Other than managing the JSA, I don’t know why South Korea would need to do any military cooperation with North Korea:
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday urged an immediate halt to any attempts to seek military cooperation with North Korea, amid reports Russia and the North are eyeing arms and defense technology trade.
Yoon made the remark during a summit with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, after The New York Times reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may travel to Vladivostok in Russia next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss a possible arms deal.
“Attempts at military cooperation with North Korea, which damage peace in the international community, should be stopped immediately,” the presidential office quoted Yoon as saying.
Yoon urged ASEAN to actively participate in efforts to block North Korea’s key sources of funding for its nuclear and missile development, such as cryptocurrency stealing and labor exports, and stressed the need for all United Nations member states to abide by U.N. Security Council sanctions on the North, including a ban on illegal arms trade, his office said.
This year will be a longer than normal Chuseok season for Koreans:
President Yoon Suk Yeol (3rd from L) speaks during a regular meeting on the economy and public livelihood issues at the presidential office in Seoul on Aug. 31, 2023. (Yonhap)
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday the government will designate Oct. 2 a temporary holiday to create a six-day extended break from Chuseok and help boost domestic tourism and the economy.
Yoon made the remark while presiding over a regular meeting on the economy and public livelihood issues, saying the government will also distribute 600,000 hotel discount coupons and waive expressway tolls during the holiday period.
This year’s Chuseok fall harvest holiday will run from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, which means the temporary holiday will be a bridge to Oct. 3 National Foundation Day, another public holiday.
It looks like President Yoon is actually trying to be a conservative who actually wants to reduce spending unlike U.S. conservatives who only seem to care about cutting spending when they are not in charge:
President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Tuesday to stick to a sound fiscal policy, strongly criticizing the preceding Moon Jae-in government for increasing national debts with reckless spending.
Yoon made the remark during a Cabinet meeting, pledging to reject temptations of spending for political purposes, as the government proposed a national budget of 656.9 trillion won (US$495 billion) for 2024, the slowest on-year growth since 2005.
“Due to the previous administration’s lax fiscal management, the national debts rose by 400 trillion won, and reached over 1,000 trillion won for the first time last year,” Yoon said in opening remarks at the Cabinet meeting.
Thanks to his administration’s efforts to achieve fiscal soundness, Yoon said the growth of national debts has markedly slowed, and the government will continue to stick to a sound fiscal policy for the sake of external credibility and price stabilization.
President Yoon gave some blunt advice to some new vice-governmental ministers:
Yoon gave the instruction during lunch with 13 new vice minister-level officials after presenting them with certificates of appointment, according to Lee Do-woon.
“Fight ruthlessly against cartels with vested interests,” Yoon was quoted as saying, repeating a mission he gave to several presidential secretaries last week after they were nominated as vice ministers.
“Our government is an anti-cartel government,” he said. “What topples a democratic society from the outside is totalitarianism and socialism, but what topples it from the inside is corrupt cartels.”
Yoon called on the new vice ministers to be loyal to the spirit of the Constitution, saying both domestic and foreign affairs should be conducted in the spirit of the liberal democratic Constitution.
“Be loyal to the state, the nation and the constitutional system,” he said. “I am not saying you should switch horses, but that you should ride your horses properly in the spirit of the Constitution.”
South Korea's new National Security Strategy just released, including the official 150pg English version. It doesn't seem to be up on the English-language presidential webpage yet but it's the third attachment on the Korean webpage here. https://t.co/sszcXinluOpic.twitter.com/EQUC18Gvna
These systems that send out emergency notifications over text message may be more trouble than they are worth:
These images show mobile phone alerts sent out in the wake of North Korea’s launch of what appeared to be a space launch vehicle on May 31, 2023. (Yonhap)
The Seoul city government on Wednesday erroneously sent out an emergency alert advising citizens to prepare for evacuation after North Korea’s launch of what appeared to be a space launch vehicle.
The mobile phone alert was sent to all Seoul citizens at 6:41 a.m., shortly after the Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired what appeared to be a space launch vehicle. But the interior ministry retracted it at 7:03 a.m., saying the alert was sent by mistake.
“We inform that the alert warning issued by the Seoul Metropolitan City at 6:41 a.m. was an erroneous issuance,” the interior ministry said in a separate mobile phone alert.
A ministry official said that Seoul is not an area where an alert has been issued.
The Seoul city government said it was looking into why the alert was set off.
You can read more at the link, but at least people in Seoul are so desensitized to North Korean missile launches that they did not go into a mass panic like what happened in 2018 when a similar false text message missile alert was issued in Hawaii.
The opposition party controlled National Assembly has voted to arrest one of President Yoon’s PPP lawmakers. However, when the prosecution asked to indict opposition leader Lee Jae-myung for corruption they voted not to remove his immunity. Unsurprisingly there is a double standard going on here:
The National Assembly on Thursday voted to give parliamentary consent to the prosecution’s request to arrest ruling People Power Party lawmaker Ha Young-je on charges of receiving illicit political funds.
The motion was approved in a 160-99 vote in the National Assembly.
Ha has been under prosecution investigation on suspicion of receiving 70 million won (US$53,602) from a South Gyeongsang provincial council candidate ahead of last June’s local elections.
According to law, sitting lawmakers are immune from arrest while the parliament is in session. The prosecution must obtain parliament’s consent to detain lawmakers.
For people staying in Korea for longer than 90 days, they will be getting a new ID card:
The Ministry of Justice said Tuesday a new type of identification card will be issued to foreigners staying in South Korea for more than 90 days, starting on Saturday.
This is the first time in 12 years the ministry will introduce a new design for a Residence Card, formerly known as an Alien Registration Card.
A new Residence Card will feature a full-color photo of the holder that is 35 percent larger than the current version. The current design has a black-and-white photo of the holder. Also, the holder’s photo will be moved from the left side to the right.
If you want to be in the upper middle class of Korea a government job is a good way to go. However, I am willing to bet that much of their wealth is tied up in the high real estate prices in Seoul:
About one-third of the ranking public officials at the central government and state-run institutions have more than 2 billion won (US$1.5 million) in personal wealth, an annual government report showed Thursday.
A total of 2,037 senior public officials declared an average of 1.94 billion won in personal assets as of the end of last year, with 31.3 percent holding assets worth over 2 billion won, according to the gazette compiled by the Government Ethics Committee.
It was compiled for the first time after last year’s presidential and local elections.
By amount, 28.8 percent owned assets ranging between 1 to 2 billion won, followed by 18.8 percent whose assets were valued at 500 million won to 1 billion won and 17.1 percent whose assets were between 100-500 million won. Some 3.9 percent declared assets worth below 100 million won.
Seven in 10 officials said their assets increased from a year earlier, mostly due to a rise in property prices.
This is likely the reason Lee Jae-myung sought leadership of the political opposition despite being a failed presidential candidate; so he could claim any charges against him were politically motivated:
Main opposition Democratic Party Chair Lee Jae-myung at the National Assembly in western Seoul on March 22, 2023 (Yonhap)
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) decided Wednesday to allow party leader Lee Jae-myung to retain his position despite his indictment on corruption charges.
Earlier in the day, the prosecution charged him with bribery and breach of trust stemming from his time as mayor of Seongnam, south of Seoul, years ago.
Under Article 80 of the DP charter, the party is supposed to suspend those indicted on corruption charges from duty. But the rule does not apply when the indictment is deemed politically motivated.
The DP’s party affairs committee convened after Lee’s indictment was announced, and made the decision to exempt Lee from suspension, according to DP spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom.
