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South Korea continues to work on their illegal immigration problem:
The Ministry of Justice said Tuesday it will allow illegal aliens to re-enter Korea if they voluntarily leave the country by next June.
Korea Times
In an effort to tackle the rapid increase in foreigners who stay here illegally, the ministry also said it will toughen punishment for those hiring people who do not have the proper visas.
From July, people who are caught staying here illegally will be fined and may not be able to re-enter the country for years, the ministry said.
Departure can be delayed under certain circumstances, including recent births, pregnancy or other health conditions, it said.
It is looking like the Trump administration’s pressure on South Korea is not only causing them to consider picking up the costs of environmental clean up for closed out U.S. bases, but buy more U.S. weapons systems as well:
In an apparent move to reduce South Korea’s financial contribution to maintaining the 28,500 United States Forces Korea troops here, the government has proposed purchasing up to $1 billion worth of U.S. weapons, officials directly involved with the issue told The Korea Times, Thursday.
Korea Times
“The South Korean team in the defense cost-sharing negotiations suggested a revised proposal to the United States. This included a Korea’s plan to purchase up to $1 billion worth of U.S. weapons by the end of 2020,” one official said.
“The government is seeking more inventive ways and applicable plans to reduce U.S. pressure on Seoul to pay more for defense. On a possible shopping list of U.S.-made defense products for South Korea could be advanced surveillance aircraft, along with the possible co-development of an anti-missile system between South Korean and U.S. defense contractors,” another official said.
You can read more at the link.
It is looking more and more like North Korea’s pressure campaign may be working to get the Trump administration to make concessions on sanctions:
The United States is ready to be flexible in negotiations with North Korea on dismantling the regime’s nuclear weapons program, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations said Wednesday, urging Pyongyang to refrain from provocations.
Ambassador Kelly Craft made the remarks at a U.N. Security Council session as Pyongyang’s year-end deadline for nuclear negotiations with Washington draws near.
Amid indications the North is preparing to launch a long-range missile, Craft warned that such activity will only complicate efforts to implement an agreement reached by U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their first summit in Singapore in June 2018.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It looks like the Trump administration has not given up on diplomacy with North Korea:
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun may visit the North Korean side of the Joint Security Area early next week, for a meeting with a high-level North Korean official, sources familiar with the issue told The Korea Times, Wednesday.
Korea Times
“Biegun plans to visit South Korea later this week or early next week, after attending a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in New York. Talks are underway for Biegun to possibly meet with a high-level North Korean diplomat on the North’s side of the border village of Panmunjeom,” a senior lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said.
You can read more at the link.
I am not sure how popular this supposed movement actually is in South Korea, but the declining birth rate is probably little effected by it when compared to other factors like the cost and stress of educating children:
Bonnie Lee doesn’t care about finding a boyfriend or a fairy-tale wedding, and will decide her own happily-ever-after: “I’m a straight woman who is no longer interested in having relationships with men.”
She is not alone.
A growing number of South Korean women are banding together to reject rigid patriarchal norms and vowing never to wed, have children or even date and have sex.
“I’ve always felt that as a woman there are more disadvantages than advantages to being married,” said Lee, a 40-something professional who lives with her dog near Seoul.
Now she has gone even further, embracing the nation’s radical feminist movement called 4B, from the “four nos”: no dating, no sex, no marriage and no child-rearing.
Japan Times via a reader tip
You can read more at the link.
