When “super VIP” (VVIP) customers entered the Krystal Exclusive Club, young women wearing crowns and angel wings quickly rushed out to greet them. These customers are taken to the VVIP room, which is filled with luxurious furniture. Krystal’s customers are rich people, Thai officials or business owners. For this class, the COVID-19 prevention restrictions seem to make no sense. But earlier this year, Krystal and another nightclub in the vicinity, Emerald, became the largest and deadliest outbreak in Thailand, according to Health Ministry officials. Many people related to these two nightclubs have contracted the disease, including those from the upper class. The health authority said that while the majority of Thais strictly adhere to the regulation of wearing masks and restricting gatherings, the privilege of being granted to the elites has caused the COVID-19 epidemic to re-emerge in Bangkok. . The nightclub cluster also highlights class distinctions in one of the countries with the largest wealth gap between major economies. Thailand is one of the countries with a huge gap between rich and poor. In the photo, the Khlong Toey slum is located below the tall buildings. Photo: Bangkok Post Thailand has gone many months without a case in the community. But now, the disease has spread from luxury nightclubs, which cater to powerful and wealthy men, to the slums adjacent to highways and railways in Bangkok. In these cramped areas, keeping your distance is nearly impossible. The wave of the disease has also spread to prisons, construction sites and factories. Sittichat Angkhasittisiri, head of a community in the capital’s largest slum – Khlong Toey, said bitterly: “The rich party, and the poor suffer the consequences.” There is no way the epidemic wave has penetrated Khlong Toey yet. But according to Mr. Sittichat, a man living in Khlong Toey met a friend who had attended a party at the Krystal outbreak. After feeling unwell, the man quarantined himself in his car because he had nowhere else to go. But he was able to infect three other people, causing the disease to spread in the slums where thousands of people lived. “Officials say quarantine is necessary, but that is with the rich. Our house is too small to be isolated,” Sittichat said. A boy in Khlong Toey carries a backpack to an ambulance. Photo: Bangkok Post Before November 2020, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Thailand was less than 5,000. But by the end of May 2021, Thailand recorded more than 5,800 new cases of COVID-19 in just one day. The total number of cases currently in Thailand is about 175,000 cases. “Gone are the days when the World Health Organization (WHO) praised Thailand for its campaign against COVID-19,” the newspaper said. Bangkok Post write. The resurgence of COVID-19 in Thailand is part of an epidemic wave sweeping through Southeast Asia. Thailand mainly relies on locally produced AstraZeneca vaccines. The company that makes AstraZeneca has never made a vaccine before. The “phuyai”, known as the “elite” in Thailand, can travel abroad to get vaccinated. The Russian vaccine tour costing 220,000 baht (equivalent to nearly 150 million VND) in Thailand has been fully booked until July. Meanwhile, poorer people are struggling with the epidemic. Many people have to wait to be treated in government makeshift hospitals. Mutita Thongsopa, a dairy company employee who came to Bangkok to support her family, said: “Society is very, very unequal. The phuyai destroyed the anti-COVID-19 campaign, and we, the little ones, we can’t live.” On April 27, Mutita’s older sister, Supatra Thongsopa, a 40-year-old grocery worker, arrived at the government testing center at 3am to line up. Supatra waited that whole day, then two more days later. While waiting, Supatra texted her sister complaining of fatigue and stomach problems. On May 1, Supatra was tested. The result was positive, and she died five days later. Supatra’s boyfriend, who also has COVID-19, is still being treated in the hospital. “They die like autumn leaves,” says Mutita. Although a Bangkok court sentenced the managers of two nightclubs Krystal and Emerald to two months in prison for violating epidemic prevention regulations, so far no one else has been held responsible for the epidemic. outbreak again in Thailand. Although considered poor, the people of Khlong Toey slum are an important labor force in Bangkok. They are delivery people, delivering food. Their motorbikes crept past the Mercedes lined up on the road. They are construction workers of luxury apartment buildings and commercial centers. Their market provides Bangkok with fresh vegetables, fruits and seafood. Unemployment, already high due to Thailand’s border closure, has skyrocketed in Khlong Toey. To survive, some families have had to sell vaccination cards they received as residents of high-risk areas. Some wealthy Bangkok residents have bragged on social media about buying vaccination cards from the city’s most desperate residents. Thailand today, June 7, started an expanded vaccination campaign Less than 2% of the country’s population has been vaccinated with two doses.

