Here is the latest on the US-ROK cost sharing talks:

The United States has demanded South Korea share the cost of deploying U.S. strategic assets around the Korean Peninsula during recent talks to renew their cost-sharing agreement for American troops stationed here, a foreign ministry official said Friday.

Seoul rejected the request saying the issue should not be part of the negotiation.

“Our basic stance on this matter is that the agreement deals with how to share the upkeep cost of stationing the U.S. troops,” the official told a group of reporters on condition of anonymity.

The two sides held their second round of the talks on the southern island of Jeju earlier this week. The first round was held in Hawaii last month.

The official said that there are “big differences” to be ironed out in the amount of money proposed by each side, which he said requires more discussion going forward. He didn’t provide specific numbers.

With regard to another potential issue of how to share the cost of operating the U.S. THAAD anti-missile system that was installed here last year, he said it was not mentioned in the meeting.

He noted, however, that the matter could be discussed as the cost of the THAAD operation could be dealt with in line with the “logistical support” part stipulated in the agreement.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Meanwhile in the UK:

Think of all the Victorian disembowelings that could have been prevented, had Jack the Ripper been confronted by the persuasive powers of Cookie Monster pic.twitter.com/z01pp2NPtY

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) April 11, 2018

President Moon Jae-in (4th from R) converses with a group of senior advisers prior to a luncheon meeting on the upcoming inter-Korean summit talks at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on April 12, 2018. Moon will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on April 27. (Yonhap)

That is what is being floated as a possible reward for denuclearization:

What would the United States give North Korea in return for denuclearization?

The Trump administration is now detailing a compensation package for the Kim Jong-un regime that would significantly boost economic and diplomatic sectors, the Dong-A Ilbo daily reported on Thursday, citing government sources.

The newspaper said if the Trump-Kim summit is a success, the U.S. is willing to open a liaison office and an embassy in Pyongyang, and start humanitarian aid.

The two countries discussed the issues during working-level talks, the paper said.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s top national security adviser is visiting Washington to meet his U.S. counterpart John Bolton, the White House said.  [Korea Times via a reader tip]

The Cho family is back in the headlines today:

Cho Hyun-min, 35, the sister of Cho Hyun-ah (Heather Cho), the Korean Air heiress who made headlines around the world for the 2014 “nut rage” incident, has been caught up in her own rage controversy.

She has been accused of throwing a cup of water into the face of an employee from an advertising agency at a recent meeting.

According to local media outlets Thursday, Cho, a Korean Air executive, was dissatisfied with the agent’s performance for its new advertisement, so she “yelled and threw a cup of water at the employee.”

Korean Air denied the accusation. “It is true that she yelled and threw a cup to the floor,” a Korean Air official told The Korea Times. “But she did not throw the cup at the employee. After a while, she apologized to the person and others who attended the meeting.”

If the accusation is true, she could be prosecuted for assault.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but throwing a cup on the ground is nothing; I once saw a senior military leader throw a chair across the room that hit a wall to make a point of how displeased he was.

Here is the first major issue the US and the North Korea need to work out:

The North Koreans, in unpublicised meetings with the Americans, are saying they want Trump to see Kim in Pyongyang. The Americans, of course, do not want Trump visiting North Korea, where Kim would be in the role of a head of state receiving the American guest as a supplicant seeking his approval.

Instead, in conversations via the CIA, the Americans are pressing for the talks to be held in the capital of a third country or in the truce village of Panmunjom on the North-South line, 60km north of Seoul. That’s where South Korean President Moon Jae-in is due to meet Kim on April 27, and the Americans see no reason why Kim cannot go to Panmunjom for his summit with Trump, tentatively agreed upon to take place in May.

The Americans see the idea of Trump going to Pyongyang as another attempt on the part of Kim and his team of strategists to create obstructions to any serious attempt at negotiating an end to the North’s nuclear programme. It might seem inconceivable that Trump would go to Pyongyang to meet Kim, but what if North Korea refused to budge?

Would the result be no summit – and North and South Korea both blaming the US for refusing to accommodate North Korea’s demands? Or would North Korea, if sincerely interested in a summit, accept other suggestions?  [South China Morning Post]

You can read more at the link, but I think the North Koreans are refusing to budge from holding the summit in Pyongyang because they want to first see what the Americans have to offer.  If prior negotiations show the US not willing to make the concessions they want, the Kim regime can continue to demand that Pyongyang be the location of the summit in order to kill it and then blame the Americans for its failure.

If the Kim regime does continue to demand to hold the summit at Pyongyang, then I think President Trump should fly to South Korea and visit Panmunjom and tell Kim Jong-un when he will be there to put the onus back on him for not meeting him.

The Chinese Navy may be looking to expand their reach into the South Pacific to be able to threaten US allies Australia and New Zealand:

The islands of Vanuatu may appear as relative specks in the South Pacific Ocean, but for China’s military strategists, they could provide a significant boost in Beijing’s ability to project naval power.

The prospect of a Chinese military base in the heart of the South Pacific, reported by Australia’s Fairfax Media on Tuesday, will also complicate the strategic dominance of Western powers in an ocean area they have long effectively controlled, according to diplomats and experts monitoring developments.

Fairfax Media reported China has approached Vanuatu about establishing a permanent military presence there, saying the possibility of such a facility has already alarmed high level officials in Canberra and Washington.

Vanuatu’s foreign minister denied there had been any such discussion of a Chinese military base in the country. China’s defence ministry said the Fairfax report “completely did not accord with the facts” while a foreign ministry spokesman said the report was “fake news”.  (…….)

While far from key shipping lanes and not as important as Indian Ocean ports, Vanuatu would put China close to the coast of Australia, a major U.S. ally, and give it a presence nearer the U.S. base of Guam beyond the Asian island chains that hem in Beijing.

Graeme Smith, a Pacific Affairs expert at the Australian National University, said a Chinese base on Vanuatu would send a strong message to Australia, the United States and their allies.

“It would be an incredibly aggressive signal to both the U.S. and Australia that ‘We’re here, get used to it’,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview. [Reuters]

You can read more at the link, but how long will it be before some Chinese scholar says Vanuatu was historically part of China?

Wow. North Korea has just confirmed that Hwang Pyong So and Kim Ki Nam have been dismissed. Both were once trusted advisors to Kim Jong Un. But what's truly noteworthy is that North Korea is telling us about it in black and white (and in English) pic.twitter.com/FQlqHe8B4r

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) April 12, 2018

Trailers enter a THAAD base in the country’s southeastern rural county of Seongju on April 12, 2018, to bring excavators, bulldozers and forklifts out of the base in accordance with an agreement between villagers and the defense ministry. The equipment was introduced in November to build the THAAD base, which the villagers strongly oppose. (Yonhap)

Here is an update from the frontlines of the THAAD protest site:

-South Korea’s defense authorities decided Thursday to wait until this weekend to bring construction materials and equipment into the U.S. missile defense base in the face of local residents’ protest.

The military had planned to transport them to the THAAD site, located in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, within the day.

Police clashed with hundreds of activists and residents, trying to clear the way for the trucks. Some protesters were hurt.

But the Ministry of National Defense reached a deal with them to continue talks through the weekend. The government pulled the police out of the area.

Only a dozen trailers will enter the base to take such heavy equipment as forklifts and bulldozers out of it. Those were used for early-stage construction work a few months ago.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the protesters want to be able to go on the site and monitor all the construction work which is intended to improve soldier facilities on the site.  If a random civilian is allowed on the site maybe Kim Jong-un should demand that he should be allowed to have a representative on the site as well.