How many corruption cases is Cho Kuk involved in? I am losing count:
– Cho Kuk, former justice minister and presidential secretary, on Monday attended a questioning over bribery allegations involving the former vice mayor of Busan.
Cho appeared at the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors Office on Monday morning to attend the questioning, the first time he was called in regarding the bribery case.
Cho was the head of the presidential office’s civil affairs division that oversaw a special inspection of the vice mayor’s bribery allegations.
Yoo Jae-soo, Busan’s former vice mayor of economic affairs, was recently indicted for allegedly receiving bribes worth 49.5 million won (US$42,224) during his term at the state financial regulator.
While he was under surveillance by Cheong Wa Dae’s special inspection team in 2017, he avoided punishment for an unknown reason and became Busan’s vice mayor in 2018.
The string of developments raised suspicions that some Cheong Wa Dae officials may have engaged in a cover-up of the bribery case.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
This is a really good program that the South Korean government puts on every year:
South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs hosted Munson and more than 100 other veterans and family members from 16 nations to express the South’s appreciation for the sacrifices made during the three-year war.
During the six-day revisit program that began Tuesday, the vets participated in numerous cultural events and tours, including a trip to the truce village of Panmunjom and other sites in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone.
They also laid white flowers on the headstones of fallen servicemembers at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in the southern city of Busan.
They were welcomed with a standing ovation and honored during the annual United Nations Forces participation day ceremony in Seoul, which was broadcast on national TV.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
Once again when are so called patriotic Koreans going to pull a stunt like this at the Chinese embassy to protest their current economic retaliation against South Korea and historical wrong doing against the Korean people?:
Police detained six college students Monday after they staged a demonstration inside the Japanese Consulate in the southeastern port city of Busan in protest of Japan’s trade restrictions on Korea.
The students were in the consulate’s library, then stormed out to its yard at around 2:30 p.m. They shouted slogans and held banners that read, “We denounce Japan’s re-invasion,” “We condemn economic provocations,” and “Abe must apologize.”
They were taken to a police station and are being probed on the account of trespassing the premises of a diplomatic mission, the police said.
The students, who claim to belong to an anti-Japan group based in Busan, individually entered the consulate building earlier through due procedures, according to the police.
At the time of their protest, a coalition of 30 civic groups in the city was holding a joint news conference in front of the consulate’s rear gate to condemn Japan for its export restrictions against South Korea and call for a boycott of Japanese products.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but when are these protesters going to demand the Emperor President Xi of China apologize?
Anyway these activists pull these stunts against Japan because they know they can get away with it. If they tried this against the Chinese embassy they know there would likely be real repercussions. Remember the Chinese embassy once sponsored the assault of Korean citizens in Seoul and got away with it.
Could you imagine what would happen if the Japanese embassy organized a mob to assault Koreans in Seoul?
There will be some naval action going in the waters off of Busan this week:
A large-scale multinational maritime exercise will begin in the country’s southern port city of Busan this week.
KBS World Radio
The Navy said on Sunday that South Korea, the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other partner countries will kick off a combined maritime security exercise in Busan from Monday to Thursday and in Singapore from May 9th to 13th.
The exercise involves 18 member countries of the maritime security expert working group of the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), a defense dialogue mechanism involving ASEAN and other countries, including the United States.
The Navy said 12 countries will send 16 warships and six aircraft for the exercise, while six other countries will send only military personnel.