The website of the Ministry of Public Security has just said that on June 1, Minister To Lam had a letter of commendation and recognition of the results and achievements that the members of the Steering Committee for building the project “Database of National population data” and the project “Production, issuance and management of citizen identification”, the Ministry of Public Security and local police have achieved in recent times. According to Minister To Lam, the campaign to implement the two projects has achieved important results. Despite difficult conditions due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, by June 1, the national police force had reached the milestone of receiving 50 million dossiers for issuance of citizen identity cards with electronic chips. Complete the target 1 month ahead of schedule. According to the original plan, the Ministry of Public Security aims to issue about 50 million citizen identification cards with electronic chips by July 1. (Photo: haiphong.gov.vn) Along with that, the police force nationwide has cleaned 80% of the national population data on the system, creating a solid basis for granting identification numbers to 100% of citizens nationwide and ready to connect with the Internet. ministries, branches and localities, contributing to promoting the building of e-Government and national digital transformation. In his letter of commendation, Minister To Lam also emphasized that the time from now until the completion of both projects on July 1 is not much, the tasks posed are very heavy, difficult and urgent. Therefore, the head of the Ministry of Public Security requested the Ministry’s Steering Committee and the Directors of the Public Security of the provinces and cities to continue directing and promoting the synchronous and comprehensive implementation of the contents of the project “national database” on population” and the project “Production, issuance and management of citizen identification”, striving to complete on schedule, contributing to building e-Government, administrative reform and serving economic development – society of the country. Previously, answering people’s questions about whether the citizen ID card with an electronic chip can replace documents in administrative transactions, the Ministry of Public Security said, the citizen ID card with an electronic chip with high security, large storage capacity, allowing the integration of many accompanying applications such as: digital signature application, biometric application, one-time password application … can be used and connected widely for public and private services. In the coming time, when the citizen ID card with an electronic chip has fully integrated information, people will not have to carry many types of documents when they go to transactions and do the procedures, just use a valid citizen ID card. Inserting electronic chip will perform transactions. In addition, the chip integration on the Citizen ID provides flexibility when it is necessary to add or modify information on the card after it is issued by the police. Data on the chip can be accessed immediately without being dependent on the network connection through devices that allow reading information on the chip, making identity authentication done immediately, minimizing multiple identity spoofing. Currently, the Department of Informatization, the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Police Department for Administrative Management of Social Order (C06) and the Ministry of Public Security are urgently coordinating with localities to connect information systems to serve the public. providing more than 200 level 4 online public services with the National Population Database, through the National Data Sharing Integrated Platform – NGSP. Once completed, people when using more than 200 online public services of this level 4 will be reduced to require personal papers.

