Here is the latest provocation in what will likely continue to be a busy year of provocations from North Korea:
North Korea fired several cruise missiles toward the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, the South Korean military said, the latest in a series of saber-rattling that heightened tensions.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the North’s launch took place around 7 a.m. but did not elaborate, citing an ongoing analysis.
“While strengthening our monitoring and vigilance, our military has been closely coordinating with the United States to monitor additional signs of North Korea’s provocations,” the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Considering all the publicity the Alkonis family made trying to get him transferred to a U.S. prison, it was doubtful they would ever keep his release low key:
A Navy officer’s release by U.S. authorities from his prison term for two 2021 traffic deaths near Mount Fuji has stirred a wave of criticism by Japanese on social media. Online critique of Lt. Ridge Alkonis’ release, ordered Jan.12 by the U.S. Parole Commission, and his subsequent media appearances “goes far beyond the scale” sometimes leveled at the U.S. military in Japan, said Jeffrey Hall, a special lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba prefecture. (……)
“The pressure campaign to release Alkonis and his subsequent release received very little media attention in Japan,” he told Stars and Stripes by email Friday. “If they had not decided to draw attention to themselves with a post-release victory tour in the US news media, this event probably would have been largely unnoticed in Japan.”
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
Some US Army occupational specialities in South Korea are now going to have the option to take a $5,000 lump sum bonus to extend their tour on the peninsula:
Eighth Army troops in jobs on a critical shortage list may earn up to $5,000 for extending their tours in South Korea for another year. Career specialties on the critical list are eligible for that incentive; jobs deemed “understrength” could be offered $3,600, Eighth Army assistant chief of staff Col. R. Arron Lummer said by email Tuesday.
The critical list includes fire control specialists, rocket system crew members, Black Hawk helicopter mechanics, information technology specialists, satellite communication systems operators, military working dog handlers, preventive medicine specialists, wheeled vehicle mechanics, culinary specialists and AH-64E Apache helicopter pilots. Understrength jobs include combat engineers, joint fire support specialists, air defense enhanced early warning system operators, air traffic controllers, cavalry scouts and utilities equipment repairers. The bonuses are dispersed to eligible soldiers in a lump sum on the first day of their extended yearlong tour in South Korea.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link, but this is the first time I can remember a large lump sum bonus like this being to keep Soldiers in 8th Army.
The underwear guy is out of jail for now:
This undated file photo shows former Ssangbangwool Group Chairman Kim Sung-tae delivering a speech at an unidentified event.
A local court on Tuesday granted bail to the former chairman of South Korean underwear maker Ssangbangwool who had been arrested for embezzlement and illegal remittance to North Korea.
The Suwon District Court allowed former Ssangbangwool Chairman Kim Sung-tae to be released on bail on condition that he pay 100 million won (US$75,000) and carry a real-time location tracking device with him until trials are over.
The former chairman was released late Tuesday evening when the deposit was paid, a company official said.
“With the court’s decision, the former chairman will attend the remaining trials without physical detention,” Ssangbangwool said in a statement.
On Feb. 3, 2023, Kim was indicted and detained on charges of embezzlement of funds worth 54 billion won in the group’s five unlisted “paper” companies and an illegal remittance of $8 million to the North and has since been behind bars.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but it is alleged that the money he was sending to North Korea was a payoff to allow Lee Jae-myung to travel to North Korea when he was the Gyeongi-do governor at the time.
Not all heroes wear shoes:
A 23-year-old South Korean man alerted his neighbors in an apartment fire in Seoul last week, helping all 95 residents to escape to safety, local media reported Monday.
On Thursday a fire broke out on the 14th floor of an apartment building in Banghwa-dong of Gangseo-gu, western Seoul, at 6:30 a.m., with no casualties except four minor cases of smoke inhalation. A report from local daily Dong-A Ilbo revealed that this was thanks to heroic efforts by a resident named Woo Il-yeong.
According to the report, the sixth-floor resident became aware of the fire while preparing for work, and went up to the 14th floor to find that smoke had filled the halls. After coming back downstairs to get a wet cloth, he went back up to find if anyone needed help.
Woo found an elderly person wondering around in the smoke on the 14th floor and led the person downstairs. He then ran up and down the stairs for 30 minutes to knocking on the doors and urge other residents to evacuate the building, before firefighters arrived on the scene.
After all 95 occupants had escaped to safety, he realized that he had lost his slippers. (…….)
Officials found that the fire started when a resident on the 14th floor was lighting a cigarette. It was also found that the building’s fire-resistant doors meant to prevent the spread of fire had been left open, allowing the blaze to spread across the entire floor within a short period.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
Hopefully they don’t ever let this guy out of prison on parole:
This file photo shows Choi Yun-jong, the suspect accused of attempting to rape, then murdering a woman in her 30s at a hiking trail in southern Seoul on Aug. 25, 2023. (Yonhap)
A Seoul court sentenced the suspect in last year’s attempted rape and killing of a woman on a hiking trail in Seoul to life in prison Monday, saying he should be separated from society forever.
Choi Yun-jong, 30, was indicted on charges of fatally beating, throttling and attempting to rape the victim he randomly picked on a hillside hiking trail in the Sillim neighborhood on Aug. 17.
The victim, an elementary school teacher in her 30s, was left unattended for some 20 minutes before being taken to a hospital, but died two days later.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
