It will be interesting to see how strictly this is enforced:
Boarding bus passengers will now be greeted by signs telling them not to bring food and beverages on with them.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government put up signs at every bus stop and bus on Thursday. The signs read, “Let’s not carry coffee or any other food and beverages when boarding the bus. Bus drivers may deny passengers carrying any food or beverages in cups, or other unsanitary and dangerous items to maintain safety and prevent any harm to passengers.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Here is an update from the Stars & Stripes on the ongoing Yongsan Garrison relocation:
Yongsan Garrison
The Army garrison has started to shrink, although it’s still hard to tell from outside. The relocation is not expected to be completed for at least two more years.
Yongsan’s population, including the nearby K-16 air base, has plunged from 22,000 in May to 13,500 following the historic move in July of the Eighth Army from its aging red brick headquarters to Camp Humphreys.
It’s expected to drop as low as 8,000 by Aug. 18 according to the current trajectory, garrison commander Col. Scott Peterson said as he laid out a timeline during a town-hall meeting earlier this month.
The food court and post exchange have reduced hours. Gone is the Popeyes near the schools, which had been a popular student hangout. The commissary reduced the number of registers from 17 to 10 after much-needed equipment was transferred to Humphreys. The library also is being cut in size and no longer operates a drop box.
U.S. Forces Korea made the first adjustment to the perimeter in December when it closed a main access point along with some living quarters and offices, sealing off a section of a northern corner known as Camp Coiner. This area will be the U.S. Embassy’s new home.
Camp Kim, which has a USO building that closed Feb. 21, the Special Operations Command Korea and an office for vehicle registration, is on track to close in July, Peterson said, stressing that was contingent on SOCKOR’S plans.
“What’s left of the garrison will stay like it is for the next six to 12 months with no major adjustments to the perimeter. Inside the base, however, there will be some additional reductions of stuff, the losses of a few conveniences,” Peterson told residents gathered in a base chapel.
The next major milestone will be in December 2019 when the on-post hospital is due to close, triggering the departure of the last major unit. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read much more at the link, but I can remember 20 years ago talk of relocating Yongsan Garrison so it is good to see after all these years it is finally happening.
I have been saying for years that the ROK government should only agree to another Inter-Korean Summit if it is held in Seoul. Mr. William Brown an adjunct professor at Georgetown University shares this assessment:
Will President Moon Jae-in accept North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s invitation to Pyongyang?
It must be a very tricky decision for Moon. If he raises the issue of denuclearization, North Korea might revert to its belligerent stance.
But if Moon opts to go to Pyongyang for talks for the sake of talks it could jeopardize the alliance between South Korea and the United States, or other allies.
William Brown, adjunct professor at Georgetown School of Foreign Service, suggests Moon make a counteroffer by inviting Kim to Seoul to avoid the same old mistakes his liberal predecessors have made.
“We have seen far too many VIP trips to Pyongyang over the past decades, and every time, Pyongyang has hoodwinked the visitors into giving it something, even billions of dollars,” Brown said in an interview, citing former President Kim Dae-jung.
“I’m sure Kim Jong-un is well aware of that and in need of big money. So, Kim wants an improvement in inter-Korean ties but only to help him pursue his new ‘unification’ dream.”
He pointed out the North has “engagement” down to a fine art, knowing how to cater to foreign and South Korean egos. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but after the first Inter-Korean Summit in Pyongyang with ROK President Kim Dae-jung, the then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il promised to visit Seoul at the next Inter-Korean Summit. During the administration of ROK President Roh Moo-hyun a second Inter-Korean Summit was held in Pyongyang. Kim Jong-il said that he could not hold the summit in Seoul due to “security concerns”.
This is of course nonsense, the real reason he did not want to come to Seoul is because of the propaganda value it gives to the ROK government. The Kim regime has long held that the ROK government is an illegitimate puppet regime of the evil American Imperialists™. Kim Jong-un traveling to Seoul for talks gives legitimacy to the ROK government and eliminates the propaganda value to North Korea of ROK government leaders making kowtowing tribute visits to Pyongyang.
Considering the North Korean sympathizers within the Moon administration it is unlikely they would demand that the next Inter-Korean Summit be held in Seoul. Instead if the Trump administration says they would participate in a Inter-Korean Summit if it is held in Seoul this may force the ROK government’s hand to ask that the summit be held in Seoul. This would then put the onus on the Kim regime to see how serious they are about peace. If Kim Jong-un refuses to attend an Inter-Korean Summit in Seoul it shows he is not serious about peace and instead just looking for another payday.
Fortunately this guy was extremely incompetent in regards to his attempted attack on the US embassy in Seoul:
A Korean-Canadian man has been arrested for a botched Molotov cocktail attack on the U.S. embassy in Seoul, police said Monday.
The man, in his 30s, reportedly told police the attack was to punish the United States, which “has bullied South Korea and me.” He is known to have a mental disorder.
According to Jongno Police Station, which is in charge of the embassy’s external security, the man lit a handmade Molotov cocktail just outside the barbed wire fence encircling the embassy and was about to throw the fire bomb over the fence at 7 p.m. Sunday.
But he accidently dropped the Molotov cocktail into a bag filled with nine other Molotov cocktails, and set them all alight. He threw away the burning bag and fled, but was caught by police who rushed to the scene. [Korea Times]
Kim Yo-jong was school in Switzerland so she does know what a free city looks and feels like:
This photo, taken on Feb. 10, 2018, shows Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister (L) and Kim Yong-nam, the North’s ceremonial head of state (R), joining a dinner hosted by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon in Gangneung, the sub-host city of the Olympics. (pool photo) (Yonhap)
Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, said Seoul felt familiar even though it was her first-ever visit to the South, at an official dinner Saturday, according to a pool report.
“It doesn’t feel unfamiliar,” she replied when Choi Moon-soon, governor of Gangwon Province, asked her how she felt about Seoul.
Wearing a wine-colored jacket and black pants, Kim attended the dinner held at a hotel in Gangneung, the sub-host city of the Olympics. It was hosted by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon for North Korea’s high-level delegation.
North Korea’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam, Choe Hwi, the chairman of the National Sports Guidance Committee, and Ri Son-gwon, the head of the North’s state agency in charge of inter-Korean affairs, were also in attendance.
Kim Yong-nam celebrated the South’s hosting of the Winter Games.
“As the Olympics were opened successfully with applause from North and South Korea, we believe that the games will pave the way for the two sides’ reconciliation, and stronger inter-Korean ties, and furthermore for Koreans’ unity and unification,” Kim said. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but someone should have asked her if the city would have felt more like home if there were forced labor camps and executions?
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