Half-mast flag at U.S. embassy in Seoul A United States flag flies at half-mast at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on Oct. 30, 2022, to mourn deaths from a tragic stampede in Seoul’s Itaewon. (Yonhap)
The U.S. Embassy in Seoul said Wednesday that it will suspend all routine visa services from Thursday for an unspecified period of time in keeping with the State Department’s measures to respond to the new coronavirus outbreak.
The embassy said in a statement that it “will cancel all routine immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments” starting Thursday. However, this will not affect the existing visa waiver program, and services to U.S. citizens will continue.
The visa waiver enables Korean nationals to travel to the United States for tourism or business purposes for 90 days or less without obtaining a visa.
Mourning late BushThe U.S. national flag flies at half-mast to mourn the death of former President George H.W. Bush at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on Dec. 5, 2018. (Yonhap)
Via a reader tip comes news that the Korean left has found another issue to criticizes the United States with:
The U.S. Embassy in South Korea has not paid rent for using its site since 1980, a ruling party lawmaker claimed Thursday, citing data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Rep. Shim Jae-kwon of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said the South Korean government owns the site of the U.S. Embassy in central Seoul.
The amount of rent over the past 38 years exceeds 90 billion won ($79 million).
The lawmaker insisted that operations of the United States Agency for International Development-Korea (USAID-Korea), and its predecessor United States Operations Mission (USOM) have long since come to an end, and this removes legal grounds for free use of the embassy building.
The foreign ministry stated in 2008 that it is discussing the matter with the U.S.
The lawmaker noted the countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in 2005 regarding the relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, and signed an implementation agreement of the MOU in 2011, but no tangible efforts or progress have been made on the matter since. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but if the North Koreans establish an embassy in South Korea does anyone think they will pay rent?
All this criticism over the US embassy rent is about promoting anti-Americanism with the Korean public. We saw these same type of criticism happen during the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations as well. I would not be surprised if in the coming months we start seeing claims about out of control GI crime, unpaid parking tickets, and USFK environmental pollution which are all from the Korean lefts playbook of how to promote anti-Americanism.
This photo shows a car damaged after crashing into the main gate of the U.S. Embassy in central Seoul on June 7, 2018. (Yonhap)
A gender equality ministry official slammed his car into the front gate of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on Thursday and claimed he wanted to seek asylum in the United States, police said.
The official, identified only by his surname Yoon, was immediately taken into custody after crashing his sedan into the steel gate of the embassy in central Seoul around 7:15 p.m.
Police said Yoon, 48, is a director-level official at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. The ministry is located in Seoul’s main government complex building across the street from the U.S. Embassy.
Police said Yoon went to work in the morning and left early after taking a half-day off.
Witnesses said Yoon’s car was traveling on the boulevard in front of the embassy before it abruptly changed its direction toward the embassy.
As he was overpowered by police, Yoon shouted, “Help me!” several times.
Yoon later told police that he slammed the car into the embassy because he wanted to seek asylum in the U.S. due to reasons related to North Korea. No further details were immediately known. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but if you are wondering Yoon was not drunk at the time to explain this crazy story. On a positive note at least the US embassy now knows that their gate works at stopping speeding cars from smashing through it.
This is pretty audacious whoever is committing these attacks on US diplomats:
The State Department is evacuating several Americans from China amid health concerns about mysterious symptoms arising after unusual noises detected by U.S. diplomats and their families working in the consulate in Guangzhou. U.S. DEPT OF STATE
The State Department is evacuating several Americans from China amid health concerns about mysterious symptoms arising after unusual noises detected by U.S. diplomats and their families working in the consulate in Guangzhou.
After initial screenings by a medical team dispatched last month when the first incident was reported, the State Department has sent “a number” of affected people to the United States for further evaluation, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
The evacuation was the first sign that the unexplained ailments previously known to have afflicted only one U.S. government employee in China has now broadened and threatens to become a full-blown health crisis like the one that affected at least 24 U.S. diplomats and their families in Cuba.
The latest round of evacuations began Wednesday in China, which was still Tuesday in the United States. More diplomats and their dependents are expected to be sent home in coming days. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but it is believed that the sonic attacks in Cuba were caused possibly by a flawed spying device. So whatever the spying device being used in Cuba was maybe it came from China and this same device malfunctioned while spying on US diplomats in Guangzhou as well?
Fortunately this guy was extremely incompetent in regards to his attempted attack on the US embassy in Seoul:
A Korean-Canadian man has been arrested for a botched Molotov cocktail attack on the U.S. embassy in Seoul, police said Monday.
The man, in his 30s, reportedly told police the attack was to punish the United States, which “has bullied South Korea and me.” He is known to have a mental disorder.
According to Jongno Police Station, which is in charge of the embassy’s external security, the man lit a handmade Molotov cocktail just outside the barbed wire fence encircling the embassy and was about to throw the fire bomb over the fence at 7 p.m. Sunday.
But he accidently dropped the Molotov cocktail into a bag filled with nine other Molotov cocktails, and set them all alight. He threw away the burning bag and fled, but was caught by police who rushed to the scene. [Korea Times]
A college student, who requested to be identified as Park, was supposed to start an internship at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul this December.
After receiving a letter of acceptance July 21, she was preparing for the program — finding a residence in Seoul and buying work clothes — while dreaming of a future career after the internship.
On Sept. 6, however, she learned the program was suspended. She received an email from the embassy, which read “The U.S. Embassy will not be moving forward with our Winter Internship at this time.”
Explanations from the embassy frustrated her.
“The embassy staff simply repeated the answer that the decision was made due to personnel affairs in the organization,” Park told The Korea Times.
The cancellation of the internship program was more devastating for Park because the winter program was her last chance to work there before her graduation. “I even gave up a full-time paid job which gave me a final acceptance notification to do the internship, because the latter was only allowed for university students,” Park said. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but this is what happens when interns complain about not getting paid.
As far as I know the US embassy in Seoul wasn’t conscripting people to take unpaid internship positions. If these students wanted to get paid they should have applied for another job:
A student in her 20s, who requested to be identified by the alias Kim Hye-jin, recalled the distress she felt as an intern for the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in 2015, during which she received neither a salary nor even a stipend for transportation and lunch.
“I had to take an additional part-time job after finishing work at the embassy at 5:30 p.m. I barely had any time for myself,” Kim told The Korea Times.
“Since I was working for its public affairs department, I was always required to take part in the department’s events in the evening. Whenever I returned home late at night, I felt so depressed for losing personal time in addition to not receiving money.”
Sometimes, Kim even spent her own money for transportation during business trips and for lunch with organization partners and she had to wait two to three months to be reimbursed.
As an intern, Kim assumed a variety of roles, from translator and photographer to event organizer. Sometimes, she also answered the phones and does basic office tasks. “I applied for the post, aware that it was unpaid. However, it made me think the system was unjust, since my job was more vital than I initially thought,” she said.
Another worker, who also requested to be identified as Han Cheol-soo, worked for the U.S. Embassy last year and underwent similar hardships. “Since my parents couldn’t afford to give me a stipend, I couldn’t help but quit the internship earlier than I had hoped,” he said. “I think such an unpaid internship policy is a stumbling block for students from poor families to get equal opportunity.” [Korea Times]
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