Here is some more good news coming out of USFK:

Time for people to start getting their hair back into standards:

 As the daily count of coronavirus cases declines in South Korea, Camp Humphreys will take a step toward normalcy this weekend by reopening gyms, barber shops and some other services, the commander said Thursday.

Anticipating crowds, garrison commander Col. Michael Tremblay said military standards for haircuts would be phased back in slowly.

“What we don’t want to have is a rush on the barbershop,” he said in a community update via Facebook live. “We know you’re all shaggy out there and that’s fine.”

“We’re going to do this deliberately. So you’re going to get at least a week before there’s going to be any type of hair cut inspection,” he said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I wonder how many infections it would take for everything to get closed back down again?

Here is some good news from USFK:

The first U.S. service member to test positive for coronavirus has recovered and been released after 49 days in isolation in South Korea, the military said Thursday.

The announcement came as the pace of infections has slowed across South Korea since an outbreak began in the southeastern city of Daegu in late February.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but his wife who was infected as well has recovered too. That is however a brutal amount of time to be in isolation, 49 days. All the best to the couple in their recovery.

Here is at least one positive highlight from the parliamentary election beatdown South Korean conservatives took in this week’s voting:

 A high-profile North Korean defector won a constituency seat in this week’s general elections, becoming the first person hailing from the communist nation to be chosen directly by South Korean voters as their representative.

Thae Yong-ho, a former No. 2 diplomat at North Korea’s Embassy in London, was elected to the National Assembly as the main conservative opposition United Future Party’s candidate in Seoul’s southern affluent district of Gangnam.

Thae received 58.4 percent of the votes cast Wednesday in the Gangnam constituency, one of the conservative party’s main strongholds, far ahead of his opponent Kim Sung-gon, a four-term lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party who earned 39.6 percent.

“I plan to devote the best of my ability so that our parliament and government can face the reality, and implement sustainable and feasible policies on North Korea,” Thae said Thursday when his election victory became almost certain.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Thae is going to be a rule thorn in the side of the Korean left in the parliament as they likely attempt to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the Kumgang Resort, and other projects with North Korea to circumvent international sanctions.

This should come as no surprise to people following this topic that the ruling Democratic Party in Korea is expected to win the parliamentary election that just occurred:

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) is forecast to win a majority of parliamentary seats in Wednesday’s elections as voters apparently supported the government’s efforts to contain the new coronavirus.

South Korea held the quadrennial parliamentary elections to fill the 300-member unicameral National Assembly — with 253 directly contested seats and 47 proportional representation (PR) slots — in the midst of the country’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of 11:24 p.m. when 58.2 percent of the votes had been counted, the DP had taken the lead in 154 constituencies across the nation, followed by the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) with 94 districts, according to the National Election Commission (NEC), the state election watchdog.

If combined with potential PR seats to be distributed to the Platform Party, the DP’s satellite party that only targets PR slots, the ruling bloc may be able to secure around 170 parliamentary seats.

South Korea’s general elections have been closely watched from overseas as the country became the first major country to hold nationwide polls since the COVID-19 crisis began sweeping the globe.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the ruling party had a number of factors going for them to ensure they won the election. The coronavirus response by the Moon administration is obviously the most prevalent. The administration overall did a good job handling the pandemic and even the areas where they obviously screwed up they did not have to worry about a partisan media continuing to hype it like what you see in the US with the Trump administration.

The Moon administration very early on in their tenure made sure to take control of most of the media in the country to include jailing journalists who publish articles they do not agree with. This led to largely positive domestic and then international press coverage even though the administration’s pandemic response was not as strong as other countries in the region.

The ruling party also passed an election law bill that ultimately allowed them to increase the amount of unelected proportional parliament members. The Democrat Party then went and created satellite parties that shared their same ideology to take these proportional seats. This effectively decreased the amount of seats their conservative rivals could win in the elections.

Then you throw in the online opinion rigging to include the Democratic Party reportedly being backed by China’s 50 Cent Army it should come as no surprise they were able to win the parliamentary elections. What we have to wonder about is what comes next? Will the Korean left use their political power to try and change the ROK constitution to give President Moon another term in office? Or will they also use it to advance their Kaesong and Gumgang Resorts projects and ultimately their confederation ideas with North Korea? I guess we will find out over the next two years of what will largely be an unchecked Moon administration.

Fortunately no one was hurt in this derailment:

A subway train derailed near Yeongdeungpo Station in southwestern Seoul on Tuesday, delaying and partially disrupting services on line No. 1.

No casualties have been reported. The accident took place around 6:28 a.m., halting traffic on both ways of the express lines for line No. 1, according to subway operators.

Regular trains on line No. 1 are in operation, but delays have been reported. 

Around 100 passengers who were on the derailed train walked to the nearby Singil Station, also on line No. 1, to transfer to a regular train.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.