This is what prosecutor reform looks like in South Korea, get rid of the prosecutors that investigate corruption in the ruling party:

Elite prosecutors are accusing the administration of retaliation for their investigations targeting politicians and officials close to President Moon Jae-in, with some stepping down in protest in the past week.    
   
The Ministry of Justice said Friday that Kim Nam-woo, deputy head of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office, recently submitted his resignation. Kim was in the midst of investigating allegations that Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae’s son was given preferential treatment, and ultimately let off the hook, after he went AWOL from the military in 2017.    
   
Kim, 51, was a top prosecutor who had served in key posts, including the head of the policy planning department within the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and the head of the criminal department within the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.    
   
After Choo took office in January, Kim was named the deputy head of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office. In his new post, he led the investigation into Choo’s son.    
   
Since January, Choo carried out three major reshuffles of the prosecution’s ranks. The latest, concerning senior prosecutors, took place on Aug. 7. Kim was left out, while three of his classmates from the Judicial Research and Training Institute who entered the program in 1997 were promoted in the latest reshuffle.    
   
“I won’t beg for a promotion,” Kim was quoted as telling other prosecutors, according to the officials within the prosecution.    
   
“Many of the prosecutors who faced political revenge for going after the powers-that-be say they carry resignation letters in their pockets to submit anytime,” one prosecutor said.  
   
Choo has repeatedly demoted prosecutors who investigated key allies of Moon, a list that notably includes Han Dong-hoon.   
   
Han, the lead prosecutor of an investigation into former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and his family for alleged academic fraud and financial corruptions, was demoted as the deputy head of the Busan High Prosecutors’ Office in January. He was further demoted in June to work as a researcher at the Institute of Justice.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link about the retaliation against prosecutors to include the prosecutor that uncovered the real estate speculation scheme by President Moon’s close associate Sohn Hye-won who received a jail sentence for it.

Even though the bilateral military exercise has been scaled down I suspect North Korea will still complain about it when it is executed:

South Korea on Sunday formally announced it will kick off combined military exercises with the United States on Tuesday, with drills to be scaled down this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.  
   
In a statement, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the allies will conduct computerized combined command post training from Aug. 18 to 28, with “all relevant conditions, such as the Covid-19 situation, comprehensively considered.”  
   
The adjustments made to the drills, which the JCS said would be focused on maintaining the allies’ combined defense posture, signaled a major setback to South Korea’s timetable to retrieve wartime Operational Control (Opcon) of its forces.  
   
Seoul had strongly pushed for the summertime exercises in spite of the ongoing pandemic in order to conduct an assessment of South Korea’s full operational capability (FOC) — a necessary step in the Opcon transfer process which Seoul had envisioned to complete by the end of President Moon Jae-in’s term in 2022.  
   
But this month’s drills would only “partly” feature a rehearsal for how the allied command structure would operate with a South Korean general in command, the JCS said, hinting that the FOC assessment will not be completed. (……)

Military sources said the effective postponement of the FOC assessment this month was owed to U.S. reluctance due to the coronavirus, which has prevented U.S. troops stationed in Hawaii, Guam and Japan from joining the drills. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It wasn’t that long ago when South Korea reported just 3 local infections, but now there is a surge of infections being caused by indoor gatherings:

South Korea’s new coronavirus infections jumped to a five-month high of 279 on Sunday due mainly to a surge in church-related cases in the greater Seoul area.

This brought the country’s total caseload to 15,318, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). Of the total, 267 were locally transmitted cases. 

It marked the highest figure since March 8 when the new daily infections stood at 367 after hitting a record high of 909 on Feb. 29, with Daegu and its neighboring North Gyeongsang Province at the center of the mass outbreak. 

It also marked a three-digit number for the third straight day, following 103 infections Friday and 166 Saturday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but doing something like this is not helping stop the spread:

The warning came after pastor Jun Kwang-hoon and other members of the Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul took part in massive anti-government rallies held in downtown Seoul on Saturday in violation of self-quarantine rules. They were supposed to be quarantined after more than 100 COVID-19 patients were traced to the church.

As of 2 p.m., infections tied to the church have swelled to 249 nationwide, the KCDC said, adding that the figure is feared to grow as thousands are undergoing virus tests.

What we have learned from the U.S. media is that as long as it was a “peaceful protest” the virus won’t spread there. Yes, I am joking, but just think how bad the spread of the virus is going to be once it gets cold outside with more people gathering indoors.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

The unhappiness of the Korean public is growing at the Moon administration’s efforts to manipulate the real estate market:

With the average jeonse price in Seoul millimeters from the 500-million mark, people are taking to the streets and claiming the government is forcing them into rent servitude and denying their rightful place as members of the propertied class.  
   
According to KB Kookmin Bank’s monthly report on real estate prices Thursday, the average jeonse long-term deposit price for apartments in Seoul was 499.22 million won ($421,500) last month, up 7.7 percent from the same period last year.    
   
In July the average jeonse price in Seoul for 3.3 square meters (35.5 square feet) was 19 million won. This means the jeonse price for an 86.95-square-meter apartment in Seoul is 499.3 million won.  (…………….)

Civic groups gathered in front of the government’s administrative office in Gwanghwamun Thursday demanding President Moon remove Land Minister Kim Hyun-mee from her post. Their criticism was strong, calling the real estate measures a failure. They also urged the government stop coming up with more, claiming that the real estate measures have created many innocent victims.    
   
“They are nothing but a political ploy that goes against market principles and are ineffective in helping the lower classes. The government wants to turn everyone into rent migrants so that more people become their core supporters,” said one participant at the event.     
   
Another participant mentioned how torn younger people are to hear the government promote the monthly rent system over living in a jeonse flat and asked if the administration will be “happy to see everyone in the country live as tenants in government-owned rental apartments.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.