It looks a subcontractor was trying to skirt US immigration laws. With ICE strictly enforcing immigration laws companies need to do their due diligence to comply with them:

Nearly 500 people were arrested as part of an immigration raid at a Hyundai Motor battery plant under construction in Georgia as part of a criminal investigation into employment practices at the site, a Homeland Security official said Friday.

The operation Thursday resulted in the arrest of 475 individuals. More than 300 were South Korean nationals, according to an official from the country.

Those arrested had illegally crossed the border, entered through a visa waiver program that prohibited them from working or had overstayed their visas, Steven Schrank, a special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Atlant a, said at a press conference Friday morning.

“This was the largest single site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security investigations,” Schrank said.

Wall Street Journal

You can read more at the link, but instead of getting an H1B visa the workers had B1 visas. These visas are for attending business meetings not construction work. The subcontractor probably got their workers into the U.S. using the B1 visa because H1Bs are more complicated and highly scrutinized since you have to show an American can’t do the work.

What would Korea do if 300 Americans showed up on a wrong visa and began constructing a building in Seoul? They would probably have the same reaction to what is happening in Georgia.

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

In year North Korea has had almost as many Soldiers killed as the U.S. did in 20 years of fighting in Afghanistan:

The spy agency estimated around 2,000 North Korean troops dispatched to Russia for combat in Ukraine were killed, lawmakers said Tuesday.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) shared the assessment during a closed-door briefing to the parliamentary intelligence committee, Reps. Park Sun-won and Lee Seong-kweun told reporters.

The NIS said Pyongyang is planning to additionally send some 6,000 soldiers to Russia in its third batch of troop deployment to aid Moscow’s war with Ukraine, while around 1,000 combat engineers have already arrived in Russia.

The existing troops are stationed in the “rear front as reserve forces,” the agency said, pointing to the possibility of a leadership change among the dispatched troops.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The Wall Street Journal has an article on how the CCP is brainwashing their citizens to believe Communist guerrillas were responsible for defeating Imperial Japan in World War II:

Within China, the party is projecting its war narratives on television and cinema screens. A 10-part documentary, “Victory,” recounted the Communist Party’s “mainstay role” in fighting Japan. One new historical drama depicted how a band of Communist guerrillas in northeastern China, after being routed by Japanese forces, regrouped and fought back.

Promoting the Communists’ “mainstay” role in the resistance will help people understand the party’s “greatness, glory, and correctness,” and “unite the masses more closely around the party center with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core,” Zhu Jiamu, a senior historian at the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote in a recent essay.

Wall Street Journal

You can read more at the link, but the then ruling Chinese Nationalists are the ones that fought Japan throughout the war while the Communists largely hid out in the countryside. The attrition of Chinese Nationalist troops during the war is part of the reason the CCP was able to win the Chinese Civil War following World War II.

If Xi cared about history he would be thanking Nationalists troops, the U.S., and its Pacific allies for defeating Imperial Japan, but we know that will never happen. Maintaining a fictional narrative is more important. As George Orwell once said, he who controls the present controls the past.

It looks like Kim Jong-un could be on the road again after being invited to Russia by Putin:

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to visit Russia again, a Russian report said, as they held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a military parade in Beijing.

The two leaders met at the Diaoyutai state guest house after attending the military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in 1945.

As Putin escorted Kim to his car at the end of the meeting, the North Korean leader told him, “See you soon,” to which Putin replied that he will be “waiting”, urging him to “Please come,” Russia’s Tass news agency reported.

Kim has visited Russia twice so far, in 2019 and 2023, for talks with Putin.

During the talks Kim also thanked Putin for hailing the North’s troops deployed in Russia to aid Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

Putin said he will “never forget” the role of North Korean soldiers who fought “bravely and heroically” in Russia’s front-line region of Kursk in the war against Ukraine.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear Kim Jong-un is projecting strength with his Russian and Chinese allies. This is important for him if he plans to conduct any negotations with South Korea and the United States in the future. He does not want to enter negotiations appearing weak. If anything Kim’s position is probably as strong as it has ever been right now.

How cute the leaders of China, Russia, and North Korea all got to cosplay that their countries defeated Imperial Japan during World War II:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stood shoulder to shoulder with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping at center stage at a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday, marking the first such meeting among leaders of Pyongyang, Moscow and Beijing in 66 years.

The spectacle of Kim standing with Putin and Xi at the viewing gallery of Tiananmen Square marks a major display of their trilateral solidarity in defiance of the West, led by the United States.

Wearing a black business suit and a gold-colored tie, Kim joined Xi and Putin on the center stage at the rostrum for top-level guests as the parade kicked off with elaborate ceremonies at Tiananmen Square — a historic moment showcasing solidarity among China, Russia and North Korea.

Putin was seated on Xi’s right and Kim on his left, with Xi occasionally turning toward Kim to talk, their bodies angled toward each other.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Russia is really the only country of the three that can say it did anything to defeat Imperial Japan. They at least fought the Imperial Japanese during the last days of World War II in Manchuria and North Korea when they had already been largely defeated by the U.S. and its allies.

By the way here is what Trump had to say about the parade:

U.S. President Donald Trump described the parade as Kim, Putin and Xi conspiring against Washington, writing a message on his social media account addressed to Xi: “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States of America.”

The experts in this case are not wrong:

The short answer, analysts say, is no.

South Korea’s multi-layered air defense network, known as the Korea Air and Missile Defense, cannot fully protect the country from a large-scale missile or artillery barrage by North Korea. The system is designed to limit damage, not to guarantee safety.

Overall, an expert judged that if North Korea were to launch multiple types of weapons simultaneously, it would be difficult to block them all with this network alone.

“Even with a multi-layered defense in place, many experts, including myself, believe that the system on its own would struggle to withstand a mixed, simultaneous strike from North Korea,” said Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

Experts also note that the proximity between the two Koreas, with Seoul 40 kilometers away from the Demilitarized Zone, leaves the South with very little reaction time if the North decides to strike. Long-range artillery could strike the capital in minutes, they say.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but the difference between Israel and North Korea is the long range artillery. Israel largely eliminated Hezbollah prior to the confrontation with Iran in order to limit the rocket attacks from Lebanon. During a conflict with North Korea, Seoul could be pummeled with artillery fire which would require an extensive number of C-RAM batteries to intercept which the ROK or the USFK does not have.

Another difference in a battle with North Korea is the volume of missiles fired. Iran due to its distance from Israel had limited number of launchers to fire longer range missiles. Due to how close South Korea is, North Korea can use short and medium range ballistic missile launchers to target South Korea. Both the ROK and USFK have missile defense units to defend against these threats, but the question becomes how many interceptors do they have compared to North Korea’s ballistic missile inventory?