Another person with links to USFK has tested positive for the coronavirus:
A South Korean construction worker at a U.S. military base in the coronavirus-hit city of Daegu has tested positive for COVID-19, U.S. Forces Korea said Monday, raising to eight the number of USFK-affiliated people who have been infected.
The employee, who was on contract with USFK at Camp Walker, “is currently in isolation at his off-base residence” as directed by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a press release.
U.S. military and South Korean health professionals are investigating the employee’s movements and contacts to determine whether anybody else may have been exposed to the virus, it said.
Basketball without fansA Women’s Korean Basketball League (WKBL) regular season game between the home team BNK Sum and Shinhan Bank S-Birds is underway behind closed doors at BNK Center in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on March 6, 2020. All WKBL games are being played without spectators, in order to reduce mass gatherings amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Ex-BIGBANG member joins army Masked Seungri, a former member of K-pop boy band BIGBANG, arrives at a boot camp in Cheorwon, northeast of Seoul, on March 9, 2020, to begin his mandatory military service. He has been accused of habitually gambling and arranging sex services for foreign acquaintances, and the military court will continue to handle the charges. (Yonhap)
It appears that China’s “50 Cent Army” has turned its attention on South Korea to help manipulate online public opinion to be favorable towards President Moon:
On February 27, 2020, an online post titled “Chinagate” emerged, causing a controversy. A self-described Joseonjok (ethnic Korean who migrated to Northeast China prior to 1945 and their descendants) Chinese claimed that “Joseonjok Chinese and Chinese students in South Korea are using social network services to manipulate public opinion on online communities and portals using online comments and other methods” and that “the Moon Jae-in administration and the ruling party are controlled by China.” The person also posted, “Most of the people who are mobilized for this systematic manipulation of public opinion are [Chinese] university students studying in South Korea, and all of the top-ranked comments on Naver and comments on women’s cafes go through our hands.” [Note: Naver is a popular portal in South Korea.]
Another post appeared later the same day, claiming “Don’t think it’s Koreans that drive online public opinion” and “as soon as ‘the impeachment of Moon Jae-in’ appeared as the Blue House petition, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which considers President Moon as part of it, became active and led 500,000 to support the ‘I support President Moon Jae-in’ petition in a period of two days.”
These posts were claims, but what followed caused a stir.
I highly recommend reading the whole article at the link by Dr. Tara O. Remember the Moon administration is no stranger to manipulating online public opinion as demonstrated by the Druking Scandal prior to the last presidential election.
Obviously coronavirus fears are not stopping the North Koreans from doing their annual wintertime military training:
A projectile is launched during a long-range artillery drill by the North Korean army’s long-range artillery sub-units on March 2, 2020, in this photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency the next day. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected the drill. The report came one day after South Korea said the North fired what appeared to be two ballistic missiles. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
North Korea fired three short-range projectiles into the East Sea on Monday for the second time in a week in what was believed to be part of a joint strike exercise, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
The projectiles were fired northeastward from areas near its eastern town of Sondok in South Hamgyong Province at around 7:36 a.m, the JCS said, adding that they flew around 200 kilometers, reaching a maximum altitude of around 50 km.
The launches came a week after the North conducted similar firings on March 2.
“Today’s launches appear to be part of its artillery strike drill involving multiple types of multiple rocket launchers for a wintertime exercise, following the previous ones staged on Feb. 28 and March 2,” the JCS said in a release.
You can read more at the link, but of significance is that North Korea continues to not fire their longer range missiles which is keeping them in compliance with the informal agreement Kim Jong-un made with President Trump.
Even the coronavirus issue has lead to a tit-for-tat between Korea and Japan:
People await check-in for flights to Japan at Gimpo International Airport on Sunday, hours before Korea was set to suspend its visa-waiver program for Japanese citizens starting Monday. [YONHAP]
All Japanese citizens will need visas to enter Korea starting today, announced the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs Friday in response to Tokyo’s slapping of quarantines on visitors from Korea over fears of the new coronavirus.
Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Sei-young said in a press briefing Friday evening that all foreign travelers coming from Japan will also have to undergo special entry procedures.
Cho announced the reciprocal measures after Tokyo announced Thursday mandatory two-week quarantines for visitors from Korea and China at designated facilities starting today. Japan also said it will restrict flights from the two countries to Narita International Airport and Kansai International Airport. The measures are expected to last through this month.
Cho said the Korean government “once again expresses our deepest regret that Japan announced the measures unilaterally without prior consultation.”
1/The gold watch is not Park Geun-hye's. It's fake. Shincheonji's leader Lee Man-hee ensured it was obviously shown during a press conf. Why? To link it w PGH & the opposition party, & shift the blame for the #CoronavirusOutbreak from #MoonJaein.https://t.co/jPoavOYKfp
Empty Seoul streetsA street in central Seoul is relatively empty on March 7, 2020, following the government’s advice on social distancing amid the coronavirus outbreak. (Yonhap)
This is an area that all countries dealing with the spread of the coronavirus should focus on because it is the sick and elderly that are by far the highest demographic being killed by the virus:
A bus carrying COVID-19 patients leaves a virus-hit apartment complex in Daegu, Sunday. The apartment complex had been under lockdown as a third of its residents were confirmed to be infected with the virus. Most of them were followers of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.
The health authorities here are taking extra care with nursing homes, retirement complexes and other facilities housing the elderly as the COVID-19 epidemic has hit senior citizens harder than any other age group, officials said Sunday.
Medical experts said while a major cluster of infections linked to the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus is expected to slow in the coming weeks, the emergence of other mass infections at those facilities is posing a special challenge for the government’s quarantine efforts to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) confirmed 179 new cases as of 9 p.m., Sunday, bringing the nation’s total number of infections to 7,313. On Saturday, the KCDC detected 367 additional cases.
So far, 50 people have died from the virus, most of whom were elderly patients with underlying illnesses.
Several cases seen as mass infections have already been reported at nursing facilities and retirement complexes where the frailest of senior citizens reside.
