This seems like a logical thing for the government to do in response to the strike by Korean doctors:
Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo enters the venue of a briefing held in Seoul on Sept. 2, 2024. (Yonhap)
The health ministry said Monday it plans to deploy military physicians to hospital emergency rooms amid growing concerns over a possible disruption of emergency care during the Chuseok holiday due to a prolonged walkout by junior doctors.
Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told reporters the government would send some 250 military and public health doctors to cope with emergency care before and after the holiday that runs from Sept. 14 through 18.
“We are reinforcing the staff by utilizing military and public doctors, while recruiting nurses and contract doctors,” Park said.
Here is some more information about the ROK intelligence agent that was leaking the identity of undercover agents in China:
A military intelligence official indicted for allegedly leaking the identities of undercover South Korean agents has admitted to working for a Chinese operative since 2017, military prosecutors said Wednesday.
The 49-year-old official, who worked for the Defense Intelligence Command before his suspension, initially denied leaking military secrets but eventually told investigators that he was recruited by Chinese intelligence in 2017 during a visit to Yanji, the capital of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, to meet his contacts.
According to military prosecutors, the official claimed he was detained by Chinese officials at the Yanji airport and offered a chance to work for a Chinese intelligence agent in exchange for his family’s safety.
Military prosecutors indicted the official on Tuesday on charges of bribery, aiding the enemy and violating the Military Secrets Protection Act by leaking classified information.
While the official said he began selling military secrets in 2017, prosecutors said they were able to confirm he had received payments since 2019 and leaked classified information since June 2022, two years before counterintelligence officials caught wind of his suspicious activities.
Total payments to the suspect that have been tracked thus far by South Korean counterintelligence amount to 160 million won ($120,000).
Prosecutors said the suspect gathered secrets by taking photos and screenshots of information on computer screens at the Defense Intelligence Command’s headquarters in Seoul, which he then uploaded to a Chinese cloud server at home.
You can read more at the link, but I have to wonder how real the supposed threats to his family were? I would not be surprised if he was looking for money from the start. Considering he only got paid $120,000 he sold out his country for a paltry sum.
The Yoon administration has already used up so much political capital pushing through the increase in the medical school quota, I can understand why they are upset with the party leadership trying to get them to suspend it:
President Yoon Suk Yeol has postponed his planned dinner with ruling People Power Party (PPP) leaders until after the Chuseok holiday, his office said Wednesday, amid differences with the PPP leader over the issue of the medical school quota increase.
Yoon had planned to host a dinner Friday with PPP leader Han Dong-hoon, floor leader Choo Kyung-ho, five Supreme Council members and the party’s policy chief, but the presidential office said the meeting has been put off to prioritize the issues of people’s livelihoods. (…….)
The postponement comes after Han proposed deferring the medical school quota increase for 2026 to help break an impasse over the government’s medical reform plans.
The presidential office reportedly balked at the idea, saying the government stands by its plan to increase admissions by 2,000 seats every year for the next five years.
Han took to Facebook on Tuesday to publicly propose the deferral of one year, noting a sudden increase in the number of students, including the approximately 3,000 current students who need to retake classes next year, could put a strain on medical schools.
You can read more at the link, but the medical school quota increase the government is implementing to increase the number of doctors in rural areas. However, current doctors have been protesting and striking to stop the quota increase which has put a strain on the nation’s medical system. They do not want the added competition from more doctors and are doing everything in their power to stop it and it appears the PPP’s leadership might be getting influenced by them.
ROK authorities need to put this guy away for a very long time to deter anyone else from leaking information like this. Hopefully none of these ROK agents were killed due to these leak:
The defense ministry’s prosecutors’ office on Tuesday indicted a military intelligence official for allegedly leaking information of South Korean espionage agents operating overseas.
The official at the Korea Defense Intelligence Command, whose identity is withheld, was arrested earlier this month on allegations of handing over personal information of “black agents” to a Chinese national of Korean descent, who is possibly an informant for North Korea’s intelligence agency.
The defense ministry said the prosecutors indicted the official on charges of aiding the enemy, bribery and violating the Military Secrets Protection Act, believing that the individual leaked confidential information in exchange for financial gains.
