals any change in her status in the top echelons of power.

During the sixth-day session of the party’s eighth congress in Pyongyang on Sunday, Kim Yo-jong, the leader’s younger sister, was not listed as a member nor as an alternate member of the party’s politburo, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Her absence on the politburo list drew a sharp contrast with South Korean intelligence authorities’ assessment that the younger Kim is “the de facto No. 2 leader” steering overall state affairs. They earlier predicted that she would be elevated to a higher party rank in the party congress.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.