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Public Tours of the JSA to Restart This Week

For anyone looking to take a tour of the JSA, the popular tours will restart this week:

Tours to the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjom will resume this week and visitors will be allowed to explore an expanded area, the South Korean defense ministry said Monday.
The popular tours to the Joint Security Area, which straddles the heavily fortified border, were suspended in October to facilitate efforts to demilitarize the buffer zone.
North and South Korea agreed during their historic April 27, 2018, summit in Panmunjom to allow visitors freedom of movement within the JSA from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
That plan has been delayed because the U.S.-led United Nations Command, which oversees the area, and the two Koreas have not agreed on a joint code of conduct deemed necessary for security purposes.
South Korea decided “to resume field trips on the southern side” beginning Wednesday to mark the summit’s first anniversary, according to the defense ministry.
Past tours, which local officials have said drew some 100,000 visitors per year, were tightly controlled.
Visitors will now get to see more sites than had been previously allowed, including the blue footbridge where South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had a private chat and the pine tree that was planted to commemorate the meeting.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Korean Ruling Party Trying to Establish A Special Investigative Unit to Target Corruption

So does anyone think this bill is intended root out corruption or people that don’t agree with the politics of the Moon administration?:

Lawmakers of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party hold a rally at the National Assembly in Seoul on April 29, 2019, to oppose four other parties’ bid to fast-track key reform bills. (Yonhap)

he ruling Democratic Party (DP) decided Monday to fast-track two bills on establishing a special investigative unit tasked with probing allegations of corruption by high-ranking officials.
Earlier in the day, the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party (BP) proposed a separate bill on limiting the authority of the probe unit and fast-tracking both its bill and a relevant measure proposed by it and three other parties last week.
The National Assembly faces heightened tensions as the DP and three minor parties agreed last week to fast-track four bills linked to electoral reform and the establishment of a unit to investigate alleged corruption by high-ranking government and public officials. (………)

The BP bill calls for setting up a panel to review the appropriateness of charges filed by the probe unit, a tool aimed at preventing it from wielding excessive authority for indictment. Under the four parties’ deal, the unit will be able to indict only judges, prosecutors and high-ranking police officers, an institutional tool that can keep prosecutors in check.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: Evil Eyes

Picture of the Day: Samsung’s Vertical TV

Samsung Electronics will introduce a vertical television for younger viewers who are accustomed to watching content on vertical smartphone screens. The Sero allows viewers to watch YouTube videos, shop online, play games and scan Instagram posts on its 43-inch vertical screen with enhanced audio, according to the firm. The television can also be rotated to a more traditional horizontal form. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

President Trump Alludes that South Korea Needs to Pay More for Defense

The next round of cost sharing negotiations should be interesting:

U.S. President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the White House in Washington on Friday and hold a summit discussing North Korea issues. [AP/YONHAP]

U.S. President Donald Trump, after a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, demanded Saturday a drastic increase in Korea’s contribution to defense sharing costs next year.

“We are defending wealthy countries. They can well afford to pay us,” Trump said Saturday in a campaign rally at the Resch Center Complex in Green Bay, Wisconsin. “There’s one country, I don’t want to say it, I don’t want to embarrass anybody […] I called the country. I called and said, listen, no good.”

Given the context and Trump’s earlier statements, it was obvious he was referring to South Korea. 

“We are losing $4.5 billion. We can’t do this anymore,” Trump said. “He got very upset, angry […] He said, well, we will give you 500 million more, because the budget, you see, had already been set. I said, I want more. We argued. They paid us more than $500 million more for one phone call. I’m not bragging.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

South Korea Begins Naval Exercise with ASEAN Countries in Busan

There will be some naval action going in the waters off of Busan this week:

A large-scale multinational maritime exercise will begin in the country’s southern port city of Busan this week.

The Navy said on Sunday that South Korea, the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other partner countries will kick off a combined maritime security exercise in Busan from Monday to Thursday and in Singapore from May 9th to 13th.