Predator Helios 300 Predator Helios 300 – Ultimate Weapon The premium gaming laptop Predator Helios 300 is the laptop that every gamer wishes to own. With an eye-catching design, the monolithic metal Helios 300 stands out from the crowd with its bold Predator design. The Predator logo with Electric Blue LED lights is the highlight on the overall black background of the machine as it is challenging all opponents in front of it. The weight of the machine is only 2.2kg, making it light for a gaming laptop but still keeping the bunker. Advanced heatsink design helps Predator Helios 300 stay cool during gaming as well as heavy tasks. This machine is equipped with two cooling fans, including the latest 5th generation AeroBladeTM 3D cooling fan with 55% higher heat dissipation efficiency than conventional fans. This fan is made up of 89 steel blade blades, only 0.08mm thin, with serrated grooves on each steel leaf to help reduce noise when operating at high intensity. Predator Helios 300 owns the highest configuration up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, Intel Core i7 10750H processor, 16GB RAM, and 512GB NVME SSD. The device will also be equipped with a 15.6-inch screen with Full-HD IPS resolution, super-fast scanning frequency up to 300Hz. With this configuration, gamers can smoothly fight all current AAA games without fear of stuttering, lag, or frame tearing. Acer Nitro 5 Acer Nitro 5 – Holding the throne in the popular segment The latest Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop in 2021 will certainly continue to be a perfect choice in the popular gaming laptop segment. Still maintaining the inherent aggressive gaming lines, Acer Nitro 5 has upgraded the gentle texture on the A side to make the machine more elegant than the previous version. It owns a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS screen, 144Hz refresh rate and 3ms response speed for a smooth gaming experience. The laptop is equipped with a superior cooling system consisting of two fans and well-arranged copper pipes that improve heat dissipation by up to 25% compared to the previous generation. This is greatly optimized with CoolBoost technology that increases fan speed and cools CPU/GPU by 9%. All can be fine-tuned through the NitroSense software that comes with the device. The new Acer Nitro 5 comes with the highest GPU up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, 11th Gen Intel Core processor or AMD Ryzen 5000 series. The machine is equipped with up to 512 GB SSD M.2 PCle (upgradable up to 2TB SSD with 2 M.2 SSD slots and 2 TB HDD) and 8 GB RAM (upgradable up to 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM) ). Acer Swift X Acer Swift X – Thin and delicate, great performance Acer Swift X laptop is known as a thin and light laptop with hidden power inside. Acer Swift X is equipped with the latest Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 Series GPU, allowing the thin and light laptop to have extremely powerful graphics processing and rendering performance. Acer Swift X has a case design made from high-grade monolithic alloy, combined with a youthful and equally luxurious Safari Gold color. The device has an ultra-light weight of only 1.4kg, and is 17.9mm thin. Swift X owns an ultra-thin bezel-less screen of only 6.3mm, giving an extremely spacious working space and experience. The device has a huge battery life of up to 11 hours continuously, supports FastCharging fast charging technology that allows fast charging within 30 minutes for continuous use for 4 hours. Special warranty for high-end Acer products All Acer gaming laptops and Swift Series are entitled to 3S1 fast warranty: fast warranty, within 3 days including Saturday and Sunday, more than 3 days 1 to 1 exchange for products. For details on 3S1 Warranty please visit here. Retail price Predator Helios 300 using a new processor and graphics card will be officially on shelves in Vietnam with prices from VND 41,990,000 The new Acer Nitro 5 will be available in Vietnam with prices ranging from VND 28,990,000 to VND 39.990,000 Acer Swift X will be available in Vietnam with a retail price of VND 29.990,000

Countries are looking for ways to encourage people to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Photo: Getty Starting May 27, the first two million Californians to get vaccinated will each receive $50 in cash or a gift card. California Governor Gavin Newsom said this is part of an effort to promote vaccination as the state prepares to fully reopen the economy on June 15. “I announce the application of incentive cards. Two million cards will be applied on a first-come, first-served basis. If you’re 12 or older, you can get a credit card or $50 cash,” Newsom said. 10 Californians vaccinated before June 15 also have a chance to win a $1.5 million lottery prize. States and private organizations across the country also offer a variety of incentives to convince people to get vaccinated, from free baseball tickets and beer, to college scholarships and cash. Meanwhile in Iraq, the private sector is also launching initiatives to support the government’s vaccination program. A cafe in the capital Baghdad announced free service to customers who have been vaccinated. You just need to show the vaccination certificate, you will be served free delicious coffee in the shop. Shop owner Yasser Alaa said the initiative was meant to emphasize the importance of vaccination. “I think we should expand the initiatives. Life is returning to normal thanks to vaccines. We have no weapons other than vaccines in this battle. We want to urge people to understand the importance of vaccines,” Alaa said. In Chile, if you get the vaccine, you will receive a “travel pass”, which allows you to move freely within the country. “This helps to make it easier for people who have had enough vaccinations to meet and have more contact with their loved ones,” said Chile’s health minister. However, there are limits to who can receive the card. They are not allowed to travel during the curfew, respecting public health regulations. Other measures including wearing masks and social distancing must still be observed. Freedom of movement does not include travel abroad, and the “Travel Pass” will use a QR code, allowing the government to change people’s status instantly if they become infected. The European Union’s “digital certification of Covid-19”, which requires users to have a Covid-19 vaccine, is expected to take effect from July 1, is also a motivation for people to European countries speed up vaccine coverage. There is still a fear of vaccination not only in Africa but also in developed countries such as Europe or the US. Practically any vaccine has an adverse reaction. This is true for every drug, pharmaceutical, and even food. However, according to the assessment of the World Health Organization, the risks posed by vaccines are much lower than the benefits. The incidence of adverse reactions is very low. Therefore, we should not be too concerned to ignore a powerful weapon in the fight against this dangerous virus.

