This is a significant accomplishment for China to have completed its BeiDou satellite navigation system. It increases both their soft power as well as military clout to not be reliant on GPS:

China is celebrating the completion of its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System that could rival the U.S. Global Positioning System and significantly boost China’s security and geopolitical clout.

President Xi Jinping, the leader of the ruling Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army, officially commissioned the system Friday at a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

That followed a declaration that the 55th and final geostationary satellite in the constellation launched June 23 was operating after having completed all tests.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link.

For a country of 51 million people, having only 3 reported local COVID infections in one day is pretty amazing:

South Korea reported 23 more cases of the new coronavirus Monday, with local infections at a nearly three-month low, health authorities said.

The new cases, including 20 imported cases, raised South Korea’s total cases of COVID-19 to 14,389, with local infections at three, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

The number of new COVID-19 cases had been in the 30s since Friday when South Korea reported 36 new virus cases. The number fell to 31 on Saturday and 30 on Sunday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but of the 20 imported cases from Monday, 14 were from Koreans returning to the ROK and 6 were foreigners that arrived and were tested while in quarantine. Even more impressive is that the ROK has had only 301 deaths from the coronavirus.

I believe the ROK demonstrates what competent public health institutions combined with a citizenry that believes in these institutions can accomplishment during a pandemic. This is the complete opposite of what is going on in the U.S. right now.

While U.S. movie theaters are largely shutdown, movie goers in South Korea are heading back to theaters:

With several exciting home-grown big-title releases, the South Korean box office is a bright spot amid the grim reality for the hard-hit film industry. Earlier this week, S&P Global Market intelligence and OPUSData numbers showed a 92% shrink in the Asian box office from January to June this year, compared to the first six months of 2019, as reported in Variety. 

Invigorating South Korea’s box office at the end of June, zombie thriller #Alive burst onto screens with its timely (and strangely resonant) story of two characters trying to survive a mysterious virus infecting the city’s population. Distributed by Lotte Entertainment, the film starred Yoo Ah-in and Park Shin-hye, and was widely-credited for sparking the domestic box office back to life. It became the first film in South Korea to surpass the one-million admissions mark since February. It has since grossed $13.4 million. 

Forbes via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but the sequel to the zombie flick, Train to Busan, called Peninsula and a North Korea thriller, Steel Rain 2 have further brought the South Korean box office back to life this summer.

Here is a power tip for everyone, don’t try to wash and microwave your money; it usually does not end well:

Money laundering is not a good idea, as a South Korean found out when he or she put banknotes in a washing machine to remove possible traces of the coronavirus.

Officials say the loss was considerable.

The person living in Ansan city, near Seoul, placed an unspecified amount of 50,000-won ($42) bills in a washing machine earlier this year. Some of the money was seriously damaged, and the person reached out to the Bank of Korea to find whether it could be exchanged for new bills.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the Bank of Korea refunded some of his damaged bills but others were too damaged to be refunded causing the man to take a serious loss.

The second son of Yoo Byung-eun, the owner of the company that ran the Chewol ferry that sunk 2014, has been captured by U.S. Marshals for extradition to South Korea. The law has finally caught up to him as well:

One of South Korea’s most notorious fugitives was arrested in the United States this week on​ embezzlement charges ​at home stemming from the 2014 sinking of a ferry that killed more than 300 people, many of them high school students.

Yoo Hyuk-kee, 48, was arrested Wednesday without incident at his home in Westchester County, New York, in response to an extradition request that South Korea submitted to the U.S., a Justice Department spokeswoman said.

Yoo’s arrest ends ​a prolonged mystery over the whereabouts of the man South Korean investigators consider to be a central figure in the scandal surrounding the ferry’s sinking, which traumatized the nation. Prosecutors have said that rampant embezzlement by the Yoo family helped create unsafe conditions and practices on the Sewol ferry.

Yoo, also​ known by his English name, Keith Yoo, is a son of Yoo Byung-eun, whose family controlled the Chonghaejin Marine Company, the operator of the Sewol. The overloaded ferry capsized off the southwestern tip of South Korea in April 2014​ in the country’s worst disaster in decades.

New York Times via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but Yoo’s father committed suicide shortly after the sinking and his oldest brother has already completed two years in jail for fraud. If all of Yoo’s shady dealings are true, hopefully he will be spending a long time in jail as well.

It looks like USFJ is about to take the actions USFK took early on in the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea, by using UCMJ and other punitive actions to stop military personnel from breaking public health policies:

 Coronavirus rule breakers will face “quick and appropriate action,” the commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan said in a video message Thursday, after people from the garrison were seen partying in off-limits parts of Tokyo.

“It seems like a few members of our team are starting to lose focus,” Col. Thomas Matelski, who oversees Camp Zama and Sagami General Depot in Kanagawa prefecture, said in his message on the garrison’s Facebook page.

U.S. Army Japan, which has been in an elevated health protection status since late February, increased its coronavirus risk level to “substantial” Thursday after discovering three new cases in its community. The Army reported five other infections earlier in the week. (……)

“Recently we have seen situations with our youth and soldiers in off-limits party areas in Tokyo,” Matelski said. “Some seem to think that rules are there to be broken. I can assure you that that is not the case.” (…….)

Leadership will take quick appropriate action when situations like this occur, Matelski said in his video.

Penalties can range from an immediate 14-day restriction of movement to action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, early return to the U.S. of dependents or being banned from military facilities in Japan, he said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but it seems like this is going to be hard to police. The major entertainment districts of  Roppongi, Shinjuku and Shibuya are huge areas of Tokyo. Is USFJ going to send in patrols to question everyone that looks like they may be in the military? Personnel just need to do the right thing and comply with the restrictions that USFJ has put in place to minimize coronavirus infections on post.