The exercise involves 18 member countries of the maritime security expert working group of the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), a defense dialogue mechanism involving ASEAN and other countries, including the United States.

The Navy said 12 countries will send 16 warships and six aircraft for the exercise, while six other countries will send only military personnel.

KBS World Radio

50,000 South Korean Conservatives Rally to Protest Moon Administration Electoral Reform Bill

This is the largest conservative protest I can remember in quite some time if the 50,000 number is accurate:

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party leader, Hwang Kyo-ahn, makes a speech during a rally against the proposed fast-track of key bills by the ruling Democratic Party and other rival parties, in central Seoul on April 27, 2019. (Yonhap)

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) took to the streets Saturday to launch an all-out protest against a joint move by ruling and other rival political parties to fast-track key bills, including an electoral reform.
LKP legislators and party members, wearing red T-shirts with the message, “We will fight till the end” written on them, gathered in central Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square for the demonstration.
The LKP put the estimate of attendees at Saturday’s rally at 50,000. 
LKP leader Hwang Kyo-ahn took the podium and made a resounding speech lashing out at the liberal Moon Jae-in government and the ruling Democratic Party (DP) as those who “try to use the fast-track to their own advantage” so as to gain an upper hand in next year’s parliamentary elections. 
“We’re waging a fair struggle so as to derail this barbaric fast-track action,” he said.
LKP floor leader Na Kyung-won also had her turn at the podium, condemning the move as “an act by the leftists that gravely undermines parliamentary democracy and the Constitution.”

“The leftists are trying to wipe out this country’s free democracy. They have humiliated the National Assembly that represents our people,” she shouted. “The electoral (reform) bill is a tool they need to extend their terms in power for as long as they want.”
Four parties, not including the LKP, agreed Monday to a package deal to fast-track bills on electoral reform, the establishment of a special unit to investigate alleged corruption by high-ranking public officials and enhancement of the police’s authority to conduct probes.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if the 50,000 number is true the conservative protests are getting larger, but I believe that only if they get over 100,000 does it mean that the general South Korean public is turning on the Moon administration.

Tweet of the Day: Do You Know Anyone In Korea Like This?

Picture of the Day: Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s Birthday

PM Lee attends anniv. of birth of Adm. Yi Sun-sin
PM Lee attends anniv. of birth of Adm. Yi Sun-sinPrime Minister Lee Nak-yon lights an incense stick at a ceremony marking the 474th anniversary of the birth of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the 16th-century hero renowned for his victories over Japanese invasion forces from 1592-1598, at a temple in Asan, 100 kilometers south of Seoul, on April 28, 2019. (Yonhap)

President Trump Confirms that No Payment was Made to North Korea for Otto Warmbier’s Release

President Trump is confirming that they did not pay North Korea any money for the release of Otto Warmbier:

Otto Warmbier

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States did not pay any money to North Korea as it sought the release of Otto Warmbier, a day after a report said Trump had approved a $2 million bill from Pyongyang for the American student’s care.
“No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else,” Trump wrote in a tweet.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump had approved payment of a $2 million bill from Pyongyang to cover its care of the comatose college student, who was held in a North Korean prison for 17 months until June 2017.
Warmbier, a University of Virginia student from Ohio visiting North Korea as a tourist, was imprisoned in January 2016. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly trying to steal an item with a propaganda slogan from his hotel, North Korean state media said.
Warmbier died six days after his release from North Korea. An Ohio coroner said Warmbier died from a lack of oxygen and blood to his brain. North Korea, which has dismissed claims that it tortured the student, blamed food poisoning and a sleeping pill.
The Treasury Department received the bill from North Korea and it remained unpaid through 2017, the Post reported. It was not clear whether the administration paid the invoice later.

Yahoo News via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but the real story is the media narrative being created by the Washington Post that originally published the article. Instead of getting a response from the Trump administration on if they paid for Warmbier’s release they write an article implicating that Trump paid “ransom” money for Warmbier’s release. Later after the news cycle has moved on and White House denies any payment, far fewer people see this news.