Author: GIKorea

If they did test a hypersonic missile experts are saying it is in a very early developmental stage. However, as we have seen with their ICBM program they can make gains pretty quickly with repetitive testing. This may be an indication that they plan to do more upcoming testing as part of provocation cycle to pressure the Biden administration to give them what they want:

North Korea’s newly unveiled “hypersonic missile” appears to be at an early stage of development and can be intercepted by South Korean and U.S. military assets, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday.

The assessment came hours after the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the country’s Academy of Defense Science conducted the first test fire of the hypersonic Hwasong-8 missile from Toyang-ri, Jagang Province, on Tuesday.

“Given the detected speed and other features of the ‘hypersonic missile’ North Korea said it test-fired yesterday, it appears to be at an early stage of development that would require considerable time for actual deployment,” the JCS said in a statement. 

The North’s missile reportedly flew at a speed of around Mach 3, though the military declined to confirm details, including its flight range and altitude.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Another great addition to the ROK Navy:

South Korea on Tuesday launched a new indigenously developed 3,000-ton-class submarine equipped to fire ballistic missiles, the Navy said.  
   
Named after a prominent Korean independence activist, Shin Chae-ho, the new sub was launched in an afternoon ceremony at the shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in the southeastern city of Ulsan on Tuesday, according to the military.  
   
The Shin Chae-ho is the third and final submarine in the Jangbogo-III Batch-I vessel class that the South Korean military has built and developed using domestic technology.  
   
The 3.09 trillion won ($2.77 billion) project, which began in 2007, has yielded three submarines that can fire submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the forced labor issue between South Korea and Japan:

Here is the latest from the Imperial Japanese forced labor issue with South Korea:

Japan has protested a South Korean court order on Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to sell assets in order to pay compensation to two women subjected to forced labor for the company during Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula during 1910-1945. Foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Tuesday that the ruling a day earlier by the Daejeon District Court in South Korea was a “clear violation of international law.” “We must avoid serious impacts on Japan-South Korea relations,” Motegi said, describing the court’s decision as “truly regrettable” during a regular news conference in Tokyo.

Relations between the two countries, both important U.S. allies in North Asia, have been dogged by the bitter legacy of Japan’s wartime occupation, and ties soured in 2019 due to a dispute over export controls which has yet to be resolved.

The Daejeon District Court in South Korea ruled on Monday that Mitsubishi Heavy should sell two patents and two trademarks, according to a support group for the women, who are both in their nineties.

Asahi Shimbun

You can read more at the link, but Tokyo believes this issue was resolved with the 1965 pact where $500 million from Japan was given to South Korea.  The ROK government at the time could have compensated everyone back then with that money, however it was instead used for the overall development of the country such as improving infrastructure.  The money ultimately helped with the country’s economic development at the expense of direct compensation to those effected by Japan’s colonial rule.  This is why Japan is so strongly against the court rulings they feel they have already paid compensation.

With that all said when is the ROK government going to launch lawsuits on behalf of victims of North Korea’s kidnappings and provocations in far more recent times than Japan’s colonial rule that began over a century ago?

It appears this is USFK’s response to North Korea’s recent missile launches:

The U.S. military in South Korea conducted a surgical strike drill simulating targeted attacks on major North Korean facilities, officials said Friday, amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula over the North’s missiles launches.

The Exercise Teak Knife was conducted at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on Sept. 13, which provided opportunities for U.S. special tactics airmen “to practice skillsets used in special operations across the Indo-Pacific,” the U.S. Special Operations Command Korea said in its recent Facebook post.

The program included “a free fall insert, C-130J tactical landing, and fast rope insertions from three MH-60 Seahawks,” and many garrison units and U.S. Navy members also took part in the exercise, which “maximized unit and individual readiness,” it added.

The U.S. military has carried out the exercise regularly since the 1990s, often together with South Korean troops, but it is unusual for it to make the matter public. The exercise involves simulated attacks on key facilities in North Korea, such as its missile and nuclear installations, according to the officials.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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

The Japanese government says North Korea appears to have fired one ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan early on Tuesday. Shortly after the launch, a North Korean diplomat rose to speak at the United Nations and called on the US to scrap its hostile policy against the country.

The South Korean military says it believes the North fired a short-range missile from the northern part of the country toward its east coast. It says it’s collecting and analyzing information together with the US military.

Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide said, “The Japanese government is on high alert and monitoring the situation. We are also analyzing how the launch was conducted.”

Japanese government officials say it is unlikely the suspected ballistic missile has fallen inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the launch was timed to happen before Kim Song the North Korean ambassador to the U.N. gave a speech about the self defensive nature of their weapons program.