Ri Su-yong, a vice chairman of the central committee under North Korea’s ruling Workers Party of Korea, is seen inside a car after arriving at Beijing’s international airport on May 31, 2016, in this photo released by Kyodo News. (Yonhap)

It is going to be really interesting to see what the Chinese reaction is going to be if in fact the UNCLOS ruling in regards to territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea favors the Philippines:

The simmering dispute in the contested South China Sea is about to turn to a boil.

With an international arbitration court ruling on the legality of China’s “nine-dash line” claim to much of the South China Sea set to be handed down in the coming days or weeks, experts say the situation is likely to get a lot more complicated in the months and possibly years ahead.

The case, brought before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at The Hague by the Philippines, is widely expected to end in a ruling favoring Manila, which says that Beijing’s claims violate United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) agreements about territorial seas and exclusive economic zones (EEZ).

While both China and the Philippines are signatories to the treaty, Beijing has refused to participate in the process and vowed to ignore its ruling.

“The PCA is likely to determine that none of the land features at issue are entitled to an EEZ or continental shelf, and that some are not entitled even to a territorial sea,” James Kraska, research director at the Stockton Center for the Study of International Law at the U.S. Naval War College, wrote in late April in a paper posted to the Maritime Awareness Project website.

“The decision will not make China walk back its claims or undo its island building, but it will challenge the country’s notion that the law is the instrument of the strong to control the weak,” Kraska wrote. “Ineffective as they are, international law and the moral authority of a liberal world order pose a central obstacle to Chinese ambitions.”

Another key result of the ruling could see China’s hand forced on the nine-dash line.

Analysts say a large part of China’s strategy in the disputed waters rests on the ambiguity surrounding its claims. Beijing has never clarified exactly what the nine-dash line claim entails, apparently in hopes of maximizing its gains. It has also used its man-made islands in the South China Sea to bolster claims to EEZs of 200 nautical miles (370 km) and territorial seas of 12 nautical miles (22 km).

“The nine-dash line is really what’s at the heart of this case,” said Harry Krejsa, a Research Associate at the Center for a New American Security.

“The court wants to bring as much clarity as possible to the South China Sea disputes while also being strategic about its ability to strengthen international norms over the long run,” Krejsa said.

But a decision in favor of Manila, one nixing the nine-dash line, will undoubtably prompt a furious reaction from Beijing.

“The whole situation is probably going to get worse before it gets better, but strategically, the case for international law and norms are going to get stronger,” Krejsa said.  [Japan Times]

You can read more at the link, but if for example the ruling declares that the Scarborough Shoal is Philippine territory and the Chinese refuse to vacate it what should be the US and United Nations reaction to this?  Economic sanctions?  Is the US government willing to absorb the retaliatory economic impact that would come from China in response to such sanctions?

I don’t advocate for people to commit suicide, but here is a power tip for those that can’t be deterred from doing so, make sure you don’t kill someone else during your attempt.  This is just a horrible story that someone minding his own business, returning home with his family is killed like this:

A depressed college student jumped to his death from the 20th floor of an apartment building in Gokseong County, South Jeolla, and fell on a lauded civil servant, killing him.

The 39-year-old civil servant was walking home from a bus stop with his wife and their 6-year-old boy, police said. The wife was eight months pregnant.

The college student died immediately from a fractured skull, while the victim was transported to a nearby hospital but died about three hours later.

Police identified the student as a 25-year-old college senior who attended school in Gwangju and lived in a different apartment complex nearby. He reportedly jumped from the highest floor of a 20-floor apartment building around 9:50 p.m. Tuesday and left behind his cell phone, backpack and shoes.

In his backpack was a two-page note, part of which read, “I’m a lump of inferiority. My life is trash.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

It appears that another incident involving safety has claimed more lives in South Korea:

Four workers were killed and 10 others were injured Wednesday, when a subway construction site near Seoul collapsed due to what is believed to be an explosion of an oxygen cylinder, police said.

The victims, who were trapped under debris 15 meters underground, were transported to nearby hospitals for treatment, according to authorities.

The accident, which occurred in the city of Namyangju, east of Seoul, around 7:20 a.m., took place when a total of 17 workers were doing welding work.

A witness said there was a huge blast, but the police said they believe explosives were not being used at the time of the collapse.

The number of deaths could increase as some of the injured are in critical condition, the police said.

Police and firefighters said they are investigating the exact cause of the accident.  [Yonhap]

Considering that the article states this group is practicing “hate speech” it looks like it is probably the Zaitokukai group that has been protesting not only North Korea, but also South Korea’s claims to Dokdo and the comfort women issue:

The Japanese city of Kawasaki, where anti-Korean rallies are often held, has refused to allow an anti-Korean organization from using a park to hold a demonstration.

