I can only imagine the fate that awaits the prior ambassador that was recalled from the UK back to North Korea due to the embarrassing defection:

North Korea has named Choe Il as its new ambassador to Britain, Pyongyang’s state media said Thursday, following the latest defection to South Korea by a top diplomat stationed in London.

Choe has been appointed Pyongyang’s envoy to Britain, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a short dispatch, replacing his predecessor Hyon Hak-bong.

Choe’s background remains largely murky, but a handful of reports and documents that contain his name indicate that his work was associated with the U.S. and the United Nations.

In reports by Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA) in 2009, his name appeared on the list of visitors to the U.S. as vice chairman of the Korea-America Private Exchange Society (KAPES), an organization that liaises with US-based non-governmental groups.

In 2006, he participated in the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) as a researcher of the Institute of Disarmament and Peace. NEACE is a multilateral forum involving high-level policymakers, defense ministry officials, military officers and researchers from the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.

In March 2013, his name again appeared in the list of U.N. diplomats as a councilor of the North Korean mission.

The report came amid speculation that North Korea recalled Hyon to hold him responsible for the defection to Seoul of Thae Yong-ho, a former minister at its embassy in the British capital.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Is there anything Choi Soon-sil is not linked to at this point?:

Did scandal-mired Choi Soon-sil play a role in sinking Hanjin Shipping?

Rumors are rife that the shadowy confidant of President Park Geun-hye was an “invisible hand” blocking creditors’ financial aid to the troubled shipping company.

Pressed by snowballing debts, the nation’s No.1 shipper filed for court receivership in August, triggering chaos in the global maritime cargo transportation network. The company has since been forced to sell its core assets, including vessels that operate on its lucrative Asia-U.S. route, in a desperate effort to stay afloat.

There are allegations that decision-makers in the government and Hanjin’s key creditor, the state-backed Korea Development Bank, were positive about extending a lifeline to Hanjin with a cash injection or other measures until March. But an “invisible hand” cut in and abruptly stopped the process, according to the Joongang Ilbo daily.

The newspaper said Choi, 60, broke the deal because of Hanjin’s “lukewarm support” of two nonprofit foundations she controls. The organizations — Mir and K-Sports — were allegedly set up with tens of billions of won “donated” by Korea’s big companies and Choi siphoned funds from the organizations, like personal ATMs.

According to news reports, Hanjin wired a billion won ($877,500) to the organizations, which was less than the amount from other companies with smaller sales than Hanjin.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but it seems like anything remotely negative that has happened in Korea critics are looking for some way to link Choi to it.

Satellite photos show flood devastation in North Korea: https://t.co/6m0RyTVPdY via @vicenews @keegan_hamilton pic.twitter.com/r9sKOuLIr9

— Sokeel Park (@Sokeel) November 3, 2016

South Korean Army tanks cross a river via a pontoon bridge in Yeoju, about 100 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Nov. 2, 2016, as part of the broader Hoguk combined drill that the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force has carried out since 1996. (Yonhap)

Via a reader tip comes this news of Chinese tourists behaving badly in Jeju again:

Jeju airport is grappling with overflowing garbage from Chinese tourists.

Gates for international flights on the third floor of Jeju International Airport are teeming with rubbish from duty free goods purchased by Chinese tourists, according to Jeju newspaper Jemin Ilbo.

When tourists purchase duty free goods outside the airport, they have to pick them up from a designated area at the departure gate. The problem arises when the tourists rip the wrapping from the items at the gate before boarding, to reduce their size and weight. Then they leave the rubbish on the floor.

Staff from duty free shops and cleaners have asked Chinese tourists to use dumpsters, and even gave them garbage bags. The Korea Airports Corporation in Jeju has also taken action by increasing the number of cleaners at the gate from two to three.

“We will keep reinforcing the sanitation team at the gates for international flights,” an official from the airport told The Korea Times.  [Korea Times via reader tip]

You can read more at the link.

When you go to UC-Berkley I guess everyone is supposed to find something to protest, even if the protest means nothing to the vast majority of Americans; I did get a laugh out of the below sign though:

Korean students at the University of California, Berkeley, are furious at the political scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil.

Thirty Korean students from the U.S. school on Tuesday denounced Park and her administration for not taking full responsibility for the deepening democratic crisis.

They are the first Korean students studying at American universities to hold a protest rally over the scandal.

The students read a statement in Korean and English that said: “As students of Korean heritage, we are furious to find out about the recent political scandal known as ‘Park-Choi Gate.’ To restore democracy in South Korea, we demand President Park, her administration and her party assume full responsibility.

“We are furious. We, as South Koreans, are furious to witness such a collection of criminal events taking place in a democratic country.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I have to wonder if they are concerned about “a collection of criminal events in a democratic country” have they been holding any protests against Hillary Clinton who’s passing of classified information over insecure email may not have been to a Shaman, but is the same issue, which also includes the issue of improper donations to each President’s respective foundations which is also both being investigated.

The Pirates of the Yellow Sea were in action again this week and the ROK Coast Guard decided to use warning shots to disperse them:

South Korea’s Coast Guard said Wednesday it has launched an investigation into two Chinese fishing vessels that were captured with the help of a large gun after the fishing boats illegally operated in the country’s exclusive economic zone earlier this week.

The boats were brought into the western port city of Incheon Wednesday afternoon. They were captured a day earlier in the Yellow Sea after the Coast Guard fired a M60 machine gun in warning.

The authorities said the gun was used to fight off some 30 other fishing boats nearby that interfered in the Coast Guard’s attempt to seize the two vessels, with some even threatening to collide with the patrol boats. No Chinese fishermen were injured and nothing was damaged in the process, according to the authorities.

The decision to use the weapon was made to safeguard the officers who had already boarded the Chinese vessels, and would have been cut off if other Chinese vessels succeeded in ramming the patrol boats that took part in the seizure operations, the Coast Guard said.

The Chinese boats had iron bars installed around the hulls and the gates to the steering house were closed to avoid entry, the authorities said.

The Coast Guard said it will interrogate the two captains and some 20 other crew members from the vessels to find out the details of the illegal fishing. It will also look into their relation with the other boats that got away.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Meanwhile, in North Korea, kids play tug of war with a cardboard cutout of a U.S. soldier wearing a noose around his neck. pic.twitter.com/gurveYus1N

— James Pearson (@pearswick) November 1, 2016

This aerial photo taken on Oct. 27, 2016, shows the golf course in Seongju, 290 kilometers southeast of Seoul, that will host the U.S. missile shield system THAAD, short for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. The golf course, owned by Lotte Group, was chosen as the final host site in late September. (Yonhap)

With the embarrassment of multiple test failures the Kim regime is probably eager to at least get one more successful launch of its Musudan missile conducted:

North Korea is getting ready to launch yet another Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile in the next three days, a U.S. news report said Tuesday.

Fox Business News cited two unidentified U.S. officials “with knowledge of this assessment” as saying that the North is preparing to conduct a launch “in the next 24 to 72 hours.” It said the potential launch would be the ninth test of the Musudan missile this year.

The Department of Defense declined to confirm the report.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.