It has been speculated that North Korea would likely test the Biden administration at some point with a provocation and this March may be when they do it:
While North Korea is expected to respond strongly to an envisaged combined military drill between South Korea and the United States, including a show of force, Seoul has few options to properly tame Pyongyang’s anger which will likely lead to heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula, according to diplomatic observers, Monday.
Korea Times
However, they say it is a silver lining that the North’s possible provocation would not be enough to spoil the South Korean government’s peace initiative as the totalitarian state also remains cautious about its acts negatively affecting the new U.S. administration’s review of policy toward it.
The allies are now discussing holding the annual springtime drill, which will be proceeded under the form of computer-simulated command post training, in the second week of March, with them fine-tuning the details such as how to program it, according to military officials.
However, given that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned against the “war game,” it is highly likely that the North Korean regime will stage a military provocation. The Kim regime denounced the joint exercise as a rehearsal for an invasion.
You can read more at the link.
It seems to me it would be a difficult precedent to start by holding first responders criminally responsible every time an emergency operation does not go well. Who would want to take the risk of being a first responder then? It appears that the Seoul court agrees with that assessment:
A Seoul court on Monday acquitted a former maritime police chief of mishandling the rescue operation during the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 that killed more than 300 people.
The Seoul Central District Court found Kim Suk-kyoon, then-chief of the Korea Coast Guard, not guilty of professional negligence in one of the country’s worst peacetime disasters.
Nine others, who were in key posts of the organization at that time, were also acquitted of the same charge.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
No surprise here:
North Korea ranked the lowest in a world democracy index last year for the 16th consecutive year, according to a recent report.
Korea Times
The reclusive regime placed at the bottom among the 167 countries reviewed, with an overall score of 1.08 out of 10, according to the Democracy Index 2020 published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research division of the British weekly The Economist.
The North has ranked the lowest in the EIU index since the agency began compiling related data in 2006.
The agency classified Pyongyang as an “authoritarian regime” out of four designations, which included “full democracy,” “flawed democracy” and “hybrid regime.”
You can read more at the link.
Some good news for Korean small business owners that have bore the brunt of COVID related shutdowns:
The government decided Saturday to lower social distancing levels by one notch each for the greater Seoul area and the other regions next week, but kept tight vigilance to curb COVID-19 by retaining a ban on gatherings of five people or more.
Health authorities said that starting Monday, they plan to lower social distancing guidelines to Level 2 — the third highest in a five-tier system — for the greater Seoul area and Level 1.5 for other regions until Feb. 28.
They will also ease restrictions on restaurants, cafes, gyms and other public facilities in the Seoul metropolitan area to allow them to operate for one more hour until 10 p.m., amid complaints by pandemic-hit small business operators.
Entertainment facilities across the nation will also be allowed to operate until 10 p.m. on condition that they abide by key antivirus rules, such as wearing masks and keeping distance among their clients.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
