Author: GIKorea

It seems like every other year an F-16 crashes into the Yellow Sea, here is the latest example. Fortunately the pilot was recovered safely:

An Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon crashed Monday morning off South Korea’s western coast, according to the 8th Fighter Wing.

The fighter from Kunsan Air Base was flying over the Yellow Sea when it experienced an in-flight emergency at 8:43 a.m., the wing said in a news release Monday.

The pilot ejected and was rescued at sea by the South Korean navy and coast guard, 7th Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Rachel Buitrago told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday.

A South Korean air force helicopter airlifted the pilot to Kunsan, she added.

The pilot is awake and in stable condition, according to the news release.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This is a lesson from dictatorship 101, you have to control the flow of information to the people to maintain regime control; the balloon flights challenge this control:

Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-activist and founder of the advocacy group Fighters for a Free North Korea, holds up propaganda material condemning North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for developing nuclear weapons and missiles without feeding the country’s hungry residents in this April 2021 photo. Courtesy of Fighters for a Free North Korea

Pyongyang has belatedly reacted furiously to South Korean Constitutional Court’s decision in September to strike down the ban on sending propaganda leaflets over the border into North Korea.

In a statement released in November, North Korea’s Central News Agency (KCNA) said the court’s decision signals a de facto war against the North as information warfare is part of an operation preceding a ground war.

Calling North Korean defectors who flew the leaflets across the border “garbage,” the KCNA said that North Korea’s firing of anti-aircraft rounds across the border in 2014 and its destroying of the inter-Korean liason office used for talks between the two countries in 2020 are two chilling reminders of what South Korea could face. 

In 2014, North Korea used anti-aircraft guns to shoot down balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets flown by South Korean activists near the border town of Yeoncheon. 

North Korea’s furious reaction to the court’s lifting of the ban on sending propaganda leaflets into the North reflects the regime fears its people being exposed to outside information.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

No reductions in the U.S. troop presence in South Korea will be coming in the latest budget proposal:

Soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division stand in formation during a rehearsal on Robertson Field at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, May 15, 2023. (Frank Spatt/U.S. Army)

U.S. troop levels in South Korea will remain the same under an annual budget proposal submitted to Congress by the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Thursday.

Committee lawmakers from both chambers released their negotiated copy of the National Defense Authorization Act allocating $886 billion to fund the Defense Department through the next fiscal year.

Under the proposal, the roughly 28,500 U.S. troops deployed to South Korea will be maintained to affirm “the United States commitment to extended deterrence using the full range of … defense capabilities.”

Most of those troops are stationed at Camp Humphreys, the largest U.S. military base overseas, roughly 40 miles south of Seoul. It’s home to around 35,000 service members and DOD civilians and serves as headquarters for U.S. Forces Korea, Eighth Army, the 2nd Infantry Division and the Combined Forces Command.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The much publicized proposal to ban dog meat in South Korea appears to be in serious trouble:

Animal rights activists protest in front of the National Assembly in Seoul, Saturday, urging lawmakers to pass the anti-dog meat legislation by the end of the year as promised by the main parties. Courtesy of Coalition for End to Dog Meat Consumption

A legislative move to ban the consumption of dog meat is losing steam as rival parties have yet to reach a consensus over the issue amid fierce opposition from dog meat traders.

According to political circles and animal activists, Sunday, the anti-dog meat bill is still pending at the National Assembly, as the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is refusing to cooperate with the ruling People Power Party (PPP) over the legislation at the Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee.

For the bill to pass in the 21st Assembly as promised by both parties, it needs to pass the standing committee and the Legislation and Judiciary Committee before finally winning a majority of votes by present lawmakers at the extra plenary sessions, slated for Dec. 20, 28 and Jan. 9 next year.

The ruling party stressed that the legislation must pass during the extra plenary sessions next week.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is good to see the ROK military getting a significant pay increase, especially for those who choose to serve in frontline units:

South Korea plans to raise the annual salaries of entry-level military officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) at border units by up to 30 percent by 2027 from this year, the defense ministry said Sunday, amid a push to improve working conditions of troops.

The salary for a new staff sergeant stationed at a front-line unit will increase to 49 million won (US$37,190) in 2027, up 28 percent from this year, according to the ministry’s five-year welfare plan for service members.

The pay of a new second lieutenant at a border unit will rise to 49.9 million won in 2027, up 30 percent over the same period.

In ordinary units behind the front lines, a staff sergeant will see their annual pay increase to 37.6 million won in 2027, up 14 percent from this year, while a second lieutenant’s salary will rise to 39.1 million won in 2027, up 15 percent from this year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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