I had thought that maybe the Korean woman rescued by French commandoes was a missionary, but it appears she was simply an around the world traveler. I just don’t understand why people would put themselves and more importantly others sent to rescue them in danger needlessly like this:

The South Korean woman who was rescued from a hostage situation in western Africa had traveled to Mali, a country that the Seoul government has advised nationals to either not go to or to leave, before she was kidnapped, a foreign ministry official said Monday. 
The Korean woman in her 40s was freed in an operation led by the French military in Burkina Faso last week after near monthlong captivity by an apparent Islamic militant group. She was safely transported to Paris on Saturday (Paris time) and arrangements are being made for her return to South Korea at an early date. 
A foreign ministry official said the victim had been traveling to conflict-prone nations in the African region as part of a round-the-world trip that began about 18 months ago. 
She had visited Morocco, Senegal and Mali before arriving in Burkina Faso. She was said to be on her way to Benin when she was taken hostage, the official said. 
“Objectively speaking, it is true that the victim passed through fairly dangerous areas,” the ministry official said. 
Under South Korea’s four-level travel warning system, Mali and northern Burkina Faso have been designated “red alert,” meaning South Koreans are advised not to go or to leave such places, largely due to political unrest.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Someone should ask Mr. Beasley why there is a food shortage in North Korea?:

e head of a U.N. food agency said Monday he is “very concerned” about food shortages in North Korea and called for donations to the impoverished communist nation, affirming that the agency will try to make sure aid will reach those intended.
World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley made the remarks to reporters after he met with South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul to discuss North Korea’s worsening food situation.
“We are very concerned about the situation there and we are hopeful that we can come up with some solutions,” Beasley said. “Whatever we do, we will assure the donors that the food or any assistance will meet their objectives. We’ll have monitoring systems in place.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but any malnourishment in North Korea is sponsored by the regime. They have the money and resources to feed their people, but have made a conscious decision not to. Instead they have prioritized funding for nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Here is an update on the military family that has been trying to adopt their Korean niece in order to give her citizenship in the United States:

That was when the former Army lieutenant colonel and his wife Soo Jin were informed by the Federal District Court of Kansas that their adopted daughter Hyebin will be deported back to South Korea due to U.S. immigration law that cuts off the age when foreign-born adopted children can become naturalized U.S. citizens at 16.
The Kansas court ruled that Hyebin must return to Korea after she finishes earning her chemical engineering degree at the University of Kansas, which she will do in December. Schreiber and his wife are appealing through the 10th District Court of Appeals, though they are not optimistic about their chances of winning.
“We have no delusions that everything’s going to come out like a flowing bed of roses,” Schreiber told the Military Times. “We’ve always planned for two courses of action. So it was never something that we thought, ‘Yeah, things are going to work out the way we wish they would come out.’”
The immigration policy that is forcing Hyebin to leave the U.S. is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. A spokeswoman for USCIS told the Military Times via email that “it is USCIS policy not to comment on ongoing litigation, nor will we speak to individual cases due to privacy concerns.”

Army Times

You can read more at the link, but this is a really tough case because LTC Schreiber missed the cut off date because he deployed to Afghanistan. When he came back to do her citizenship he found out it was too late for Hyebin to receive citizenship.

I am a bit surprised she not able to get a work visa sponsored by an employer considering she is about to graduate with a chemical engineering degree.

What is amazing about this is if she was a child of illegal immigrants she would be allowed to stay, but since she is a daughter of American citizens she will likely get deported.

What is this! Putting yourself out there as a TV reporter is tough. Everyone’s a critic. The KBS interviewer last night was doing her job to the best of her ability. She does not deserve to have her family life examined or to be harassed as a result. https://t.co/szIxqlE99a

— Laura Bicker (@BBCLBicker) May 10, 2019

I doubt the Kim regime is too concerned about fighting animal robots:

– South Korea will rev up efforts to develop military robots mimicking animals and other creatures to better brace for evolving future battlefields, the arms procurement agency said Sunday.
In its latest document that outlines blueprints for key defense technologies development, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) rolled out its plan to actively apply the so-called biomimetics to the military’s future weapons systems.
If it proceeds as planned, several kinds of biobots, which replicate humans and insects, are expected to be deployed as early as 2024, DAPA said, adding that robots mimicking birds, snakes and other marine species could be part of the country’s military forces afterwards.
“Biometric robots will be a game changer in future warfare, and related technologies are expected to bring about great ripple effects throughout the defense industry,” agency spokesman Park Jeong-eun said, adding that their roles will range from search and rescue operations to reconnaissance.

Yonhap

This must have been quite a bad work environment to win a settlement from the Army:

An African-American civilian hospital employee “reached a significant settlement agreement” with the Army in late April after a lawsuit filed last year alleging that she was subjected to a racist and sexist command climate while working in South Korea.
Shawlawn Beckford, who served on active duty for 11 years before returning in 2006 as a civilian, had accused the Army of supporting a hostile work environment at Brian Allgood Army Community Hospital at Yongsan, where she was an administrator from 2009 to 2015.
“As a civilian employee it is my duty to represent and uphold the Army’s mission, vision, and leadership philosophy — in or out of uniform,” Beckford said in a May 1 statement from the office of her attorney, Kellogg Hansen in Washington, D.C. “But I am more than a position. I am a person with feelings and emotions, and I was mistreated in a system that failed to protect me.”
Reached for comment by Army Times, Beckford requested to keep the dollar amount of the settlement private.

Army Times

This is something I have seen before, people thinking it is okay to use racial slurs if they are of the race the slur is intended for:

“On a weekly basis during that time period, [the command sergeant major] would visit Ms. Beckford’s office and make belligerent, gendered comments toward her,” according to the lawsuit. “For example, he told her, ‘You’re a single parent. You’re a slut.’ ”
He also made comments about her race, the complaint said, calling her “just a house [N-word],” “dumb [N-word],” “our token Black person” and “ghetto.” (…….)

The 15-6 investigation found that though he used racial slurs in the office, it wasn’t in a discriminatory manner, because he himself is black. Still, he was relieved of his position and barred from leading a command again, according to the complaint, but stayed working within the office and continued to harass Beckford.

You can read more about the poor work environment at the link, but the hospital at Yongsan Garrison seems to have had some highly unprofessional people working there.

Here is what a survey of 2,500 foreigners living in Seoul has said about Koreans:

Koreans in Seoul discriminate against foreign residents mainly based on their country of origin, a survey by the Seoul Metropolitan Government showed Tuesday.

Many foreign residents said their image of Seoul had improved, but some still face discrimination and disdain.

The city government announced the results of the survey conducted on 2,500 foreign residents in the capital last September, to reflect the findings in its policies.

According to the survey, 57.3 percent of respondents said Koreans discriminate against foreign nationals based on their nationality. When multiple replies were allowed, 41.5 percent also said discriminative responses took place according to their fluency in Korean, 23.9 percent their financial status, 16.6 percent their jobs, 15.6 percent their appearance including skin color, and 1.1 percent their religion.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but none of this seems terribly surprising. I have always told people that if you want to improve your experience living in Korea, try to learn some Korean. For example, being able to exchange pleasantries and order food in Korean will likely greatly enhance the service you receive at a restaurant.

The notion that #China is the source of all civilization is dangerous as it provides justification for Beijing to do whatever it wants. In this case, bad history will lead to bad futures. https://t.co/gDucVgqTqY

— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) May 11, 2019