Unsurprisingly the Moon administration is claiming they can’t blame the North Koreans for sinking the Cheonan while the Kim regime rubs this sinking in their faces by sending the mastermind of the attack to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics:
Kim Yong-chol
The South Korean government said Friday that it is difficult to pinpoint who led North Korea’s deadly sinking of the warship Cheonan in 2010, amid controversy surrounding a planned visit by a senior Pyongyang official widely suspected of masterminding the attack.
Kim Yong-chol, a top North Korean official, will come to the South for a three-day visit on Sunday as the head of the North’s high-level delegation to PyeongChang Winter Olympics closing ceremony later in the day. Conservatives and families of the 46 victims are strongly opposing his visit.
“It is clear that North Korea was blamed for the warship sinking and Kim was leading North Korea’s reconnaissance bureau at that time,” Baik Tae-hyun, spokesman at Seoul’s unification ministry, told a press briefing.
“But it is also the fact that there is a limitation in pinpointing who was responsible for the incident.” [Yonhap]
The radical leftists in South Korea probably think that former Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye swam out and sunk the Cheonan before pinning the blame on North Korea. This reminds me just like what happened in 2002 after the West Sea Naval Battle where six ROK sailors were killed by a North Korean attack. The left wing Roh Moo-hyun administration deflected blame for the attack and actually blamed the sailors:
In commemoration of the second anniversary of the West Sea naval battle, memorial services were held at the headquarters of the Navy’s 2nd Fleet in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on Tuesday. Hwang Eun-tae, father of the late Petty Officer First Class Hwang Do-hyun, weeps while reading a letter in front of his son’s portrait.
The father said, “My son is buried in the National Cemetery. But I’m going to take my son’s remains to my family burial site in my hometown.” Having watched the situation develop, he thought his son who was killed by North Korean soldiers was considered nothing more than a criminal.
Some parents said that they are more scared of people who consider the U.S. a bigger enemy than North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who killed their son. We lose courage to defend the country, when we hear that a wife whose husband fell in the battle is preparing to leave this country. Reading a condolence letter from the USFK commander to mark the second anniversary, the wife said, “The Americans remember my husband and his brothers-in-arms better than Koreans… Frankly, I hate Korea.”
I can only imagine the frustration the surviving family members of the 46 sailors who died on the Cheonan will experience when they see the red carpet laid out by the ROK government for a murderer like Kim Yong-chol.
South Korea’s infamous “molar daddy” has been rightfully given the death penalty after raping and killing a 14-year old girl:
Lee Young-hak
A Seoul court on Wednesday meted out a death sentence for a man charged with killing a school friend of his daughter after sexually molesting her.
The Seoul Northern District Court handed down the gravest possible punishment on Lee Young-hak, 36, who had confessed to choking a 14-year-old girl to death in his home last September after committing lewd acts on her body while she was drugged.
Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty.
The court sentenced his daughter, whose identity was not revealed, to four years in prison for luring the friend to the house and helping her father dump her body. But her sentence can be extended up to six years in case of an infraction during her four-year imprisonment. [Korea Times]
As I expected Ivanka Trump continued to communicate the US’s position of maximum pressure on North Korea to President Moon:
Ivanka Trump, daughter of the U.S. President Donald Trump / Yonhap
Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, reiterated a maximum pressure campaign against North Korea, in a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Friday.
She said Washington and Seoul “reaffirmed commitment to a maximum pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized,” ahead of a dinner hosted by Moon at Cheong Wa Dae.
“We continue to reaffirm our joint values and strategic cooperation as partners and allies,” she said.
Ivanka leads the U.S. delegation which arrived in Seoul earlier in the day, to attend the Games’ closing ceremony on Sunday. The delegation includes Senator James Risch, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Allison Hooker, a National Security Council (NSC) official specializing in Korean affairs. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but the article also says she is not expected to meet with the North Korean delegation either. Outside of the North Korean delegation suddenly saying they are open to denuclearization and ending their ICBM program I don’t see why the US delegation should meet with them?
For every asshole taxi driver that refused a ride, refused to stop, drove away as I was opening a door, tried to cheat me, or even stopped to argue with a bus driver while the fare was running–Karma's a bitch, huh? https://t.co/1hbt3sWiL7
South Korean rapper CL responds to reporters’ questions during a press conference at the Main Press Center in PyeongChang, northeastern South Korea, on Feb. 21, 2018, about her plan to take the stage at the closing ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, scheduled for Feb. 25. (Yonhap)
Former Financial Times journalist John Burton thinks the Trump administration is to paternalistic with South Korea and should let them settle their own differences with North Korea:
John Burton
The U.S. has been doing itself no favors in its rather paternalistic response to the thawing relations between the two Koreas at the Winter Olympics.
