President Yoon Suk Yeol apologized Thursday for what he called the “unwise conduct” of first lady Kim Keon Hee, referring to allegations she illegally accepted a luxury bag in 2022.
It was his clearest expression of regret yet since video emerged online last year appearing to show the first lady accepting a Christian Dior handbag, valued at around 3 million won (US$2,200), from a Korean American pastor armed with a hidden camera.
“I apologize for causing concern to the people with the unwise conduct of my wife,” Yoon said during a press conference marking the second anniversary of his presidency, which falls on Friday.
You can read more at the link, but the First Lady early in the administration was still living in their private home without a staff that would normally vet and advise on visits like this. When Kim Keon-hee was given the bag she seemed surprised which demonstrates she was not expecting it and thought this was only going to be a meeting with a pastor her father supposedly knew.
The fact this camera trap was executed early in Yoon’s presidency in 2022, but released shortly before the 2024 elections shows how this was a political setup to infleunce the parliamentary elections which it successfully did.
This whole hand bag-gate will probably be much to do about nothing, but at least President Yoon can say the issue has been investigated whenever the Korean left brings it up:
Prosecutor General Lee One-seok speaks to reporters in front of the Supreme Prosecutors Office on May 7, 2024. (Yonhap)
The top prosecutor on Tuesday pledged to speedily and strictly conduct an investigation into allegations that first lady Kim Keon Hee illegally received a luxury bag as a gift in 2022.
Prosecutor General Lee One-seok made the pledge after he ordered last week the creation of an investigation team dedicated to the allegations involving the first lady.
“The prosecution will conduct the investigation speedily and strictly only in accordance with evidence and the legal principles and take appropriate action accordingly,” Lee told reporters.
Here is another weird story of a stupid Soldier getting himself in significant trouble:
A U.S. Army staff sergeant who was visiting his girlfriend in Russia was arrested and remains in custody on charges he stole from her, U.S. officials said. Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, was detained Thursday in Vladivostok, a military and commercial port in the Pacific, and is in a pre-trial detention facility, Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said Tuesday in a statement. Black was assigned to Eighth Army, U.S. Forces Korea at Camp Humphreys in South Korea and was scheduled to move to Fort Cavazos, Texas, Smith said. Instead, Black, who is married, traveled to Russia to see a longtime girlfriend, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel details.
His arrest further complicates U.S. relations with Russia, which have grown increasingly tense over the war in Ukraine. “Instead of returning to the continental United States, Black flew from Incheon, Republic of Korea, through China to Vladivostok, Russia, for personal reasons,” Smith said. “Black did not request official clearance, and [the Defense Department] did not authorize his travel to China and Russia. There is no evidence Black intended to remain in Russia after his [permanent change of station] leave period ended.”
You can read more at the link, but the Soldier’s mom believes the Russian girlfriend was a spy that lured him to Russia. Here is what else his mom had to say to ABC News:
Upon arrival in Russia, Jones said Black told her he was questioned by authorities at the airport for “nine hours.”
“He said he was when he got off the plane, that he was pulled to the back in this room for nine hours and questioned why he was there,” Jones said.
Jones said she did not know if her son had a visa to visit Russia.
Jones was critical of her son’s girlfriend, whom she says he met at a club in South Korea over a year ago. Jones claims her son told her the girlfriend was deported to Russia from South Korea after she and Black allegedly got into a dispute in the fall of 2023.
“I knew something was going to happen,” Jones said.
Considering they questioned him for nine hours, that leads me to believe the girlfriend was not a spy. Instead Russian intelligence probably could not believe their good fortune and needed nine hours to figure out what to do with him. It looks like SSG Gordon has been lying to his family as well:
“There was some woman involved… He had been seeing her for a good while. Apparently she was living in South Korea until she was deported,” he said. “I have a feeling that she had a lot to do with it,” Jones said, adding that he learned of the arrest last Thursday.
According to Black’s stepfather, Jones had left the U.S. for South Korea two and a half years ago, “and the army kept extending him there. He was only supposed to have been there for a year.”
