N. Korea fires 3 ballistic missiles amid 1st virus outbreak
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea on Thursday, its neighbors said, in the latest of a series of weapons demonstrations this year that came just hours after it confirmed its first case of the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
The launches could underscore North Korea’s determination to press ahead with its efforts to expand its arsenal despite the virus outbreak to rally support behind the leader, Kim Jong Un, and keep up pressure on its rivals amid long-dormant nuclear diplomacy.
Thursday’s launches were the North’s first weapons fired since the inauguration of new conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday.
https://apnews.com/article/seoul-south-korea-north-327a81d1281f2fadeb430e4c632458b7
The headline should have been: "North Korea fires 3 ballistic missiles at six thirty in the evening (Seoul time), President Yoon not available?" One pundit asked why didn't the president convene a National Security Council meeting per the normal government protocol? Has the NSC been replaced? President Yoon had probably already left the office for the day, and his executive office staff and their security office chief pieced together a national security situation evaluation meeting to issue a statement which addressed the threat North Korea's continuing missile launches posed to South Korean and international security. The office of the Chairman Joint Chief's issued a very similar statement. The presidential office is now located in the former Ministry of National Defense building on the old Yongsan garrison site.
A critic joked, the president probably left the office to do some drinking. He likes to drink somek ( 소맥 ), a boilermaker made with soju and beer. President Yoon isn't even in office three days and the security gap created by his refusal to move into the Blue House where the South Korean presidents traditionally lived and directed NSC meetings from the national command center underground is already on display. Why? Because some wizard guru, Gosa Jeon Gong, a youtube figure, apparently informed him and his wife, that the Blue House had bad feng shui ( 풍수 ) and that Yongsan military base where the former MND building is located had better geomancy. No joke. No comment from the conservative South Korean media. The new president is a Milton Friedman privatizer and anti-labor, that's all that matters to them. Yoon said during the campaign it was okay for employees to work 120 hours a week, but it seems he treats the Presidential office as a nine to five job and isn't available in a threat situation. The president's constitutional authority and responsibility for national security was apparently delegated to subordinates. So much for the notion promoted during the campaign that the conservative candidate with no foreign policy or national security experience whatsoever would be better for national security.
Note: 5.19 박정호의 핫스팟] 김병주 "NSC 열지 않은 윤석열 정부, 그게 바로 안보 공백" 쓴소리 Democratic National Assembly member Park Byung-chu (former four star general) elaborated in this OhMyNews TV youtube, additional details on the implications of Yoon's Security Office's failure to arrange for the meeting of the NSC on 5.12 in response to the triple ballistic missile launch by North Korea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgec3BIl-Rg
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