The bottom line message emerging from Washington is that South Koreans cannot be trusted in handling Pyongyang. The U.S. is worried that North Korea is trying to drive a wedge in relations between Seoul and Washington. But the Trump administration’s own behavior is contributing to the possibility of any split.
And if the South Koreans can’t be trusted with their own security, then why should the U.S. be so concerned about defending them unless it is for some ulterior motive such as maintaining a military presence on the Asian mainland to counter China?
The fact is that the Koreans have reached out to each other because of fears that Trump might launch a “bloody nose” preventive attack that could result in appalling destruction across the Korean Peninsula. No wonder why Koreans want to give peace a chance.
But the U.S. has not reacted well to what is happening in PyeongChang. The American media has reported about South Koreans having been seduced by the wily charms of Kim Yo-jong, described as North Korea’s Ivanka Trump, and her accompanying “army of beauties.”
Many predict that her siren song is likely to result in President Moon Jae-in accepting her invitation to travel to Pyongyang and meet her brother, Kim Jong-un, who will trick the South Koreans into undermining the international sanctions regime against North Korea over its nuclear program. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but Mr. Burton is also upset with Vice President Pence not standing and showing respect to the North Korean delegation at the Winter Olympics. I have to wonder if Mr. Burton thinks the then Apartheid South Africa should have been allowed in the Olympics and shown proper respect as well?
Mr. Burton then goes on to say the South and North should be allowed to resolve their issues themselves without US interference. That boat has long ago sailed when North Korea decided to begin launching ICBMs and testing nuclear weapons capable of mass destruction in the United States. If North Korea was not conducting such activities threats of “bloody nose” strikes and “maximum pressure” campaigns by the Trump administration would not be happening.
Until North Korea gives up on these programs the United States will continue to have a vested interest in any negotiations between North and South Korea. Especially after the original Sunshine Policy that sent billions of dollars to North Korea is arguably the reason why the Kim regime now has nuclear and ICBM weapons to threaten the US with. Because of this the Trump administration rightfully should be advocating against any give aways by the Moon administration to the Kim regime for little or nothing in return.
Friendship between top Korean and Japanese female skaters one of the feel-good stories of the Olympics. They cheer each other on, send gifts and keep in touch away from competitions. pic.twitter.com/MWhXwlTskJ
I am surprised Lufthansa had Dokdo on the map in the first place considering it is such a tiny terrain feature:
German airline Lufthansa has come under criticism in Korea after deciding to remove Dokdo, Korea’s easternmost islets that Japan falsely claims as its own, from its in-flight maps.
“The software has been updated and will be installed on the aircraft at the end of this week at the latest. The name of the island will not be shown anymore,” Lufthansa told The Korea Times Tuesday.
The company also said it had no intention to insult any party and regretted any inconvenience the decision might cause.
The decision came after a Japanese passenger’s complaint about the description of Dokdo, which was written in English and Japanese, on a Tokyo-Munich flight in December. The passenger claimed the name should be “Takeshima.”
It is unclear whether Lufthansa will remove Dokdo from the aircraft for that route only or all of them, including planes that fly from Korea’s Incheon to Frankfurt and Munich. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but of course some Koreans are calling for a boycott of Lufthansa in order to get it to restore Dokdo to its inflight map.
This is an interesting story about the relative of the namesake of Camp Casey serving at the 2nd ID installation:
Second Lt. Sarah Casey, an officer with the 210 Field Artillery Brigade, stands in front a converted armored personnel carrier at Camp Casey, South Korea, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2017.
Second Lt. Sarah Casey shares a name with her duty station, a small artillery outpost near the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
The artillery platoon leader from Collierville, Tenn., played along with the ribbing when folks greeted her with comments like, “Casey at Casey!” after glancing at her name tape. Until last month, when she revealed her secret. The camp was named in honor of her great-uncle, Maj. Hugh B. Casey, a World War II veteran killed in the Korean War who was awarded two Silver Stars during the liberation of the Philippines.
“I’m not here to say, ‘Hi, I’m Sarah Casey at Camp Casey,’ ” she said. “I think it’s important to remember the sacrifices of all those who came before us; that’s what the real story is to me.”
Sarah Casey was 26 when she arrived in South Korea — the same age her great-uncle was when he lost his life. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link and learn more about Camp Casey at this link.
If it's video games and not easy availability of guns, then South Korea would have a lot more shootings than its current count of ZERO https://t.co/kPN4frO8fa