This fake website used logos and was designed with many colors that are quite similar to the official website of Viettel, causing many customers to confuse that this is the official website. Interface of fake Viettel website to sell 4G SIM cards. At the bottom of the website, the operator is also specified as Viettell Trade and Import-Export State Company Limited. Business registration number 0102831022 by the Department of Planning and Investment of Hanoi for the first time on 25/01/2006. In which, word Viettel is written with 1 letter “l”. Besides, while Viettel Group has changed the whole brand identity, this fake website still uses the old corporate brand identity. “The Vietnam Counterfeit Information Processing Center warns the online community not to use the service of this fake website. The case will be transferred to the authorities for consideration and handling in accordance with the law”, the unit this said. Recently, on many online markets, groups about SIM cards recently appeared to advertise for 4G SIM cards with up to 1 billion GB of high-speed capacity with a fee of less than 100,000 VND. Exchange with Zing MobiFone representative affirmed that all posts on social networks related to the distribution of 4G SIM cards with a capacity of up to 1 billion GB with low rates are scams. Currently, this network operator does not have any SIM types and packages like the ads above. The representative of the operator affirmed that users should not buy SIM from the above objects as well as recommending that customers can refer to the most accurate products and services at MobiFone stores as well as through main sales channels. other business formula. With the use of unknown SIMs as above, the operator representative said that users may have the possibility of leaking personal information or buying a SIM that cannot be used even after paying full payment for the object.

With the goal of granting 50 million chip-mounted citizen IDs before July 1, 2021, police across the country are working day and night. Many local residents also have to wait until the night before they can get their citizenship identity attached to the chip.

Explaining that the police of districts across the country put strength into identity in this phase, the representative of the Police Department of Administrative Management and Social Order (C06, Ministry of Public Security) shared: “Set the 1 / 7th milestone because this is the time when the national database system on population will be completed and integrated, connected with the citizen identification project. Administration, only need to present ID cards to be able to look up and complete the procedures without having to bring as many documents as today.

The representative of the Police Department for the administrative management of social order added that in early March, the leaders of the Ministry of Public Security requested that until July 1, the local functional forces had to issue 50 million identification cards. new.

In which, 50% of residents of 10 provinces and cities (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Can Tho, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Bac Ninh) must be issued with identification. before April 30.

People do identification at night at the police station of Lang Ha, Hanoi.

To accomplish the above goal, on average, every day, the police of the provinces and cities nationwide must receive and issue cards to about 300,000 citizens. The number of newly issued identification cards is very large, so related units divided into mobile teams, down to residential areas, and divided into 3 shifts a day: morning, afternoon and evening to keep up the schedule.

Representative of Department C06 further informed, one of the reasons leading to the overload of citizenship level is currently due to each district. “equipped with only two fingerprint receivers”

“This is the number of machines that have been carefully calculated to avoid waste. At the beginning when the campaign to issue 50 million cards was going on, the demand was great, so it would be overloaded, but after July 1, the number of card issuers was small over time, so if you invest too much, you will use less of the equipment in the future “, Representatives of the Police Department for the administrative management of social order share.

In addition, with the new type of card, the fingerprint technology has changed, so the receiving process can have some problems, many people have a blurry fingerprint so the machine does not receive, people declare information that does not match the record. will cause the police to edit, resulting in longer processing times than usual.

From Patrick Gensing, Editor ARD fact finder The daily News is accused of having manipulated the color scale of Corona cards in order to depict the infection situation more dramatically. On social media like Twitter, there are two daily News-Graphs showing the seven-day incidence of counties in Germany that actually use different color scales – one from March 17, 2021 with lighter colors, one from April 9 with darker ones.

The daily News is accused of manipulating graphics.

Where do the cards come from?

Both graphics are representations of ARD news. The cards were both on the Instagram channel of daily News released. The card with the lighter scale is based on TV reports from the daily News. The template is rarely used, however, as the detailed representation of counties on television is more difficult to see. In addition, it is not possible to click on individual districts and view the incidence. The map with the darker color scale is based on the representation of the incidence maps tagesschau.de. Corona graphics are an important part of reporting on the pandemic. The map enables users to view the values ​​for the respective cities or districts. The first version of this map went online in October 2020.

Have the colors been changed?

