Author: GIKorea

This was actually quite a large grouping of fighter jets flying over the waters near Korea yesterday. Just the ROK itself flew 16 fighter jets. Unfortunately the ROK and Japan did not fly together, but instead in different groupings with American fighters:

The United States and its Asian allies flew dozens of fighter jets over waters surrounding the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday in a show of force as their diplomats discussed a coordinated response to a possibly imminent North Korean nuclear test.

The flights came as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman traveled to Seoul for discussions with South Korea and Japanese officials over the gathering North Korean threat and warned of a “swift and forceful” counterresponse if the North proceeds with a nuclear test explosion, which would be its first in nearly five years.

Yahoo News

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the end of the Dragon Hill Lodge may happen in the near future:

The government is in talks with U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) about having the site of Yongsan Garrison’s Dragon Hill Lodge returned to South Korea in exchange for an alternative plot of land, sources said Monday.

According to foreign and defense ministry officials, the two sides have been in negotiations to return a 105,000 square-meter site hosting Dragon Hill Lodge, situated next to the presidential office in central Seoul, to the South Korean government. 

In return, Seoul will provide a plot of land at a different site. 

The sources said the two sides are expected to reach an agreement in the near future. 

Seoul and Washington had previously planned to retain a U.S. military base at the Dragon Hill Lodge site to host a liaison office for USFK and the United Nations Command as well as a front office for the ROK/US Combined Forces Command in the wake of the U.S. forces’ relocation to Pyeongtaek.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

In my opinion this is not a good look by these people protesting outside Moon Jae-in’s house and making a nuisance of themselves to people in the neighborhood. Whatever validity they have in their complaints I think is lost by how much of a nuisance they are making of themselves:

On early Sunday, the otherwise quiet village of Pyeongsan in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province was disrupted by sounds blaring from a minivan covered with insults about former President Moon Jae-in.

“My protest is for Moon to receive legal punishment for the crimes he committed, and be expelled from Yangsan,” said Choi Young-il, a Seoul resident and member of the group calling itself the Freedom-Justice-Truth-Revolution Party. 

A month had passed after Moon had stepped down as president of South Korea, but the series of protests at his Yangsan home had persisted throughout. The narrow road near the Pyeongsan town hall has become ground zero for conflicts surrounding the former president.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

It looks like that the ROK and U.S. militaries have decided to join the North Koreans in waging war on the East Sea’s fish:

South Korean and US forces fired eight missiles Monday in response to North Korea firing the same number of missiles a day earlier, the allies said Monday. 

For about 10 minutes from 4:45 a.m. Monday, the South Korean military and the US Forces Korea fired eight surface-to-surface Army Tactical Missile System missiles into the East Sea as a response to North Korea’s military provocation made Sunday.

The exercise used one missile from the US Army and seven from the South Korean military. 

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The COVID numbers continue to improve in South Korea despite the dropping of most social distancing protocols:

South Korea’s new coronavirus cases fell below 10,000 on Sunday due to fewer tests the previous day as the country works to return to pre-pandemic normalcy.

The country added 9,835 COVID-19 infections, including 48 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,163,686, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.

The daily caseload is down from 12,048 on Saturday.

Daily infections have shown a downward trend after posting an all-time high of over 620,000 in mid-March.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

It seems logical that the Kim regime’s playbook would eventually have them build up to a nuclear test:

South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) strongly condemned the North’s latest missile launches Sunday, saying Pyongyang will “gain nothing” from its continued saber-rattling.  
   
The remarks came shortly after the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North fired eight short-range ballistic missiles into waters off its east coast. (……)

The latest missiles also came a day after Seoul and Washington completed a three-day combined naval exercise involving the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan. The exercise was held in international waters off the Japanese island of Okinawa. 

The looming question among military experts is when the regime will carry out a nuclear test.  
   
South Korean officials have for weeks floated the possibility of an imminent nuclear experiment, which would be the seventh of its kind if North Korea follows through. Officials in Seoul and Washington have mentioned recent satellite images of ongoing tunnel excavation and construction work at Punggye-ri as signs that the regime is preparing for another test.  
   
The Punggye-ri test site, located in a mountainous region in the country’s remote North Hamgyong Province, is the North’s only known nuclear test site and the location of six nuclear weapons tests between October 2006 and September 2017. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.