Tag: South Korea

This is definitely the stupid thing I read all day:

A court has fined a man, 73, who spread a false rumor online that Lee Hee-ho, widow of late former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, planned to marry American hip-hop musician Andre Romelle Young, better known as Dr. Dre.

Seoul Western District Court fined the man 5 million won ($4,400) on Friday on charges of cyber defamation and defamation against the deceased.  [Korea Times]

I don’t know what is stupider the fact that someone would actually believe Dr. Dre would marry Kim Dae-jung’s elderly widow or that fact the person who published the blog was fined $4,400 for posting it.

It will be interesting to see if the protesters allow the additional THAAD equipment on to the site considering the blockade they have been maintaining.  Will the Moon administration be willing to send in police to forcibly remove grandmas and grandpas off of the road?  We are about to find out:

South Korea is poised to complete the installment of a US missile shield next week, officials said Friday, despite unabated controversy over the Moon Jae-in government’s flip-flopping on the timing of the deployment.

The stationing of the remaining four launchers of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system comes as the Environment Ministry wraps up a small-scale environmental review. The equipment will join the already operational two launchers, radar and other assets to form a full-fledged battery.

The move will also coincide with a maiden face-to-face meeting between South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo and US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, set for Wednesday in Washington.

“Currently a small-scale environmental impact assessment is under way, and I can’t say it for certain, but the results are likely to come out around Monday,” a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters on customary condition of anonymity.

The Ministry of National Defense echoed the view, saying the four launchers and related apparatus will be brought to the site in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, as soon as the survey is finished.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

Participants call for the government to stop rice imports during a rally of female farmers from across the nation in front of the National Assembly in Seoul on Aug. 23, 2017. (Yonhap)

From my anecdotal conversations with South Koreans they were more worried about what President Trump starting a war than what Kim Jong-un.  However, as recent events have shown it appears that President Trump like past presidents has come to the conclusion like many South Koreans that war with North Korea would be too deadly for all involved for anyone to start one:

Sirens wailed across Seoul and other South Korean cities on Wednesday, signaling the start of a nationwide civil-defense drill to prepare for a possible threat from the North.

But Lee Buny, a 42-year-old broadcast writer, was more interested in getting to work than finding a bomb shelter. Like many South Koreans, she’s used to threatening rhetoric from the North but doesn’t believe the communist state will ever follow through on threats to conduct an attack on the divided peninsula.

“I’m not worried because it’s the same story I’ve heard since I was born. North Korea keeps saying the same thing over and over again,” she said. “I don’t think North Korea will do anything.”

South Korea regularly holds civil-defense drills to make sure its citizens know what to do in case of an emergency such as a national disaster or an attack from the North, which is believed to have tens of thousands of soldiers and a massive artillery force poised near the heavily fortified border that sits just 35 miles from Seoul.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

South Korean civil defense: in nuclear attack, get down but keep your tummy off the ground (because the shaking will hurt your organs) pic.twitter.com/Ibv938ij1m

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) August 23, 2017

Guards carrying a portrait and the remains of the deceased secret commandos trained to infiltrate North Korea during the Cold War era leave a funeral hall in Goyang, north of Seoul, after their joint funeral on Aug. 23, 2017. Unit 684, better known as the Silmido unit, named after the island off the west coast where it was secretly based, was established in 1968 by the government following North Korea’s failed attempt to attack the presidential office in Seoul earlier that year, but their existence became useless amid the reconciliation between the two Koreas. The existence of the anti-communist unit had been thoroughly denied by the government, and a group of 24 surviving commandos blew themselves up while trying to enter Seoul on a stolen bus. In 2010, the court ordered the state to compensate the bereaved families of the commandos. (Yonhap)

I did not realize that oil theft was such a common crime in South Korea that the police regularly monitor the pipelines:

Police said Wednesday they have arrested two members of a six-man theft ring accused of having dug a 40-meter tunnel in South Korea’s central province of North Chungcheong for more than one month to pilfer oil from an underground pipeline.

The Iksan Police Station in southwestern South Korea also booked an accomplice and the owner of a gas station involved in the alleged distribution of stolen oil without physical detention.

The gang, including its leader surnamed Lee, met at a warehouse in the town of Okcheon in the province in March and began to dig the tunnel with shovels and hoes to access the supply pipeline of the state-run Daehan Oil Pipeline Corp.

After 45 days of digging, the thieves reached an underground oil pipeline and started to steal oil through a rubber hose they linked to the pipeline, according to the police. They loaded 10,000 to 20,000 liters of the stolen oil a day onto a truck remodeled into a tanker.

According to the police, the oil pilferers installed a CCTV near the tunnel to monitor for police crackdowns. In the last three months, they managed to steal 370,000 liters of oil worth 480 million won (about $423,300) from the pipeline.   [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.

A group of people stage a rally in front of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on Aug. 22, 2017, to oppose the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) joint military drill with the United States. (Yonhap)

Is this something the United States should consider doing considering how many of the mega-churches seem like multi-national corporations now with the amount of revenue they bring in:

The government will press ahead with the plan to impose taxes on clergy members beginning next year. Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon told lawmakers that the government will implement a revision to tax code that will enable it to levy income taxes of between 6 percent and 38 percent on churches, temples and other religious organizations beginning next year.

Kim said he will meet with leaders of religious groups to minimize confusion and ensure fair taxation.

“The government will take all preparatory steps before implementing taxation on religious groups,” Kim said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

The US military brass are definitely making their rounds through South Korea due to the ongoing tensions:

The chief of the United States armed forces responsible for the Indo-Asia-Pacific region will visit South Korea to discuss various security issues surrounding the area, a Japanese newspaper reported Saturday.

Japan’s Asahi Shimbun said Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, will stay in South Korea from Sunday to Tuesday, and will meet with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Jeong Kyeong-doo.

Harris is also expected to inspect a joint South Korea-U.S. military drill called the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) exercise that starts Monday and visit the southern port city of Busan, according to the newspaper. Ashai Shimbun added that Harris is also expected to request South Korea to fully complete the deployment of a U.S. missile shield called THAAD.

Harris’ visit is followed by Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had a two-day visit to South Korea earlier this week.

The newspaper also reported that U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), who is the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee will also visit Seoul and ask the South Korean officials to take stricter measures against North Korea.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported that Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, will also visit South Korea and Japan later this month to discuss North Korea’s nuclear threats.  [Yonhap]