A Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery launcher is being installed on a former golf course in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province on Wednesday. /Yonhap
An electronic board in a Korea Exchange Bank dealing room shows the country’s benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) on April 25, 2017. The KOSPI soared 23.11 points, or 1.06 percent, on foreign buying, to close at 2,196.85, marking the highest since April 22, 2011, when the comparable figure was 2,197.82 points. (Yonhap)
You would think the police in Seoul would have better things to do instead of arresting this guy for taking a banner down off of his home:
Police have booked an American man, 64, who works as a part-time English instructor at Hongik University, for allegedly vandalizing a presidential campaign poster.
Under Korean election law, unlawfully removing or vandalizing a political campaign poster can lead to a two-year jail term or a fine of 4 million won ($ 3,500).
Mapo Police Station said on Monday the man allegedly tried to remove a poster from the side of his house on Apr. 21. His neighbors tried to stop him but he repeatedly said “my home” and continued to dismantle the poster before being arrested.
It is unclear whether the neighbors explained clearly to the suspect that removing an election poster is against the law. The man is known to have told police he did not know it was unlawful. [Korea Times]
There is probably more to this story, but on the surface it seems if someone puts a banner on your house you should be able to take it down if you don’t want it there.
By all appearances it seems the US and ROK governments pushed ahead with the installation of the THAAD missile defense system before the upcoming ROK presidential election though USFK is not commenting on this:
U.S. military vehicle moves past banners opposing a plan to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, as South Korean police officers stand guard in Seongju, South Korea, Wednesday, April 26, 2017. South Korea says key parts of a contentious U.S. missile defense system have been installed a day after rival North Korea showed off its military power. (Kim Jun-bum / AP)
The United States military started installing a controversial anti-missile defense system in South Korea overnight Tuesday, triggering protests and sparking criticism that it was rushing to get the battery in place before the likely election of a president who opposes it.
The sudden and unannounced move came only six days after U.S. Forces Korea secured the land to deploy the system, known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD.
Moon Jae-in, a liberal candidate who has a strong lead in the polls ahead of the May 9 presidential election, has promised to review South Korea’s decision to host the anti-missile battery.
“There’s a sense in Seoul that THAAD deployment has been rushed based on the timetable of South Korea’s presidential election, rather than North Korea’s threats,” said John Delury, a professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul.
“To some extent, the acceleration of THAAD deployment has ‘worked,’ limiting the next South Korean leader’s room for maneuver,” Delury said. “But there’s the danger of a backlash among the South Korean public feeling like a pawn in the game of ‘America First.’ ”
U.S. Forces Korea did not make any statement about the deployment and did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why the installation was started in the dead of night. [Chicago Tribune]
You can read more at the link, but the real surprise is that people are surprised by this. USFK and the ROK government have been publicly signaling for months that the deployment will be accelerated.
Moon Jae-in is saying that the deployment decision should have been left up to the next government after reaching a national consensus.
“Moon Jae-in has been consistent in his position on the THAAD deployment: that must be decided by the next administration after enough public discussion and by national consensus,” Park Kwang-on said in a statement.
“Any deployment that completely ignores appropriate processes must be suspended now and the final decision should be made after consultation between South Korea and the U.S.” he said.
Anyway the US military did Mr. Moon a great favor because now when he likely becomes President he does not have to worry about this decision and can just blame the last government for allowing it to happen to appease his leftist base while getting the increased defense benefit against North Korea provided by THAAD.
Here is what was happening at the site as the equipment was rolling in:
In Seongju county, at the location of the THAAD site, around 4,000 police were present to ensure the equipment’s delivery. Around 400 protesters were present at a demonstration near the site, and police in riot gear held back protesters as the equipment rolled past on military trucks. Hwang Soo-young, an activist with the government watchdog group, the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), was at the site of the protest Wednesday morning. She claimed that the protests turned violent as “police were pushing residents away.”