The color scale of the Corona card, which was allegedly tampered with, has not been changed; however, new classes were added in the course of the pandemic, as the incidence has risen sharply. In the first version of the district / city map, the highest class was the incidence values ​​of 50 or more cases per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days. At the end of October this class was divided into 50-100 and from 100. The class 50-100 retained the color value of the class from 50. The new class from 100 received an additional darker shade of red. The unchanged classes kept their color values. In view of the increasing incidence, the class from 100 cases was then divided in mid-December – into the two classes 100-200 and from 200. The class 100-200 retained the color value of the previous class from 100. The new class from 200 received an additional darker one Shade of red. All other classes kept their color values. This classification continues to apply.

No manipulation

Because of the dynamic infection process, the highest classes have been divided – additional shades of red have been introduced for the new classes. The presentation of the previous classes has always remained the same. The last expansion took place in mid-December, since then the classification of the classes has not been expanded. Would have daily News Incidentally, if the classes were not expanded, there would currently be no differences in the incidence on the map, since almost all districts and cities have had more than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days for weeks.

Different graphics

However, the different representations for television and online caused understandable confusion and criticism, because the fact that two cards with different colored bezels were used leaves room for speculation. The editor-in-chief of ARD news explains: “We are sorry if the use of the different graphics led to misunderstandings or irritations.” Juliane Leopold, editor-in-chief at Digitales, said it could make sense to take into account the differences in the playout channels such as linear television and the web and to design graphics in such a way that they can be easily recognized ARD news. The daily News But I decided to align television and the digital output channels. The case shows that it makes sense to present a uniform cross-media presentation, said Leopold. She announced that the previously used color gamut will be on tagesschau.de retained and in future uniformly on all play-out channels of the daily News will be used.

Alleged manipulation of weather maps

In 2019 the daily News was accused of manipulating weather maps for ideological reasons. At that time, however, two cards were compared that show different things.

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Now, more than anyone, Americans feel very clearly that the lion has awakened and with his endless claws and ambitions, gradually from partner to rival of America. Mr. Joe Biden has chosen a different method from his predecessor: re-establishing alliances to control this ferocious “lion” has just awakened.

That’s exactly what President Biden’s administration is doing. Rotate the shaft to Europe; promoting the actual formation of the US – Japan – Australia – India “Diamond Four” mechanism. And strengthening 3-way relations with 2 partners, 2 top US allies in Northeast Asia: Japan, South Korea.

An offer cannot be refused

That is a relationship with many ups and downs spanning many decades in history.

In the early 1960s, when China had just acquired nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War was on the rise, President Johnson’s administration sought to promote relations with Japan. and Korea aimed to counter the communist movement in Asia. But, in order to reinforce this triangular relationship, it was the Johnson administration’s job at the time to “repair” the bilateral relationship between Japan and Korea, which had continued to tense after grievances in the past. World War 2.

Mr. Joe Biden has different methods from his predecessor. Photo: LG

The US had in hand a “trump card” to solve this dilemma: the superior military and economic strength at that time. Who pays, he or she has the right to order music! While Japan and South Korea continued negotiations that lasted more than 13 years, since 1951, aimed at normalizing bilateral relations, American diplomats have delivered a fairly simple message: what if Japan Japan and South Korea have established a friendly relationship, the US will continue to provide both military and economic support for both partners.

Simply put, it is an irrefutable offer! On June 22, 1965, at the Prime Minister’s Palace in Tokyo, the representatives of Japan and Korea signed the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and Korea, often referred to as the Japan-Korea Treaty. This treaty provided the basic foundation for restoring diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan, which had been interrupted since 1945.

By the 1980s, the administration of US President Ronald Reagan continued the policy direction of promoting relations between Japan and South Korea. With the encouragement of the United States, South Korean President Choon Do-hwan and Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro held the first summit in 1983 and 1984. The United States also pledged to ensure security for Korea. , reassessed strong support for Japan, while calling on Tokyo to play a greater role in ensuring security in Asia.

By the late 1990s, the US began a new step in its relationship with two allies in Northeast Asia: the US – Japan – Korea triangle relationship. To foster this relationship, a Tripartite Monitoring and Cooperation Group (TCOG) has been formed as well as the implementation of the “Perry Process” (named US Secretary of Defense William Perry), which is the to the expert level to help policymakers of the three sides have conditions to discuss and exchange to strengthen cooperation between the US and Japan and South Korea …

“Thorn” in a 3-way game

However, the US will have to make a lot more effort if Biden’s policy of strengthening relations with Northeast Asian allies will be effective, because the Japan-Korea relationship has recently shown signs of developing. Fierce disputes, no signs of cooling down.

