That didn’t take long for LTG McMaster to shakeup the National Security Council and oust Bannon:
Steve Bannon
President Donald Trump reorganized his National Security Council on Wednesday, removing his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, and downgrading the role of his Homeland Security Adviser, Tom Bossert, according to a person familiar with the decision and a regulatory filing.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was given responsibility for setting the agenda for meetings of the NSC or the Homeland Security Council, and was authorized to delegate that authority to Bossert, at his discretion, according to the filing.
Under the move, the national intelligence director, Dan Coats, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, are again “regular attendees” of the NSC’s principals committee. [Bloomberg]
With this missile test being a failure I would be surprised if the Kim regime doesn’t try something else as well to make their point before President Trump’s summit with Chinese premier Xi Jinping:
The Pentagon now assesses the North Korean missile launch Wednesday likely was a failure, Fox News has learned.
The missile did not go as far as intended, officials with knowledge of the latest intelligence reports said. It did not reach Japanese waters and may have “pinwheeled in flight,” according to one official.
What’s more, the missile was an older SCUD — not the advanced land version of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (KN-15), as first assessed by the U.S. Pacific Command last night, a U.S. defense official confirmed. North Korea launched a KN-15 missile in February — as President Trump hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Florida.
A senior administration official told Fox News the launch didn’t represent much of a provocation on North Korea’s part.
In a 23-word statement, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made it clear the administration was moving in a new direction: “North Korea launched yet another intermediate range ballistic missile. The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.” [Fox News]
What I am wondering is if the Koreans can build this entire smart city quicker than it took to build the Camp Humphreys expansion that has been going on for over a decade?:
The Korean public and private sectors will help build a new city in Kuwait. This will be the first time Korea will construct a so-called smart city abroad.
The Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) has signed a contract with Kuwait’s Public Authority for Housing Welfare to lead the project that aims to build a new city called South Saad Al-Abdulla, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on Monday.
The city is about 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of the capital of Kuwait City and is 64.4 square kilometers (15,913 acres), about 300 percent larger than Korea’s Bundang. The Kuwaiti government plans to make it the first city in the Middle East to be both environmentally friendly and smart.
The Korean Transport Ministry said the LH will manage the project and Korean consortium in which Korea’s city planning firms will come up with plans to design the city. Posco A&C and Hyundai Architects & Engineers will be a few of the companies that will join the consortium.
The consortium will be fully organized in 2018 and Monday’s deal will give the group two years to design the city.
The Korean and Kuwaiti governments will analyze the profitability of the project plans submitted by the consortium in 2019 and will decide whether to proceed as early as 2019. The Korean Transport Ministry, however, said that the date of completion for construction is still undecided. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Via a reader tip comes news of this horrible attack that some are now trying to use to further the narrative that Korean men have a misogyny and problem with violently attacking women:
A Korean man attacks a Korean woman with a hammer in LA’s Koreatown district.
The 22-year-old South Korean man in a black T-shirt asked one question of the young woman before bludgeoning her repeatedly with a hammer.
“Are you Korean?”
Much about the random attack last Friday at a Koreatown strip mall remains unclear, but police said Thursday one thing seemed apparent: Jae Won Yang chose his victim because she was Korean, and a woman.
Last week’s attack, in front of a second-floor acupuncture clinic, has reverberated across the Pacific Ocean to rattle nerves and grab headlines in South Korea. The incident set off online debates about whether it was the latest in violent attacks against women in recent years that have triggered soul-searching about misogyny in the Asian nation. [LA Times]
You can read and see the video of the attack at the link.
Here are my thoughts on this, if people want to debate misogyny and violence against women in Korea fine, but don’t twist incidents to prove the point. For example the big incident that has been used recently to “prove” this point was the violent murder of a woman in the Gangnam district of Seoul last year. However, what the activists pushing this narrative do not mention is that the Gangman murderer for years was in and out of mental hospitals and became homeless because his family could no longer handle caring for him due to his mental illness. The guy was certifiably crazy, not a misogynist.
This guy with the hammer attack we don’t know what his motive is yet. Maybe he hates Korean women and decided to just randomly attack one with a hammer. If so then the activists have their case they can champion to prove their point. However, maybe this guy is someone else with a background of mental illness. This statement in the article seems to suggest that:
Kim, who met with Yang after his arrest, said the man was rambling and nonsensical about the motive behind the attack. He does not speak any English, Kim said.
I am sure that as more facts come out this guy’s motive will become more clear, but in the meantime instead making unsubstantiated claims of misogyny lets all hope the victim of this horrible attack is able to make a speedy recovery.
The yellow dust is getting so bad in Korea that in the future everyone may need these air purifiers in their homes as a must have appliance:
The ever-dirtier air in Korea has sparked consumer interest in air purifiers for the home and local electronics companies are cranking out new models, including ones that use the Internet of Things technology.
The number of air purifiers sold last year was one million units compared to 900,000 in 2015 and 500,000 in 2014. In money terms, sales of air purifiers amounted to 1 trillion won ($894.2 million) last year – which may grow to 1.5 trillion won this year, according to industry insiders.
Discount chain E-Mart reported a 60.8 percent increase year on year in air purifier sales between March 1 and 23. Electronics retailers Lotte Hi-Mart said its air purifier sales rose 30 percent year on year from March 1 through 22.
“With the influx of Chinese smog and lack of rain, the number of days with excessive fine dust was particularly high this year,” said Cho Yong-wook, E-Mart’s buyer for electronics. “As a consequence, we’re seeing a sharp increase in customers shopping for air purifiers.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
