For readers in the Osan AB area, be on the lookout for this missing airman:

Search crews fanned out across Osan Air Base to look for a missing U.S. airman on Friday, a day after he was reported absent from his unit, officials said.

Staff Sgt. Tristin Blake Jarvis, 26, of the 51st Force Support Squadron was last seen in the vicinity of the Osan Fitness Center on Wednesday afternoon, according to a press release.

However, security forces searched his room and determined he had been there before changing and leaving, said 1st Lt. Daniel de la Fe, a spokesman for the 51st Fighter Wing.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest update on the suicide of Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon:

On Friday, city authorities unveiled a note Park left at his official residence.

Park said he is “sorry” to everyone and specifically mentioned that he is sorry to his family for “causing only pain.”

He asked to be cremated and be scattered at his parent’s graves. The message did not mention the sexual harassment allegations raised against Park.

The mayor was reportedly facing a probe into the allegations after a female former secretary filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday over unwanted “physical contact” and “inappropriate” messages.

In accordance with the law, the case was automatically terminated upon the mayor’s death. (…….)

When asked whether the city plans to open an investigation, city officials said they are “not yet aware” of the allegations and have not reviewed such plan.

The city government said that Park’s funeral will be held in the fashion of a mayoral funeral for five days. Funerals in Korea generally last for three days.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is becoming pretty clear why Park committed suicide. Instead of being reviled and possibly jailed for sexual misconduct like what happened to former Governor An Jee-hung, Park is being honored and revered. The sexual misconduct allegations will slowly be forgotten.

I wonder if these realty companies will just do a name change and be back in business again:

The U.S. military’s largest base in South Korea has banned business with eight local real estate companies for 10 years over allegations of using fraudulent passes to access the installation.

Camp Humphreys said Wednesday that the businesses were placed off-limits after a review determined they had “conspired to illegally access” the Army garrison “using fraudulently issued base passes.”

“This directly affects the safety and security of the installation,” it added, saying the decision was made after a Feb.13 emergency meeting with the area’s Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board.

“No U.S. personnel are allowed to do new business with these establishments as long as this order is in effect,” it said, stressing the ban was an administrative, not a judicial, action and not subject to appeal. (………)

Stars & Stripes

Here are the realty companies involved:

The announcement, which was posted on Camp Humphreys’ Facebook page, said people who have leases with the affected companies could continue to do business with them for the duration but may not use the companies to renew the leases.

The banned companies were listed as Abba Realty, Christine Realty, JC Realty, GM Realty, Woomi Realty, Uptown Realty, New York Realty, and You & I Realty.

You can read more at the link.

Congratulations to this taxi driver for becoming the new most hated man in Korea:

Public anger has been boiling up over a taxi driver who stopped an ambulance carrying an emergency patient from going to a hospital while demanding that the ambulance driver deal with a minor fender bender between the two cars first.

The minor collision occurred in Seoul’s southeastern Gangdong-gu, June 8. According to the son of the patient, the ambulance driver told the cabbie that he would settle the dispute after taking the patient to the hospital, but the cabbie kept demanding that the car accident be handled first and forced the ambulance to stay in the middle of the road.

While the two drivers quarreled for about 10 minutes, another ambulance arrived and took the patient, a lung cancer patient in her 80s. In the end, the patient died in the emergency room, five hours after she arrived at the hospital. 

In a petition the son posted on the website run by the presidential office, he claimed the patient missed the so-called golden time needed for timely treatment due to the taxi driver.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the ambulance driver should of just drove past this guy after the accident.

The commissioner of Korea Immigration Services is saying that the country needs to accept more immigrants in a Korea Times interview:

 Without the inflow of foreign workers, Korea is already shrinking.

After deaths outnumbered births for the first time in November 2019, the gap has widened since. A chronically low birthrate, which hit an all-time low of 0.92 that year, suggests that the trend is only going to accelerate and that the country will face massive labor shortages in the decades to come if nothing changes.

Years of government efforts to reverse the trend have been futile, leaving the country with the difficult choice of enduring the shock of a rapid decrease in the population or turning to immigration.

Without immigration, the risk is that the population will continue to decrease and fail to provide enough taxpayers to fund social welfare and medical costs that will grow as the country ages.

Cha Gyu-geun, commissioner of the Korea Immigration Service (KIS), says the time has come to face that reality and the country, at the very least, should start discussing the issue openly before it is too late.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Unfortunately the Mayor Park Won-soon has been found dead in northern Seoul:

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon was found dead in northern Seoul, police said Friday, after he was reported missing by his family.

Park’s daughter had told police that her father’s phone was turned off after he left their home after leaving a message that sounded like a will.

Yonhap

Here is a YTN News report about the death of Mayor Park:

According to the YTN News report Mayor Park was found dead in slopes of Bukhansan mountain near Waryong Park. The below map shows where the park is located at in Seoul with red tree icon:

It has not been confirmed if this is suicide yet or not, but according to what this daughter has said, it does appear to be a suicide. If confirmed this would be the second major political suicide since 2009 to rock South Korea. In 2009 former President Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide when him and his family was faced with corruption probes.

Condolences to Mayor Park’s family and friends.