Author: GIKorea

Too bad the weather wasn’t better, but I guess we will see how North Korea responds to this military parade in Seoul:

Amidst the rain, South Korea showcases its indigenous Hyunmoo ballistic missiles during a military street parade in downtown Seoul, commemorating the 75th anniversary of Armed Forces Day. (Yonhap)

The South Korean military showcased an array of domestically produced advanced weaponry in a rare, large-scale military parade in downtown Seoul on Tuesday, with its commander-in-chief warning North Korea of the collapse of the Kim Jong-un regime in the case of a nuclear attack against the South.

In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Armed Forces Day, observed each year on Oct. 1, South Korea demonstrated its robust conventional military capabilities, serving as a resolute message to North Korea amid its increased nuclear threats.

This high-profile military street parade, the first in a decade, was staged hours after President Yoon Suk Yeol issued a stern warning to North Korea during a military inspection ceremony.

“If North Korea uses nuclear weapons, its regime will be brought to an end by an overwhelming response from the ROK-US alliance,” Yoon said in his speech at Seoul Air Base, referring to South Korea by the acronym of its official name, the Republic of Korea.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but US military personnel participated in the parade as well for the first time.

Stryker Brigade combat troops from the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division join a South Korean military parade in downtown Seoul on Tuesday in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Armed Forces Day. (Yonhap)

Does anyone think the album would have been recalled if someone claimed it looked like a Bible or a Torah?:

The first production copies of K-Pop boy band Kingdom’s latest album are being pulled off the shelves and discarded amid a controversy over the album cover’s resemblance to the Quran. 

Kingdom’s agency GF Entertainment announced Monday that “There were concerns expressed that the Kingdom’s seventh mini-album cover, which was due to go on presale on Sept. 21, bore a striking similarity to the Quran.” 

The agency added, “In light of the circumstances, we have decided to recall, discard and redesign all 70,000 initial production copies of the album.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

With an impending government shutdown coming up by the end of the week it appears paychecks for U.S. troops and possibly even the Coast Guard are going to be protected:

Lawmakers are scrambling to ensure troops will be paid in case of a looming government shutdown, including Coast Guard members who typically go without paychecks during the closing of federal agencies.

In the House, Rep. Jennifer Kiggans, R-Va., a former Navy helicopter pilot, is pushing a bill that will keep service members paid if Congress fails to agree on a funding plan by Oct. 1. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, a Marine Corps veteran, is leading a similar effort in the Senate alongside Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who introduced a separate bill focused on Coast Guard pay.

“Our service members shouldn’t suffer because of Washington’s dysfunction,” Kiggans said. “As we continue working to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month, this legislation will give our troops the financial certainty they deserve.”

Active-duty troops are required to keep working in a shutdown and could start missing paychecks if lawmakers cannot agree on either short-term or full-year funding for the Pentagon. House Republicans have twice failed in recent weeks to put their defense appropriations bill on the floor for a vote due to party infighting.

The proposed military pay legislation guarantees the same paycheck protections Congress gave troops hours before the start of a 16-day government shutdown in 2013. The military was largely unaffected by the last shutdown in late 2018 to early 2019 because the Pentagon had a congressionally approved budget at the time, though the Coast Guard continued to work without paychecks for 34 days.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but these shutdowns are so dumb because all the government workers receive their back pay and are essentially being paid to stay home.

I am surprised that the number of Koreans supporting the expansion of the U.S.-ROK alliance is this high:

Koreans are carefully weighing the possible consequences of expanded security cooperation with the United States, especially regarding possible conflicts with China, a survey suggests.  
   
In a recent survey of 1,000 Koreans over the age 18 by the JoongAng Ilbo and the East Asia Institute, 81.8 percent agreed that the Korea-U. S. alliance should address not only issues of the Korean Peninsula but also those of the region at large. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

However, though the Korean public favors expanding the U.S.-ROK alliance, they don’t want the ROK to become involved in a conflict over Taiwan:

Should a conflict break out between the United States and China in the Taiwan Strait, a majority of respondents wanted Korea to take no part in the clash.  
   
Slightly more respondents said Korea should remain uninvolved in a clash over Taiwan than those who said Korea should play a role in the conflict, 56.5 percent to 43.5 percent.  
   
When asked more generally what Korea should do in a potential conflict between the two superpowers, 50.3 percent said Korea should stay neutral; 45.2 percent said Korea should support the United States; and 4.2 percent said that Korea should support China. 

Luckily for South Korea countries back in 1950 came to their aid when they were attacked by aggressive Communists, but now the majority of Koreans want to turn their backs on a country very similar to them facing aggressive Communism today.

A lot more interesting findings from this survey can be read at the link.

This is very weird especially since the police are focusing on suicide as the cause for at least four of the deaths:

A family of five has been found dead in three different locations in and around Seoul, and police are investigating connections into their deaths, police said Saturday. 

Police received a report at 7:29 a.m. of a 40-year-old woman having jumped off an apartment building in Songpa in eastern Seoul, officials said. 

She was sent to a hospital in cardiac arrest but later pronounced dead.

While police were checking the woman’s whereabouts in the lead-up to her death, they discovered her husband, mother- and sister-in-law dead in a residence in the same district. 

Police then found the couple’s teenage daughter dead at a hotel in Gimpo, just west of Seoul. 

Police said a note was found at one of the scenes that indicated a conflict over money. 

Police said they believe four of them, excluding the daughter, took their own lives, and an autopsy will be carried out on her to figure out the exact cause of death.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Lee Jae-myung is in the hospital now and thus able to achieve sympathey from the Korean left in an attempt to hopefully avoid arrest. I guess we will see if this tactic works:

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who has been on a hunger strike in protest against what he called a slew of the Yoon government’s policy failures, ended his fasting after more than three weeks, a party official said Saturday.

“Chairman Lee will end the hunger strike on its 24th day and begin treatment for recovery,” Kang Sun-woo, a spokesperson for the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), said in a briefing.

“The medical team treating Lee strongly called for Lee to immediately call off the hunger strike as continuing it would have severely hurt his health,” Kang said, adding that Lee is willing to carry out his work schedule in consultation with the medical staff.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.