Free Republic

South Korea is in a race to contain a new coronavirus outbreak in a Seoul party district, prompting a return of social distancing just as the country was easing restrictions. Tracing who was there, however, runs up against the feelings of a gay community that prefers anonymity. At least 79 cases have been linked to nightclubs and bars that the cluster’s suspected “patient zero” visited the previous weekend, according to South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 29-year-old patient went barhopping across Seoul’s trendy Itaewon neighborhood days before receiving a covid-19 diagnosis Wednesday. His case was the first...

SEOUL - South Korean officials scrambled on Monday to contain a new coronavirus outbreak, searching for thousands of people who may have been infected in a cluster of cases linked to nightclubs and bars in the capital Seoul. Officials reported 35 new cases as of midnight on Sunday, the second consecutive day of new cases of that magnitude and the highest numbers in more than a month. Twenty-nine of the new cases were linked to several Seoul nightclubs and bars, many of them catering to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community. That has raised complications...

Not long ago, Americans’ knowledge of South Korean products didn’t go much beyond Samsung Galaxies and Hyundai Elantras. That is no longer the case. Less than a decade after “Gangnam Style” nearly broke YouTube, the wildly popular boy band BTS was scheduled to tour some of the U.S.’s largest football stadiums before the coronavirus pandemic intervened. In February, “Parasite” from South Korean director Bong Joon-ho became the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Now another Korean cultural export has an unexpected opportunity to find an audience on the other side of the world: its...

The Seoul city government on Saturday effectively suspended business at clubs and bars in the city after recent infections in the city's popular multicultural neighborhood of Itaewon put health authorities on alert over a possibly bigger outbreak. Under an administrative order that has gone into effect immediately, all clubs, bars, "room salons" and other nightlife establishments across the capital will be banned from hosting crowds of people, virtually suspending businesses at such venues. "Such facilities have to suspend business immediately and will face strict punishment if they breach (the order)," Mayor Park Won-soon said in a press briefing, adding the...

On February 16, a Sunday, a 61-year-old woman with a fever entered the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu, South Korea. She touched her finger to a digital scanner. She passed through a pair of glass doors and proceeded downstairs, to the prayer hall, where she sat with approximately 1,000 other worshippers in a large windowless room. Hours later, she exited the building and left behind a trail of pathogens that would lead to thousands of infections, triggering one of the largest coronavirus outbreaks in the world.

Video at link. (11 minutes) Interesting review of what is known about Kim Yo-jong.

President Donald Trump responded to reports about North Korean despot Kim Jong Un, reposting state media photos that purport to show Kim attending a ceremony at a fertilizer factory. “I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!” Trump wrote on Twitter. Kim’s attendance at the ribbon-cutting ceremony was the first public appearance he’s made in about three weeks, and it comes amid speculation about his health. Several news outlets in Asia had reported that Kim, 36, was brain dead or had died, although South Korean officials said he was alive and still in control of the...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North and South Korean troops exchanged fire along their tense border on Sunday, the South’s military said, blaming North Korean soldiers for targeting a guard post. The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said in a statement that North Korean troops fired several bullets at a South Korean guard post inside the heavily fortified border. South Korea fired two rounds in response after issuing a warning broadcast, it said. MORE AT LINK

SEOUL -- A North Korea defector elected as a lawmaker in South Korea claimed Friday that he is "99 percent" sure that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un died after surgery amid speculation over his health. Unconfirmed reports about Kim's ill health have mounted since he has not appeared in public for nearly three weeks. News reports described Kim as being in "grave danger" after surgery or hiding out at a coastal resort to escape the coronavirus pandemic. Ji Seong-ho, who earned a proportional representation seat of a minor party in the April 15 elections, claimed that he is 99 percent...

SEOUL, April 29 (Yonhap) -- South Korean health experts said Wednesday that recovered coronavirus patients may have tested positive again due to traces of virus fragments that have been inactivated. As of Tuesday, a total of 277 people who recovered from COVID-19 have retested positive here, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). The country's central clinical committee for emerging disease control said there was no live virus present in such cases, positively refuting theories like the virus being reactivated or reinfection. They said that apparent reinfection cases came because fragments of the virus remained in...

