Korea is a country where judges tend to factor in public sentiment when making decisions. That is why you see both the DPK and PPP trying hard to court public opinon against and for Yoon before the court’s impeachment decision:

Police buses surround the Constitutional Court in central Seoul, Wednesday, to prevent violent clashes as a verdict on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment nears. Yonhap

As political gridlock deepens over the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, meaningful policy debate has all but vanished from Korea’s political landscape.

Following Yoon’s sudden release from detention last week ahead of the Constitutional Court’s ruling, both the ruling and opposition parties have escalated their rhetoric, with loud protests now dominating the National Assembly. With the Assembly’s role as a national representative body increasingly sidelined, concerns are mounting that the growing partisan conflict will not only undermine the court’s decision but further destabilize the country, according to experts.

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) said Wednesday that it would not directly confront the opposition’s escalating street protests calling for Yoon’s impeachment.

“If serious issues arise, the PPP will take collective action, just as the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has. However, we will not resort to street protests or hunger strikes to pressure the Constitutional Court, as the DPK is doing. Instead, we will express our stance through official parliamentary channels,” PPP floor leader Kweon Seong-dong told reporters at the National Assembly in Seoul.

However, the conservative party’s decision appears to be driven more by political strategy than policy concerns. The party seems cautious that organizing an official rally could give a platform to the more extreme voices within Yoon’s support base, potentially alienating centrist voters, whose support is already fragile.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If the Korean government changes this regulation will this lead to the Korean leftists to start another mad cow crisis like what happened in 2008?:

The U.S. nationwide cattlemen’s group asked the Trump administration Tuesday to help lift South Korea’s import ban on American beef from cattle aged 30 months or older, noting that similar curbs have been lifted in China, Japan and Taiwan.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) sent its comments to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer as the USTR has requested those comments to “assist in reviewing and identifying unfair trade practices, and initiating all necessary actions to investigate harm from non-reciprocal arrangements.”

The age restriction on U.S. beef was put in place in 2008 amid fears over mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the violent mad cow riots in 2008 has to rank up there as one of the most ridiculous anti-US protests ever in Korea. The 2000 Yongsan Water Dumping Incident protests are probably the only ones more ridiculous than the mad cow riots.

On the surface the claim the six event ACFT causes less injuries than the prior three event APFT may not seem to make sense. More events mean more opportunities to get injured. However, there is a reason why the numbers may be unchanged or less, how easy the ACFT is:

Researchers at the Rand Corp. examined data related to the administration of the test and found that the new one presented a similar or lower injury risk than the previous Army Physical Fitness Test. The Army Combat Fitness Test, launched in 2022, was designed to better prepare troops for the rigors of combat. Another aim was to curb preventable injuries. “More than half of soldiers experienced a new injury in 2021, so success in reducing the risk of injury could have a significant impact on both medical costs and lost workdays,” the report released Monday said.

Stars & Stripes

This statement shows these researchers do not have proper understanding of what is happening with the ACFT and injuries:

The study found that soldiers who failed the test were about 20% more likely to have an injury in the 180-day window following it. Better performance on the test also was associated with reduced risk of injury in that 180-day window, Rand said.

The Soldiers that fail the ACFT which is very easy to pass are usually the ones that immediately go on profile to delay having to take the ACFT again. Repeated failure of the ACFT can lead to being chaptered from the Army. The Soldiers that pass the ACFT tend to not go on profile because they don’t need to avoid taking the ACFT again. The fact the ACFT is so easy to pass is likely why injuries remain the same or are lower compared to the three event APFT.

The injury risk I think is actually very similar because the worst event for a Soldier’s body with the APFT was the situp that led to many back injuries. The Army replaced this injury prone event with another back breaking event, the deadlift. For lower leg injuries I would not be surprised if the sprint drag carry combined with the two mile run doesn’t lead to more lower leg injuries. However, the minimum times are so low on the 2-mile run not much effort has to be put into it to pass. Maybe the little effort put into the run is actually better for preventing leg injuries?

I still remember the good old days when ajummas tent followed units around in the field and now there is an AAFES mobile exchange instead:

U.S. troops arriving here for the annual Freedom Shield exercise have access to snacks, beverages and cold-weather gear, thanks to a mobile field exchange set up for the first time in a decade. The Army and Air Force Exchange Service erected the mobile field exchange, or MFE, on this base south of Seoul as part of the large-scale defense training involving thousands of American and South Korean troops.

“One of our responsibilities is to ensure that the necessities of our airmen, soldiers and Marines supporting this exercise are met,” Air Force Col. Jeff Elliot, commander of Osan’s 51st Mission Support Group, told Stars and Stripes on Thursday. “And with that, we partnered with AAFES to make sure that we could get that quality of life.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Lee Young-su bows while issuing a public apology during a briefing at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul, Monday, after Air Force fighter jets accidentally dropped bombs on residential areas last Thursday. Yonhap

https://x.com/SungYoonLee1/status/1898895841026572732

This is not much of a hunger strike considering the impeachment ruling from the Constitutional Court is imminent any day now:

Some lawmakers of opposition parties on Tuesday launched a hunger strike calling for a verdict by the Constitutional Court to officially remove impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol from office over his failed bid to impose martial law. 

A group of opposition lawmakers, including from the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), the Rebuilding Korea Party and the Progressive Party, went on the hunger strike urging the court swiftly dismiss Yoon, who was released from detention last Saturday.

Yoon’s release came as another court allowed him to stand trial without physical detention, citing some questions about the legality of investigations over his charges.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

My assessment is that this disclosure of a nuclear powered submarine is more for PR purposes than any actual near term military benefits. This technology is very difficult to master and they are likely many years from having a working prototype. However, like with their nuclear program if nothing is done to reign their program in over a 10-15 year period, they will likely eventually have a working nuclear powered submarine:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, third from right, smiles during his visit to a shipyard to inspect nuclear submarine construction in this photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, Saturday. Yonhap

North Korea has publicly unveiled the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine, a weapons system that could pose a serious security threat to South Korea and allies if successfully developed, due to its ability to operate submerged for months.

On Saturday, Pyongyang’s state-run media, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), released photos of leader Kim Jong-un inspecting shipyards focused on constructing warships, including “a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine.”

“Kim stressed the need to make overwhelmingly powerful warships to contain hostile forces’ habitual gunboat diplomacy,” the KCNA reported without disclosing the exact location of the shipyards.

It was the first time that North Korea disclosed the ship’s appearance.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.