For more than three decades after the signing of the Japan-Korea Treaty, the two sides continued to argue over different interpretations of the treaty, which exempted Japan from any compensation for the period of its occupation. during World War 2.

In 2018, the Supreme Court of Korea suddenly ruled that Japanese companies must compensate victims of forced labor during the war. After this controversial ruling, the relationship between the two sides quickly turned in a bad way. Both Seoul and Tokyo are excluded from the list of most favored nation states in trade relations. While Tokyo imposed restrictions on the export of key raw materials on Korea’s large-scale semiconductor industry and many other items, a nationwide boycott campaign took place. items made in Japan. Japanese businesses are also the subject of anti-countermeasure campaigns in Korea …

The dispute between the two sides culminated when in August 2019, Seoul announced that it was likely to withdraw from the Treaty on Important Information Sharing with Tokyo, which was signed in 2016; South Korea will only continue to cooperate with Japan in military information, through a trilateral information-sharing agreement, in which the US plays an intermediary role.

This action threatened the US-Japan-Korea alliance structure in the context of Northeast Asia geopolitics frequently “red alert” due to tensions on the Korean Peninsula. However, just a few hours before the Japan Intelligence Sharing Treaty expires, Seoul decided to extend the treaty, a move that made the United States relieved, relieved of its thousands of pounds that threatened to destroy it. broken US – Japan – Korea triangular relations.

Throughout 2020, the bilateral relationship between Korea and Japan did not improve significantly. Most recently, the Korean Defense White Paper announced in February 2021 no longer calls Japan “partner”, a worrying signal for the relationship between the two sides. In the context of the COVID-19 epidemic raging around the world, travel restrictions have further reduced opportunities for exchanges between people of the two countries, making the ability to restore Japan-Korea relations very difficult. towel.

Japan remains an economic powerhouse. Photo: LG

The currency is the currency ahead of Wisdom

During his four years in the White House, Mr. Trump has repeatedly questioned the value of allies in Northeast Asia, repeatedly debating the costs of maintaining US troops in both Korea and Japan. Copy. Those moves have undermined the US’s ability to assume the unwritten role of being a (key) party building a bridge between Seoul and Tokyo. This leads to the fact that the US – Japan – Korea triangular relationship has fallen into the bleakest situation in the last months of the Trump term.

Aware of the damage caused by his predecessor, the Biden administration seeks to reorganize the trilateral alliance relationship. It is important not to let either partner feel the US is biased towards the other.

However, it is obvious that due to the different geographical location, history, political regime as well as the size of the economies of each party, the value of each Northeast Asian ally to the United States is also. different.

Outperformed by China (to become the second largest economy in the world), Japan remains an economic powerhouse. But, this economy is increasingly dependent on Chinese markets, capital sources and production chains. Therefore, Japan is careful when choosing its position, ensuring to gain the greatest benefits in the context of the fierce Sino-US confrontation.

Tokyo’s optimal choice is to build a relationship just enough with the US to avoid falling into a passive position in the Sino-Japanese relationship, as a bargaining chip with China; while maintaining its role as a trusted US ally to deal with the security challenges that have recently emerged on the Korean Peninsula.

Compared to Japan, South Korea is more dependent on the US for the military but more on China economically. The US is the only ally, and China is Seoul’s biggest trading partner. Korea cannot and does not want to have to choose between either party. Maintaining a relatively neutral position between the US and China is also a sensible choice for Seoul.

In order to serve the strategy of rebuilding allied relations in Northeast Asia, not only actively mediating the difficult relationship between Japan and South Korea, the US must also actively involve Japan. and South Korea is back in a trajectory that is allied with America itself. At the end of February, the US and Japan signed a cost-sharing agreement for the US military stationed in Japan. By early March, the US reached an agreement with South Korea to sign the XI Special Bilateral Military Cost-Sharing Agreement (SMA) for a period of six years.

These are the economic levers that were used decades ago and they are still in effect today.

The money (of the US) is the smart money!