Tag: South Korea

It must be a slow day for the Korean police to warrant raiding a blogger for rigging comments:

Police on Sunday raided a local publishing company run by an influential blogger as part of a probe into allegations that he ran a massive scheme to manipulate online comments in news articles about President Moon Jae-in.

Police sent investigators to search the premises in Paju, north of Seoul, and confiscate evidence, including digital files and surveillance footage, officials said.

Law enforcement authorities are investigating the suspected rigging of Internet news comments by the 48-year-old surnamed Kim, who’s now been charged along with two accomplices over the scandal. Kim, who goes by the nickname “Druking”, is alleged to have used a software program to jack up the number of clicks in support of the president.

The incident has sparked a fierce political dispute ahead of the June 13 local elections, as Rep. Kim Kyoung-soo of the ruling Democratic Party, a close aide to President Moon, is known to have been in contact with Druking for years.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Friday said Kim had sent Druking messages that contained the web addresses of certain news articles related to the president.  [Yonhap]

Maybe the Vietnamese should put statues up in front of the ROK embassy protesting South Korean killing of civilians during the Vietnam War like they Koreans have done with a comfort woman statue in front of the Japanese embassy:

Two Vietnamese victims of South Korea’s wartime misdeeds have called on the Seoul government to apologize and take steps to verify the truth behind the alleged mass killings during the 1960-75 war in their country.

They claimed that they are still haunted by the harrowing memories of their families being killed by South Korean troops deployed to fight in support of the United States during the Vietnam War.

They came here to testify before the “People’s Tribunal” slated to convene in Seoul on Saturday and Sunday. The tribunal, a mock trial designed to look into the incidents, is led by the local progressive civic group, called MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society.

“I want to ask … Why did South Korean troops fire guns and threw grenades at our family, then just women and children. Why did you set even our house on fire and bulldozed through dead bodies,” Nguyen Titan, a 58-year-old woman, said during a press conference at the National Assembly.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the Minbyun group of lawyers are hard core leftists.  In the past they have attacked the USFK base relocation, tried to bring back the US beef issue, and tried to have North Korean defectors forcibly returned to North Korea.  So why would hard core leftists be bringing up this issue now with a left wing government in power?  They are likely going to use this issue to attack and blame conservative ROK politicians for since former South Korean strongman Park Chung-hee was in power at the time.

This seems like a long time after the fact to be complaining to the ROK Defense Ministry to clean up soil pollution:

The city government of Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, has demanded the defense ministry conduct an examination into soil contamination at a former U.S. military base site in the city, officials said Tuesday.

The Uijeongbu city government bought the former Camp Sears site from the defense ministry in 2012 after the land was returned to the ministry in 2007 under a base consolidation and relocation plan, known as the Land Partnership Program (LPP).

Nine oil tanks had existed on the base to supply oil to other American bases north of Seoul. When the site was returned, most of the land was contaminated, with total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) levels up to 73 times the maximum permissible levels.

The ministry commissioned the Korea Environment Corporation to clean up the site from 2009 and 2012 before the Uijeongbu city government purchased the land as part of a project to establish an administrative complex housing public and government agencies.

Last month, the city broke ground at the site to build a fire department headquarters.

But the construction was halted recently as oil residue was found at the site. Tests were conducted on samples taken from four locations at the site, and two of them had TPH levels of 836 mg per kilogram and 585 mg/kg, which is higher than the permissible 500 mg/kg, officials said.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but the ROK Defense Ministry wants tests to be done to prove the pollution is from military activity and not from someone dumping it there after the handover.  Camp Sears was closed all the way back in 2005 and it was no secret that fuel tanks were on the base.  Here is a 2011 picture of the fuel tanks from after the closure of Camp Sears:

You would think that the city would have done a thorough inspection for pollution around the old fuel tanks.  On the old site of Camp Sears a number of government offices were built after its closure and maybe the ROK Defense Ministry is concerned that construction companies were dumping waste on that side of the camp?

Very rarely have I seen President Moon be criticized in the media, but it looks like he is finally facing some heat for his domestic job policies:

South Korea has been trapped in a paradox of employment.

Domestically, the more effort the government makes, the more difficult it is for young people to find decent jobs.

In other words, President Moon Jae-in’s job policies are limiting the creation of new, quality jobs in the private sector.

Last year, Moon implemented a supplementary budget of 11.2 trillion won ($10.5 billion) to create jobs and formulated another extra budget plan of 3.9 trillion won early this month. However, the job market situation has taken a turn for the worse.

The jobless rate reached 4.5 percent in March, the highest level in 17 years. The number of jobs created came to 112,000 from the same month a year ago, sharply down from January’s 334,000.

Internationally, Korea is isolated in its job market recovery.

Many big economies, including the U.S. and Japan, are showing handsome figures in employment, while Korea’s labor market has stayed in the doldrums.

The jobless rate for the U.S. stood at 4.1 percent in March, the lowest level in 17 years. Japan’s unemployment rate was at 2.5 percent in the same month, similar to 2.4 percent in February, the lowest in nearly 25 years.

