It is pretty clear that Kim Jong-un is doing everything he can to influence the South Korean public that he can be trusted:

During a joint visit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to the top of Mount Paekdu, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un posed for cameras with the hottest photo gesture in South Korea: a finger heart.

Kim made the gesture, which crosses the thumb and the index finger to make the shape of a heart, when he posed for a photo with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, against the backdrop of Cheonji or Heaven Lake on top of the mountain Thursday, the South’s presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.

The gesture has been one of the most popular photo poses in South Korea in recent years — perhaps as popular as the conventional V gesture — as a lot of actors, actresses and singers, including boy band BTS, have used it.

After trying to figure out how to make the gesture, the North’s leader approached the spokesperson.

“How do you do this?” Kim was quoted as asking. “I can’t make it in the right shape.”

Kim managed to make the gesture and his wife, Ri, put her hands under Kim’s hand as if she’s upholding the heart, according to the spokesman  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but this is all a carefully choreographed narrative being constructed of Kim Jong-un that I would not be surprised if the Moon administration is helping to craft.

This is pretty significant that a foreign country is willing to defend US soil with one of their missile defense systems:

Japan will legally be able to use planned Aegis Ashore systems to intercept North Korean missiles launched toward Guam, a top government official said this week.

A pacifist constitution bans Japan from stepping in to defend other nations unless it was also being attacked; however, security legislation passed in 2015 allows the country to exercise its right to collective defense and to defend close allies when attacked — under certain conditions.  [Stars and Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but also keep in mind that Japan is home to two AN/TPY-2 radar sites operated by US soldiers that are also used to detect ballistic missiles launch from North Korea as part of the US homeland defense architecture.  Clearly Japan is a great ally in regards to protecting US citizens from ballistic missile attack.

Considering the media controls the Moon administration has put on the press in South Korea why is anyone surprised by this?:

Foreign reporters based in Seoul are upset that they were not invited to Pyongyang to cover the three-day inter-Korean summit from Tuesday to Thursday.

“Foreign media should be there because it is an international event surrounding the biggest foreign policy concern of the U.S.,” NK News managing director Chad O’Carroll told The Korea Times, Wednesday.

He has made five times of trips to the North since 2010.

“South Korean media were welcomed en masse to Singapore and hundreds of South Korean journalists went, because that issue was as much of concern to Seoul as the inter-Korean summit is to foreigners,” he said.

Although a journalist with South Korea’s English media was included in the media delegation to Pyongyang, O’Carroll said there was still need to invite foreign reporters to provide different perspectives to global audiences.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but Mr. O’Carroll is a smart guy and I am sure he understands the Kim regime and the Moon administration do not want different perspectives.  They planned a carefully crafted narrative for the Inter-Korean Summit and allowing foreign reporters was something that could potentially chip away at the narrative they created.

Quasi-hostages, dragooned into the dreaded anti-capitalist dictatorship by their own so-called liberal former human rights lawyer sovereign. Do those billionaires strike you as happy campers? https://t.co/B9oUyyKatg

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) September 19, 2018

South Korean singer IU attends a publicity event in Seoul on Sept. 20, 2018, to promote the wireless noise-canceling WH-1000XM3 headphones manufactured by Japan’s Sony Corp. (Yonhap)

It figures that the Dokdo issue would some how come up during the recent Inter-Korean Summit:

Magician Choi Hyun-woo, who went to Pyongyang as part of the South Korean delegation for the three-day inter-Korean summit, presented a magic show to the leaders of the two Koreas Tuesday night at Mokran (Magnolia) House.

“I was nervous at the moment,” The Kyunghyang Shinmun quoted Choi as saying. He said he was bit worried as he heard North Korean leader Kim Jong-un likes magic and he did not want to let him down.

During dinner on Tuesday, Choi performed card tricks that engaged the leaders and their wives.

“The first theme was telepathy, that is, to communicate telepathically,” Choi said.

For example, if President Moon Jae-in chose a card in his mind, Kim had to guess what card that was.

“It went well with President Moon and Chairman Kim, as well as with the two first ladies who were telepathic with each other,” the magician said.

