President Moon Jae-in (R) gives a letter of appointment to Yoo Nam-seok, new chief justice of the Constitutional Court, at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Sept. 21, 2018. (Yonhap)
If the ROK is removing landmines which are part of their defenses along the DMZ, shouldn’t the North Koreans do something in return like withdraw large parts of their military away from the DMZ?:
South and North Korea will begin to implement the inter-Korean military accord signed during last week’s summit between their leaders in Pyongyang.
The two Koreas plan to remove mines and explosives in the Demilitarized Zone area located near Cherwon, Gangwon Province for two months from October first.
The removal is part of preparations for a joint excavation of remains of about 300 soldiers killed during the Korean War, including those of United Nations forces.
The two Koreas will also remove mines around the truce village of Panmunjeom from October first to 20th as part of a plan to disarm the troops in the Joint Security Area in the DMZ. [KBS World Radio]
I don’t see any angle on how this rise of illegal immigration into South Korea during the Moon administration gives him any political advantage, unlike in the US. Does anyone have any ideas why the Moon administration is allowing a rise in illegal immigration?:
The number of foreign nationals staying in South Korea illegally increased by nearly 100,000 on-year to surpass 330,000 this year, government data showed Sunday.
According to the data by the Ministry of Justice, 330,005 foreigners were staying in the country without a valid visa as of July, up 97,834 from 232,171 logged July of last year.
The data — which showed the number of illegal aliens over the past 10 years — was submitted to the National Assembly.
The annual average number of reported crimes committed by foreigners came to 43,635 over the past five years, the data showed.
The number came to 34,460 in 2013 and steadily increased to peak at 53,151 in 2016 and slightly down to 45,671 in 2017. [Yonhap]
Bumper-to-bumper traffic clogs one side of a highway to the port city of Busan in Seoul’s Seocho Ward on Sept. 21, 2018, as the annual rush began of travelers heading to their hometowns and resort areas for the Chuseok holiday, the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving. Chuseok falls on Sept. 24 this year. Transportation authorities say more than 36.54 million people are expected to commute between Sept. 21-26. (Yonhap)
Considering the media controls the Moon administration has put on the press in South Korea why is anyone surprised by this?:
Journalists, including those from outside South Korea, attend to covering the third inter-Korean summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Sept. 18-20 at the Main Press Center in Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Joint Press Corps
Foreign reporters based in Seoul are upset that they were not invited to Pyongyang to cover the three-day inter-Korean summit from Tuesday to Thursday.
“Foreign media should be there because it is an international event surrounding the biggest foreign policy concern of the U.S.,” NK News managing director Chad O’Carroll told The Korea Times, Wednesday.
He has made five times of trips to the North since 2010.
“South Korean media were welcomed en masse to Singapore and hundreds of South Korean journalists went, because that issue was as much of concern to Seoul as the inter-Korean summit is to foreigners,” he said.
Although a journalist with South Korea’s English media was included in the media delegation to Pyongyang, O’Carroll said there was still need to invite foreign reporters to provide different perspectives to global audiences. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but Mr. O’Carroll is a smart guy and I am sure he understands the Kim regime and the Moon administration do not want different perspectives. They planned a carefully crafted narrative for the Inter-Korean Summit and allowing foreign reporters was something that could potentially chip away at the narrative they created.
It figures that the Dokdo issue would some how come up during the recent Inter-Korean Summit:
Choi turned a set of cards into a large card that showed the Unification Flag. Korea Times file
Magician Choi Hyun-woo, who went to Pyongyang as part of the South Korean delegation for the three-day inter-Korean summit, presented a magic show to the leaders of the two Koreas Tuesday night at Mokran (Magnolia) House.
“I was nervous at the moment,” The Kyunghyang Shinmun quoted Choi as saying. He said he was bit worried as he heard North Korean leader Kim Jong-un likes magic and he did not want to let him down.
During dinner on Tuesday, Choi performed card tricks that engaged the leaders and their wives.
“The first theme was telepathy, that is, to communicate telepathically,” Choi said.
For example, if President Moon Jae-in chose a card in his mind, Kim had to guess what card that was.
“It went well with President Moon and Chairman Kim, as well as with the two first ladies who were telepathic with each other,” the magician said.
“At the end, I turned the cards into a large card with a Korean Peninsula flag on it to show a message of going together in harmony. I was surprised when the two leaders pointed out the same thing that Dokdo (the rocky islets in the East Sea) was displayed on the card.” [Korea Times]
More apartment construction is coming to the greater Seoul area:
The former site of the Seongdong Detention Center in Songpa District, southeastern Seoul, on Friday. [YONHAP]The government named 17 sites where 35,000 apartment units will be built in the greater Seoul area, one of its attempts to cool off the overheated real estate market.