The Army did not involuntary extend him in South Korea for an additonal 1.5 years. He very likely volunteered to extend so he could spend more time with his Russian girlfriend. Notice he decided to go back to the U.S. after the Russian girlfriend was deported. This is what happened that caused her to get deported once again from The Daily Beast article:
The channel also claims Black has a history of beating Vashchuk, who is said to have called the police on him over an incident in South Korea. He’s charged with “theft causing significant damage to a citizen,” which carries a maximum penalty of five years behind bars.
Unnamed U.S. officials told the AP that Black and his Russian girlfriend had gotten into a “domestic dispute” last fall while they were in South Korea and she left the country shortly after.
The domestic dispute probably caused South Korean authorities to check her immigration status which led to her getting deported is my guess. So this guy gets into a domestic dispute with her that causes her deportation, I doubt she was very happy to see him turn up in Russia looking for her. Anyway this is what the Russian news media has been reporting that SSG Black did that got him arrested:
Russian news Telegram channels including Baza reported that Black had been serving in the South Korean port of Pyeongtaek when he met a Russian woman, who moved back to Vladivostok. Black visited the woman recently, during which time they argued. Gordon is accused of attacking the woman and stealing 200,000 rubles; around $2,200.
Radio Free Europe was able to track down the Russian girlfriend’s TikTok trail to provide further information about her:
U.S. Staff Sergeant Gordon Black (left) and his Russian wife, Aleksandra Vashchuk
RFE/RL found a TikTok account of Black’s romantic partner, Vladivostok native Aleksandra Vashchuk, who posted numerous videos of the couple together in South Korea, including at least one showing Black in his U.S. Army fatigues.
Among the hundreds of often profanity-laced TikTok videos posted by Vashchuk, 31, are several in which she refers to Black as her “husband” and affectionately as “pindos,” a Russian slang word for Americans that roughly translates to “Yankee punk.”
Most of the videos of the couple together in 2022 and 2023 appear to have been shot in South Korea, where Vashchuk says on TikTok that she had lived for more than five years. (…..)
In one of the videos posted to Vashchuk’s TikTok account, which she closed to the public on May 7, Black is seen in his U.S. military fatigues with his name clearly visible on his uniform.
In one video, Vashchuk asks Black to comment on U.S.-Russian relations for her followers. He echoes several talking points frequently used by the Kremlin to justify the February 2022 invasion, calling NATO “pretty aggressive.”
“I understand Russia’s position, obviously. They want to defend their country,” Black says in the video before Vashchuk interjects and says former U.S. President Donald Trump “is better” than current U.S. President Joe Biden.
You can read more at the link to include some of the videos that SSG Black was in. What is unclear is that media has been saying SSG Black is married. His mom claims Vashchuk is a girlfriend. If so then who is he married to? Someone back in the U.S. or is the media referring to his supposed marriage to Vashchuk? Anyway this whole situation is pretty stupid and should serve as warning to others to not travel to Russia.
It appears Indonesia is getting cold feet in regards to boosting their Air Force capabilities with new fighter jets from South Korea:
Indonesia has proposed reducing its payment for a joint fighter jet development project with South Korea to around one-third of its original amount, sources said Monday, amid concerns over its delayed payments.
Indonesia recently suggested paying only 600 billion won (US$442.3 million) in total for the KF-21 jet project, they said, after originally agreeing to pay about 20 percent of the 8.1 trillion-won program launched in 2015 to build the advanced supersonic fighter by 2026.
Jakarta had initially agreed to pay the sum in return for receiving one prototype model and technology transfers, and producing 48 units in Indonesia, but is said to have proposed reducing the payment amount for fewer technology transfers.
It has so far contributed around 300 billion won to the project and has failed to keep up with payment deadlines, leading to questions over its commitment.
Indonesia is known to have asked South Korea late last year to defer its payment for the project to 2034, but Seoul has maintained its stance that it should be made by the development deadline of 2026.
