South Korea’s “Garlic Girls” look like they will get a chance to cash in on their Winter Olympic fame by endorsing vacuum cleaners:

As curling’s growing popularity in the nation is on rise, “Team Kim” (because all five players’ last names are Kim), or the “garlic girls” (because of Uiseong’s specialty crop), are considered the top choice for endorsements for certain manufacturers. The way they sweep the ice, the way they control the stones, they could make perfect commercials _ thought vacuum cleaner makers.

On South Korean electronic appliance manufacturers, from global brands such as Samsung and LG to local competitors like Dayou Winia, Yujin Robot and Dyson, the curling team has made a strong impression. Following the PyeongChang Olympics where the athletes will leave a huge footprint, commercial endorsements featuring them can potentially create a strong marketing effect for whoever hires them.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

The North Koreans are likely offering to hold talks now to get what they can get out of negotiations and then set conditions for their next provocation cycle:

A senior North Korean official said Monday that the reclusive state is willing to hold talks with the United States, noting the door for dialogue between the two countries remains open, according to an official from Seoul’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

The remarks from Kim Yong-chol, the North’s point man on South Korea, came in a meeting with Chung Eui-yong, chief of South Korea’s National Security Council and the top security advisor to President Moon Jae-in.

“Kim said the door remains open for dialogue with the United States. He said the North has also repeatedly expressed such a stance,” a ranking Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters, while speaking on condition of anonymity.

Kim’s remarks came one day after he told the South Korean president in a meeting that the North has enough willingness to hold bilateral talks with the United States.

He, however, attached no conditions for the talks, according to the presidential official.

The U.S. seemed to remain cautious, with White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders saying Washington will first see if Kim’s remarks represented the North’s first step toward denuclearization.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime has no intention of denuclearizing which means the talks will likely go no where.  However, before the talks go no where the Kim regime will try to get concessions out of the ROK.  The Moon administration is already floating the idea of suspending joint military exercises and economic aid for them suspending their nuclear and missile programs:

Moon has promoted a two-step roadmap to end the security crisis prompted by the North’s nuclear threats. According to his proposed first step, the North must place a moratorium on its nuclear and missile tests, freeze any further development of the technologies and join denuclearization negotiations. In return, the international community was to offer corresponding compensations. The second step would be actual nuclear dismantlement.

Moon, however, never made clear what Seoul and Washington would offer to Pyongyang in return for the first step, a freeze. Suspending or downsizing joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States has been discussed as a possible option, as well as an economic assistance package for the impoverished economy of the North.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

So basically the Kim regime gets significant concessions for doing nothing.  The economic assistance will likely include the reopening the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the restarting of Mt. Kumgang tours, and the opening of the Masik Ski Resort to tourism.  This would essentially shred all the sanctions that the US has been trying to leverage against the ROK.  That is why we will likely see a renewed push for a “freeze deal” in the coming weeks and months.

After the Kim regime gets all they can out of talks they will then restart their nuclear and missile programs and blame “US hostility” or some other made up reason.  Their leftist supporters will of course all fall in line with the narrative.  We have seen this all play out before.  Any freeze deal they sign the Kim regime will find a way to cheat on it.  I fully expect they will continue with short and intermediate range ballistic missile testing claiming this is okay because they are not ICBMs.  I suspect they will use space launches to test their ICBM technology and claim it is for peaceful purposes.  They have done this before.

They will also likely continue efforts to miniaturize their nuclear technology to put on ICBM warheads.  Without inspections this will be easy for them to conceal.  Even if they get called out for cheating they will just deny it and their apologists will come out in force to support them.  Supporters of past nuclear deals kept claiming that North Korea was in compliance despite clear evidence they were not.

It will be interesting to see which direction the Trump administration wants to go.  If they want to kick this can down the road to deal with later, the freeze deal is a way to do it.

Downtown Seoul today: Olympic spirit and right wing protest mash up pic.twitter.com/nSyQnqw54g

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) February 24, 2018

Protesters including the bereaved families of the 46 crewmen killed in the 2010 sinking of the Cheonan warship stage a rally in Seoul on Feb. 24, 2018, to oppose the planned visit to South Korea by Kim Yong-chol, a vice chairman of the Central Committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party. Kim is set to cross the border on Feb. 25 for a three-day visit as the head of an eight-member delegation to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. He is believed to be behind the North’s sinking of the South Korean corvette and the shelling of a border island in 2010. (Yonhap)

Considering how little North Korea depends on the Internet that cyberattacks would be of limited value compared to other nations:

North Korea on Saturday denounced reported U.S. preparations for possible cyberattacks against the communist nation, saying it is ready and willing to respond to “any type of warfare.”