“At the end, I turned the cards into a large card with a Korean Peninsula flag on it to show a message of going together in harmony. I was surprised when the two leaders pointed out the same thing that Dokdo (the rocky islets in the East Sea) was displayed on the card.”  [Korea Times]

So if Dokdo is on the flag then where was Ieodo at?

More apartment construction is coming to the greater Seoul area:

The government named 17 sites where 35,000 apartment units will be built in the greater Seoul area, one of its attempts to cool off the overheated real estate market.

This is the first batch of sites the government announced. An additional 13 sites and 265,000 units will be announced later, including four to five “new cities” to be built next to the first generation of new cities such as Ilsan and Bundang in Gyeonggi.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Friday said it plans to supply 10,000 apartment units in Seoul on 11 sites. However only two areas in Seoul were disclosed as it is still working with the Seoul city government. The ministry said the Seoul government will announce the nine remaining sites.

The ones that were disclosed were Songpa District, southeastern Seoul, where the relocated Seongdong Detention Center used to stand, and Gaepo-dong, Gangnam District, southern Seoul. The two sites that were named are located on the edge of the nation’s capital, contrary to previous speculation that they would be located in the center of the city.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but Uijongbu has been selected as a suburb of Seoul that will also have more apartments constructed.  The government has not released where the apartments will be built, but with the closure of Camp Red Cloud in the near future, the old USFK military base could become yet another area in Korea covered in apartments.

The FED became an oddly located military installation after Seoul’s explosive growth.  It is now about to finally close:

A few blocks from the sloping, spaceship-shaped Dongdaemun Design Plaza in one of Seoul’s trendiest fashion districts is another odd sight.

A tiny U.S. Army base sits just across the street from a hospital morgue and adjacent to a park that blocks its view from a major thoroughfare.

Know as FED, the compound has been home to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District, headquarters since the 1950-53 Korean War. Before that it was the site of a Japanese-built school from the nearly four decades when Japan occupied the peninsula until its defeat in World War II.

Surrounded by concrete and brick walls lined with concertina wire, the 13-acre base can be easy to miss, one of several sub-installations that belong to the larger Yongsan Garrison just a few miles away.

But its history reflects the highs and lows of the U.S. presence in the South Korean capital. In a final act, the Corps of Engineers is preparing to close the base after it moves to Camp Humphreys as part of the long-delayed relocation of most U.S. forces south of Seoul.

Kenneth Pickler, 64, the Far East District’s transportation chief, has worked on the compound since he was first deployed there as a soldier 1989, then took a job as a civilian after retiring from active duty.

The Cloverdale, Calif., native plans to retire after the FED compound closes, although he plans to remain in South Korea.

“My last official duty is to shut off the lights, lock the gate and hand the keys over … back to the garrison,” he told Stars and Stripes in an interview last month. “And that’s supposed to happen in mid-November.”  [Stars and Stripes]

You can read much more at the link such as the fact that a third of the buildings at the FED were built by the Japanese.  The first building was the Gyeongseong School of Education built in 1922 that is the main building used on the compound.

There is also an interesting story about a fuel leak mess created by the South Koreans when they razed an old Japanese courthouse adjacent to the FED back in the 1990’s that the US had to clean up.  It reminded me of the current fuel leak controversy over at Yongsan Garrison frequently blamed on USFK.

After the base closes in November there are not current plans on what the ROK will do with the land.  Considering that there are a number of Japanese era buildings on the property the bulldozer is likely coming for them.

The head of state visit, yet no #SouthKorean flag whatsoever. Only flags of #NorthKorea & unification. What does it say about how Kim Jong-un thinks about 1)SK? 2)president Moon Jae-in? What does it say about Moon, who is not only fine with it, but just beaming (in other pics)? pic.twitter.com/b0IsMCnFag

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) September 20, 2018

The front page of Sept. 19, 2018, edition of North Korea’s daily Rodong Sinmun is covered with an article and photos of South Korean President Moon Jae-in arriving in Pyongyang the previous day. Moon began his three-day visit on Sept. 18 for his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. North Korean media outlet Korean Central News Agency also filed multiple articles and photos on meetings and activities by the two leaders. (Yonhap)