It appears that a couple of former U.S. military retirees and their wives have test positive for the coronavirus:

Two former US service members and their spouses have tested positive for the new coronavirus after coming into contact with another retired couple who were earlier confirmed to have contracted the virus, US Forces Korea said Friday.

The four individuals tested positive Thursday following direct contact with the other couple who was confirmed to have been infected with the virus the previous day, according to the US military.

“Contact tracing revealed the six individuals had contact with each other on Dec. 25,” it said.

One of the two couples newly confirmed with the virus last visited Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on Tuesday while the other was last on the base on Dec. 23.

The four of them — all residing in the southeastern city of Sangju — are currently in isolation at a facility in Camp Humphreys designated for coronavirus patients.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The U.S. can have a good relationship any time it wants with North Korea by giving them everything that they want like dropping sanctions, removing USFK, and letting them keep their nuclear weapons:

North Korea wants to forge a good relationship with the United States, according to a Wall Street Journal report, Thursday (local time), raising speculation that Pyongyang may return to nuclear talks with Washington.

The media outlet said the reclusive state first reached out to a European Parliament Committee days ahead of the U.S. presidential election, Nov. 3, and Lukas Mandl, head of the European Parliament delegation, had a one-hour virtual meeting with the North Korean ambassador to Berlin in December. 

The report also said that the diplomat repeatedly stressed the North wanted to have good relations with the U.S. should the U.S. abandon its hostile policy against his country, but the North’s stance was not negative, given that the North did not represent a darkening in its position on the incoming Joe Biden administration. Kim Jong-un has remained quiet on Biden’s election. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

2021 is finally here and I hope everyone has a better new year than this past year.

Here is another bounty-gate story in Afghanistan:

 The Trump administration is working to verify intelligence that shows China offered to pay militants in Afghanistan to kill American troops, a U.S. news website has reported, citing anonymous high-level sources.

“Administration officials across multiple agencies are currently working to corroborate the initial intelligence reports,” which is in the process of being declassified, the Axios news website, which broke the story, reported Wednesday.

National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien briefed President Donald Trump on the reports earlier this month, Axios reported.

But the intelligence the administration claims to have was “thinner even than reports that Russia offered payments to the Taliban to target U.S. and coalition troops, which were never corroborated,” another news website said, citing an unnamed government official.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but if the Russians and Chinese were offering bounties they were not very good at it considering there has not been a U.S. troop death due to combat in Afghanistan since February. It seems it would be in their interest to get the U.S. out of Afghanistan and thus out of their geopolitical backyards. If so encouraging the Taliban to comply with the peace terms instead of offering bounties would be in their interest.

This should be no surprise that the police dropped an announcement in the middle of the holiday period hoping fewer people would notice that the investigation into Park Won-soon was closed:

Women’s rights groups are furious over the police’s decision to close the investigation on sexual misconduct allegations against late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon without reaching a clear conclusion.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced on Tuesday that it has ended the months-long investigation, and the case will be transferred to the prosecution with non-indictment recommendations. Under the current laws, the police have no power to recommend indictment when the accused is dead. 

A coalition of women’s rights groups issued a statement immediately after, criticizing the authorities for failing to conduct an active and fair investigation and not disclosing to the public new facts found over the past few months. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

There is a new “Force” in Republican politics that involves two newly elected Korean-American congresswomen:

Beyond the initial four members in the Force, there’s also California GOP Reps.-elect Young Kim and Michelle Steel, Korean immigrants who have been friends for decades and speak on the trail. Steel frequently points to the suffering their families endured under communist regimes.

They all belong to a high-profile freshman class that includes a record-breaking number of women and minorities for the House GOP. And with their diverse backgrounds and already-impressive Twitter followings, the Force could have an outsize impact as Republicans look to take back the House in 2022 — particularly as some are itching to do battle directly with the Squad. (…………)

But the incoming Republicans say they want to put a personal face on their ideological fight. Steel talks about how her parents escaped Korea and relocated to Japan and said she sees how it is easy to take freedom for granted in the U.S.

Politico

You can read more at the link, but I am not sure what communism that Representative Steele and Kim were fleeing from in South Korea. I could not find which year she immigrated, but she got married in California in 1981 which means she immigrated before then likely in the 70’s. This would put her family immigrating to the U.S. during the Park Chung-hee era. Young Kim immigrated to the U.S. in 1975 which was also during the Park Chung-hee era.

Park was a quasi-dictator, but was stringently anti-communist so saying their families suffered under communism is a stretch to me. They suffered indirectly from the provocations from North Korea and the resulting limits on political freedom enacted by the Park regime. However, unless their families were political dissidents, it is more likely their families immigrated to the U.S. for economic reasons. Another possibility is that the reporter just doesn’t know what they are writing about and just assumed South Korea was communist back then.