After flying aircraft though the ROK ADIZ now the Chinese military is conducting naval drills off of the Korean peninsula.  I think it is pretty clear that the Chinese government is sending a message to the ROK government to continue to play nice with North Korea and don’t give into demands from the Trump administration:

China’s People’s Liberation Army naval forces have conducted two drills and plan another this week near the Korean Peninsula in a possible show of force, ahead of a planned inter-Korea summit in Pyongyang in September.

According to China’s maritime authorities on Thursday, the Chinese navy is to again conduct drills in its northeastern waters from Friday to Sept. 7, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

Well President Moon is the person that said that people need to shake off the “stereotype that the private sector creates jobs.”  This is what that belief leads to:

The government spent more than W50 trillion in 2017 and this year on its futile attempts to create jobs (US$1=W1,119). A lawmaker who is among candidates to become head of the ruling party blames the high unemployment on the W22 trillion the Lee Myung-bak administration spent a decade ago to dredge the four major rivers and waterways in the country. But the Moon Jae-in administration has spent twice as much money and only 5,000 jobs were created in July. In the past, when the government did not spend a single penny on job creation, jobs increased by around 300,000. Unemployment now stands above 1 million for the seventh straight month, while a record 1 million small businesses are expected to close this year.

W50 trillion is an astronomical amount of money. Not many countries have a total budget that size. After spending that much, the government needs to show some results, but there has been no progress whatsoever. So where has the money gone?

A closer look at the government’s job-stimulus objectives this year gives a vague idea. The government is paying W6 trillion to support the unemployed, while another W4 trillion is going into measures aimed at prodding the jobless to find work. That means around half of this year’s budget earmarked for job creation has in fact gone into supporting the unemployed and forcing companies to keep workers they do not need. And the W2 trillion allocated for job training is focused on short-term positions.

In fact, most of the jobs the government claims to have created have been short-term positions. About half of jobs it created last year by spending W11 trillion from the supplementary budget were for senior citizens, although the government said it aimed to boost youth employment. And those jobs will vanish as soon as government funding dries up. A study by the Labor Ministry shows that six out of 10 workers who found jobs through government programs quit in less than a year. Taxpayers’ money effectively turned into salaries for the jobless.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but you have to love how the Korean left is trying to blame former President Lee Myung-bak for high unemployment when he has been out of office for nearly seven years.

This penalty makes sense to me that if you sign a contract to lose and hold a certain weight over an amount of time and don’t keep your end of the bargain:

Singer Kim Tae-woo of the group g.o.d has to pay tens of millions of won to a weight-watching business he advertised because he got too fat.

The Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday found for the plaintiff, weight-loss company Juvis, against Kim and his agency, and ordered them to pay W65 million in compensation.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

That's a fundamental disunity of interests that, if not healed, will certainly lead to decoupling. Better that we should use that leverage while we still have it. https://t.co/aafxfC97yS

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) August 28, 2018

South Korean Justice Minister Park Sang-ki poses with U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Harry Harris prior to their meeting at the justice ministry in Gwacheon, south of Seoul, on Aug. 29, 2018, in this photo provided by the ministry. (Yonhap)

Here is another example of free agency coming to international sports:

South Korea’s U.S. born basketball player, Ricardo Ratliffe, on Thursday rued a lack of team effort in his side’s disappointing loss against Iran at the 18th Asian Games.

South Korea lost its title defense bid after losing to Iran 80-68 in the men’s basketball semifinal match at the 18th Asian Games at Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Istora arena in Jakarta.

Ratliffe, whose Korean name is Ra Gun-ah, was the only South Korean player who stood up against Iranians. He had a game-high 37 points and 12 rebounds, but his superb performance wasn’t enough to see South Korea through to the final.

“We just played terrible,” Ratliffe said of his team’s performance. “We didn’t play well together. That’s all.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

President Trump is now saying he still supports a suspension of joint military drills and blames China for the recent gridlock on denuclearization:

The White House said Wednesday the U.S. decision to suspend major combined military exercises with South Korea holds true despite a stalemate in efforts to denuclearize North Korea.

President Donald Trump believes “there is no reason at this time to be spending large amounts of money on joint U.S.-South Korea war games,” his office said in a statement posted on his Twitter account.

It cited Trump’s “good and warm” relationship with the North’s leader Kim Jong-un stemming from their historic Singapore summit on June 12.

Trump thinks China is to blame, at least partially, for the recent gridlock highlighted by the cancellation of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to Pyongyang this week.

He “feels strongly that North Korea is under tremendous pressure from China because of our major trade disputes with the Chinese Government,” the statement read.

Furthermore, it added, China is providing North Korea with “considerable aid, including money, fuel, fertilizer and various other commodities. This is not helpful!”  [Yonhap]

You can read much more at the link, but I am sure the Chinese are not being helpful on the nuclear issue, however I have never believed the Kim regime has wanted to denuclearize anyway.  Their strategy has long been getting concessions for pretend denuclearization.

Participants in a national rally of monks at Jogye Temple, the headquarters of Korea’s largest Buddhist sect, the Jogye Order, march on the streets calling for sweeping reform of the order following the ouster of its disgraced executive chief Rev. Seoljeong over a series of corruption allegations. (Yonhap)

It looks like the US will be making sure that all inter-Korean cooperation is being done by existing regulations:

The United Nations Command (UNC) for the first time disapproved plans for an inter-Korean railway inspection, amid a deadlock in denuclearization talks between North Korea and the U.S.

The plan was for a South Korean train to travel up to the North’s northwestern city of Sinuiju so officials of the Koreas could inspect the condition of the tracks in the North from Aug. 22 to 27.

The UNC holds authority to approve personnel and supplies crossing the Military Demarcation Line (MDL).

The government has stated the inspections do not go against sanctions imposed on the North by the U.N. and the U.S.

The UNC initially cited the reason for disapproval as South Korea not notifying it of its plan 48 hours in advance.

A unification ministry official said this was likely not the issue.

“There were many instances in which plans that were announced less than 48 hours in advance were approved,” he told reporters, Thursday.

The UNC, in an official statement, said it “required South Korea to submit details of the planned visit.” Calling for additional details is seen as unprecedented.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but considering the duplicity shown by the Moon administration allowing the North Koreans to violate sanctions this is probably a wise move.

A pretty unique portrait of Dear Leader Kim Jong Il! pic.twitter.com/PJpPvumXCO

— Chad O'Carroll (@chadocl) August 28, 2018