On the Korean Peninsula

Oh, this might chap Kim Jong-Un:

Two North Korean defectors won National Assembly seats in Wednesday's election for the first time ever. 

The two come from vastly different backgrounds. One is the slick 58-year-old former diplomat Thae Yong-ho, who has proved a natural politician and comes from an elite background in Pyongyang. The other is Ji Seong-ho, 38, who was born to an impoverished family near northernmost border with China.

Thae became the first North Korean defector to be elected as a constituency lawmaker, winning 58.4 percent of the votes in the affluent Gangnam district for the conservative United Future Party. 

The first North Korean defector ever to enter the South Korean parliament was Cho Myong-chol, another high-profile figure who won eight years ago for the conservative UFP's predecessor, the Saenuri Party. But Cho was appointed by proportional vote. 

Thae, the former second-in-command at the North Korean Embassy in London, defected to the South in 2016. He uses his new name Thae Gu-min, which means "saving people" in Chinese character, and wore a bulletproof vest during his campaign for fear of a terror attack.

Ji was elected through proportional representation for the Future Korea Party, a minor conservative proxy. As an orphan in a mining town in North Hamgyong Province, he was 14 years old when he tried to steal coal in order to survive but was hit by a train and lost his hand and leg. He escaped North Korea in 2006 and walked 51,000 km to come to the South. 

Since then he has campaigned for North Korean human rights with an organization thought to have saved hundreds of North Koreans who fled the repressive country since 2010. 

Ji gave a speech during U.S. President Donald Trump's state of the union address in Washington in January 2018.

Moon Jae-In's ruling party is crediting its victories to its response to the coronavirus and certainly not its economic approaches:

President Moon Jae-in has gained solid parliamentary support on the strength of the government's response to the coronavirus epidemic.  ...

Minjoo weathered the corruption scandal surrounding fly-by-night Justice Minister Cho Kuk as well as the government's dismal economic record, winning over 100 out of 121 constituencies in the Seoul metropolitan area, while the UFP won fewer than 20 as it was routed everywhere except the affluent Gangnam and Yongsan areas.

It was the biggest victory by the ruling party since 1987.

 

 

Why are people in South Korea testing positive for the coronavirus a second time?:

Although re-infection would be the most concerning scenario because of its implications for developing immunity in a population, both the KCDC and many experts say this is unlikely.

Instead, the KCDC says it is leaning toward some kind of relapse or “re-activation” in the virus.

A relapse could mean that parts of the virus go into some kind of dormant state for a time, or that some patients may have certain conditions or weak immunity that makes them susceptible to the virus reviving in their system, experts said.