The employment fiasco for Asia’s fourth-largest economy is the outcome of a toxic mixture of three forces ― Moon’s contradictory policies, market uncertainties and technology.

First, a surge in the unemployment rate is paradoxically associated with Moon’s job policies.

The Moon administration has been trying to take the initiative in job creation rather than encouraging the private sector to hire new employees.

Moon has focused on creating jobs in the public sector by hiring more civil servants and turning irregular workers into regular ones.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I never did see how adding a bunch of government jobs without a justification for them would help the economy?

It seems to me people are getting way ahead of themselves in regards to the upcoming Inter-Korean Summit ending the Korean War:

South and North Korea are discussing plans to announce an official end to the military conflict between the two countries that are still technically at war, the Munhwa Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unidentified South Korean official.

At next week’s summit between South Korea President Moon Jae-in and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, the two neighbors may release a joint statement saying they will seek to ease military tension and to end confrontation, according to the report.  [Bloomberg]

Before people get all euphoric about the end of the Korean War it is important to realize South Korea cannot negotiate an end to the Korean War because they are not a signatory to the Armistice Agreement.  They will need China, the United States, and United Nations to agree to it as well.  So what exactly is being negotiated?:

“We are devising and discussing various ways to develop the security situation surrounding the peninsula into a permanent peace regime,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “One such way may be changing the armistice agreement to a peace treaty, and we are reviewing the possibility of it.”

But he said South Korea alone cannot decide on ending the war as the issue requires close discussion with countries directly involved, including North Korea.

Although the armistice was signed by North Korea, China and the United Nations Command, without South Korea, the official said it is undeniable South Korea is one of the countries directly involved.

“But the two Koreas alone cannot decide on signing a peace treaty, so we may have to seek a three-party or four-party agreement if necessary.”

He noted that when Moon’s special envoys visited Pyongyang in March, Kim himself said his country would not take military action against the South.

“In the joint declaration to be announced by Moon and Kim after the summit, we want to include an agreement to ban hostilities, although it is not known yet whether we can use the term ‘end of the war,'” the official said. “However, we expect to include such an agreement in some form of expression.”  [Korea Times]

That is the key term being negotiated, “a ban on hostilities”.   I would be surprised if President Trump signs up for a peace treaty ending the war without verifiable denuclearization by North Korea.  The Kim regime probably understands this as well.  I think what the Kim regime may be trying to do is at least get an agreement to ban hostilities in order to make it more difficult for President Trump to launch a strike when they inevitably break whatever agreement they sign up for.

If the past is any indication of the future, they will break the agreement after receiving the aid they want and blame the US or ROK for its failure for some imaginary reason.  The ban on hostilities could then possibly constrain the US President from responding militarily while the Kim regime continues to break the agreement.  If the US does strike anyway the Kim regime can then claim that the US broke the hostility agreement and thus justify them expanding their nuclear program and taking whatever hostilities they want.  In the minds of the Kim regime, they win either way.

Korean TV channel asks: why are you stupid foreigners (Benedict Cumberbatch, Anne Hathaway, Keanu Reeves) coming here and doing a namaste to us? Is this your standard “oriental” greeting? https://t.co/6gHOTXMPGf

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) April 16, 2018

Korean tourism numbers may be up on Guam, but they are not spending nearly as much as Japanese tourists:

Visitor arrivals from Korea are making up for a decline in arrivals from Japan, but since last summer, Guam Visitors Bureau officials have noted the average Korean tourist spends much less on island than the average Japanese tourist.

Lately, they’ve been spending about one-third of what the average Japanese visitor spends here, according to the tourism agency.

As of January, the average Japanese traveler spent about $578 per day on island, compared to only $187.40 per day for a Korean traveler. The figures are similar for February, according to GVB, although that spending report hasn’t been released.

“We’re seeing a lot more cost-conscious visitors,” Nico Fujikawa, GVB tourism research director, said about visitors from Korea. “They’re looking for a deal. They’re kind of like locals.”  [Guam PDN]

You can read more at the link.

In a just world, there would be a statue of a North Korean sex trafficking victim in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul.https://t.co/Yuifs0qkuv

— (((Joshua))) Stanton (@freekorea_us) April 13, 2018

Students at an elementary school in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, wear masks during class as a nearby factory leaked harmful gas on April 13, 2018. (Yonhap)

This is absolutely horrible:

A missing dog has been found killed and eaten by a neighbor.

According to the Pyeongtaek Police Station, Tuesday, a woman in her 30s reported to the police that her lost dog might have been eaten by someone.

She lost her two-year-old Welsh Corgi in Cheongbuk-eup, Pyeongtaek City, Gyeonggi Province, March 4.

The woman offered 1 million won ($936) as a reward to find the dog and put up signs in the streets.

While she was searching for the dog, she got a tip from a friend who said, “Someone has eaten the dog.”

The suspect was a 63-year-old neighbor.

He told the police that the dog was barking too much in the yard so he threw a rock at it. Then the dog was knocked out so he strangled him with electric wires.  [Korea Times]