Whatever abuse of power he was involved in must not have been that bad considering he wasn’t executed:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has sacked the chief of the country’s spy agency on suspected abuse of power after the ruling party conducted surveillance on the ministry, sources said Friday.

Kim Won-hong, 72, was dismissed from the head of the Ministry of State Security after the party’s audit late last year found his agency had abused its authority, according to the sources familiar with North Korean affairs.

His military rank may have been demoted to lieutenant general from full general, they said.

North Korea’s security ministry has powerful authority as it screens so-called reactionary elements in society, supervises political prisoners’ camps and arrests those who attempt to flee the country.

Known as one of heavyweights in North Korea, Kim became the head of the spy agency in April 2012 after Kim Jong-un took office in late 2011.

He is also known to have spearheaded the move to execute Jang Song-thaek in December 2013, the once-powerful uncle of the North’s young leader.

A local report said that Kim might have been dismissed for abusing his position and on corruption charges, adding there is a slim chance for him to be reinstated.  [Yonhap]

Via a reader tip comes this news about a Korean-American man in South Carolina who accidentally posted a racist help wanted sign at his wife’s restaurant and is now under attack by critics:

A South Carolina restaurant owner which caused outrage after it placed a ‘Help Wanted’ sign in its window along with the message ‘minorities need not apply’ has apologized for her mistake.

Kenny’s Home Cooking in Spartanburg placed the sign in the window seeking more staff, although when diners noticed the message at the bottom they posted photographs on the internet.

The sign had the racist message written in both English and Spanish.

However, the restaurant’s owner, who is Japanese, claimed any offense was unintentional as they purchased the sign on eBay and did not understand the messages at the bottom.

Owner Sook ‘Sue’ Shin told WYFF News: ‘I never ever meant that, so I’m really sorry.’

A friend claimed they mistook the word ‘minorities’ for ‘minors’.

Shin’s husband, who is Korean, purchased the sign on eBay.  [The Daily Mail]

You can read more at the link, but I can easily understand how someone who uses English as a second language can make this mistake.  However, it hasn’t stopped people from expressing their outrage at the owners.  It seems to me the real racists are the ones criticizing this couple for not understanding English better.

The Chinese and the Russians both know the THAAD system is no threat to them, they are just using this as a way to create a wedge in the US-ROK alliance.  With a left wing candidate likely winning the upcoming ROK presidency if the impeachment of President Park is upheld it will be interesting to see what happens with the planned deployment of THAAD:

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that none other than North Korea needs to worry about the planned deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system in South Korea.

Mattis, who arrived in Seoul on his first overseas trip since taking office, made the remark to reporters traveling together with him on the plane, stressing THAAD is a defensive system, according to a transcript provided by the Pentagon.

“There’s only one reason that we even have this under discussion right now, and that is North Korea’s activities,” Mattis said. “THAAD is for defense of our allies’ people, of our troops who are committed to their defense.”

“Were it not for the provocative behavior of North Korea we would have no need for THAAD out here. There’s no other nation that needs to be concerned about THAAD other than North Korea,” he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

There have been many North Korea experts arguing that President Trump should pursue a deal with North Korea to freeze their nuclear and ICBM programs.  One US expert has now called any freeze deal with North Korea a “mirage”:

Most proponents are more careful than Mr. Clapper and refer to a “freeze” rather than a “cap.” A cap suggests U.S. acceptance of North Korea as a nuclear weapons state for the indefinite future. Doing that would destroy U.S. credibility not only with its allies in Seoul and Tokyo but throughout the world as well. It would also undermine the global nuclear nonproliferation regime and signal to Iran that it could violate its own nuclear agreement with impunity.

Most cap proponents understand this and so talk publicly instead about a freeze, arguing that it would just be a steppingstone on the way to elimination. This is disingenuous because they themselves don’t believe Pyongyang will ever give up the nuclear weapons it already has or even fully stop its nuclear development activities under a freeze.

In truth, a freeze now would just be a cap in disguise. The entire international community would also regard it as such, unlike in earlier years when the North’s nuclear capabilities were not as advanced and their elimination was still considered possible.

A negotiated freeze is like a mirage, an illusion that recedes as quickly as one tries to approach it. That applies both to what we would need Pyongyang to do and what Pyongyang would demand of us in return for a freeze.  [The Hill]

You can read more at the link, but the way I look at it is that any freeze deal should not include a peace treaty and only scaling down of US-ROK military exercises plus some lifting of sanctions.  A peace treaty should only be offered in return for the complete dismantlement of their nuclear and ICBM programs which we know they will never do.

