The media should stop publishing every wacky claim on the Internet. Who besides wack jobs would believe the Chinese military is massing on the Maine border?:
No, there are no Chinese troops on the border with Maine. This photo, originally taken in October 2020, shows refurbished howitzers being moved in Maine. (Screengrab via Twitter)
It may seem like an updated version of the 1966 comedy “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians are Coming!” but there is nothing funny about conspiratorial ravings from the Twitterverse that Chinese troops massed along the border with Maine were schwacked in an airstrike.
Recent posts from a QAnon-backing Twitter handle with nearly 50,000 followers claimed that tens of thousands of Chinese troops had amassed along Maine’s border with Canada and that an F-16 fighter that crashed last week in Michigan was actually shot down — presumably by the Chinese.
Military Times
I know ROK Heads are smart enough to know this is a bunch of rubbish. However, the media continues to have their fascination with the QAnon site and amplifies all their wild claims by publishing them. Before the Internet, newspapers did not amplify the rantings of every village idiot and that is basically what anyone that believes the Chinese Army is massing in Canada is.
It seems the media highlights the rantings of our modern day village idiots as an act of sensationalism to get page clicks. That is why I did not put the link to this article on this posting. I think the rantings of QAnon says more about the state of the modern American media than it does them.
All this guy received was an apology after being locked up for 20 years as an innocent man:
Yoon Seong-yeo, 53, leaves the Suwon District Court in Suwon, south of Seoul, on Dec. 17, 2020, after he was acquitted of a 1988 murder. (Yonhap)
A South Korean man, who was imprisoned for 20 years after being wrongfully convicted of raping and killing a 13-year-old girl in 1988, was acquitted of the crime in a retrial Thursday.
The Suwon District Court in Suwon, south of Seoul, overturned the original conviction of Yoon Seong-yeo, a 53-year-old, and declared him not guilty in a retrial of the 1988 murder case linked to one of the nation’s most notorious serial killings.
The court offered an apology to Yoon on behalf of the judiciary, saying the incorrect ruling of the past was made due to wrongful acts by investigation agencies.
Yoon’s case was classified as the eighth case of 10 serial murders that had occurred between 1986 and 1991 in Hwaseong, a Gyeonggi Province city about 60 kilometers south of Seoul.
In this file photo taken on Jan. 29, 2019, a group of recruits executes log curls as a team during a training session at a Navy boot camp in the southwestern port city of Changwon. All able-bodied South Korean men are required to serve almost two years in the military. (Yonhap)
The defense ministry said Wednesday it will complete reducing the mandatory military service period to 18 months by next year as planned as part of a series of reform projects under way to make the military “smaller and stronger.”
During a meeting on defense reform presided over by Defense Minister Suh Wook, officials said the military is on course to cut the service period for Army draftees to 18 months by December 2021, according to the ministry.
All able-bodied South Korean men must carry out compulsory military service for about two years in a country that faces North Korea across a heavily fortified border.
Other reform measures include raising the proportion of female service members and decreasing the number of generals with one to four stars.
The number of female service members stood at 7.4 percent this year, 0.6 percentage point higher than the previous year.
Among 76 general positions subject to reduction, 46 have been cut so far, the ministry said.
New coronavirusSki lifts remain suspended at a ski resort in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, northeastern South Korea, on Dec. 16, 2020, following its closure caused by a cluster of coronavirus cases at the resort. (Yonhap)
This file photo from June 22, 2020, shows President Moon Jae-in (C), Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae (L) and Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl. (Yonhap)
President Moon Jae-in has approved the justice ministry’s decision to suspend South Korea’s top prosecutor from duty for two months, Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.
The measure against Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl over multiple charges of ethical and legal misdeeds came after the ministry’s disciplinary committee voted to punish him in a marathon session that ended early Wednesday morning.
President Moon approved the decision at 6:30 p.m. after Choo visited his office in the afternoon for a related briefing to the president, according to Chung Man-ho, senior presidential secretary for public communication. The measure immediately went into effect.
Chung, meanwhile, added that Choo has tendered a resignation.
