Author: GIKorea

It will be interesting to see how much these regulations will improve morale for troops eating in ROK military chow halls. I have eaten in ROK Army chow halls before and the food wasn’t bad, but if I had to eat it every day with no variety I can understand why Soldiers would complain:

South Korea’s Defense Ministry on Monday announced a new food service modernization program for this year that meets more of soldiers’ preferences, so that they could enjoy more varied options at barracks starting from the next month.

The new plan seeks to end the previous military policy of providing meals to around 500,000 enlisted soldiers based on standardized menus and ingredients that were unilaterally imposed by the military authorities without considering soldiers’ predilections for food.

South Korean troops have so far designed a daily menu to meet the allocated amount of food ingredients that must be supplied to soldiers. For instance, the existing food service program mandates that a soldier should consume 8.84 grams of white radish, 1.54 grams of green pumpkin, and 3.41 grams of napa cabbage per day.

But the new policy — which will be implemented this April — enables military units to independently select menus to reflect the preferences of enlisted soldiers as long as meal plans cover their nutritional needs and are within budget.

The South Korean military will also renounce its mandatory consumption rate of livestock products. For instance, troops are currently required to allocate 15 percent of pork loin and 22 percent of pork foreleg when stir-frying pork.

But according to the new program, the units will be able to freely choose livestock products within the budget.

The frequency of providing unflavored milk, which is not popular among soldiers, will be reduced. The military will instead supply flavored milk products, soybean milk and juice to soldiers to reflect their preferences.

The South Korean troops will also be able to provide various brands of processed food products, including tofu, sugar, salt and cooking oil. Military units do not have the option to choose brands as only a single company is selected as a provider.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

I think this will be North Korea’s excuse to launch ICBM technology over neighboring countries by claiming they are satellite launches:

North Korea’s development of a high-thrust engine capable of carrying a rocket has provided a “sure guarantee” for the country to launch various satellites into orbit, according to state media Monday.

Pak Kyong-su, vice director of the National Aerospace Development Administration, made the remarks amid speculation the North is likely to put a military spy satellite into orbit by April.

In an interview by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sunday on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of the North’s accession to the international outer space treaty, Pak said the North has made “steady” progress in the work to develop “multi-functional and high-performance” satellites.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The word “ajumma” is supposedly no longer acceptable to say in polite Korean society and one woman took her offense to the term to the extreme by launching a knife attack after being called it on the subway:

A 37-year-old woman accused of injuring three people with a knife on a subway told police that she did so because someone called her “ajumma,” police said Saturday.

The accused, whose identity was withheld, is charged with injuring two women in her 60s and a man in his 50s inside a subway train headed to Jukjeon Station in the city of Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

According to the subway police, the accused was speaking on the phone when one of the two women asked her to lower her voice, calling her “ajumma,” which she said offended her.

Although the word, “ajumma,” is a casual way of referring to a middle-aged woman who is unrelated to the speaker — coming from the more polite word, “ajumeoni” — it has grown to have a negative connotation over the years among Koreans.

One of the victims underwent surgery, although none of the injuries were fatal.

Korea Herald via a reader tip

You can read more at the link.

This is a pretty bad case of arson, fortunately no one was killed:

Vice Minister of the Interior and Safety Han Chang-seob, left, and Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok inspect the charred ruins of Hyundae Market in Dong District, Incheon on Sunday. [YONHAP]

A man detained Sunday morning on suspicion of starting a massive overnight blaze that burned down more than 50 stores in an Incheon market set fire to five different locations inside and near the market, according to police.  
   
The suspect, whom the Incheon Jungbu Police Precinct described only as a man in his 40s, is accused of starting three fires inside the Hyeondae Market in Songnim-dong, Dong District, at around 11:38 p.m. the previous day.  
   
Police said closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage recorded by street cameras outside the market showed the man also setting fire to garbage awaiting collection next to a church outside the market, then to a small cargo truck parked nearby.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Somebody is either lying or something was lost in translation:

A U.S. senator’s claim that the Japanese reneged on a promise to transfer a Navy officer imprisoned in Japan was false and inappropriate, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign affairs said Friday. 

Sen. Mike Lee on the Senate floor Wednesday criticized Japan’s handling of the conviction and imprisonment of Lt. Ridge Alkonis, who’s serving three years for a May 2021 car crash that killed two Japanese citizens. During his speech, Lee accused Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi of backtracking on a deal for the sailor’s release to U.S. custody. 

Lee said he met in August with Hayashi in Tokyo, where the foreign minister made an “unequivocal commitment” to transfer Alkonis. However, a “junior member of the Japanese embassy” contacted Lee’s staff and denied Hayashi ever made the commitment, the senator said.

Lee’s remarks were “contrary to the facts and cannot be accepted,” and the ministry lodged an official complaint through the U.S. government over the matter, a ministry spokesperson told Stars and Stripes by email Friday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I continue to think that all the public pressure being put on Japan will make it less likely they will release him early.

I figured some fund like this would be set up to resolve the forced labor issue. I like the scholarship fund idea though instead of just paying the victim’s families cash because it shows that the Japanese are investing in Korea’s future:

South Korea and Japan have tentatively agreed to create a “future youth fund” to sponsor scholarships for students, as part of a deal on settling the issue of compensation for Korean victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor, sources said Sunday.

The fund will be jointly formed by the Federation of Korean Industries, South Korea’s big business lobby, and the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), according to the government sources.

The South Korean foreign ministry is expected to announce the details Monday along with the details of a broader agreement reached between the two countries to settle the issue of compensation for Korean victims of forced labor during World War II, the sources said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but expect the Korean left to go bonkers in their criticism due to President Yoon trying to settle this issue and improve relations with Japan.