LOL! Seoul City recently placed 80 (130 says JTBC) massive tree pots in Seoul's Gwanghwamun to block Park Geun-hye lovers from installing "release her from jail" tents.
— Raphael Rashid (@koryodynasty) July 6, 2019
Today: PGH lovers install tents in Gwanghwamun spots "where there were no trees".
🤣🤦♂️https://t.co/E2iZQQ5DL9 pic.twitter.com/cvSRBFE0Yk
This is going to be a lot of businesses going under in the next six months if the Japanese trade restrictions are not lifted:
The Korea Federation of Mid-sized and Small Manufacturers said Tuesday that 60 percent of medium and small-sized firms(SME) in South Korea affected by Japan’s export controls will not be able to endure the restrictions after six months.
The federation announced the results of a survey it held on 269 SMEs in the semiconductor sector following Tokyo’s export control announcement last week.
Fifty-nine percent of surveyed firms said they will only be able to withstand the export restrictions for a maximum of six months.
KBS World Radio
You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear that the trade restrictions were carefully crafted to put massive pressure on the Moon administration in the short term to abide by past agreements resolving Imperial Japanese era abuses.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is really increasing his criticism of the Moon administration:
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday linked Tokyo’s economic retaliatory measures against Seoul with the implementation of North Korea sanctions – underscoring a lack of “trust” in South Korea.
Abe appeared to be sidestepping the real reason for his government’s restrictions on industrial exports to Korea – court rulings against Japanese companies found guilty of forcing Koreans to work for them during World War II – and suggesting an overarching problem with trust in Seoul that extends to security concerns.
One suggestion is that high-tech products made with Japanese materials may be making their way to North Korea.
Speaking on a televised debate ahead of upper house elections on Fuji TV, Abe said that South Korea “claims that it is abiding by sanctions on North Korea” and is also following the Wassenaar Arrangement, the first multilateral export control regime for conventional weapons and sensitive dual-use goods and technologies.
Abe went on to suggest that Seoul is not capable of fulfilling its commitment to implement sanctions on the North because it “clearly does not keep its promises and abide by the claims agreement between two countries” and “obviously will not properly abide by trade regulations.”
On the matter of his government’s new restrictions on exports of key industrial materials to Korea, Abe said that there was an “occurrence of an inappropriate matter,” and added, “you can’t trust what they say.”
Japan on Thursday implemented export restrictions to Korea on three key materials – fluorinated polyimide, hydrogen fluoride and photoresists – needed in the production of semiconductors and smartphones.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link.
Here is an excerpt from a joint statement put out by former senior officials of the Korean Foreign Service that was translated by Dr. Tara O:
With massive economic, financial, and technological assistance from our staunch allies, including the United States and Japan, Korea was not only able to quickly rebuild its economy, but concentrate on developing key sectors, such as heavy industry, petrochemicals, construction, shipbuilding, automobiles, and the electronics industry, including semiconductors, to become one of the world’s leading industrial and trade powerhouses.
Strenuously ignoring this proud history of its foundation and the development of the Republic of Korea, President Moon Jae-in continues to threaten the Republic of Korea-U.S. alliance, which has served as the cornerstone of our nation’s development.
The close ties between our two nations is under assault from several fronts, including the transfer of wartime operational control between Korea and the U.S., a lukewarm response to the deployment of THAAD on the peninsula, refusal to take part in the U.S.-led missile defense system, and vacillation over participating in a Korea-U.S.-Japan partnership.
In its foreign policy towards Japan, the Moon administration has adopted the anachronistic stance of treating Japan as if it were still yesterday’s imperialist power, instead of one of today’s important defenders of free democracy and a member of the G7 countries. The Moon administration continuously provokes Japan over emotionally-charged disputes regarding the misfortunes in the history of the two countries, and thereby not only harming our national interests, but earning the reproach of the international community.
Overly conscious of China, the Moon administration has adopted a recalcitrant attitude towards the Korea-U.S. defense partnership, making promises contrary to the Korea-U.S.-Japan alliance and taking an almost servile attitudes towards China, with little regard to our national sovereignty.
