Author: GIKorea

ROK Drop Open Thread – December 16, 2022

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Tweet of the Day: The Great Peace Hall

Picture of the Day: Crowd Crush Victims Altar

Families set up altar for crowd crush victims
Families set up altar for crowd crush victims
Bereaved families cry at a joint mourning altar for the victims of the deadly Itaewon crowd crush in Seoul on Dec. 14, 2022. The families and a civic group set up the altar earlier in the day at a public square near the site of the Oct. 29 accident that killed 158 people. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

U.S. Army Soldiers Being Investigated for Inappropriate Social Media Photos

This is just totally bizarre and incredibly involves an O6 being involved in taking these pictures. The Soldiers involved in these pictures appear to all be stationed in Hawaii:

Multiple soldiers are under investigation for indiscreet activity while in uniform. Specifically, posting photos of themselves wearing dog-themed bondage masks while in uniform. 

As reported by USA Today, the images — many of which first appeared on social media on Dec. 9 — depict “male soldiers in uniform, or parts of uniforms, wearing dog masks, leather and chains. Some of the photos depict poses of submission and sexual acts. Another photo shows a soldier in combat fatigues wearing the dog mask on an airfield.”

Task and Purpose

You can read more at the link, but if you want to see an O6 with a bondage mask on click the link. You can also read more about this craziness in the original article breaking this story in USA Today.

South Korean President Announces Increased Funding for Development of Smaller Nuclear Reactors to Power Economy

While North Korea is using nuclear technology to build bombs to kill massive amounts of people, the South Koreans are using nuclear technology to better people’s lives:

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang tours the Shin-Hanul 1 nuclear power plant in Uljin, North Gyeongsang, on Wednesday. The nuclear power plant started commercial operation a week ago. [MINISTRY OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND ENERGY]
Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang tours the Shin-Hanul 1 nuclear power plant in Uljin, North Gyeongsang, on Wednesday. The nuclear power plant started commercial operation a week ago. [MINISTRY OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND ENERGY]

Korea is committing 400 billion won ($308 million) a year to the development of small nuclear reactors as it doubles its overall annual spending on nuclear energy to 2 trillion won, according to the president.    
   
“The government will actively support the nuclear energy industry so it can become a major pillar leading our exports and so that Korea can once again be recognized globally as a major nuclear energy power country,” President Yoon Suk-yeol said Wednesday. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but this strategy seems to make sense to me because I don’t know how you advocate for electric cars and against fossil fuels and not have nuclear energy as an option power them.

USFK Commander Announces Establishment of U.S. Space Forces Korea

This new unit will mostly specialize in missile warning which was a function the U.S. Air Force was providing before it was shifted over to the Space Force:

An activation ceremony for the U.S. Space Forces Korea takes place at a hangar at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 65 kilometers south of Seoul, on Dec. 14, 2022. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

USFK Commander Gen. Paul LaCamera hosted a ceremony to mark the launch of the new unit at a hangar at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 65 kilometers south of Seoul, which is home to the U.S. 7th Air Force.

Among the attendees were U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg, South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command Deputy Commander Gen. Ahn Byung-seok and Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, commander of the U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific.

“The activation here today of U.S. Space Forces Korea … enhances our ability to defend the homeland, and should ensure peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia,” LaCamera said during the ceremony. “Because of U.S. Space Forces Korea, the alliance is better able to execute multidomain operations in the Korean theater of operations.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: Subway Doll

Picture of the Day: Christmas Tree Lantern at Buddhist Temple

Christmas tree at Buddhist temple
Christmas tree at Buddhist temple
Buddhist monks, Christian leaders and children pose for a photo in a ceremony to light a Christmas tree-shaped lantern at Jogye Temple in downtown Seoul on Dec. 14, 2022. The temple is run by South Korea’s largest Buddhist order of Jogye. (Yonhap)

Teenage Itaewon Crowd Crush Survivor Commits Suicide

There has to be plenty of survivor guilt for the people that survived the Itaewon crowd crush disaster especially those that lost friends like this teenager did:

A message of mourning and a bouquet of chrysanthemum flowers are placed at the scene of the Itaewon disaster in central Seoul on Nov. 28, about a month after the crowd crush took the lives of 158 people. [NEWS1]
A message of mourning and a bouquet of chrysanthemum flowers are placed at the scene of the Itaewon disaster in central Seoul on Nov. 28, about a month after the crowd crush took the lives of 158 people. [NEWS1]

A teenage survivor of the Itaewon tragedy, who lost two friends in the crowd crush that took 158 lives on Oct. 29, died in an apparent suicide while receiving psychological treatment for trauma.  
   
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, police found a dead high school student in a motel room in Mapo District, western Seoul at 11:40 p.m. on Monday, after half an hour of searching for the teen following a missing persons report by his mother.  
   
The student checked in alone at around 7 p.m. Monday and committed suicide in the bathroom, according to local news reports. No suicide note was found. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but condolences to friends and family of the deceased.

South Korean Prime Minister Says North Korea Ready to Conduct a Nuclear Test at Any Time

It seems like North Korea has been ready to do a nuclear test for a few months. However, it appears they are waiting for the right moment to justify them conducting the nuclear test to mitigate international condemnation. The fact that the ROK has not unilaterally cancelled the Inter-Korean military agreement despite all the provocations in recent months has denied them one of their justifications for the nuclear test:

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo presides over a coordination meeting on key state affairs at the government complex in Seoul on Nov. 24, 2022. (Yonhap)

 Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has said North Korea is ready to conduct a nuclear bomb test, but South Korea and its allies have always been prepared for the North’s major provocation.

“We gather that they are ready,” Han told Britain’s Sky News in an interview, “although we do not know exactly when” a nuclear test would happen.

North Korea has launched a flurry of short- to long-range missile tests so far this year and has widely been expected to carry out what would be its seventh nuclear test.

Han said South Korea and its allies have been on alert over the possibility of North Korea’s nuclear test.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, the Kim regime will eventually find something to justify their test. The real question is what does the U.S. and the ROK do in response?