If Korean tech companies wants to bring their workers into American to work it is going to cost a whole lot more:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation to impose a yearly fee of US$100,000 for an H-1B nonimmigrant visa application for a highly skilled foreign worker, as his administration seeks to ensure tech firms help train Americans rather than bringing in foreign workers.

The fee is expected to put a burden on Korean companies that need to bring their skilled workers into the United States on a stable visa program to set up and run factories in the U.S. to proceed with their investment projects.

The current fee for the H-1B visa is $1,000. The visa is meant for skilled professionals, especially in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, with its program subject to an annual worldwide cap of 85,000 visas.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick elaborated on the fee for an H-1B visa — a three-year visa with one renewal that could last a total of six years — as he called for tech companies to train Americans and stop bringing in foreign workers to take American jobs.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the new fee is going to make foreign companies think long and hard about whether or not it is affordable to bring in foreign workers on a H1B visa or train an American to do the job.

It seems like anytime a famous person gets in trouble they make sure to check themselves into a hospital and be seen in a wheelchair:

Former first lady Kim Keon Hee, who has been in custody since June, was seen in public this week for the first time since her arrest, arriving at a hospital in Seoul in a wheelchair with an electronic ankle monitor strapped to her left leg.

In a report by cable network MBN, Kim was seen Thursday in the standard blue detainee uniform, wearing a mask and glasses, as she was escorted through hospital corridors. Her hands, presumably cuffed, were hidden beneath a blanket.

She reportedly was granted the medical visit after suffering from acute hypotension, or a sudden drop in blood pressure.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

South Korea can pretend there is a peaceful two state framework, but North Korea can’t. The need to free South Korea from American imperialism is part of the Kim regime’s ideology to justify their rule. Giving that up without taking over South Korea could question the legitimacy of the Kim family’s rule:

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Thursday that South Korea will seek to transform North Korea’s “hostile two-state” framework into a “peaceful two-state” arrangement, describing it as a transitional stage on the path toward eventual unification.

Speaking at the Global Korea Forum hosted by the ministry in Seoul, Chung said South Korea will continue pursuing rapprochement with Pyongyang despite the North’s frosty response, calling dialogue the most effective means of reducing hostilities.

“Even if North Korea continues to uphold the two-state theory, there is no justification for maintaining hostility,” he said in an opening speech. “The main focus should first be on ending this hostility. The alternative is to transform the hostile two-state framework into a de facto peaceful two-state framework. This is the core of our policy toward North Korea.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is another front of the purge the Lee administration is trying to do across the South Korean government:

Chief Justice Jo Hee-de denied Wednesday that he had colluded with ex-Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to render President Lee Jae Myung ineligible to run for president, with a guilty verdict that nearly stripped him of his candidacy to run for president in the June election.

The statement, delivered through the Supreme Court, was the first released by the judicial branch since the liberal ruling bloc ramped up pressure for Jo’s resignation.

“The political circles have raised speculations that Jo had met with former Prime Minister Han and discussed ways to handle (Lee’s) case concerning his (violation) of the Public Official Election Act,” read the statement. “But the chief justice has never discussed anything with anyone outside (the court) regarding the criminal case.”

This came amid political pressure urging that Jo resign from the post, labeling the Supreme Court’s 10-2 ruling in May to find Lee, who was then the presidential front-runner, guilty of making false claims with the intention to win the 2022 presidential election. The case was sent back to the high court, but court proceedings were halted after Lee won the June presidential election and was inaugurated.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Considering all the missiles that China has pointed at Japan, Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, and Guam it only makes sense that the US and it allies flood the Pacific with missiles to point right back at them:

The Marine Corps is rehearsing island defense with its two newest missile systems alongside Japanese soldiers on Ishigaki Island, sending “a clear message to any attempt to undermine regional security,” the Marines’ top general on Okinawa said Wednesday. (……)

The systems arrived Monday for the first time on the island about 150 miles east of Taiwan, a spokeswoman with Okinawa’s Military Base Affairs Division said by phone the following day. Some Japanese government officials speak to the press only on condition of anonymity. The generals stood in front of two MADIS systems, a NMESIS system and Japan’s Type 12 Surface-to-Ship Missile and Type 03 Surface-to-Air Missile systems.

NMESIS mounts Naval Strike Missiles on joint light tactical vehicles to target ships at sea. The system plays a key role in the Marines’ Force Design strategy, which calls for littoral regiments to operate within range of enemy fire to seize and hold islands and block hostile vessels from nearby waters. Marines can operate the system remotely from “line of sight” or up to about 200 yards away, Capt. Kurt James, commander of the 12th Littoral Regiment’s Medium-Range Missile Battery, told Stars and Stripes before the news conference. The missiles have a maximum range of 115 miles.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.