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A court suspended Wednesday an execution of the Immigration Office ordering the departure of Michel Catuira, chairperson of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants’ Trade Union (MTU) in South Korea.

The 12th Division of the Seoul Administrative Court has accepted the 39-year-old Filipino national’s request for suspension of administrative measure execution with the Korea Immigration Service that has told Catuira that he must leave the country by Mar. 7 or become undocumented and subject to forcible deportation. The court suspended the execution until the original administrative suit Catuira filed to nullify the cancellation of the visa and deportation order.

South Korea’s immigration authorities cancelled Catuira’s visa on Feb. 14 as the company Catuira worked for had to shut down due to a work shortage and became jobless.

Amnesty International believes Catuira has been targeted for his role in the MTU.　

South Korea plans to install a multi-purpose sound wave observatory in its northern area this year to monitor a possible volcanic eruption at Mt. Baekdu, a dormant volcano on the border between North Korea and China, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said Tuesday.

The KMA will spend 500 million Won ($443,000) to launch a simulation program that can provide an expected trajectory of volcanic ash and other fallout in the event of a major eruption. The agency also said it has agreed with China to share knowledge and information from five Chinese earthquake monitoring centers near the mountain. It seeks to strengthen cooperation with the Japanese weather agency to obtain real time volcano information and up-to-date monitoring techniques.

Some geologists has cautiously raised speculations that an eruption of Mt. Baekdu could take place in a couple of years.

The United States has appointed the head of the US Army Forces Command, General James Thurman, as the new head of the US Forces in South Korea.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates appointed Thurman on Tuesday, replacing General Walter Sharp who is set to retire after assuming his post in 2008. Thurman has responsibility for more than 700-thousand soldiers in the continental United States and has experience in combat, including a stint as a division commander in Iraq.

South Korea’s military will soon deploy light attack helicopters on islands near the Yellow Sea border with North Korea as part of its efforts to bolster defense capability there, following North Korea’s deadly artillery attack, an official said Wednesday.

The planned deployment of 500MD helicopters is aimed at countering a possible hovercraft infiltration by North Korea’s special forces into one of the border islands, the official at the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

U.S. aircraft maker Boeing Co. will deliver the first of four airborne early warning aircraft to South Korea’s Air Force in July, a company official said Wednesday, a move that would beef up the South’s surveillance capabilities over North Korea.

Boeing won a US$1.6 billion order in 2006 to sell four Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) planes to South Korea. The three remaining aircraft are expected to be delivered to South Korea by the end of 2012　

(Yonhap News Agency)

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