Personally I kind of like the Korean Presidential system to where it cycles out leaders quicker.  I think leadership changes are a good thing that brings renewed energy and ideas to the Presidency:

South Korean President Park Geun Hye on Monday (Oct 24) called for constitutional reform that could allow future presidents to serve two terms – a sensitive issue for a country tainted by memories of long-term, autocratic rule.

While its Constitution grants enormous power to the executive, South Korea is one of the only economically advanced liberal democracies to restrict the presidency to a single five-year term, with no possibility of re-election.

The limit was set back in 1987 as South Korea transitioned to democracy after decades of military rule, and sought to preempt any return to extended periods of authoritarian control.  [The Strait Times via a reader tip]

You can read the rest at the link, but President Park says that the Constitutional change would not apply to her presidency.  This is definitely a wise move because if she tried to run for reelection the Korean left would be claiming she is trying to begin a dictatorship just like her father Park Chung-hee.  Speaking of dictatorships has there even ever been one in modern times led by a female?

Here is the status of the unofficial talks between the US and North Korea going on in Malaysia:

A North Korean delegation led by its deputy foreign minister held talks with former government officials of the United States here for a second day on Saturday to discuss pending issues such as the North’s nuclear and missile tests.

The U.S.-North Korea contact, although it is informal or unofficial, came after North Korea conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test in September, just eight months after its previous nuke test.

“I came here through Beijing,” the North’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations Jang Il-hun told Yonhap News Agency. As for topics discussed during the dialogue, he said the two sides talked about several “pending issues and each other’s thoughts on them.”

Asked whether there was an offer from the U.S. to stop its nuclear and missile tests, he fell short of clarifying, but said, “hopely moving forward.”

North Korea’s vice foreign minister Han Song-ryol was also among the five-member delegation. The four-member U.S. delegation included Robert Gallucci, who negotiated a landmark 1994 nuclear freeze deal with Pyongyang; former U.S. deputy nuclear negotiator Joseph R. DeTrani; and Leon Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in New York.

Sigal told Yonhap News that the two parties mainly discussed the North’s nuclear and missile issues during the informal dialogue.

The North stuck to its stance that it wants to sign a peace treaty with the U.S. before it stops its nuclear and missile programs. But the U.S. reiterated its position that scrapping nuclear programs should be put before anything else, Sigal said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

US remains firm on North Korea nukes, dismisses speculation on talks with Pyongyang: official https://t.co/jVRt6eoAMm

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) October 23, 2016

Wrapped squids are displayed at an outlet in Seoul on Oct. 21, 2016. The squid producer price posted 40,000 won (US$35.21) per 8-kilogram box as of Oct. 21, up 30 percent on-year, due to a sharp drop in catch despite the squid season. Chinese fishermen’s overfishing in the East Sea is the cause of the drop, fisherman said. (Yonhap)

It appears the murder of three Koreans in the Philippines may have been to rob them of the money they had defrauded from people in South Korea:

Police in southern Korea have arrested a suspect in the murder of three Koreans in the Philippines, in a fresh twist to a grisly saga first linked to a spate of vigilante killings.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Thursday said the suspect, surnamed Kim, was arrested in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province.  (…………..)

Police said Kim lived in the Philippines when the murders took place and had been close to the victims. He returned to Korea on Oct. 13, a day after the murders.

Police are also searching for another Korean man in his 30s surnamed Park, who was also close to the victims and is believed to be still in the Philippines.   (……………….)

“The three victims and the suspects did not know each other in Korea but appear to have met in the Philippines,” a police spokesman said. “We have reason to believe that the two suspects committed the crime to get their hands on the victims’ money.” [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Further Reading:

https://www.rokdrop.net/2016/10/three-more-south-koreans-found-murdered-in-the-philippines/

If you have the think that there is a lot of elderly taxi cab drivers in South Korea you would be right:

The advanced age of taxi drivers in Seoul has recently become a hot issue after a number of them breathed their last behind the wheel.

According to the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, 19.5 percent of all taxi drivers in the nation were 65 or older at the end of last year, and in Seoul 51 percent are over 60.

According to a 2013 study by the KTSA, a whopping 73.1 percent of cab drivers over 65 who had driven taxis for more than 25 years were involved in car accidents in the previous three years, compared to only 7.5 percent who had driven taxis for less than five years.

That means elderly drivers are 10 times more likely to get into accidents than younger ones. [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Why human rights play second fiddle to North Korea’s nukes | NK News – Fyodor Tertitskiy https://t.co/qGLc8MAzZY

— Sokeel Park (@Sokeel) October 22, 2016

A Chinese boat carrying the North Korean flag enters the dock of the Korean Coast Guard in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Oct. 18, 2016. The boat was seized by the coast guard the previous day, while catching fish illegally after crossing a western inter-Korean maritime border into the South Korean side. Cash-strapped North Korea has reportedly sold the rights to its western territorial waters to Chinese fishermen. Chinese illegal fishing is a chronic headache to South Korea. (Yonhap)

The KNPA has recently ended a 100 day crackdown on foreigner crime:

Police booked more than 800 foreigners for allegedly committing crimes during a special 100-day crackdown from July 4.

The National Police Agency said Tuesday 803 foreigners involved in 348 cases were booked and 136 were arrested in the period.

By crime type, violent crime (67 percent) led the way, followed by narcotics (24 percent), sexual violence (5 percent) and gambling (4 percent).

For violent crime, 189 cases (80 percent) occurred among foreigners and 83 percent among compatriots. Police said most criminals who assaulted people were drunk. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.