This is the first batch of sites the government announced. An additional 13 sites and 265,000 units will be announced later, including four to five “new cities” to be built next to the first generation of new cities such as Ilsan and Bundang in Gyeonggi.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Friday said it plans to supply 10,000 apartment units in Seoul on 11 sites. However only two areas in Seoul were disclosed as it is still working with the Seoul city government. The ministry said the Seoul government will announce the nine remaining sites.
The ones that were disclosed were Songpa District, southeastern Seoul, where the relocated Seongdong Detention Center used to stand, and Gaepo-dong, Gangnam District, southern Seoul. The two sites that were named are located on the edge of the nation’s capital, contrary to previous speculation that they would be located in the center of the city. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but Uijongbu has been selected as a suburb of Seoul that will also have more apartments constructed. The government has not released where the apartments will be built, but with the closure of Camp Red Cloud in the near future, the old USFK military base could become yet another area in Korea covered in apartments.
The FED became an oddly located military installation after Seoul’s explosive growth. It is now about to finally close:
A Korean War-era Quonset hut stands at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District compound in Seoul, South Korea, July 31, 2018.
A few blocks from the sloping, spaceship-shaped Dongdaemun Design Plaza in one of Seoul’s trendiest fashion districts is another odd sight.
A tiny U.S. Army base sits just across the street from a hospital morgue and adjacent to a park that blocks its view from a major thoroughfare.
Know as FED, the compound has been home to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District, headquarters since the 1950-53 Korean War. Before that it was the site of a Japanese-built school from the nearly four decades when Japan occupied the peninsula until its defeat in World War II.
Surrounded by concrete and brick walls lined with concertina wire, the 13-acre base can be easy to miss, one of several sub-installations that belong to the larger Yongsan Garrison just a few miles away.
But its history reflects the highs and lows of the U.S. presence in the South Korean capital. In a final act, the Corps of Engineers is preparing to close the base after it moves to Camp Humphreys as part of the long-delayed relocation of most U.S. forces south of Seoul.
Kenneth Pickler, 64, the Far East District’s transportation chief, has worked on the compound since he was first deployed there as a soldier 1989, then took a job as a civilian after retiring from active duty.
The Cloverdale, Calif., native plans to retire after the FED compound closes, although he plans to remain in South Korea.
“My last official duty is to shut off the lights, lock the gate and hand the keys over … back to the garrison,” he told Stars and Stripes in an interview last month. “And that’s supposed to happen in mid-November.” [Stars and Stripes]
You can read much more at the link such as the fact that a third of the buildings at the FED were built by the Japanese. The first building was the Gyeongseong School of Education built in 1922 that is the main building used on the compound.
There is also an interesting story about a fuel leak mess created by the South Koreans when they razed an old Japanese courthouse adjacent to the FED back in the 1990’s that the US had to clean up. It reminded me of the current fuel leak controversy over at Yongsan Garrison frequently blamed on USFK.
After the base closes in November there are not current plans on what the ROK will do with the land. Considering that there are a number of Japanese era buildings on the property the bulldozer is likely coming for them.
The head of state visit, yet no #SouthKorean flag whatsoever. Only flags of #NorthKorea & unification. What does it say about how Kim Jong-un thinks about 1)SK? 2)president Moon Jae-in? What does it say about Moon, who is not only fine with it, but just beaming (in other pics)? pic.twitter.com/b0IsMCnFag
President Moon has returned to South Korea after a photo shoot with Kim Jong-un on North Korea’s highest mountain, Mt. Paekdu:
South Korean President Moon Jae-in (2nd from R) and his wife, Kim Jung-sook, (R) pose for a photo with their North Korean counterparts Kim Jong-il and Ri Sol-ju during their joint trip to Mount Paekdu in North Korea on Sept. 20, 2018. (Joint Press Corps-Yonhap
South Korean President Moon Jae-in returned home Thursday after a three-day trip to North Korea for his third summit with leader Kim Jong-un.
Moon arrived at Seoul Air Base at 5:36 p.m., about two hours after his flight left North Korea’s Samjiyon airport near Mount Paekdu.
His departure from the North came after a joint trip with Kim to Mount Paekdu that highlighted the success of their bilateral summit in Pyongyang. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but it is expected that President Moon will next turn his attention on President Trump to get him to drop sanctions in return for North Korea’s “Pretend Denuclearization“.