I am sure the KCTU and the other leftist clowns will be out in force if Kishida visits South Korea for a summit with Yoon. Anyway it will be interesting to see if Kishida does visit, if he makes any new apologies for Imperial Japan’s colonial actions in South Korea:
South Korea is in talks with Japan over a trip to Seoul by outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the presidential office said Sunday.
The move could set the stage for summit talks between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Kishida, and represents a step forward compared with just days earlier, when South Korea said that no decision had been made yet after Japan’s Kyodo News reported that Kishida was considering holding summit talks with Yoon in South Korea in early September before stepping down.
“We are in discussions with Japan over Prime Minister Kishida’s visit to South Korea and will make public the decision once it is made,” a presidential official told Yonhap News Agency by phone.
I have to assume alcohol must have been involved in something this tragic happening:
A woman reported missing by her family was found dead in the back of a police vehicle in Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province, Saturday.
In an unexpected turn of events, local police revealed Sunday that she appeared to have entered the empty, parked car for unknown reasons and was unable to get out for 36 hours amid blistering heat, leading to her death.
The backseat doors of police vehicles cannot be opened from the inside, a feature designed to prevent suspects from escaping. The front seats are also separated from the back by a partition, the Hadong Police Station explained.
Surveillance footage shows the victim entering the unlocked vehicle in the police station’s parking lot through a back door at around 2 a.m. Friday. The car had remained unused until the time of her discovery, at around 2 p.m. Saturday, by a police officer.
Here we go again with the Korean leftists trying to raise anti-Japanese sentiment for political purposes:
Seoul’s presidential office is facing mounting pressure as controversial remarks regarding Japan by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s foreign policy aide have prompted criticism from the opposition for bringing humiliation to South Korea.
Labeling the aide’s remarks as carrying the intention of a “pro-Japanese traitor” — or “chinil” in Korean, describing those overly favorable to Japan to the extent of betraying national interests — the liberal main opposition Democratic Party of Korea pledged Tuesday to propose a bill to prohibit people who had previously praised or justified Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from becoming public officials. The main opposition party also pledged to introduce the bill as closely aligned with its core party policy, meaning that party members would all vote for it to counter Yoon’s conciliatory approach to Japan.
The latest controversy hails from a media interview with Kim Tae-hyo, the first deputy director of the presidential National Security Office. Kim said in an interview with public broadcaster KBS on Friday evening that Yoon’s omission of Japan’s wartime wrongdoing from his Liberation Day speech comes from Seoul’s forward-looking approach to its bilateral ties with Tokyo.
“If Japan turns a blind eye to its history and fails to say what it should say, we should harshly complain about it and try to change that,” Kim said.
“But what matters is Japan’s feelings (about apologizing),” Kim added. “When we pressure someone who does not feel inclined to do so to apologize, does that truly help Korea-Japan relations and cooperation? The level of trust between Kishida and Yoon seems very high.”
This answer was in response to the interviewer’s question about criticism over Seoul’s failure to speak up boldly about bilateral issues with Tokyo.
You can read more at the link, but why doesn’t the Korean Democractic Party instead of passing a bill to ban people who make pro-Japanese statements from holding office pass a bill saying that if you make pro-North Korean statement you cannot hold public office? Japan for many decades has not been a threat to South Korea and has strong economic and cultural ties. North Korea on the otherhand continues to be a threat on all fronts to South Korea.
The reason the Democractic Party doesn’t want to pass a bill banning people with pro-North Korea views from holding office is because many of them would have to leave government then. The Korean left is filled with those sympathetic to North Korea and even spies.
If the government wants to pass a bill, pass one against those holding pro-China views. China is the nation that most recently attacked and devestated South Korea during the Korean War five years after the Imperial Japanese were defeated. China continues to be the nation that enables North Korea to be the threat to South Korea that it is today not Japan.
Here is what President Yoon recently had to say about North Korea’s gray zone attacks:
President Yoon Suk Yeol called for bolstering readiness against North Korea’s “gray zone” provocations and hybrid warfare as South Korea and the United States kicked off their annual joint exercise on Monday. (…….)
Yoon warned that the North might seek to create social instability through violence, propaganda and agitation at the early stages of a conflict.
