Surgical Strike on North Korea 'Could Have Catastrophic Results' https://t.co/YLI7OgONaY

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) July 10, 2017

A handful of vacationers visit a beach in Sokcho, about 210 kilometers northeast of Seoul, on July 7, 2017, as it opens to the public. (Yonhap)

It is pretty incredible that this guy rapes and assaults a female high school student in South Korea and gets no jail time:

A Korean man who fled the country after raping a minor was repatriated after committing the same crime in Australia, according to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) Thursday.

The rapist, surnamed Hwang, 35, was initially sentenced to 30 months’ jail, suspended for four years, in 2010 for raping and assaulting a female high school student.

But during his probation, police and the prosecutors’ office investigated Hwang for breaking and entering in June 2012.

Sensing his probation would be cancelled, Hwang fled to Australia after a layover in the Philippines in July 2012.

The Korean court sentenced Hwang to an additional eight months in prison in his absence.

But even in Australia, Hwang’s old habits continued.

He was eventually caught and an Australian court sentenced him to nine years in prison on four charges of rape and attempted rape during his stay in New South Wales.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but this is another example of past lenient sentences for sex criminals in South Korea.  These past sentences were so weak that a Korean family had the rape of their son by a Camp Jackson NCO transferred to the US military legal system instead of being tried in a ROK civilian court.  The NCO rapist received a 30 year sentence for his crime while the guy in the above article rapes a high school student and goes free.

One of the worst sentences I have seen is when a 19-year old US Army private was raped by a taxi cab driver that picked her up at Incheon International Airport and he received no jail time because she did not resist enough.

The big take away for Korea watchers from this successful flight test of the THAAD missile defense system is that the threat target was an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) which is the same class of missile as North Korea’s Musudan.  A THAAD battery was deployed to Guam back in 2013 to defend against the Musudan threat to Guam and this flight test validates its capability to defend against this threat:

The United States said on Tuesday it shot down a simulated, incoming intermediate-range ballistic missile similar the ones being developed by countries like North Korea, in a new test of the nation’s defences.

Planned months ago, the U.S. missile defence test over the Pacific Ocean has gained significance after North Korea’s July 4 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile heightened concerns about the threat from Pyongyang.

The test was the first-ever of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system against an incoming IRBM, which experts say is a faster and more difficult target to hit than shorter-range missiles.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency said the IRBM was designed to behave similarly to the kinds of missiles that could threaten the United States.

“The successful demonstration of THAAD against an IRBM-range missile threat bolsters the country’s defensive capability against developing missile threats in North Korea and other countries,” the Missile Defense Agency said in a statement.   [Reuters]

You can read more at the link, but the THAAD system has now had 14 of 14 successful intercepts during flight tests.

Here is what Senior Colonel Zhou Bo from China’s Ministry of National Defense had to say about the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) contact with North Korea:

What sort of relations does the Chinese military have with its North Korean counterparts? Are you in regular contact with them?

No not at all. We have zero contact with them right now.

Why is that the case when China – at least some officials – refer to North Korea as neighbours, sometimes even as a good neighbour? So you have no contact with the military of a close neighbour?

No, currently we do not have any contact or ties with the DPRK militarily. In the past we did, we had a lot of contact and exchanges. I think this reflect a kind of change in our relationship for the reasons known to all.

China and DPRK are definitely neighbors, and we fought a war on Korean soil a long, long time ago. But what I would say is China is right now united with the international community to seriously honour UN resolutions, and we hope we eventually may find a solution to these problems.  [Channel News Asia]

I find it hard to believe they have no contact with North Korea.  So there is no PLA defense attache at the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang?

Only North Korea would feel that a nuclear attack is the correct response to joint military exercise https://t.co/V2ts5jC0qf

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) July 9, 2017

British peace activist Lindis Percy (L) speaks during a protest rally in front of a naval base on the southernmost resort island of Jeju on July 7, 2017. Defying strong opposition from villagers and conservationists, South Korea completed the base in February 2016. (Yonhap)

Bill Maher got away with using the N-word with little consequences which means he can definitely get away with stereotyping Korean-Americans:

Just weeks after he drew widespread criticism for using a racial slur on his HBO program Real Time, Bill Maher once again finds himself on the receiving end of backlash following a recent tweet.

“This N Korean thing is getting tense! I mean, I think it is, I’m on vaca. The ladies at my nail salon are freaking out, that’s what I know!” the comedian wrote on Twitter on Friday afternoon, referencing a recent missile launch by the country.

Following his use of the N-word in June, Maher apologized on-air the following week on Real Time. “I did a bad thing,” Maher said on his show, addressing the backlash he’d received to guest Michael Eric Dyson. “For black folks, that word — I don’t care who you are — it’s caused pain. It doesn’t matter that it was not said in malice, it caused pain, and that’s why I apologized. I’m not that big of an asshole.”

Maher went on to say that he is “just a product of the country, but I don’t want to pretend that this is more of a race thing than a comedian thing. We are trained to get a laugh. This is not the first time I’ve gotten in trouble because that’s what comedians are somehow wired to do. Sometimes we transgress a sensitivity point.”  [Hollywood Reporter]

Via a reader tip comes this story about an Iraq War veteran facing deportation to South Korea:

An Iraq war veteran who grew up in Portland is being held by federal immigration agents in a Tacoma detention center and could be deported to South Korea.

Chong Hwan Kim, 41, has lived in Portland since his family immigrated with documentation when he was 5, his friends said.

But federal immigration authorities say Kim was arrested because of criminal convictions.

Immigration authorities detained Kim on April 5 because of a recent first-degree arson felony conviction, said Rose Riley, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman. Kim later told friends that agents arrested him after he got a call telling him to come downtown to discuss his probation.

But Kim’s friends argue it’s wrong to deport a man who grew up in and went to war for the United States. Jordan Meyers, who met Kim through a Department of Veterans Affairs support group, worries what will happen to his friend if he is sent to South Korea, where he does not speak the language and has no family.

“He came to our country legally. … He fought for our country. He bled with us,” Meyers said. “Does that not earn for him the right to live here?”  [Oregon Live]

You can read more at the link, but serving in the National Guard does not give someone a right to have citizenship.  Part of being applying to be a citizen is to not have a criminal history.  Kim has an extensive criminal history.  On top of that Kim received a general discharge under honorable conditions from the National Guard so he clearly got in trouble during his time serving to not get an honorable discharge.

He could have applied to be a citizen a long time ago if he came to the US with a valid Green Card, but I am willing to bet his criminal history is what has been preventing it from happening.  Based on what I have read it seems Kim has earned his deportation and I recommend he begin brushing up on his Korean.

Courtesy the Wall Street Journal… pic.twitter.com/Diauhi7EV1

— Jodi (@jodi_katherine) July 8, 2017