Author: GIKorea

Here is the latest provocation from North Korea:

North Korea on Thursday fired two new short-range ballistic missiles, Seoul officials said, in an apparent move to put pressure on the United States ahead of possible nuclear talks between the two sides.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that Pyongyang fired one missile toward the East Sea at around 5:34 a.m. and the other at 5:57 a.m. from Hodo Peninsula near its eastern coastal town of Wonsan. They flew around 430 kilometers and 690 km, respectively, both at an altitude of around 50 km. 

The test came 77 days after Pyongyang’s short-range missile launch in early May. (……..)

Experts have said Thursday’s launches appear to have involved the North’s version of Russia’s Iskander, a short-range, ground-to-ground ballistic missile known as KN-23, as it test-fired in May.

Yonhap

What is significant about the Iskander is that it is a solid fuel missile. What this means is that unlike a liquid fuel missile it does not need to be fueled before launching. The act of fueling missiles takes time and could be observed while a solid fuel missile can be simply rolled out and fired.

What About THAAD?

The Iskander also has a lower flight trajectory which gives it a shorter time of flight which reduces decision making time. In the article they claim the Iskander makes the THAAD system ineffective. The article fails to mention there are different missile defense systems for different threats. For lower flying trajectories that is what the Patriot missile batteries located around South Korea are for.

THAAD was never meant to be a magic bullet that engages all threats on the peninsula. THAAD engages targets at higher altitudes than Patriot. One of the main reasons it was deployed was because of the threat of lofted trajectory missiles that North Korea was testing.

Additionally, by using a lofted flight trajectory, North Korea could use medium-range and intermediate-range missiles to strike South Korean targets over shorter distances by firing them at higher angles. For example, on June 22, 2016, North Korea was able to limit the distance of the intermediate-range Musudan missile to around 400 kilometers (from a normal distance of more than 3,000 kilometers) by using this lofting method. In this scenario, the warhead is traveling at a high velocity by the end of its trajectory, thereby undermining the effectiveness of the Patriot missile system.

Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy

Now the North Koreans are testing a lower flying system that Patriot can engage, but once again it is not the flight profile that is of the most concern, it is the solid fuel capability that allows them rapidly fire these missiles with little early warning.

Why Test Now?

So why did the North Koreans fire this missile now? First of all the yet to be named joint US-ROK exercise is still scheduled to be executed next month. The exercise gives the Kim regime cover to conduct this test to further prove its capability. Additionally this keeps pressure on the Trump administration to give-in to North Korean demands to lift some of the sanctions in return for a freeze on missile testing.

Kim Jong-un has always said that he is waiting until the end of the year for a deal to be reached. If a deal is not reached he could restart ICBM testing. He is giving the Trump administration a preview of what he could start doing right in the middle of President Trump’s re-election campaign next year if a deal is not struck.

Maybe this was just how this guy was beating the heat 😉 :

Police are hunting for so-called “G-string man,” a man in his 20-30s who visited a coffee shop in Chungju wearing a G-string on July 17. 

The investigation started after photos of the man ― wearing a black mask, a tight short-sleeved white shirt and a black G-string ― went viral online. 

Police confirmed with CCTV footage that the man visited a coffee shop in the city’s west about noon on July 17. Investigators said he walked in, queued, ordered a drink, sipped it and left. He didn’t care about people’s attention and did nothing wrong in the shop, they said. 

“A man in a G-string came in, ordered a drink and paid normally,” an investigator quoted a cafe employee as saying. “He left after drinking for a short time in the shop.” 

Police say they plan to check his mental state if he is caught. 

Korea Times

#MoonJaeIn's Deobureo Minjoo Party (Democratic Party of #Korea) created a "Special Committee to Respond to #Japan's Economic Retaliation," then quickly renamed it "Special Committee to Respond to Japan's Economic Invasion." An invasion? Ruling party stoking anti-Japan sentiment. https://t.co/fWfdY8jByO

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) July 23, 2019

Here is the latest economic measure the Japanese are looking at taking against South Korea:

Japan’s plan to remove Korea from its “white list” of countries with preferential trade treatment will endanger the alliance between Korea, Japan and the United States and threaten regional security in Northeast Asia, the trade minister said Wednesday.

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo said the Korean government has delivered its “written opinion” to Tokyo. This is the first time Korea has delivered a message this way to Japan over economic issues.

The document contains details on why Japan’s July 4 export restrictions on three materials for manufacturing semiconductors, and an additional move to remove Korea from its whitelist of 27 countries are unfair and groundless. 

