This had to be a pretty gruesome death. Condolences to his friends and family:

A Russian worker died after being sucked into an auto parts-making machine, police said Thursday.

The accident happened at a factory in Yesan County, South Chungcheong Province, at 5:13 p.m. Wednesday. 

The victim was Russian with ethnic roots in Korea and was registered on the factory’s regular payroll. 

An investigation is under way to determine the accident’s cause. 

Korea Times

It only took nearly 15 years, but it appears the local Korean government in Paju has figured out what to finally do with old Camp Howze:

This week, Paju City announced plans to renovate six buildings at the old base to create something it calls “Flat Village” by June 2021, the Hankyoreh Shinmun reported Wednesday.
The $18.3 million project, which includes parking for 550 vehicles, will turn the former base gymnasium into a performance hall and a supply shop into a museum and gallery, a Paju City official said Thursday.
Officers’ quarters will be converted to a guest house, a dining facility will become a community center and a headquarters building will transform into an artist’s residence, the official said.
People living near Howze made great sacrifices as a consequence of the Korean War, Paju Mayor Choi Jong-hwan said, according to the newspaper report.
The project will create jobs and boost locals’ incomes, he said, adding that the base would be “reborn as a place of reconciliation, healing and peace.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the prisons in South Korea will soon be staffed with Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religions that forbid military service:

Able-bodied men who refuse to serve in the military for religious reasons will be subject to three years of alternative duty at correctional facilities, the Ministry of Defense said Friday.

In its draft guideline for revision of the conscription law, the ministry also said alternative duty will become possible in January 2020.

The move comes after the Supreme Court’s ruling in June that religious faith is a valid reason to refuse military service and the law should be amended accordingly. 

The decision triggered a dispute over where, and for how long, the conscientious objectors should serve their alternative duty, so other conscripts, many of them serving the country under harsh conditions, do not feel left out emotionally.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

NK didn’t pursue nukes to achieve deterrence; it used its deterrence to pursue nukes. Nukes as purely defensive is nonsense, as is the Libya canard NK throws out and the West holds tightly like a security blanket to rationalize NK’s nuclear ambition. NK’s intentions are coercive. https://t.co/6iwYbfZflR

— Edward Oh 🇺🇸 (@EdwardHBOh) December 22, 2018

Here is the latest on the targeting radar spat between South Korea and Japan:

South Korea’s defense ministry expressed “deep concerns and regrets” Friday over Japan’s release of video footage related to an ongoing military radar spat, accusing Tokyo of releasing “misleading” facts.
Japan released a 13-minute-long video clip showing the operation of its Maritime Self-Defense Force’s P-1 patrol aircraft to back up its claim that a South Korean naval destroyer targeted the warplane with fire-control radar on Thursday last week.
Seoul has rejected the claim, saying that its 3,200-ton Gwanggaeto the Great destroyer did not target the plane of the partner country and that it was on a humanitarian operation to trace a North Korean ship drifting into international waters of the East Sea.

Yonhap

Here is the video that was released by Japan:

Here is what the ROK is claiming happened:

The footage showed an operator of the aircraft communicating a message to the South Korean Navy about its alleged discovery of the destroyer’s radar directed at his plane in a relatively calm voice that observers say did not reflect a sense of urgency.
“This is the Japanese Navy … We observed that your FC (fire control) antenna is directed at us,” an operator said in a message sent to the Korean navy.
“What is the purpose of your act, over?” he added without demanding that the Korean Navy stop what Tokyo has characterized as a “dangerous act.”
A South Korean military official noted that the plane was flying only about 150 meters above the destroyer and around 500 meters away from its side — a flight that could be seen as posing a threat to a foreign Navy.
“The reason why we did not lodge an immediate protest against a low-flying plane was that we were focusing on the rescue operation with the thought of it being a friendly aircraft,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
“The plane capable of carrying missiles and torpedoes can pose a threat even when it operates from a distance. But it was approaching the Navy ship,” he added.
Seoul officials also pointed out that Japan failed to offer a “smoking gun,” namely its analysis of the radar frequency which can verify whether the radar Tokyo claims was used against it was a targeting system.
While Japan’s aircraft was approaching the destroyer, the antenna of its fire-control radar, STIR 180, appears to have turned toward the plane, as the Navy tried to identify the plane with an electro-optical targeting system attached to the radar. But the radar did not send out any beam to the plane, Seoul officials have said.

Yonhap

The reconnaissance aircraft was clearly marked as being Japanese and had no missiles on it. The weather was very clear so claiming the aircraft was a threat is far fetched in my opinion. Does anyone have any opinions on who to believe in regards to this spat?

This is the first time I have heard of a female teacher in South Korea being jailed for having sex with her students:

A female teacher at a private cram school, or hagwon in Korean, was jailed for having sex with two teenagers she taught. 

A district court in Uijeongbu sentenced the teacher, 29, to 10 years in prison for violating the Special Act on Sexual Violence that provides tough punishment for adults who have sex with those under 13 in any circumstances. 

The court also ordered her to receive 80 hours of psychiatric treatment and banned her employment at an organization for children for 10 years. 

She was charged with having sex with two boys she taught ― an elementary student and a middle school student ― between 2016 and 2017. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I would love to see the Moon administration’s reaction if the US government made paying compensation to North Korea’s victims part of any deal to lift sanctions. I say this because the Moon administration has continued to go after the Japanese for compensation for events that happened over 75 years ago even though they have already paid compensation while Otto Warmbier’s death happened just last year and the Kim regime continues to make excuses for what happened:

 A U.S. court on Monday ordered Pyongyang to pay $501 million in damages for the torture and death of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier, who died in 2017 shortly after being released from a North Korea prison.
Warmbier’s parents sued North Korea in April over their son’s death. The 22-year-old student died days after he was returned to the United States in a coma, and an Ohio coroner said the cause of death was lack of oxygen and blood to the brain.
“North Korea is liable for the torture, hostage taking, and extrajudicial killing of Otto Warmbier, and the injuries to his mother and father, Fred and Cindy Warmbier,” Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in her ruling.

Reuters

You can read more at the link.

#China's military is itching to kill Americans. Rear Adm. Luo Yuan publicly urged attack on aircraft carriers, killing 10,000: https://t.co/iBUAOUJYbO. This is 2nd time this month a Chinese officer has advocated attacking #US vessels.

— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) December 26, 2018