A temporary deal has been reached to get Korean employees back to work on U.S. bases:

 The United States and South Korea agreed to a $200 million stopgap measure allowing more than 4,000 local base employees to return to work after months of unpaid leave, despite the allies’ failure to reach a broader defense cost-sharing deal.

The Pentagon said Wednesday that it has accepted Seoul’s proposal to fund the labor costs for all South Korean employees of U.S. Forces Korea through the end of this year amid stalled talks on reaching a new contract known as the Special Measures Agreement.

“This decision effectively ends the partial furlough,” USFK commander Gen. Robert Abrams said in a separate statement. “We expect our entire workforce to return back to USFK within the next few weeks.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but it appears there is still no long term cost sharing deal that is going to happen any time soon.

Inflatable characters are seen in the stands Sunday at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Songpa District, southern Seoul, while the Doosan Bears face off against the Lotte Giants. The KBO last Thursday announced plans to continue no-spectator games for several more weeks after recent spikes in Covid-19 cases in Korea. [YONHAP]

Leave it to the usual suspects to be upset that the THAAD battery in South Korea is getting updated missiles to better protect the country:

 The defense ministry stuck to its flat-out denial Monday of any upgrades to a U.S. THAAD missile defense base in South Korea after a series of reports suggested that last week’s transport of military hardware into the base was aimed at upgrading or strengthening the unit.

On Friday, the U.S. Forces Korea brought new interceptor missiles as well as other military hardware and equipment for facility construction onto its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system base in the central town of Seongju by ground, according to the ministry. 

Officials here made it clear that the missiles were to replace expired ones and that no additional launchers were brought in. They also stressed that the transport has nothing to do with the U.S. project to upgrade the batteries.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the churches in the Seoul region are being given a warning before they will likely be shutdown like the clubs in Seoul were:

Cluster infections at churches are again putting health authorities on edge Monday following a series of mass infections tied to clubs and a distribution center after the country eased social distancing and millions of students went back to schools.

South Korea reported 35 additional cases of the new coronavirus, including 30 local infections, raising the total caseload to 11,503, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Monday’s tally marked a slight rise from 27 identified the previous day. But the daily number of new cases appears to be on a downward trend after hitting a nearly two-month high of 75 on Thursday.

In yet another alarming sign of further spread in the Seoul metropolitan area, 23 cases have been traced to 13 small churches in Incheon, west of Seoul, and Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the comfort woman fraud case involving left wing national assembly member Yoon Mee-hyang:

During the Friday press conference, Yoon read from a prepared statement before taking questions from the press, and rejected almost all accusations leveled against her. She also made it clear that she has no intention of giving up her seat. Yoon said she could not discuss all the “small details” because “a questioning by the prosecution is imminent,” referring to an ongoing criminal probe into the Korean Council.    

But while denying any misappropriation of funds, Yoon apologized for using her personal bank account to collect public donations, saying she had been “naïve to think it is okay as long as there was no problem about financial [transparency].”   

She said that after utilizing the donations, she transferred leftover funds to the Korean Council account, and added, “I have never used donations collected in my account for personal use.”  

Yoon said she has raised a total of 280 million won ($227,000) that was deposited into her personal bank account. She said she spent 230 million won of the total on projects related to comfort women victims that were outside the purview of the Korean Council, with the remainder used by the Korean Council. She added that she plans to disclose all of the details to the prosecution. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read much more at the link, but this may just be the tip of the iceberg involving this fraud. Yoon’s husband is noted convicted North Korean spy and fraudster himself.

USFK continues to identify newly arriving personnel with the coronavirus:

Two newly assigned American soldiers tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving in South Korea on a government-chartered flight from the United States, the military said Saturday.

The confirmation raised to 30 the number of coronavirus cases linked to U.S. Forces Korea, including six active-duty service members, but the command said all other patients have recovered.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.