Earlier this month, U.S. media outlet Foreign Policy reported that for the past six months, Washington has been laying the groundwork in countries including South Korea and Japan for possible cyberattacks on the North. The process involved installing fiber cables as bridges into the region and setting up remote bases and listening posts.

“The United States must discard its silly dream of realizing its ambitions for invasion through cyberattacks on us,” the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said in a commentary.

“As (we) have everything we need, and we are prepared, we can respond to any type of warfare that the U.S. wants,” it added.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

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

Ivanka’s nickname in South Korea = “방카” or “Bang-ka.” In full, her name is “I-bang-ka” but because “I” is a Korean surname, they just call her “Bang-ka.” pic.twitter.com/w3KibdzeYP

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) February 24, 2018

This photo, taken on Feb. 23, 2018, shows a pair of traditional Korean indoor shoes, made of silk, that South Korean first lady Kim Jung-sook prepared for Ivanka Trump, the U.S. president’s daughter and senior advisor, the day that Ivanka visited the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae for a dinner with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Kim gave Ivanka the shoes as a present on Feb. 24 because she liked them, according to the presidential office. (Yonhap)

I could only imagine what Koreans would be saying if the roles were reversed?:

South Korean snowboarder Lee Sang-Ho recorded one of the closest victories of the Winter Olympics, beating out Slovenia’s Zan Kosir by .01 in the semifnals of the parallel giant slalom event.

But should the result have been the other way around? NBC’s angles of the finish line appeared to show both Kosir’s board and hand crossing the line both well ahead of Lee’s board and hand. (The winner is the first racer who crosses the line with any part of his body.)

And here you thought you’d put bad replay decisions behind you with the end of the NFL season.  [Yahoo Sports]

You can read more at the link, but the photo finish shows that Kosir clearly beat Lee.  Some how I doubt Slovenians will be giving Lee the treatment that Koreans gave American Apolo Anton Ohno during the 2002 Winter Olympics:

The fan culture also can boil over. Athletes from opposing countries have received death threats. Back in 2002 in Salt Lake City when Apolo Anton Ohno won his controversial gold with Kim Dong-sung disqualified for blocking, a manufacturer made three different editions of toilet paper with his face on. The USOC servers also crashed due to the number of emails complaining about Ohno’s triumph and the USA team withdrew from the following year’s world championship in South Korea through solidarity with Ohno. Later at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the South Koreans paid homage to Kim with their short track celebration after Ahn Jung-whan equalised against the United States.  [ESPN]

Something I have been advocating for, for many years the interdiction and inspection of North Korean ships may finally become a reality:

The United States is imposing a fresh set of sanctions on North Korea – the “largest ever”, President Trump says.

The measures target more than 50 ships and maritime transport companies in North Korea, but also China and Taiwan.

North Korea is already under a range of international and US sanctions over its nuclear programme and missile tests.

But it continued tests last year, including tests of a nuclear weapon and a long-range ballistic missile capable of reaching the US.

The US says the new sanctions are designed to put a further squeeze on North Korea, cutting off sources of revenue and fuel for its nuclear programme and clamping down on evasion of already existing restrictions.  [BBC]

Here is how the US may enforce the inspections:

The Trump administration and key Asian allies are preparing to expand interceptions of ships suspected of violating sanctions on North Korea, a plan that could include deploying U.S. Coast Guard forces to stop and search vessels in Asia-Pacific waters, senior U.S. officials said.  [Reuters]

It will be interesting to see how vigorously these sanctions are enforced by other nations because the US Coast Guard can’t be everywhere at all times to enforce these sanctions.  I fully expect the Chinese government will do what it can to help the Kim regime circumvent the sanctions.  If the sanctions don’t work President Trump says he is ready to implement Phase 2:

Speaking at a new conference on Friday, President Trump warned of serious consequences if the latest round of sanctions did not generate results.

“If the sanctions don’t work we’ll have to go phase two – and phase two may be a very rough thing, may be very, very unfortunate for the world,” he said.

“It really is a rogue nation. If we can make a deal it’ll be a great thing and if we can’t, something will have to happen.”

He did not specify what “phase two” would entail.  [BBC]

Here is what ROK Drop favorite One Free Korea has to say about this news:

If China claims the unilateral right to make artificial islands, we can claim the unilateral right to make some artificial reefs. https://t.co/o1E6F7DQ31

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) February 24, 2018