Tag: South Korea

It seems it will be hard to get the international community to take sanctions on North Korea seriously when South Korea has announced it is connecting a railroad with North Korea:

The United States on Monday called for the full enforcement of United Nations sanctions on North Korea as the two Koreas moved to establish rail and road links across their border.

The two Koreas will hold a ground-breaking ceremony in late November or early December to start the modernization and connection of railways and roads along the eastern and western regions, the sides announced after high-level talks earlier in the day.

The agreement is a follow-up to last month’s third summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

“As President Moon has stated: ‘The improvement of relations between North and South Korea cannot advance separately from resolving North Korea’s nuclear program,'” a spokesperson for the State Department said in response to a Yonhap query.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I am surprised this wasn’t a requirement a long time ago:

The U.S. military has ordered extra scrutiny for South Koreans who want to visit friends or attend events on American bases in Japan.

U.S. Forces Japan recently added the longtime American ally to a list of nations whose citizens must undergo additional screening before they can be escorted onto installations.

A copy of the list posted near the entrance to the home of USFJ in western Tokyo now features South Korea alongside about 50 other nations, including North Korea, China, Russia, Iran and Afghanistan.

“No personnel will escort a designated third country national onto Yokota Air Base,” says a sign posted next to the list, which also includes France. “It is the responsibility of the escort sponsor to verify the individual is not from one of the … designated countries.”

USFJ did not provide a reason for the new checks on South Koreans.

People from designated third countries aren’t authorized to enter U.S. bases in Japan without prior coordination of supporting agencies and approval by the installation commander, said Air Force Maj. Genieve White, a USFJ spokeswoman.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

I have to wonder how this guy walked around in the middle of the day and did this?:

Students at Dongduk Women’s University have been enraged after a man posted video clips of himself wandering around the campus, naked, and masturbating in a classroom.

Police are investigating the case and trying to identify the man after a complaint from the student council.

The case was made public Saturday after a student filed an online petition on Cheong Wa Dae’s website, calling on the government to guarantee women’s right to safety.

According to the petition, a man posted photos and video clips on Twitter, Oct. 6, in which he was wandering around empty classrooms and corridors of a building of the women’s university in the daytime naked. In one clip, he masturbated on a classroom desk.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Members of nongovernment organizations call for the deportation of “fake refugees” from South Korea in a rally held in downtown Seoul on Oct. 14, 2018. (Yonhap)

Probably the most surprising thing I learned from this article is that only 2% of freight is inspected coming into South Korea:

South Korean police said Monday they have busted the largest-ever operation to smuggle drugs into the country, a scheme they say involves Taiwanese and Japanese organized crime rings and Korean dealers.

Six people were arrested in the attempted trafficking of 112 kilograms of methamphetamine, an amount that is enough to be used simultaneously by 3.7 million people, according to police. It is estimated to be worth 370 billion won (US$326.56 million).

Among those arrested were a 25-year-old Taiwanese, a 32-year-old Japanese and a 63-year-old South Korean.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said the Taiwanese obtained a screw making machine on a ship at a port in the southeastern coastal city of Busan, which departed from Bangkok on July 6 this year. Concealed inside the machine were 112 bags packed with 1 kilogram of methamphetamine each.

The customs authorities failed to detect the smuggled drug as it was concealed inside the machine and sealed up by welding. Usually, it is almost impossible for the customs authorities to detect drug smuggling attempts at a port, the Korea Customs Service said.

The customs office conducts drug inspections on only 2 percent of freight sent into South Korea and lacks the time to do more. Sniffing dogs are of no use as methamphetamine has no color or smell, according to the office.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but if only 2% of freight is inspected it seems smuggling drugs into South Korea is incredibly easy.  Additionally it seems it would be easy for someone to smuggle in imports from North Korea in violation of sanctions which has already happened this year.

According to President Moon the Kim regime is supposed to be trusted so why the cyber attacks?:

South Korea is considering drawing up rules of engagement in cyberspace to effectively deal with growing threats from North Korea and other unidentified players, military authorities said Sunday.

“Since 2004, discussions have been under way at the U.N. meetings to enact international laws related to cyber war,” a source told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity. “We will closely watch the relevant situations and cautiously review and push for drawing up the rules of engagement.”

The envisioned rules of engagement are expected to provide a detailed guideline on how to respond to cyberattacks as soon as threats are detected. The military is also said to be developing its own cyber countermeasures, though details about what kinds of tools that can be employed have not been known.

The move comes as the number of cyberattacks against the country’s military has been on a steady rise in recent years.

According to the data, there were 3,587 hacking attempts against the defense ministry and the military from January to August this year. This compares with 1,434 cases detected during all of 2013.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but it is just the North Koreans and other bad actors up to their normal tricks with little fear of repercussions.

Think tanks' influence has ebbed b/c policymakers think they're *already* too beholden to foreign (& specifically, S. Korean) influence.
No amount of money can sell tired ideas that don't work or obscure that fact that Moon's policies prioritize Pyongyang's interests over ours. https://t.co/9Jd1kXIAsW

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) October 12, 2018

This is a pretty horrible accident that has killed five Korean mountain climbers in Nepal:

At least nine climbers, including five Korean nationals, are reported to have been killed in a massive landslide at Mt. Gurja in western Nepal.

The Himalayan Times reported on Saturday that the organizer of the expedition team said that the climbers were buried after the landslide hit their base camp.

According to AFP, a Nepalese police spokesman confirmed that a South Korean expedition was among a group of eight people killed in a snowstorm. The spokesman did not confirm the number of South Koreans killed or the details of the landslide.

The victims include Mountaineer Kim Chang-ho, the first Korean to summit the fourteen peaks above eight-thousand meters without supplemental oxygen.

The climbers were awaiting fair weather when a heavy snowstorm triggered the landslide that buried their base camp.  [KBS World Radio]

This was a pretty blunt reaction by President Trump to South Korea’s proposal to drop sanctions on North Korea:

South Korea on Thursday walked back on a proposal to lift some of its unilateral sanctions against North Korea following U.S. President Donald Trump’s blunt retort that Seoul could “do nothing” without Washington’s approval.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha had said on Wednesday that Seoul was considering lifting measures applied after a deadly attack in 2010 that killed 46 South Korean sailors. She cited the intent to create more diplomatic momentum for talks over North Korea’s nuclear program.

South Korean conservatives reacted with anger as well, and Kang’s ministry downplayed her comments later, saying in a statement that the government has yet to start a “full-fledged” review of sanctions, meaning no decision was imminent.

Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told a parliamentary audit on Thursday there has been no serious consideration given to lifting the sanctions and that doing so would be hard unless North Korea acknowledges responsibility for the 2010 attack. North Korea has fiercely denied it sank the Cheonan warship.  (………..)

“They won’t do that without our approval,” Trump said of the comments. “They do nothing without our approval.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but it appears there may be some friction coming out of the White House over President Moon’s willingness to push for dropping sanctions for little to nothing in return from North Korea.

The Moon administration says providing electricity, tap water not violating sanctions. The SK-NK mil agmt states inter-Korean road must be built by the year end & ensure "customs" in the E & W corridors. It imported NK coal many times. Do they not read the UNSCRs? #sanctions https://t.co/jLbqskBRd6

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) October 10, 2018