I have been saying for months that reacting to cluster infections would be the new reality for South Korea until a vaccine is developed and it appears that this will be the case:

South Korea’s new coronavirus cases rose by triple digits for the second day Monday, with a series of cluster infections being reported from venues of everyday life, ranging from markets to family gatherings, straining the country’s anti-virus fight.

The country added 126 more COVID-19 cases, including 99 local infections, raising the total caseload to 27,553, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

It marked a slight drop from 143 cases added on Sunday, but Monday’s caseloads are relatively high given the lower number of tests carried out over the weekend.

South Korea, which has been striving to curb COVID-19 from hospitals and nursing homes, recently saw more sporadic cluster infections at risk-prone facilities, such as nursing homes and private gatherings.

Over the past two weeks, around 35.7 percent of the newly added cases have been group infections, with some 13.6 percent not having clear transmission routes.

Yonhap

South Korea might be stressing about being in triple digits of daily coronavirus infections in a country of 51 million people, but this is basically what large U.S. cities are facing every day. For example the city of El Paso, Texas when I checked their dashboard had 899 new cases.

This is likely a trial balloon for something that will eventually be implemented on the rest of the country:

Seoul City will ban high-emission cars from the roads in the greater metro area from December to March as part of efforts to reduce fine dust during the winter months.

The city government announced on Sunday that anyone caught driving vehicles classified as Grade 5 in terms of emission levels inside the capital region will be fined 100-thousand won from December.

People can face fines if they drive Grade 5 vehicles without an emission-reduction device from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays in the capital region.

As of September, there are about one-point-46 million vehicles nationwide that fall into this grade.

KBS World Radio

I doubt that this will do much of anything in regards to the pollution when the majority of it is coming from China. This seems like the Korean government is saying they are “doing something” when they know the problem is unsolvable as long as China doesn’t change its own pollution policies.

The Biden administration has vowed to strengthen alliances with America’s allies and one way to do that with South Korea is quickly sign a cost sharing agreement:

The election of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden would mean a stronger alliance with South Korea and other allies, but tensions with North Korea could escalate because Pyongyang could try to test his administration, experts said Saturday.

“I think if Biden is elected, most American allies, including South Korea, will breathe a sigh of relief. He is likely to work much harder to strengthen our alliances,” said Gregg Brazinsky, professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University.

One of Biden’s key foreign policy advisers, Brian McKeon, said the Democratic candidate would immediately seek to repair the country’s alliances and reaffirm the United States’ commitment to improving its relations with its allies.

“(Biden) frequently says when he takes office, he will immediately get on the phone with some of our key allies in Europe and Asia, and centrally say, ‘America is back, and we have your back’,” McKeon said in a recent interview with Yonhap News Agency.  (………..)

Brazinsky noted a Biden administration would likely treat U.S. allies with more respect.

“The U.S. will have severe economic difficulties due to the (COVID-19) pandemic, and it is possible that even under Biden, the U.S. will need South Korea to share more of the costs of maintaining American troops,” he told Yonhap.

“But I think if this is the case, Biden will attempt to negotiate this change in a manner that treats South Korea with the appropriate respect,” he added. (………………)

Harry Kazianis, senior director of Korean studies at the Washington-based Institute for the National Interest, said that Biden would likely seek to quickly conclude the negotiations and at a much lower rate of increase.

“I would argue that a Biden Administration would quickly sign a new SMA with Seoul within the first 100 days of taking office, as Biden will not want to drag on talks any longer and likely ask for a 3-5 percent increase per year for a multiyear period,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I think Seoul would be willing to give the Biden administration a small increase because it would allow Biden to say he got the ROK to pay more when Trump could not.

Here is what the experts think a Biden administration means to U.S. diplomacy in Korea:

Joe Biden’s election as U.S. president could give South Korea more “room” in handling inter-Korean affairs, as he is expected to respect the alliance and listen more to what Seoul has to say on inter-Korean matters, experts said Sunday.

His “principled” diplomacy on North Korea, however, could raise tensions and fail to produce any immediate breakthrough in denuclearization talks, which experts said could make it hard for Seoul to pursue many of its envisioned cooperative and reconciliatory cross-border projects.

Biden has vowed to strengthen the alliance with its allies, including South Korea, in what appears aimed at differentiating himself from President Donald Trump, who has often derided friends and allies and denounced them as free riders.

“Respecting the alliance means turning his ears to the ally’s opinions on issues such as inter-Korean affairs, which has rarely been seen under the Trump administration,” Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said.

“If South Korea says it wants to improve inter-Korean relations, Biden will listen to it. He could also take a more flexible approach in applying sanctions on the North than the Trump administration attempting to keep cross-border relations in check through sanctions,” he added. 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised that if a few months into the Biden administration that the Kim regime will provoke a provocation cycle to see what Biden does. I believe they will probably not do anything decisive and just manage the problem like the Obama administration did.

Trump tried to do something decisive on the issue, but it just didn’t work because he didn’t understand that the Kim regime had no intention of denuclearizing.

It is pretty clear the Kim regime allowed this writer and photographer access to all 11 hotels in Pyongyang in an effort to draw more tourists. As I have always said people traveling to North Korea should realize all they are doing is helping to fund the Kim regime and all the bad things that come along with it:

For many visitors to North Korea, the sense of travelling back in time is nowhere more acute than when they first step into their hotel. The unique 1970s architecture and design of Pyongyang hotels have now been documented in a new book that presents a rare glimpse of North Korean culture, writes Julie Yoonnyung Lee of BBC Korean.

Tourist trips to North Korea are usually carefully choreographed by officials.

The country’s tourism industry is controlled by the state, and travellers are monitored by government minders. They are only allowed access to “approved” sites, which means they all follow the same itinerary.

But last spring, author James Scullin and photographer Nicole Reed from Australia spent five nights in the capital Pyongyang, visiting 11 international hotels. They have now published a book called Hotels of Pyongyang.

BBC

You can read more at the link.

From Yonhap:

President Moon Jae-in on Friday expressed gratitude to the Combined Forces Command (CFC) between South Korea and the United States for helping Seoul tackle the coronavirus pandemic as he congratulated the command on its 42nd founding anniversary.

In a message sent to a ceremony held in Yongsan to mark the anniversary, Moon said that South Korea’s anti-COVID-19 measures could become a role model for the world as all members of the command endured inconveniences to prevent the spread of the virus. 

“Going forward, let’s overcome all obstacles together as we do right now,” Moon said in the message.

The binational entity was established on Nov. 7, 1978, as the warfighting headquarters with a mission of deterring outside aggression against South Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.