This is pretty disgusting that the North Korean soldier that defected to South Korea recently through the Joint Security Area had an 11-inch worm pulled out of his intestine:

A North Korean soldier shot multiple times while defecting to the South is in a stable condition but riddled with parasites that could complicate his chances of survival, his doctor said Thursday.

The soldier dashed across the border at the Panmunjom truce village on Monday, as former comrades from the North opened fire on him, hitting him at least four times.

He was pulled to safety by three South Korean soldiers who crawled to reach him, just south of the dividing line.

The young man was rushed to hospital in South Korea by helicopter where he has undergone two rounds of emergency surgery.

“Vital signs including his pulse are returning to stability”, attending doctor Lee Cook-Jong told journalists.

However, he warned, the un-named soldier could rapidly deteriorate at any moment.

“We’re paying close attention to prevent possible complications,” said Lee, who on Wednesday said “an enormous number of parasites” including roundworms had been found in the small intestine.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my 20 years as a physician”, he said, adding the longest worm he removed was 27 centimetres (11 inches).

Parasites, especially roundworms, are widespread in North Korea — as they are in many developing countries — where people eat uncooked vegetables that have been fertilised with human faeces, experts say.  [AFP]

You can read more at the link.

As I have said before from the Chinese perspective a freeze deal between the US and North Korea is in their interests.  Freezing US-ROK joint military exercises is a way to reduce military readiness and push forward the long term goal of separating the ROK from the US:

China reiterated on Thursday that the most reasonable way to resolve North Korea’s nuclear stalemate is to push for a stop to joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. in exchange for freezing Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile provocations.

“China sees the freeze-for-freeze scheme is the most reasonable way,” Geng Shuang, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, told a regular press briefing.

He made the remarks in response to what U.S. President Donald Trump earlier said.

Explaining the outcome of his 12-day Asia trip that also included a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Trump said on Wednesday (Washington time) that the two leaders agreed that they “would not accept” the freeze for freeze agreement, “like those that have consistently failed in the past.”

The spokesman said stopping the joint military exercises and provocations at the same time is the “first step” necessary to create an environment for talks and called for other countries to “actively” consider the method that China had proposed.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the whole dispute over the US deployment of the THAAD battery to South Korea is just another front in China’s long term effort to separate the US and the ROK.

If you didn’t guess it already from the picture below the man featured in this article says he is transexual as well:

Ja Du, born a white male named Adam, now considers himself a Filipino.

He even drives what he calls a Tuk Tuk, an Asian-derived vehicle used for public transit in the Philippines.

Ja Du is part of a small but growing number of people who call themselves transracial. The term once referred only to someone (or a couple) of a one race adopting a child of another, but now it’s becoming associated with someone born of one race who identifies with another.

Ja Du says he grew up enjoying Filipino food, events and the overall culture.

“Whenever I’m around the music, around the food, I feel like I’m in my own skin,” he said.

“I’d watch the History Channel, sometimes for hours … nothing else intrigued me more but things about Filipino culture.”  [Guam PDN]

You can read more at the link, but how many ROK Drop readers are ready to declare themselves transracial Koreans because it appears it is okay to declare whatever ethnicity you want to be now.

I spy with my little eye…Kim Jong-un's boat house in Wonsan: pic.twitter.com/uTMQqUpVdP

— Curtis Melvin 커티스 멜빈 (@CurtisMelvin) November 14, 2017

Shown is a 4.2-meter-tall statue of former President Park Chung-hee made by his supporters to be installed at President Park Chung-hee Memorial Foundation in western Seoul. The group of supporters delivered a certificate to the foundation on Nov. 13, 2017, indicating that it will donate the statue. (Yonhap)

The long advertised joint drills involving three US aircraft carriers is currently taking place:

The Reagan, the flag ship of the 7th Fleet’s Carrier Strike Group 5, was conducting a combined exercise with two other supercarriers — the USS Nimitz and the USS Theodore Roosevelt — in the Korea Theater of Operations (KTO) and was also joined by South Korea’s naval ships.

