Found more North Korea flyers on Mapo Bridge! They keep coming! pic.twitter.com/dFsa5idRNB

— Chad O'Carroll (@chadocl) March 11, 2017

Former President Park Geun-hye’s residence in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, is under inspection by her guards on March 11, 2017, before she returns from Cheong Wa Dae. Park is currently staying in the presidential house despite the Constitutional Court’s decision on Friday to remove her from office over corruption scandal. (Yonhap)

The below article once again uses the term that Japan has not given a “sincere apology” for its transgressions during World War II, but I have yet to see these critics demand that China apologize for their transgressions during the Korean War that killed millions of Koreans and ensured the continued division of the country.  The same Chinese government is now actively trying to economically punish the country for defending itself from the Kim regime the Chinese continue to back.  Despite all of this just one guy can be found protesting outside the Chinese embassy while critics can’t wait to end a security deal with Japan that enhances the ROK’s security:

Calls are expected to mount for reconsideration of former President Park Geun-hye’s controversial policies following her removal from power, Friday.

They include the county’s sex slavery deal with Japan, which has drawn strong protests from victims.

In accordance with the agreement in 2015 to resolve disputes over Tokyo’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, Japan offered 1 billion yen ($8.3 million) to give aid to the surviving victims of wartime sex slavery. But it still has faced strong objections from opposition parties and civic groups, arguing that Tokyo has yet to offer a sincere apology for its wrongdoings conducted during the 1910-1945 colonial rule of Korea.

The country’s leading presidential contenders, including Moon Jae-in from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung, have called for a reassessment of the accord.

The General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Tokyo is one of the Park administration’s key policies that is likely to be reviewed.

The military intelligence-sharing pact — signed in November last year — has stirred up a strong backlash from opposition parties and civic groups, who accused the Park government of pushing for it despite the then growing calls for Park to step aside from all state affairs due to the corruption scandal involving Park and her long-time friend Choi Soon-sil.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

This makes me wonder if this how the Kim regime plans to welcome whoever the next ROK President is, with a nuclear test?:

North Korea is continuing to excavate a tunnel at its nuclear test site, which may support an explosion up to 14 times more powerful than its last test, according to U.S. analysts Saturday.

Satellite imagery of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast shows that substantial tunnel excavation is continuing at the North Portal, where the last four of the five underground nuclear tests by the North were conducted, according to the analysis posted at 38 North, a website run by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

“The continued tunneling under Mt. Mantap via the North Portal has the potential for allowing North Korea to support additional underground nuclear tests of significantly higher explosive yields, perhaps up to 282 kilotons (or just above a quarter of a megaton),” said the article written by analysts Frank Pabian, a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) fellow, and David Coblentz, an earth and environmental science expert at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I am sure the US Secretary of State will have plenty to talk about with his ROK counterparts next week considering all the domestic political and security issues between the two countries:

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is to visit South Korea later this week for meetings with senior government officials to discuss issues of mutual concern including the growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea, officials said Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will stay in South Korea for two days from March 17 during which he will meet with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and other senior government officials.

Tillerson’s talks with Yun will be held on the first day of his stay in Seoul. They are expected to discuss mostly the North’s nuclear threat and cooperation in applying more pressure and sanctions on Pyongyang, according to the officials.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

On behalf of @GloriaSteinem @christineahn @codepink & @WomenCrossDMZ, who could not be reached for comment, I condemn this vile sexism. pic.twitter.com/phh5ONlZWd

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) March 11, 2017

For people who have followed South Korean politics for many years what former President Park was removed from office for is something that past Presidents have arguably done.  How many shady corruption scandals have past ROK Presidents’ family and friends been involved in?  For example Park’s shady friend is no where near as bad as former President Kim Dae-jung’s cash for summit scandal with North Korea.   The ROK Constitutional Court says it has decided to end the bad political customs that have effected Korean politics with their ruling.  I guess we will see if in the future every ROK President is now impeached for corruption scandals involving close friends or relatives:

“The president must exert her powers in respect to the Constitution and laws and her performance of her public duty must be transparently revealed for public evaluation,” Lee said. “But Park completely hid Choi’s intervention in state affairs. Whenever suspicions were raised, she denied and even criticized those raising the questions. Therefore, the checking and monitoring ability of constitutional institutions such as the National Assembly and media failed to function.”
(……..)

The court also announced supplementary opinions regarding Park’s alleged nonfeasance during the Sewol ferry’s sinking, in which 304 passengers died on April 16, 2014 due to a weak government rescue operation. Although the judges agreed that her nonfeasance during the tragedy could not be used as grounds for dismissal, Judges Kim Yi-su and Lee Jin-sung said Park did fail her constitutional duty to faithfully serve as the president and a public servant. Judge Ahn Chang-ho also gave the opinion that the impeachment trial was not an ideological contest, but a matter of protecting the constitutional order, and dismissal was necessary to end bad political customs. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

South Korean marines jump from a military hot-air balloon over the southeastern city of Pohang on March 3, 2017, as they take part in an airdrop drill. (Yonhap)

A true hero of the Korean War Colonel Dean Hess has been honored with a memorial in Jeju:

 South Korea has set up a monument to honor a late U.S. airman for his contributions during the 1950-53 Korean War, the military said Thursday.

The monument was unveiled in a ceremony at the Jeju Aerospace Museum on the country’s southern resort island of Jeju to remember Col. Dean E. Hess, called the “father of war orphans” and trainer of South Korean pilots during the war, the Air Force said in a statement.

The monument honoring Col. Dean E. Hess (Courtesy of the Air Force) (Yonhap)

In December 1950, Col. Hess helped evacuate about 1,000 war orphans from Seoul to the southern island using 15 C-54 transport aircraft operated by the U.S. Air Force. He also helped build a local orphanage for the children who lost their parents, the Air Force said.

Some 200 government and military officials, war veteran pilots and former war orphans paid tribute to the late U.S. airman.

U.S. Forces Korea Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Bergeson and Larry Hess, the eldest son of the late U.S. pilot, also took part in the ceremony, it said.  [Yonhap]

This photo, released by North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper on March 7, 2017, shows four ballistic missiles being fired during a drill at the Hwasong artillery units of the North Korean Army’s Strategic Force. The paper, published by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, said the North’s top leader Kim Jong-un inspected the drill. North Korea on the previous day fired four ballistic missiles from an area near Tongchang-ri in northwest North Korea. They flew as far as 1,000 kilometers before landing within or very close to Japan’s exclusive economic zone. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)