Meanwhile, Seoul’s new Defense White Paper removes reference to:#northkorea as “enemy”
“THAAD”
“Shared values of free democracy and market economy with Japan”

While it inserts:
“Strong will to defend Dokdo and maintain defense preparedness”

A convergence of clear priorities. https://t.co/NjL9kydUf3

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) January 15, 2019

Hopefully no one that follows this issue closely is surprised by North Korea continuing to develop their nuclear weapons program:

North Korea‘s Kim Jong Un is “gaining time” as he fine-tunes his nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs, a Japanese analyst said.
During a conversation Monday with former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus at Japan Society, former Lieutenant General of Japan’s Self-Defense Force Koichi Isobe said North Korea has not stopped military developments despite refraining from provocations.

“Kim Jong Un is gaining time to continue developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles,” Isobe said. “The threat of intermediate ballistic missiles [that can target Japan] still remains.”
The former Japanese commander added Tokyo faces challenges across three strategic fronts, including the Korean Peninsula.

“Since the 2010s, all three fronts have become tense. Traditional geopolitics has come back to the region.”
Gen. Petraeus, best known for leading the 2007 “surge” in Iraq, agreed North Korea is developing nuclear and missile capabilities, but said the testing of missiles stopped because of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s confrontational approach.
“The only way to [stop provocations] was to get the attention of China, and this is why you had some of the rhetoric, not all of which would have been my choice of words at various times,” Petraeus said, referring to Trump’s threat in 2017 to “totally destroy” North Korea and “rocket man” Kim.

UPI

You can read more at the link.

Here is another reason why I do not move the ROK Drop over on to Facebook:

One of the largest Korea-based online communities disappeared from the internet around 1 p.m. last Wednesday. According to its founder Travis Hull and moderators, Facebook deleted the 28,000-member group “OinK ― Only in Korea” without warning or explanation. 

“Absolutely no word from the folks at Facebook so far,” Hull told The Korea Times. “We have petitioned Facebook to review their decision via a link they provide in their help section, but so far we have received no comment from the company and I’m not holding my breath that we will.”

Blame started flying immediately after the group disappeared, with nobody fully sure what caused the sudden removal. Speculation ranged from too many posts flagged for racism or “anti-racist” moderators limiting free speech, to a discussion about an actual crime, in which a member accused another of a serious crime and threats of retaliation were made. 

There was also speculation Facebook algorithms may have reacted to a new weekly feature allowing users to promote their own social media content, titled “Whore Yourself Wednesdays.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Butcher of the Cheonan could be making another visit to the US:

Kim Yong-chol, a top North Korean official, is expected to visit Washington this week to prepare for a second North-U.S. summit, after the American president sent a letter to the North Korean leader over the weekend. 

A source familiar with the North-U.S. talks said Monday that Kim, the vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, “wanted to visit Washington immediately,” so the two sides are “working on scheduling a visit for Jan. 17 to 18.” 

U.S. President Donald Trump sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over the weekend, reported CNN Tuesday, citing a source familiar with the ongoing denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang. 

The letter from Trump was flown to Pyongyang and delivered by hand, according to the CNN source, who also said that Kim Yong-chol could visit Washington as soon as this week to finalize details of the upcoming summit.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Didn’t know we had a day, but I’m happy to celebrate it. Hug a Korean American today! https://t.co/a3SsWl1AOJ

— Daniel Dae Kim (@danieldaekim) January 14, 2019

It is amazing how the fraudsters find ways to get money from people in just about every industry, even from animal rights groups:

Park So-youn, the head of Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth (CARE), may be charged with multiple crimes including habitual fraud, as she allegedly had more than 250 animals euthanized without telling the group staffers and supporters.

Kwon Yu-rim, a lawyer at Yuldam Law Office, said Sunday they will file a complaint with the police as early as this week.

The move follows a CARE staffer revealing that some 250 healthy animals the group had rescued have been put down upon Park’s order between 2015 and 2018 without the knowledge of most of the other CARE members.

CARE is one of the nation’s largest animal rights organizations, collecting about 1.5 billion won to 2 billion won of donations per year.

Kwon said Park could face criminal charges as she has continued doing so without informing staffers and donors.

“CARE has been raising funds under the name of rescuing and treating abused animals. It has never informed people of the euthanasia practice and many of the donors would not have contributed their money if they had known about that. In that sense, her action is fraud by nonfeasance,” Kwon said. “As she has continued such acts, it is habitual fraud.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It makes me wonder how long this guy has been doing this considering he was so open and flamboyant about it before being caught:

The commander of a fast-attack submarine was relieved of his duties last summer after admitting he paid for “female accompaniment” during a stop in the Philippines, a Washington state newspaper reported Friday.
Capt. Travis Zettel, who lost his job aboard the USS Bremerton in late August because of “a loss in confidence in his ability to command,” was reassigned to the Submarine Squadron 19 staff at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, Navy officials said at the time. (……)

During the submarine’s March visit to Subic Bay, Philippines, Zettel was seen with 10 “provocatively dressed females outside the front door of [his] hotel,” a sailor told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service after calling an Inspector General hotline, according to the newspaper.
The tipster said Zettel told him and another sailor that he’d “ordered ten girls,” the report said. Another sailor told investigators he saw Zettel walking around and talking to other sailors in his command with “three local females holding onto his arm.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It is going to be interesting to learn in the future if all this yellow dust is going to have adverse health affects on Koreans:

Seoul was hit by a record-high level of ultrafine dust, known as a class one carcinogen, on Monday, as most of South Korea was blanketed by extraordinarily heavy levels of choking dust particles for the fourth consecutive day.
The Ministry of Environment has decided to extend a set of emergency measures aimed at reducing fine dust in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province through Tuesday. It would be the first time for the government to implement the system in the metropolitan area, which has around 20 million residents, for three consecutive days.
Under the step, vehicles with license plates ending in even numbers and used by public offices, will be restricted from operating on Tuesday. And the operation of 2.5-ton diesel cars or bigger ones, registered with metropolitan governments before 2005, will be limited.
The daily average level of ultrafine particles, smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, in Seoul surged to 118 micrograms per cubic meter as of 3 p.m., the highest figure since the government began taking such measurements in 2015, according to the state-run National Institute of Environmental Research.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.