“There’s an advantage to operate together, in that combined three carriers really create a tremendous amount of combat power very flexible and create a lot of options for our national leadership,” Rear Adm. Marc Dalton, commander of the Reagan strike unit, said in an interview at the ship’s “flag bridge,” which commands a view of the whole flight deck.

He would not reveal the exact location of the carrier.

According to an informed source, it was transiting the waters 50 nautical miles, or 92 kilometers, south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de-facto inter-Korean sea border, and 40 nautical miles north of Ulleung Island.

It’s unusual for the Japan-based carrier to sail so close to the NLL. It’s unprecedented for the South’s Navy to train with three U.S. flattops at the same time.

The last time three U.S. carriers were mobilized for joint drills in the Western Pacific was in 2007 near Guam.

The current training is apparently a warning message to the North’s Kim Jong-un regime and a way to put pressure on it. [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but this is a tremendous amount of fire power sitting such a short distance from North Korea.  Hopefully a strong message was sent to the Kim regime.

I have always felt that if a major earthquake struck South Korea it would be devastating and this 5.4 magnitude quake hopefully serves as a wake up call to improve building standards in the country:

A series of powerful earthquakes struck the southeastern city of Pohang, Wednesday, shaking many parts of the country, including Seoul nearly 300 kilometers away.

The first major quake ― 5.4 in magnitude ― struck Pohang at 2:29 p. m. , the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said. The epicenter was measured about nine kilometers north of Pohang and nine kilometers beneath the surface.

The quake was followed by aftershocks of lesser intensity, including a 3.6-magnitude one at 3:09 p.m. When a 4.6-magnitude quake occurred 8 kilometers north of the city at 4:49 p.m. , residents across South Gyeongsang Province feared whether the tremors had yet to end. Fire departments in Changwon city 130 kilometers away from Pohang received dozens of calls from worried citizens.

Nuclear reactors in Ulsan, some 80 kilometers south of Pohang, operated normally with no sign of radiation leaks, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here we go again with more talk of a freeze deal with North Korea where the international community rewards North Korea for violating United Nations sanctions and receive little to nothing in return:

South Korea and the international community may begin discussions on possible rewards for North Korea if the reclusive state decides to at least freeze its nuclear program and come to the denuclearization dialogue, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday.

“I believe it will not be easy realistically to move on to complete dismantlement of North Korean nukes in the near future, considering recent advances in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs,” the president said at a press conference.

“That means it will likely be North Korea first freezing its nuclear program and then moving onto complete dismantlement, and if that happens, I believe we and the international community may discuss what we can do in return,” he added.

The South Korean president was attending a regional forum hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Manila. He arrived here Sunday following trips to Indonesia and Vietnam.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but President Moon is also once again urging the North Koreans to take part in the Winter Olympics being held this upcoming February in South Korea.

I would love it if some journalist would ask President Moon if he would have advocated for Apartheid South Africa to participate in the Olympic Games?  Apartheid South Africa was shunned from the Olympics and they were not a threat to world peace or have any where near the level of human rights violations going in North Korea right now.

Regardless of the circumstances with the father, to kill the baby like this is just horrible:

A Thai woman threw her newborn baby out of a 17th-story window after her married South Korean boyfriend dumped her, according to local reports. The boyfriend, 40, identified only by his surname Kim, was the baby’s father.

According to reports, Netchanok Nokyungtong, 20, told police she had been in a relationship with the South Korean man for two years, but after she became pregnant he urged her to abort the baby and then returned to Korea.

The woman gave birth in her flat, put the baby in a bag and threw it out of the 17th-floor window of her flat in Pattaya, a resort city.

Speaking to local paper the Chiangrai Times, Colonel Apichai Khemphet, head of Pattaya Police, said, “Miss Netchanok Nokyungtong gave birth in a bathroom where blood was found on the floor.She said she was shocked and not ready for the birth.

“The boyfriend is a married foreigner from South Korea who did not want to stay with her. She was heartbroken because he returned to his family.”   [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

OPINION: "Trump’s speech … will be remembered as the best speech a U.S. president gave" in Korea https://t.co/KGpThaT4P7

— KoreaJoongAngDaily (@JoongAngDaily) November 12, 2017