Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
I am not sure how someone would be able to catch this guy as long as he remains in North Korea:
The United States offered Thursday to provide a reward of up to US$10 million for information on a North Korean cyber actor targeting America’s critical infrastructure, as it strives to prevent Pyongyang’s ability to generate revenue through illicit means to fund its weapons programs.
The State Department announced the reward, accusing Rim Jong-hyok — a North Korean national associated with a cyber group known as Andariel — and others of being involved in malicious cyberactivities targeting U.S. hospitals, government entities, defense contractors and others.
U.S. law enforcement investigators have documented that Andariel actors victimized five healthcare providers, four U.S.-based defense contractors, two U.S. Air Force bases and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, according to the department.
You can read more at the link.
South Korea best be careful on what foreigners it embraces. It needs foreigners that learn to speak Korean and understands Korean culture and history. If not the country could become less Korean and look more like this and this:
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday that local governments’ cooperation with the state was crucial in encouraging foreign residents to settle here to address the population crisis in South Korea.
At a meeting held in Hongseong-gun, South Chungcheong Province, Yoon, who presided over a meeting with heads of the autonomous governments, said the central and local governments should take preemptive actions to support foreign nationals to settle and work in Korean society, as the country faces a growing shortage in its working-age population.
“We must take preemptive action on the labor shortage in the wake of the fast aging of the population coupled with the low birth rate,” Yoon said before some 100 participants. “The low birth rate issue and the foreign worker issue must be seriously addressed through the collaboration of central and local governments.”
You can read more at the link.
North Korea’s statement is not entirely true because Trump and Kim’s personal relationship ushered in an era where there was far less provocations and antagonism compared to prior years:
North Korea on Tuesday dismissed former US President Donald Trump’s repeated boasts about his close relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a “lingering desire,” stating that their personal bond did not bring about “any substantial positive change.”
The statement, delivered through the state-run Korean Central News Agency, which is tailored more to external audiences than domestic ones, marked Pyongyang’s first official reaction to Trump’s campaign trail remarks. (…..)
“It is true that Trump, when he was president, tried to reflect the special personal relations between the heads of states in the relations between states, but he did not bring about any substantial positive change,” the commentary read.
“The foreign policy of a state and personal feelings must be strictly distinguished,” it added.
Pyongyang reiterated its stance that the ball is in the US court, urging the US to abandon what it labeled as a “hostile policy” toward North Korea in the commentary. Pyongyang considers the US extended deterrence commitment to South Korea in response to mounting threats from North Korea, such as the deployment of US strategic assets to the peninsula, as part of the hostile policy.
You can read more at the link.
The tit-for-tat balloon antics between North and South continue:
A trash-carrying balloon sent by North Korea landed on the presidential office compound Wednesday, the Presidential Security Service (PSS) said.
The PSS said it discovered fallen trash on the grounds of the presidential compound while monitoring the latest batch of balloons flown by the North earlier in the day.
North Korea has sent thousands of trash-filled balloons toward South Korea since May in protest of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets sent by activists in South Korea across the border.
You can read more at the link.
Any Air Force types want to comment if it really makes a difference having nine F-16’s stationed on Osan AB instead of Kunsan AB? It is not like that is a very far distance:
Air Force fighter jets are temporarily moving closer to North Korea to “optimize combat capability and increase readiness” on the Korean Peninsula. Nine F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base, roughly 115 miles southwest of Seoul, will be assigned for a yearlong trial to the 36th Fighter Squadron at Osan Air Base, about 30 miles south of the capital, according to an Air Force news release Thursday. The F-16s began arriving at Osan earlier this month, 7th Air Force spokesman Maj. Rachel Buitrago told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday. Two fighter squadrons of F-16s and A-10 Thunderbolt IIs are permanently stationed at the base.
You can read more at the link.
