Author: GIKorea

Here is the latest on North Korea’s recent missile test:

 North Korea said Wednesday it has successfully conducted the “final” test-firing of a new hypersonic missile a day earlier as its leader Kim Jong-un called for the strengthening of the country’s “strategic military muscle both in quality and quantity” during an on-site inspection. 

“The superior maneuverability of the hypersonic glide vehicle was more strikingly verified through the final test-fire,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. “The test-fire was aimed at the final verification of overall technical specifications of the developed hypersonic weapon system.” 

The hypersonic glide vehicle demonstrated “glide jump flight,” “corkscrew maneuvering” and hit “the set target in waters 1,000 km off,” it added with regard to Tuesday’s launch. It marked the third known test-firing of what the secretive North claims to be a hypersonic missile, with the second one conducted last week.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the U.S. and ROK military are both still conducting analysis to determine if North Korea’s claims are true.

Here is the latest controversy with the cancel culture crowd, it is now controversial to be anti-communism:

There are signs of a boycott movement against Starbucks Korea sparked by Shinsegae Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin’s recent anti-communist remarks on social media. Shinsegae is the parent company of E-mart, which owns 67.5 percent of Starbucks Korea.

On Monday, some netizens started spreading images on various online communities calling for a boycott. 

On Jan. 6, Vice Chairman Chung had uploaded on Instagram an image of an article from Korean daily Chosun Ilbo that had a picture of Chinese President Xi Jinping and was criticizing the Korean government’s silence toward a high-level Chinese official who had referred to Korea as a “minor country.” Chung tagged the image with the hashtag, “destroycommunism” (“myeolgong” in Korean), and it set off controversy. Later that day, the vice chairman replaced the image with a photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The vice chairman has uploaded anti-communist posts on social media five times in recent months.

The incident spread to the political circle and the spokeperson for ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung subsequently tweeted that he will not drink Starbucks coffee anymore. Supporters of the DPK showed their intention to join the boycott of Shinsegae. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but maybe I missed something here; what is controversial about being anti-communist? Is it now inappropriate to be against regime’s with horrible human rights records?

I don’t even think Yoon’s proposed stipend to new parents that would last for one year would do much to help the country’s low birth rate, due to the overall cost of raising kids in South Korea:

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol pledged Tuesday to offer parents a 1 million-won (US$837) monthly allowance for one year after the birth of their child to help tackle the country’s low birth rate.

Yoon of the People Power Party made the promise during a New Year’s press conference, saying the program should “free people from the economic burden of having children” at relatively little cost to the government, as only 260,000 babies are born a year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is what the ROK military had to say about North Korea’s recent missile launch:

North Korea’s ballistic missile launched Tuesday flew at a top speed of Mach 10, South Korea’s military said, taking note of “improvement” compared with what it claimed to be a hypersonic missile test six days ago.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the North fired the missile from its northern province of Jagang into the East Sea, and that it flew more than 700 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 60 km and at a top speed of Mach 10, 10 times the speed of sound.

The launch was detected at 7:27 a.m, the JCS said. It followed the test-firing of the North’s self-proclaimed hypersonic missile, which the JCS said traveled less than 700 km at a top speed of Mach 6.

“We assess that it has improved compared with the ballistic missile launched on Jan. 5,” the JCS said in a text message, calling the regime’s continued launches of ballistic missiles a “clear” violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the improved speed to mach 10 does not necessarily mean this was a hypersonic missile. The ROK JCS says they are still doing analysis of the launch.

This should not really be surprising to anyone that has been following North Korea that they have underground facilities to hide their aircraft in:

North Korea’s fighter jets are heading to its mountains, where its concealed air bases are located.  
   
The JoongAng Ilbo confirmed in a report Monday through satellite imagery from Google Earth that North Korea’s Air Force bases are either built in mountains, or its taxiways and runways link underground bases.    
   
The exceptions are the Sunan Airport near Pyongyang and Kalma Airport near the Wonsan in Kangwon Province.  
   
The Uiju airfield located in North Pyongan Province, near the border with China, which has recently been equipped with quarantine facilities in preparation for North Korea to open up trade with China, is also connected to the mountains through a taxiway. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out because if Yoon and Ahn merge their campaigns they have a better chance of defeating Lee for the presidency:

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) faces growing pressure to form a coalition with Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor opposition People’s Party for the March 9 presidential election, as surveys show that an alliance offers a greater chance for the opposition bloc to beat ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung. 

So far, the PPP has been downplaying the recent rise in Ahn’s support rate, saying it is a “temporary phenomenon” stemming from infighting in the main opposition party between its presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol and party Chairman Lee Jun-seok throughout last month. However, anticipation is growing that the main opposition party may make a decision in the coming weeks in order to grab the public’s attention before the Jan. 31-Feb. 2 Lunar New Year holidays. 

According to a Realmeter survey released Monday, the DPK’s Lee was leading the pack with a 40.1 percent support rate, followed by the PPP’s Yoon with 34.1 percent and Ahn with 11.1 percent. It was the first time that Ahn logged a double-digit number in the weekly survey conducted by the poll agency at the request of OhmyNews. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but what is even more interesting about the polling is that not only is a combined opposition ticket outpoll Lee Jae-myung, but if Ahn Cheol-soo is the lead the ticket polls even better than if Yoon was the lead candidate.