It will be interesting to see if the USS Ronald Reagan crosses the Northern Limit Line in the East Sea during this upcoming training mission:

The United States is expected to send the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), a forward-deployed aircraft carrier, to waters near the Korean Peninsula this month for a combined exercise with South Korea’s Navy, a defense official here said Sunday.

“We are in consultations (with the U.S.) on a plan for the aircraft strike group led by the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan to operate in the East Sea around Oct. 15,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The Reagan will likely be accompanied by several other warships belonging to the strike group, such as an Aegis destroyer, a guided-missile cruiser and a nuclear-powered submarine.

The two sides plan to conduct joint drills to detect, track and intercept the North’s ballistic missiles in addition to anti-submarine warfare training, according to the official.

A U.S Forces Korea (USFK) official said no date of the Reagan’s arrival has been fixed yet.

“It’s likely to hold the combined training around Oct. 20. The exact schedule has not been set, depending on the conditions. And then it will likely make a port call in Busan,” he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It seems like every month now there is at least one North Korean provocation so why would October be any different?:

North Korea could carry out provocative acts in October when the country marks the anniversaries of its party’s foundation and a former ruler’s ascent to power, and China opens a key party meeting, experts said Sunday.

North Korea has used important national occasions as pretexts for military provocations and a show of force.

South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae has recently raised the possibility that North Korea may launch a provocation on Oct. 10, the 72nd founding anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but in the article there is speculation that the Kim regime could use October 4th as a date to launch a missile because it is the 10-year anniversary of when former President Roh Moo-hyun met with Kim Jong-il in North Korea.  The current ROK President Moon Jae-in was Roh’s chief of staff at the time.  If Kim Jong-un really wants to make a point to President Moon that reconciliation is not going to happen on the South’s terms then a provocation on that date would be a way of doing that.

Italy becomes fifth country to expel North Korean ambassador, as U.S. urges governments to isolate Pyongyang https://t.co/KYVg6jTUf5 pic.twitter.com/btaH4FvIsY

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) October 1, 2017

This photo, taken on Sept. 29, 2017, shows PyeongChang Olympic Stadium, the stage for the upcoming opening and closing ceremonies for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, in PyeongChang, 180 kilometers east of Seoul. PyeongChang’s organizing committee said the 35,000-seat venue will be finished the following day, 22 months after the start of its construction. (Yonhap)

I am really not surprised by this at all considering how littering still does not seem to have much social stigma attach to it yet in Korea:

The crowd at the 2017 Seoul International Fireworks Festival on Saturday were treated to breathtaking blooms of fire-flowers, as they are called in Korean.

Teams representing the US, Italy and Korea took turns showing their best-coordinated fireworks.

Unfortunately, as events like this attract large crowds, the following morning showed the not-so-beautiful side to the show.

In the area street cleaners faced mounds of garbage haphazardly thrown away by the 1 million-strong crowd that attended the event.

In order to prevent this, Hanwha, who organized the event, had precautionary measures in place on the night of the event; plastic refuse bags were handed out and warnings were issued to only dispose of waste at designated zones. However, it seems the effort largely went ignored.  [Korea Herald]

It seems many people’s attitude is why walk over to a garbage can when I can just throw it on the ground for someone else to pick up after me.

Here is yet another example of a freeze deal being circulated around Washington, D.C.

My first question is what would the US give up to get North Korea to freeze their nuclear weapons for 26 months?  They are not going to freeze their nuclear weapons program out of the goodness of their hearts.  Additionally this does nothing to solve the ICBM issue which is actually more concerning than the nuclear program right now.  Their nuclear weapons cannot be used against the US homeland if they don’t have a reliable delivery system.

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

Russia Sends Troops Near Border With North Korea and China https://t.co/ksAJnvNIjk via @epochtimes

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) September 28, 2017

Soldiers from the Army’s Special Warfare Command show off their martial arts skills during a ceremony at the Korean Navy 2nd Fleet in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers southwest of Seoul, on Sept. 28, 2017, to celebrate the 69th Armed Forces Day. (Yonhap)

This is not surprising to me, the only thing surprising is that the US Secretary of State is admitting to the talks:

The United States is communicating with North Korea as it seeks to encourage the regime to abandon its build up of nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said.

Mr Tillerson made his comments in Beijing after holding talks with Chinese leaders on Saturday amid rising concerns over Pyongyang’s military programme.

Washington is known to have back channels which it uses to help negotiate the release of US citizens who have been held captive in the North.

But Mr Tillerson’s disclosure suggests US officials are also using secret talks to convince Pyongyang to hold official negotiations aimed at easing tensions.  [The Telegraph]

You can read more at the link.