The freeze deal should then have strong language in it that any non-compliance by North Korea opens them to a bombing strike to ensure compliance.  Including bombing strike wording then gives the US world opinion on its side if it needs to use force and makes it in the Chinese regime’s interest to ensure their benefactors in Pyongyang comply with the deal.

Catch 'em all https://t.co/4UBYiVmqRd

— South Korea Daily (@SouthKoreaDaily) January 30, 2017

It appears we will not have an answer on whether Denmark will deport Chung Yoo-ra until late February:

A Danish court has allowed the Danish prosecution to keep Choi Soon-sil’s daughter Chung Yoo-ra in custody until February 22nd.

The court in the Danish city of Aalborg made the ruling on Monday, granting the prosecution’s request to extend Chung’s detainment period. She has been at the detention center in Aalborg since her arrest early this month.

Initially, the Danish prosecution was expected to decide by Monday whether or not to repatriate her to South Korea, where she faces a probe by special prosecutors investigating a massive influence-peddling scandal. However, last Friday it requested further materials on Chung’s case from the special prosecutors while seeking the court’s approval to extend her detention.

The Danish prosecution has said it will take some weeks before it finishes the review of the additional documents and reaches a decision on her extradition.   [KBS World Radio]

So far, so good for Defense Secretary Mattis’ visit to South Korea:

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday began his two-day visit to South Korea in his first overseas trip aimed at underscoring the U.S. security commitment to the Asian ally amid growing threats from North Korea.

After landing at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, at 12:30 p.m., Mattis headed to the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) headquarters in Yongsan, Seoul, according to the defense ministry.

Mattis was briefed by USFK Commander Gen. Vincent Brooks on the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, including Seoul-Washington’s joint readiness against North Korean threats that include that it is close to test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, military officials said.

He then met with Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and National Security Office chief Kim Kwan-jin and attended a dinner event hosted by Defense Minister Han Min-koo at a Seoul hotel.

Hwang is currently serving as acting president after President Park Geun-hye was impeached by the National Assembly over a corruption scandal.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but Mattis has reconfirmed the US commitment to deploy the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea despite Chinese objections.

I believe anyone that makes a false rape allegation should face the same punishment as someone convicted of rape.  The woman in this case since the sentence was suspended only has to do 120 hours of community service after making an allegation that could of sent the accused to jail and ruined his life:

A woman has been found guilty of falsely accusing a man of raping her.

On Monday, Ulsan District Court sentenced the woman to eight months’ jail, suspended for two years, and 120 hours of community service.

According to the court, the woman falsely accused a man of raping her when she was drunk last year.

But the court found that the woman had consented to having sexual intercourse.

When her boyfriend found out that she cheated on him, she falsely told police the man had raped her.

“Sexual crimes often have no objective evidence other than the statement of the victims,” the court said in a ruling statement.

“Therefore a false claim can greatly hinder the justice system and needs to be severely punished.”  [Korea Times]

I and others have been saying this for years that the Kim regime would never denuclearize and its seems it is becoming a more popular viewpoint:

The United States should give up on any last-remaining hope that engagement with North Korea could lead to its denuclearization, a U.S. expert told a Senate hearing Tuesday, calling for all-round pressure on Pyongyang to rethink its nuclear pursuit.

Nicholas Eberstadt, a senior analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, made the remark during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, as some experts have stepped up calls for reopening negotiations with Pyongyang to curb its dangerously accelerating nuclear and missile programs.

“At this juncture, as so often in the past, serious people around the world are calling to ‘bring North Korea back to the table’ to try to settle the DPRK nuclear issue. However, seeing the DPRK for what it is, rather than what we would like it to be, should oblige us to recognize two highly unpleasant truths,” Eberstadt said.

“First, the real existing North Korean leadership will never willingly give up their nuclear option. Never. Acquiescing in denuclearization would be tantamount to abandoning the sacred mission of Korean unification: which is to say, disavowing the DPRK’s raison d’etre,” he said.

Therefore, submitting to foreign demands to give up its nuclear weapons could well mean more than humiliation and disgrace for North Korean leadership, and would mean delegitimization and destabilization for the regime as well, the expert said.

“Second, international entreaties —- summitry, conferencing, bargaining, and all the rest —- can never succeed in convincing the DPRK to relinquish its nuclear program. Sovereign governments simply do not trade away their vital national interests,” he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read much more at the link.