This is odd and hopefully Mayor Park Won-sun is found to be okay:

The mayor of South Korean capital Seoul has been reported missing and search operations are underway on Thursday, police said.

Police officers said they are looking for Mayor Park Won-sun at Seoul’s Sungbuk neighborhood where his mobile phone signal was last detected.

His daughter called police earlier Thursday and said her father has been unaccounted for, the police officers said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the matter.

Kim Ji-hyeong, an official from the Seoul Metropolitan Government, confirmed that Park did not show up for work on Thursday because of unspecified reasons and canceled all his schedules, including a meeting with a presidential official at his Seoul City Hall office.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but according to Yonhap his daughter called police after he “had left home four to five hours ago after leaving words like a will, with his phone currently off.” Totally bizarre and hopefully this doesn’t turn into a Roh Moo-hyun situation.

South Korea’s Unification Minister nominee has essentially said that he plans to find ways to work around sanctions to pay off North Korea:

The government has hinted that it will seek to revamp the beleaguered South Korea-U.S. working group, a forum to coordinate North Korea-related issues, as part of its plan to push for more inter-Korean cooperation.

The organization, set up in November 2018, has taken flak for allegedly hindering progress in inter-Korean ties due to its excessively harsh standards adopted on Pyongyang, and there have been growing calls here for restructuring its operation or even dismantling it. 

Lee In-young, the unification minister nominee, said Monday that he plans to distinguish what the government can do on its own with the North from what it can do under the format of the working group. 

“If I take office, I will review what the working group has done so far and take additional measures (to promote inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation), based on my ideas regarding inter-Korean affairs,” Lee told reporters upon arriving at the Office of Inter-Korean Dialogue to prepare for his National Assembly confirmation hearing.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but as I have been saying this is why the Kim regime blew up the Inter-Korean Liaison Office; to force North Korea to separate from the U.S.’s North Korea policy and violate sanctions. If South Korea finds ways to violate sanctions that will be a green light to other nations to do so as well.

It looks like there will be fewer Koreans studying in the United States this Fall:

International students in the United States on student visas cannot attend a university this fall if their studies are entirely online, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday.

In a statement, ICE announced that students on non-immigrant F-1 and M-1 visas who attend universities that operate entirely online amid the COVID-19 pandemic “may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States.”

“The U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester, nor will the U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States,” ICE said.

The agency added that F-1 students who attend schools that provide a mixture of online and in-person classes will be permitted to take some online courses.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the loss of these students coming to the U.S. will be a blow to the universities and local communities. This is because they will lose money from them staying in the dorms and spending money living in the community. Additionally I would not be surprised if many of these students just drop out since they can’t travel to the U.S. to attend thus the schools will lose the tuition money as well.

Here is what is likely coming to U.S. schools this Fall:

But classrooms looked nothing like before.  
   
Students now start their days by filling out an online self-diagnosis form before they go to school, which asks them if they are displaying any symptoms of the disease and whether they have visited any Covid-19 hot spots. A single tick of any box means they can’t go to school and must stay quarantined at home.  
   
In many cities, students go to school on staggered schedules to minimize physical contact near the front gates, and have their temperatures checked by a thermal imaging camera to screen anyone who records 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5 Fahrenheit) or higher.  
   
Masks should be worn at all times except during lunch, and desks that used to be placed in pairs are now spaced out. Study rooms have been shut and libraries now have the sole purpose of lending books.  
   
During lunchtime, students are prohibited from chatting and are either separated by plexiglass dividers or have to sit separated far from each other. 

When a student tests positive or a cluster of infections arise, the school in question as well as schools nearby close their doors again for a couple of days and resort back to e-learning.  
   
While high schools in the Seoul metropolitan area are required to run classrooms at two-thirds of their capacity, kindergartens through middle schools are required to run at one-third, which means more than half of the student body is at home on any given day, engaging in remote learning.  
   
The vast majority of students outside the Seoul metropolitan area go to school every day. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is the Stars & Stripes report on the ruckus in Busan caused by U.S. soldiers over the weekend:

The U.S. military expressed regret for “disruptive behavior” Tuesday after American troops allegedly caused a ruckus with a Fourth of July party that included fireworks on a popular beach in the southern city of Busan.

About 200 police were dispatched to break up the festivities Saturday on Haeundae Beach in Busan after receiving more than 70 complaints from local residents.

One soldier was briefly detained and fined for a misdemeanor after throwing a firework in the direction of police, then trying to flee the scene, according to the public affairs office at the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency.

Two traffic accidents and a drunken-driving case involving soldiers also were reported in the area on Saturday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the ruckus caused anti-U.S. civic groups to protest against the soldiers’ behavior in Seoul and Busan.

The good news is that none of these cases were community spread and instead from people flying into Korea:

Five people affiliated with the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) tested positive for Covid-19 late last week and over the weekend.  

Two dependents of USFK service members flew into Incheon International Airport on June 21 from Europe and were transported to Camp Humphreys, where they were tested. Their test results were negative, but they were still kept quarantined for two weeks. Near the end of their quarantine period, they were tested once more and were found to be infected.  

One newly assigned service member of the USFK, who arrived at Osan Air Base on July 1 on a U.S. government-chartered flight from Japan, tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival, according to the USFK.   

The fourth individual was a USFK contractor, who flew into Incheon airport from the United States on July 2. He tested positive on his first mandatory Covid-19 test.  

The fifth individual was a member of the USFK returning from a trip to the United States. He tested positive after arriving at Incheon airport on July 3.  

“Since testing positive, all five individuals have been moved to Camp Humphreys’ isolation barracks designated for confirmed Covid-19 cases,” USFK said in its statement on Friday. “USFK health professionals determined there was limited contact […] due to the service members and all others on the commercial and chartered flight being tested and immediately quarantined; thorough cleaning of Camp Humphreys’ quarantine rooms has been completed.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.