On the other hand, the administration is relentlessly extending unrealistic reconciliatory gestures towards North Korea, the very party that has threatened our national foundation and subsequent stable and peaceful economic development.
East Asia Research Center
You can read more at the link.
Today marks 25 years since founding leader Kim Il Sung died suddenly in North Korea.
— Chad O'Carroll (@chadocl) July 7, 2019
This is the front page of today’s July 8 memorial edition of the state newspaper, Rodong Sinmun. pic.twitter.com/q57LyQdss9
You have to love the irony of President Moon asking for “sincere consultations” with Japan when his administration withdrew from the prior comfort women agreement and have been using the courts to further attack Japan for domestic political purposes:
President Moon Jae-in called on Japan on Monday to withdraw its recent export control against South Korean firms, describing it as an attempt to limit trade for a political purpose.
Breaking his strategic reticence on the sensitive issue, Moon said his administration will first make “calm” efforts to resolve it diplomatically.
In case of “actual damages” to South Korean companies, however, the government will be left with no other choice but to take “necessary” measures, he stressed, presiding over a meeting with senior Cheong Wa Dae officials.
He added he hopes to avoid such a vicious cycle of tit for tat.
“(I) call on the Japanese side to retract the measure and call for sincere consultations between the two countries,” he said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but I don’t see the Abe administration bending on this until the Moon administration agrees to uphold the 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries.
This helps to send a message to China about the rising will of the Japanese government to project naval power:
One of Japan’s largest warships, the helicopter carrier Izumo, offers a glimpse of where its military is headed: For the first time, troops from a newly formed amphibious brigade of the Self-Defense Forces participated in an extended naval deployment.
The Izumo left Subic, a former U.S. naval base in the Philippines, at the end of a two-month deployment in the Indo-Pacific region at a time of prolonged tensions involving China’s sweeping territorial claims in and around the South China Sea. The carrier, along with the destroyers Murasame and Akebono, just finished a series of drills with the United States and other countries.
Japan’s ability to project military power beyond its borders is severely constrained by the commitment to pacifism and rejection of use of military force in conflict enshrined in its post-World War II Constitution, though in 2015 it was reinterpreted to allow the use of force in defending itself and its allies.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made amending the Constitution to allow the military greater leeway one of his lifetime goals. President Donald Trump has sought to help that cause, calling repeatedly for Japan to do more to defend itself under its alliance with the U.S.
In May, Japan conducted its first quadrilateral exercise with France, the U.S. and Australia in the Bay of Bengal. France deployed its flagship nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the FS Charles de Gaulle, while the United States sent a missile destroyer, the William P. Lawrence. Other drills have included Canada, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines.
Japan is preparing to reconfigure the Izumo to accommodate U.S. stealth fighters, including F-35Bs, after announcing it would purchase 42 of its own. The aircraft are designed to operate with short takeoffs and vertical landings, such as on carriers.
Japan Times
You can read more at the link, but the Japanese carriers are going to be able to project quite a bit more power once they are equipped with the F-35B’s.
He will probably eventually regret this, but we will never hear about it:
A South Korean son of Ryu Mi-yong, the late chairwoman of a North Korean minor political party, has arrived in Pyongyang to live in the communist country for good, a North Korean propaganda media outlet said Sunday.
Ryu and her husband, Choe Tok-sin, who served as foreign minister in South Korea during the 1960s, emigrated to the United States in 1976 and defected to the North in 1986, leaving behind two sons and three daughters.
In the North, Ryu served as chairwoman of the central committee of the Chondoist Chongu Party.
On Saturday, Uriminzokkiri, one of the North’s propaganda websites, reported that Ryu’s second son, Choe In-guk, arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday for “permanent residence.”
If confirmed, it would be a rare case of a South Korean national entering North Korea and publicly announcing a decision for permanent residence there.
Upon arriving at a Pyongyang airport, Choe said he will devote his life to helping achieve the feat of national unification in accordance with the desire of his late parents.
“To live in and follow a country for which I feel thankful is a path to protect the will left by my parents. So I’ve decided to permanently live in North Korea, albeit belatedly,” the media outlet quoted Choe as saying.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
