Author: GIKorea

I would think the only diplomacy that China would be supportive of between the U.S. and North Korea would be one that leads to the reduction or removal of U.S. troops in South Korea. If China is signaling little to no support for Trump’s diplomatic efforts with North Korea that likely means discussions about U.S. troop reductions is not being considered:

China may not block the resumption of diplomacy between the United States and North Korea but is unlikely to play a “central” role in their reengagement, a former senior U.S. diplomat said Thursday, ahead of the upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Daniel Kritenbrink, who served as assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs from 2021-25, made the comment in response to written questions from Yonhap News Agency, noting that Beijing will be “suspicious” of any significant thaw in the Washington-Pyongyang relations.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This photo, taken Sept. 15, 2026, shows terraced rice paddies in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, as they turn a golden hue ahead of harvesting. (Yonhap)

If these workers were in fact working at this plant on tourist visas then I don’t see how they are going to win this lawsuit:

LG Energy Solution and Hyundai Motor Group are distancing themselves from the legal actions of workers against the U.S. government over their detention during last year’s immigration raid at the companies’ joint battery plant in Georgia. 

An LG Energy Solution official told The Korea Times Wednesday that the company was not aware that employees were taking legal action until media reports emerged Tuesday night. The official added that the company would not get involved because the legal actions were based on individual decisions by the workers, and the company is not tracking who is joining the campaign.

An official at Hyundai Motor Group also said none of the company’s employees were among those detained at the time, adding that it is not involved in legal action taken individually by workers from partner companies or those dispatched to the site.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Good luck trying to get North Korea to ever pay for this:

The inter-Korean joint liaison office in the North Korean border city of Kaesong is demolished in June 2020. (Herald DB)

A Seoul court ruled Wednesday that North Korea must pay the South Korean government more than 44.6 billion won ($32.5 million) for demolishing the inter-Korean joint liaison office in Kaesong in June 2020.

The ruling marked the South Korean government’s first victory in a damages suit filed directly against North Korea. How Seoul could enforce the judgment remains unclear, as there are currently no practical means of compelling Pyongyang to pay.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

These are some really bad poll numbers for President Lee which may influence his decision on whether to deploy troops to the Middle East which would likely be unpopular in South Korea:

President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating fell to the lowest level since he took office, marking the ninth consecutive week of decline, a poll showed Monday.

In the poll conducted on 2,515 adults from Monday to Friday by Realmeter and commissioned by the EKN newspaper, 33.8 percent positively assessed Lee’s handling of state affairs, down 3.6 percentage points from the previous week.

His disapproval rating rose 3.8 percentage points to 63.3 percent.

Realmeter attributed the decline in Lee’s approval rating to negative public sentiment over controversies surrounding his recent Cabinet reshuffle, the possible deployment of military assets to the Strait of Hormuz and uncertainty over real estate policies.

The pollster also cited a sharp drop in support among liberal voters and those in their 20s, with support from those aged 18 to 29 falling 10.2 percentage points.

Yonhap

Even more interesting is that the opposition party is now more popular than the rulling party:

n a separate poll conducted by the same pollster, support for the ruling Democratic Party fell 5.7 percentage points from a week earlier to 36.1 percent, while support for the main opposition People Power Party rose 4.5 percentage points to 42.1 percent.

Times have changed really fast in Korean politics.

It doesn’t appear to be anything nefarious going on with the North Korean border incursions, but the US and ROK senior leaders decided to check it out for themselves anyway:

Top U.S. and South Korean commanders inspected frontline positions within the Demilitarized Zone this week amid increased North Korean construction and repeated crossings of the heavily fortified border. Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, and Gen. Jin Yong-sung, chairman of the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the eastern border Wednesday and examined North Korean construction near the Military Demarcation Line, according to a Joint Staff press release. The line divides the two Koreas within the DMZ, a buffer zone established after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty.

The agreement has maintained stability on the Korean Peninsula for the past 70 years, but firm readiness is necessary to preserve it, Brunson said in the release. The visit follows several recent demarcation-line crossings by North Korean troops. South Korean forces fired warning shots last month after North Korean soldiers crossed the border in the DMZ’s eastern sector, according to the South’s Ministry of National Defense. The incident marked the first warning shots fired in response to a crossing since an incursion last year, the Yonhap News Agency reported Aug. 16. North Korean troops crossed the line 17 times last year, the report said.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.