“The groundless export curbs on three materials for semiconductors should be lifted immediately and the action to remove Korea from its whitelist should also be scrapped,” Sung said during a press conference at the Government Complex in Seoul.

“The attempt to remove Korea from its whitelist is an especially serious issue which sways the foundation of the cooperation between Korea, Japan and the U.S. on security in Northeast Asia, as well as dealing a heavy blow to the Korea-Japan economic partnership which has lasted over 60 years.” 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but this is clearly tit-for-tat because earlier this week the ROK said they were considering ending the GSOMIA security pact with Japan. So Japan comes back with a threat to take South Korea off their white list.

This whole dispute could be ended if the Moon administration stops with its plan to forcibly seize the assets of Japanese companies within South Korea.

The Japanese government is looking for every opportunity now to stick it to the Moon administration:

Anchor: Amid Seoul and Tokyo’s ongoing trade spat over the Abe administration’s export curbs, tensions between the neighboring countries have been further exacerbated after Tokyo renewed its claim over South Korea’s Dokdo islets in the East Sea. South Korea dismissed Japan’s renewed territorial claim over the Dokdo islets, reiterating that the islets are Korean territory historically, geographically and by international law.

Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: As a Russian warplane violated South Korean airspace above the easternmost Dokdo islets Tuesday, Tokyo used the opportunity to renew its claim over the East Sea territory.

[Sound bite: Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga (Japanese)] 

“Regarding the airspace invasion by the Russian military aircraft yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Japanese Embassy in Russia, strongly objected the violation and at the same time urged efforts to prevent a recurrence. The government will solve the territorial issue, raise a peace treaty and continue to work persistently under this basic policy.”

Tokyo’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga also said Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force scrambled fighter jets in response.

Seoul, however, finds Tokyo’s response to be preposterous. South Korea’s presidential office refuted Japan’s claim on Wednesday, saying it should confine its concerns to its own air defense identification zone while South Korea responds to matters in its own airspace. The foreign and defense ministries in Seoul also issued statements.

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link, but it seems it would have been better for Japan to keep quiet on this. The Dokdo issue is one thing that 99% of Koreans seem to agree and Japan’s comments are just causing Koreans to rally around President Moon.

Unlike how the Korean court system handles sex criminals, this how the US military handles them:

A Navy police officer was sentenced to 39 years in prison after his conviction Friday of seven child sex crimes involving an acquaintance’s 6- and 8-year-old children.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Pyron, 29, a former master-at-arms at Yokosuka, was found guilty of rape of a child; two counts of attempted rape of a child; and four counts of sexual abuse of a child by indecent communication, indecent exposure and sexual contact after a weeklong jury trial.

The charges stem from the night of Feb. 4, after a Super Bowl party at a new friend’s house, when Pyron was accused of exposing himself to the children, rubbing himself on the 8-year-old and having the 6-year-old perform oral sex on him, according to court testimony.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but unsurprisingly alcohol was involved in this incident.

Air-raid shelters with WIFI open to public to beat summer heat https://t.co/7KebvkCEzV pic.twitter.com/nr5bavCvRs

— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) July 21, 2019

Just imagine how much more quickly the Kim regime can field this new submarine if they are a wash in South Korean cash from reopening the Kaesong Industrial Complex and the Kumgang Tours:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a large newly built submarine, state news agency KCNA reported on Tuesday, potentially signaling continued development of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) program.

Kim inspected the operational and tactical data and combat weapon systems of the submarine that was built under “his special attention,” and will be operational in the waters off the east coast, KCNA said.

KCNA said the submarine’s operational deployment was near.

“The operational capacity of a submarine is an important component in national defense of our country bounded on its east and west by sea,” Kim said.

KCNA did not describe the submarine’s weapon systems or say where and when the inspection took place.

North Korea has a large submarine fleet but only one known experimental submarine capable of carrying a ballistic missile.

Analysts said that based on the apparent size of the new submarine it appears designed to eventually carry missiles.

“We can clearly see that it is a massive submarine – much larger than the existing one that’s been well known since 2014,” said Ankit Panda, senior fellow at the U.S.-based Federation of American Scientists.

“What I find significant about the political messaging here is that this is the first time since a February 2018 military parade that he has inspected a military system clearly designed to carry and deliver nuclear weapons.”

Reuters

You can read more at the link, but here is just another example of the international community giving millions of dollars in food aid to a country that is building a completely unnecessary submarine to deliver nuclear weapons instead of feeding its own people.