Life is about to get a little better for USFK personnel still stationed at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul:

The U.S. military said Saturday that it will ease anti-coronavirus restrictions for troops and other personnel on this Army garrison in Seoul, but unauthorized travel to the capital from other bases remains prohibited.

The move, which begins at noon Monday, came more than a month after U.S. Forces Korea lifted restrictions for bases elsewhere in South Korea but maintained them for Yongsan because of continued cluster infections there.

USFK cited “the continued low numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases within Yongsan district,” for its decision to lower the health alert level from “Charlie” to “Bravo” for the area in central Seoul.

That means personnel may go to restaurants, hair salons, child care facilities, gyms and other off-base establishments in Yongsan for the first time in months, but only if they live in the area.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but personnel from bases out of Seoul are still not allowed to travel to the nation’s capitol city due to the coronavirus. The way this pandemic is turning out, you could have someone do an entire tour in USFK and never get a chance to visit Seoul because of the coronavirus.

Here is the latest Moon administration attack on the human rights group that send leaflets into North Korea:

The government is seeking stronger measures against activist and North Korean defectors groups that have been sending anti-North Korea leaflets across the inter-Korean border, stating that their campaigns are not helping to create peace on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea watchers say that the government’s tough stance could lead to the campaigns losing ground here. 

On Monday, the Ministry of Unification held a hearing to give two North Korean defectors’ groups a final opportunity to justify their actions before it makes a decision on whether to revoke their civic group licenses, following their sending of propaganda leaflets, rice and other items across the border. 

“We held a hearing today for Fighters for a Free North Korea and Kuensaem,” the ministry said in a press statement. “After checking whether there are any additional documents they need to submit, we will proceed with the license revocation and other related procedures.”

If their licenses are annulled, they will not be able to hold official fundraisers. Currently, donors for activist groups are eligible for various tax benefits.

“Individuals can donate, but their contribution could be seen as a donation of their property, which means they may have to pay gift taxes,” ministry spokesman Yoh Sang-key said. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but this is the state of affairs in Korea right now. Leaders running human rights groups trying to make change in North Korea will have to pay taxes for donations while leaders of comfort women groups get to embezzle the money and then get appointed to the National Assembly to avoid prosecution.

Will any ROK Heads be rushing to the store to buy this new Kellogg’s cereal?:

Kellogg Korea’s latest release, Chex Green Onion is stirring up the Internet even before hitting the shelves.

Kellogg Korea uploaded a 6-second-long video on June 17 on its YouTube channel, recruiting 50 people to try its newest product before its release. The video showed chopped green onion being sprinkled on chocolate flavored Korean cereal Chex with milk with background music with the lyrics “sorry, sorry, sorry” by trot singer Tae Jin-ah.

Korea Herald

You can read more about the cereal at the link.

It seems the South Korean public understands the reality of the Kim regime better than many elites in South Korea and the U.S.:

Nine out of 10 South Koreans think North Korea will not give up its nuclear weapons, but nearly half think the South should still seek dialogue with the North, according to a recent poll.

In an annual face-to-face survey of 1,003 adults conducted from May 20 through June 10 by the Korea Institute for National Unification, 89.5 percent said Pyongyang will not denuclearize, the highest since 2016.

Only 15.6 percent said they think dialogue and compromise are possible with the North’s Kim Jong-un administration.

Nevertheless, 45.7 percent think Seoul should keep trying — up from the previous survey in November 2019, when 38.1 percent thought so, but down from April 2019, when 51.4 percent did.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

A ROK Drop favorite, Robert Neff has an article published over in the Korea Times about Ethiopian soldiers that served during the Korean War:

One of the least-known participants in the Korean War was Ethiopia. 

The first battalion of Ethiopian soldiers arrived in Busan in May 1951. Known as the Kagnew (“to bring order out of chaos”) Battalion, it was viewed with a degree of skepticism by American officers.

Many felt the Ethiopians should be placed in rear areas instead of the front line, but the Ethiopians insisted on being in the heat of battle with their American counterparts. So they were assigned to the American Seventh Division. (………….)

The Ethiopian soldiers soon gained a reputation. The Chinese feared them. The Kagnew Battalion never left a man behind ― wounded or dead ― and none of their soldiers were ever captured by the North Koreans or Chinese. It was like they were ghosts. Perhaps even more alarming were the rumors of cannibalism by the Ethiopians. Of course, these were false, but they only made the Kagnew Battalion even more terrifying to the enemy.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The coronavirus response in South Korea continues to battle cluster infections:

The number of South Korea’s daily COVID-19 cases bounced back to over 50 on Saturday amid another outbreak of cluster infections traced to a major church in Seoul.

A total of 51 people tested positive for the new coronavirus, according to data collated during the last 24 hours by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Among them, 31 people contracted the virus via community spread, while 20 cases were imported, it announced.

They included 15 in Seoul, 12 in nearby Gyeonggi Province and two in Daejeon, some 160 kilometers south of the capital.

In particular, nine people were added to the list of COVID-19 patients related to Wangsung Church in the southwestern ward of Gwanak, which has emerged as a source of cluster infections. It is known to have more than 1,700 followers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is pretty clear to me anyway that President Moon did not want to single out North Korea as a security threat and instead made this broad statement:

Pledging a tough response to “provocations from any direction” in his Korean War anniversary speech this week, South Korean President Moon Jae-in was talking about “comprehensive security,” not just North Korea, his office said Friday.

The previous night, Moon attended the Seoul Air Base ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the war and stressed, “Our military has strength to ward off any threat.”

He added, “It has a thorough readiness posture and will never allow even a handspan of our territory on land, sea or air to be violated again.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the only military threats to South Korea are from North Korea and their Chinese backers. However, to a South Korean leftist they actually believe Japan is a bigger security threat.