Her resignation offer is what her political party was advocating for as cover for Yoon’s suspension. This is all political theater to get Yoon out of the way of the prosecutor reforms the Moon administration is trying to implement as well as stop any further investigation into corruption in the Moon administration. It also side lines Yoon who has been growing in popularity as a presidential candidate due to his stance against corruption in the Moon administration.
Could you imagine what the international media reaction would be if President Trump suspended Robert Mueller during his special counsel investigation into the Trump administration? This is basically what is happening here and I expect it will get little if any international media attention.
Home meal replacement market growing A woman selects home meal replacement products at a retail outlet in Seoul on Dec. 14, 2020. The country’s home meal replacement market is rapidly growing amid the coronavirus pandemic, with even hotels and departments stores joining in. (Yonhap)
I wonder how long USFK is willing to keep so many people in a telework status if the spread of coronavirus in South Korea continues at its current pace?:
Soldiers assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division wear masks as they wait for their meals outside a restaurant near Osan Air Base, South Korea, Oct. 20, 2020.
The U.S. military command in South Korea is raising its coronavirus risk level and imposing new restrictions as the peninsula experiences record-breaking levels of new infections.
South Korea counted 1,078 newly infected coronavirus patients Tuesday, a pandemic record for that country, and 12 deaths, according to the country’s Central Disease Control Headquarters.
U.S. Forces Korea is returning to Health Protection Condition-Charlie, which reflects a substantial risk of the virus spreading, starting at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, according to a Facebook post by the command on Wednesday evening.
Only mission-essential personnel will report for duty, according to the statement. All others will telework. USFK will review the higher protection level Jan. 4.
You can read more at the link, but doing telework through the holidays is not a big deal when mostly everyone is on leave or half day schedule anyway. After the holidays is when the hard decision is going to have to be made because keeping soldiers on telework will eventually impact readiness.
Lt. Col. Sean McBride (left) and Command Sergeant Major Mario Salomone (right). (U.S. Army via Facebook)
The Army has suspended a battalion commander and command sergeant major in South Korea while an investigation is conducted into allegations of racism, bigotry and discrimination.
Maj. Gen. Steve Gilland, commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, suspended the command team — Lt. Col. Sean McBride and Command Sgt. Maj. Mario Salomone — of the 602nd Aviation Support Battalion after receiving an anonymous tip alleging racist behavior, according to a Dec. 12 Facebook statement from Lt. Gen. W. M. Burleson III, commander of Eighth Army at Camp Humphreys. (……..)
McBride and Salomone will remain suspended for the duration of the investigation, according to the statement.
“These actions do not presuppose any outcome and are intended to ensure a full, fair, and impartial inquiry,” Burleson said in the statement. “Other allegations properly within the authority of Criminal Investigation Division are being addressed by them.”
No surprise here that the ruling Democratic Party gave in to orders from Kim Yo-jong to criminalize the activists sending leaflets into North Korea:
North Korea leader’s sister Kim Yo-jong is seen during the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang, Sept. 18, 2018, in this file photo. The new anti-leaflet law is being criticized for following Kim’s June statement calling on the South to stop the sending of anti-North Korea leaflets toward the North.
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s (DPK) passage of a bill at the national Assembly prohibiting the sending of leaflets with anti-North Korea messages across the border is facing a strong backlash from defectors’ groups and the opposition as well as the international community.
Park Sang-hak, the head of the Fighters for a Free North Korea, a North Korean defectors’ group, said Tuesday that he will file a petition with the Constitutional Court against the so-called “anti-leaflet law,” which can hand down a prison term of three years or a maximum fine of 30 million won to people sending messages critical of the North Korean regime via leaflets or broadcasts.
The DPK pushed ahead with passing the bill despite a protest from the conservative opposition People Power Party late Monday evening. The bill came after a statement from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong in June in which she strongly denounced such leaflets and called on Seoul to do something about them. The opposition and activists for North Korean human rights such as Park have derided it as legislation “submitting to Kim Yo-jong’s order.”
You can read more at the link, but the article speculates that this might impact relations with the incoming Biden administration. I would be surprised if it does because when did anyone in the Obama administration ever strongly support these activists? I doubt the Biden administration will be much different.
By the way the North Korean reaction and the South Korean left’s quick criminalization of Park Sang-hak and his group is a sure sign that the leaflets are having an effect in North Korea.