How is $184 going to restore anyone’s “livelihood”?:
Rep. Park Chan-dae, the new floor leader of the Democratic Party, speaks at the National Assembly in western Seoul on May 3, 2024. (Yonhap)
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) plans to propose legislation providing cash handouts of 250,000 won (US$184) to the entire population as its first bill of the new National Assembly set to open later this month, its new floor leader said Monday.
Rep. Park Chan-dae unveiled the plan in a radio interview with local broadcaster MBC after DP leader Lee Jae-myung asked President Yoon Suk Yeol last Monday to accept his election pledge for the cash handouts as a way to help restore the people’s livelihoods.
Being a farmer in South Korea is definitely not a lucrative business and very dependent on subsidies according to this report:
I ask people around me how much money I earn from farming in Korea on average per year. It usually refers to about 30 million won to 60 million won. Maybe it’s because there’s an amount of money I heard from somewhere. That’s roughly correct, as farm household income averaged 46.1 million won in 2022.
However, among them, the actual agricultural income earned from farming is only 9.5 million won. It’s about a fifth. The rest are non-agricultural income (19.2 million won), transfer income (15.2 million won), and non-ordinary income (2.2 million won). In other words, money earned from business or government direct payments or subsidies accounts for 80% of farm income.
It looks like the doctor strike is slowly defeating the will of the Korean government to take action against them to get them back to work:
This photo taken April 30, 2024, shows a hospital in Daegu, 237 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)
The government appears to have shelved a plan to take punitive measures against a protracted walkout by trainee doctors and have pulled back slightly from its plan to increase medical school admission quotas amid a standoff with major doctors’ associations, according to officials Sunday.
Still, the doctors’ associations remained adamant over the issue and renewed their call for the government to revisit the medical reform from scratch, despite some signs of an internal split.
During a media briefing last week, Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said the government has decided to grant local universities autonomy in deciding their medical school quota by a range of 50 to 100 percent for the 2025 academic year in a bid to break the monthslong deadlock, according to officials.
Additionally, the government has delayed the suspension of licenses for doctors who have been inactive for months under its “flexible disposition” policy since late March.
The big thing with this agreed to bill is that the special investgation cannot issue warrants:
The ruling and main opposition parties agreed Wednesday to revise a special bill mandating a new investigation into the 2022 Itaewon tragedy that claimed 159 lives, both sides said.
The bill, which was initially railroaded by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) in January but vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol, calls for the formation of an investigation committee to look into the root cause of the tragedy, which took place amid a crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon district during Halloween weekend in 2022.
The ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the DPK agreed on the committee’s makeup, period of operation and method of investigation, and will reflect the agreements in a revised bill before passing it through a plenary parliamentary session Thursday, they said.
Under the deal, the committee will not have the authority to conduct investigations ex officio or seek warrants, operate for up to a year with the possibility of extending its term by up to three months, and comprise a chair who will be chosen following consultations between the rival parties and four members recommended by each party.
The American man who had been protesting around Seoul for years to get the Korean government to return his kidnapped kids did actually get them returned recently:
John Sichi, center, plays with his children at their home in San Francisco, Calif., after they returned to the United States on April 18. Courtesy of John Sichi
American citizen John Sichi was recently reunited with his two children after a years-long journey to retrieve them, following their abduction by his Korean spouse. Sichi’s family, originally based in California, experienced upheaval when his spouse vanished with their children in late 2019 after relocating to Korea.
Now resettled in San Francisco, Sichi and his two children — a seven-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl — are piecing their lives back together and envisioning a future that once seemed lost.
You can read more at the link to find out what he went through to get his kidnapped kids returned to him. I do feel really bad though for the kids, this has to be a shock for them to lose their mother like this. Considering this was a kidnapping case I would doubt the mother would have any visitation rights after what she did.
Mask wearing at hospitals to be deregulated A medical worker wearing a mask walks past a notice regarding mask-wearing guidelines at a university hospital in Daegu, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on April 30, 2024, one day prior to the deregulation of mandatory mask wearing at hospitals in more than four years after the outbreak of the new coronavirus pandemic in the country. (Yonhap)