My Kingdom Economics are derived through "Thanksgiving"for it was in this manner the waters parted for Moses and the snakebites were of no consequence(I will lift my eyes to the hills) for as The Son Of God is lifted up doors open and miracles begin ! My endowment to Him( Jesus) is you( My children of Light ) and so it is as your love for Us is poured out ," Truly " it is returned flowing down upon your heads pressed down shaken together and flowing over into My very Will. So enter My Courts with Thanksgiving "YES" but...

Dictators love their personal trains. Hitler had ‘Amerika’, an armoured beast equipped with anti-aircraft guns, which he used as a mobile headquarters for much of World War II. Mussolini and Stalin both insisted on luxurious bespoke carriages when travelling long distances. Fitting, then, that one of the world’s last old‑fashioned despots should also travel in his own unique version of this tyrant’s status symbol: one that may provide a vital clue as to the whereabouts of this stricken — and possibly deceased — autocrat.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea reported today that Kim Jong Un is not dead and in fact is "the most alive person in the universe." "American fake news says Supreme Leader is dead, but we found that he was more alive than anyone ever in history," said a spokesperson. "If he lies in still vegetative state, it is only because he is stuffed so full of life like a big meal and needs time to properly digest all that life. So much life. Such great life." According to the official statement released by the Korean Central News Agency, the...

Reports that Kim is either dead or is in very poor health are increasing, but what comes after his demise is far from certain and could be horrific. Regardless, there is a lot of sentiment that seems to celebrate his demise. Be careful what you wish for in this regard, here's why. He also presides over a nuclear arsenal and a massive conventional military force that could lay waste to large portions of South Korea and bombard American interests and its allies in the region with ballistic missiles. If Kim goes, it is far from clear what we will get...

North Korea ruler Kim Kong-un is dead or gravely ill after a stent procedure went wrong because his doctor's hands were shaking, according to reports, amid questions over his health -- Kim Jong-un is dead or on his death bed after a heart operation went wrong because his doctor's hand were shaking, reports claim. Rumours surrounding the health of the North Korean despot have been rife since he missed a celebration of the birthday of his late grandfather and the country's founder, Kim Il-sung, on April 15. A Japanese weekly magazine, Shukan Gendai, now reports that the leader is in...

Such maneuvers, though routine, have typically stirred outrage in North Korea, which considers them provocative. The secretive, militarized state has yet to issue any official warnings, however, as its 36-year-old head of state has not been seen publicly and is on the minds of the international community.

It was speculated North Korea's leader was in "grave danger" following heart surgery. Seoul's top office reaffirmed they weren't aware of anything out of the ordinary with Kim Jong-un's health. But a new report out of Japan claims the regime has been preparing a contingency plan for a leadership succession since late last year. Hong Yoo has the full story. Kim Jong-un's lack of recent public appearances, and the speculation surrounding his well-being, has raised the question of 'who will be the next in charge?'. The spotlight is now on Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yo-jong. .....

A Vietnamese woman filed a lawsuit against the Korean government on Tuesday over a massacre of civilians allegedly committed by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War, in the first of its kind filed some five decades after the atrocity. The plaintiff is Nguyen Thi Thanh, 60, who lost family members at the hands of Korean troops in Phong Nhi in Quang Nam province in February 1968. She seeks 30,000,100 won ($24,400) in compensation and an apology from the Korean government. According to her testimony, the incident took place when she was 8 years old, and she had to spend...

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea has seen no unusual signs suggesting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is ill, government officials said Tuesday, after CNN reported that Kim is "in grave danger after a surgery." "There is nothing unusual going on in North Korea. It's not true," a government official told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity, referring to the CNN report that cited an unidentified "U.S. official with direct knowledge" of the matter. Presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok also said that nothing unusual has been detected in the North. "No unusual signs have been identified inside North Korea," Kang said....

Speculation about health builds after Kim misses key event honouring country’s founder, Kim Il-sung... Kim Jong-un underwent heart surgery earlier this month and is recovering at his private villa, according to a South Korean report, with US media citing officials as saying the North Korean leader was in “grave danger” after the procedure. If accurate, the surgery claim, made by the Daily NK website, would explain Kim’s absence from an event to mark the anniversary of the birth of his grandfather – and the country’s founder – Kim Il-sung. Kim Jong-un underwent the procedure at a hospital in the county...