She claimed six people were injured during the encounter, although CNN has not been able to independently verify the claim. She said that vehicles with equipment “including radar, launchers and generators” started passing the village of Soseongri at around 4.45 a.m. (3.45 p.m. Tuesday ET). [CNN]
You can read more at the link, but apparently the residents are upset that they did not know about the deployment of the vehicles to the site. Did they really think the US military would tell them when the equipment would drive to the site so they militant leftist groups that don’t live in Seongju could mobilize and block the road?
It will be interesting to see if the THAAD site in Seongju becomes a big cause for the Korean left to continue to protest or not over the coming months.
Here is horrible story about a 70 year old Korean woman on a dream vacation to Europe that was severely injured in the March 22nd terrorist attack in London:
Park, who sustained a head injury in a terror attack in London on March 22, is hospitalized at St Mary’s Hospital, London. She is photographed here on Friday local time. [KIM SUNG-TAK]Bang Young-sook’s mother was having the holiday of her dreams. An orchard farmer from Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang, the 70-year-old Park was all smiles as she and her husband posed on London’s picturesque Westminster Bridge on the afternoon of March 22.
The couple’s group tour to Europe was paid for by their children. Britain was their first stop. After the photo was snapped, Park’s husband walked on while Park stopped to arrange her selfie stick.
That brief pause led to tragedy. Park’s husband heard screams and turned back. A car had ploughed into the pedestrians on the bridge – and his wife was among dozens mowed down.
The terror attack in London by a 52-year old convert to Islam killed five and injured 50. Five Koreans were injured and Park sustained the most serious injuries. The other four, people in their 50s and 60s, were discharged after being treated for fractures and minor injuries. Park is still in London’s St Mary’s Hospital. In the pandemonium on the bridge, Park fell and hit her head. She required brain surgery. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
I could have just as easily titled this posting as being “Moon Jae-in Vows To Help North Korea Build Nuclear Weapons and Missiles” because that is what the Sunshine Policy allowed North Korea to do:
Moon Jae-in, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, holds a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul on April 23, 2017, announcing a set of security and North Korean policies. (Yonhap)
Moon pledged that South Korea will play a bigger role in efforts to denuclearize the North and push for denuclearization based on simultaneous actions by stakeholders instead of demanding the North first show its resolve to give up atomic weapons.
The front-runner candidate said he will carry out former President Kim Dae-jung’s “Sunshine Policy” to engage with the North to ultimately persuade Pyongyang to change. [Yonhap]
I wonder what Moon means by simultaneous actions? Is that code for giving North Korea billions of dollars in aid for them to pretend they are not building nuclear weapons and missiles and then have them tear up the deal at a time of their choosing, launch provocations, and then demand a new deal? That is what historically the Sunshine Policy has been.
The White House said Friday it is well aware that Korea has been “independent for thousands of years,” after President Donald Trump quoted Chinese President Xi Jinping as claiming, falsely, that Korea used to be part of China.
“We generally do not comment on the details of what is said between the President and other leaders. We know well that Korea has been independent for thousands of years,” Michael Anton, deputy assistant to the president for strategic communications, told Yonhap News Agency. [Yonhap]
Here is something you don’t see happen very often in South Korea, a bank robbery:
This photo, provided by an anonymous citizen, shows the suspect Kim minutes before he carries out a bank heist in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, southeast of Seoul, on April 20, 2017. (Yonhap)
Police said Saturday it has arrested a suspect in an armed bank robbery that took place in the country’s southeastern provincial county two days earlier.
The Gyeongsan Police Station in North Gyeongsang Province said it caught a 43-year-old man, identified only by his last name Kim, at a parking lot of a large accommodation facility in Danyang, North Chungcheong Province, at around 6:47 p.m.
Police had suspected the robber may be a foreigner as one of the bank employees claimed he had a poor Korean accent, but it turned out that he was a native.
Kim is suspected of robbing a branch of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, also known as Nonghyup, in a county in Gyeongsan early Thursday, threatening the employees at gunpoint and fleeing the scene on a bicycle with some 15.6 million won (US$13,700) in cash, all of which took him only four minutes.
During the heist, he apparently fired one shot from what the police believe to be a homemade gun, but no one was hurt as it was aimed at the wall. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but as expected the man was tracked down by piecing together camera footage from neighborhood cc cameras.
