Cho Myung-rae, president of the Korea Environment Institute, receives a call at his office in Sejong on Oct. 5, 2018. President Moon Jae-in nominated him as new environment minister earlier in the day. (Yonhap)

It looks like a second Trump-Kim summit is coming:

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hailed “progress” in discussions with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, Sunday (KST), saying the two had a “productive conversation” in taking steps toward denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.

“I don’t have much to add. I would certainly tell you in private about our conversation. But we had a good productive conversation. As President Trump said there are many steps along the way and we took one of them today with another step forward. This is I think a good outcome for all of us,” Pompeo told President Moon Jae-in at Cheong Wa Dae late Sunday.

Pompeo said Kim had agreed to hold a second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump “as early as possible,” adding working-level discussions between the two countries to set a date and location would take place soon.

President Moon responded that the second summit between Trump and Kim would be “decisive progress” in Pyongyang’s denuclearization process.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but my guess is that the second Trump-Kim summit will announce an end to the Korean War.  The Kim regime wants the peace treaty so badly because it then challenges the legitimacy of the US military presence in South Korea.  If there is peace why is USFK needed?

ROK President Moon has been saying all the right things that USFK will remain after any peace treaty is signed.  Despite claims in the media that Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in want US troops to stay after any peace deal is reached, but this is just all rhetoric to prevent energizing South Korean conservatives against Moon.

Remember Moon is a very skilled politician that needs to keep the Korean right at bay and public anxiety down.  If he advocated openly for a USFK withdrawal that would give the South Korean right an issue to strongly attack him with and cause much public anxiety after decades of security guarantees provided by US forces.  That is why I think the Moon administration will publicly say they support USFK staying, but will then have their surrogates do things to make life difficult for USFK.

If the US government decides to withdraw USFK in the future on their own accord then the Moon administration is able to get what it ultimately wanted without getting blamed for it.

It looks like Kim Jong-un may be heading off to Russia in the near future:

Pyongyang and Moscow are working to arrange an official visit to Russia for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a top Russian politician revealed Friday.

“(I) attended North Korea’s 70th foundation anniversary event on orders from President Putin,” Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of Russia’s Federation Council, told Seoul’s National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong ahead of her meeting with President Moon Jae-in. “There was a meeting with Chairman Kim Jong-un. (Moscow and Pyongyang) are negotiating on the dates and location of the Chairman Kim Jong-un’s visit to Russia.”

Matviyenko’s comments confirm rumors that have been circulating for some time, regarding the possibility that Kim might be planning to travel to Moscow in the near future.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but this could just be more optics to make Kim Jong-un look more like a legitimate world leader by visiting Russia.  The timing of this will be interesting to see if he visits Putin before meeting with President Trump if a second Trump-Kim summit does in fact happen.

This is a wise move because Japan doesn’t need to give South Korean leftists any more reason to bash the country with:

Japan announced Friday that it won’t send a warship to an international fleet review hosted by South Korea next week because it could not accept Seoul’s request that it remove the Japanese navy’s “rising sun” flag.

Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters that Japan had notified the South Korean government of its decision.

“Unfortunately, we have come to a situation where we have no choice but to pass on our participation in the international fleet review,” Iwaya said.

Many South Koreans see the flag as a symbol of Japan’s World War II aggression, and protested its use during the Oct. 10-14 event near Jeju island.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but this dust up makes me wonder that if North Korea gets its confederation with South Korea, will the Stars & Stripes one day be unwelcome in Korea?  From the Kim regime perspective it would be a symbol of aggression just like the Rising Sun flag.

Well, we must never forget 36 yrs of Japan's aggression which ended more than 70 years ago but must forget close to 70 yrs of Kim family's ongoing aggression against its people and South Korea. https://t.co/yTcUbDZRR3

— North Korea & Human Rights (@nefornkhr) October 4, 2018

Buildings, cars and roads are flooded by torrential rains brought by Typhoon Kong-rey in Yeongdeok, 350 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Oct. 6, 2018. (Yonhap)

Another political enemy of the Moon administration is getting additional jail time:

A Seoul court sentenced Kim Ki-choon, a former chief of staff to ousted President Park Geun-hye, to a 1 1/2-year prison term Friday for pressuring a major business lobby to provide funds to conservative organizations friendly to the Park administration.

The Seoul Central District Court also sentenced Cho Yoon-sun, a former culture minister and senior political affairs secretary to Park, to one year in prison, to be suspended for two years, for her role in having money funneled to pro-government organizations on the so-called whitelist.

Kim was put in jail following the verdict.

The sentences are in addition to prison terms of four and two years that Kim and Cho were given, respectively, in a separate “blacklist” scandal that centers on allegations that the Park government kept a secret register of artists critical of the administration and disadvantaged them in various ways.

The blacklist case is pending at the Supreme Court.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but if anything comes back to haunt the Moon administration if conservatives regain power it is going to be this.  The Moon administration has its own blacklist where they have cut funding to organizations that advocate for North Korean human rights and resettle North Korean refugees.  Funding has also been cut to think tanks that won’t fire conservatives.

The biggest benefactor of the Moon administration’s white list has been the Kim regime in North Korea.  The Moon administration is even pressuring Samsung and other conglomerates to invest billions into North Korea.  If conservatives can go to jail for whilelists and blacklists then this sets a precedent for the Korean left to go to jail as well.

Here is an unusual ceremony that was recently held at Osan Airbase.  It is good to see that the remains of these two New Zealanders were able to be returned to their home countries:

The remains of two New Zealand servicemembers who died in South Korea shortly after hostilities ended on the peninsula finally began their journey home Friday.

Army driver Herbert Hunn, 24, and navy telegraphist Peter Mollison, 19, were brought aboard a New Zealand Air Force jet after a repatriation ceremony at Osan Air Base’s passenger terminal. The pair were to be returned to family members Sunday at Royal New Zealand Air Base Auckland.

“These two men beside me were not killed in combat and in fact died after the armistice agreement,” New Zealand Ambassador to South Korea Philip Turner said during the ceremony. “They were part of New Zealand and the international community’s commitment to security here.”

Both Hunn, who died in a vehicle accident in 1955, and Mollison who succumbed to meningitis in 1957, had been interred at a United Nations cemetery in Busan.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

#SouthKorean PM Lee said "He was great, but frugal, frugal, but great. He loved his subjects & he received the love of his subjects. I become endlessly small & ashamed when faced with the life of 'juseok." (A term used for a communist leader)" when visiting Ho Chi Min museum. https://t.co/pbDeQq6jGd

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) October 3, 2018