Japan’s Kyodo News reported on Tuesday that the city government decided not to allow an anti-Korean group to hold a protest on Sunday at a park in the city.

The city government’s decision marks the first such case since Japan legislated the antihate speech law aimed at preventing rallies against a specific race or country of origin.

Kyodo reported that the organization held 13 anti-Korean rallies in the city since 2013.

Kawasaki Mayor Norihiko Fukuda said that it is very regrettable that hate speech rallies have been held around the city, adding that the latest decision was made to ensure the safety of citizens who are targeted by unfair and discriminatory words and acts.  [KBS World Radio]

Here is an example of what the Zaitokukai group says during their protests:

But despite their purported political nature, a “significant” number of the demonstrations in reality featured a string of derogatory invective against ethnic minorities, Maeda said.

Prominent examples of vitriolic language favored by the protesters include violent slogans such as “You should all be massacred,” phrases such as “Get the hell out of Japan,” and insults calling Koreans “cockroaches,” according to video analysis of 72 such rallies conducted by the ministry.

In the rallies, participants typically brandish placards and yell epithets while marching on the streets of neighborhoods home to large numbers of ethnic Koreans such as Shin-Okubo in Tokyo and Tsuruhashi in Osaka.

The ministry, meanwhile, attributed a recent drop in the frequency of these rallies to a 2014 Osaka High Court ruling that ordered Zaitokukai to pay about ¥12 million in damages for a series of hateful rallies it organized in front of a Kyoto-based Korean school.

The survey also followed an unprecedented move by the ministry last December to issue an official warning to Zaitokukai to halt its hateful activities.  [Japan Times]

You can read more at the link, but that is pretty provocative to march down Shin-Okubo and say stuff like that.  Whenever I go to Tokyo I usually find a place to stay in Shin-Okubo because it is a fairly cheap to find a place to stay there with one of the Korean owned hotels.

#DPRK vs. #ROK in the air. https://t.co/BH3qXtuCCl

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) May 30, 2016

This photo shows new summer uniforms for South Korean policemen, who will sport them starting June 1, 2016. The new uniform is made of the latest materials and is focused on enhancing reliability and wearability, the National Policy Agency said May 29. The colors of the upper-wear are different for normal police and traffic police, with greenish navy for normal police and ivory white for traffic police. (Yonhap)

This does seem like a really young age to begin studying a foreign language:

Korean mothers have their children start learning English before they turn five on average, an age some admit is probably too early, a survey showed Tuesday.

Yoon’s English School, a company that runs a chain of English language schools across the country, asked 466 members of an online mothers’ community between May 25-29 and found that their children started learning English at an average age of 4.8.

The survey said 24.9 percent started at age 6, 21.7 percent at age 5 and 14.8 percent at age 4. It also said 5.8 percent of the mothers started teaching English to their children, when they were still in the womb.

When asked if the chosen age was appropriate, 68.5 percent said it was, but 28.1 percent thought it was too early. The survey found that the largest group of 21.7 percent said about 8 years old, the age children normally start primary school, is the right time to start English education. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

This most recent failure officially makes North Korea O for 4 for their road mobile Musudan Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) test launches:

North Korea apparently failed with an attempted missile launch Tuesday, the latest in a series of setbacks for a ballistic weapons programme that aspires to threaten the US mainland.

South Korea’s defence ministry detected the dawn launch effort, which Japan condemned as an unacceptable and “provocative” act.

The ministry declined to speculate on the missile type, but military sources cited by local media said it was a powerful, medium-range “Musudan” that has already undergone three failed launches this year.

UN resolutions ban North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology, although it regularly fires short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast.

Tuesday’s effort came with tensions still running high on the divided Korean peninsula following the North’s fourth nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch a month later.

“We believe that it was a failure,” said Jeon Ha-Gyu, spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“As to why and how it failed, we are in the process of analysing that,” Jeon told a press briefing.  [AFP]

You can read more at the link, but the AFP article did not state what happened with the launch.  The South Korean media on the other hand is reporting that the missile once again blew up on the launch pad:

Anchor: North Korea has again sought to fire a ballistic missile but the launch ended in failure. Sources have suggested that the missile exploded at a mobile launch pad immediately after the order for the launch was given. As it marked the fourth failed attempt in a row to launch the ballistic missile, the South Korean military is suspecting an engine defect.
Our Kim Bum-soo reports.

Report: North Korea has test-fired another ballistic missile but the launch ended in failure.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) said that the North Korean military fired a projectile off its east coast near the Wonsan region at around 5:20 a.m on Tuesday.

JCS officials said that the launch was unsuccessful. Other sources suggested the possibility that the missile exploded on its mobile launcher immediately after a fire button was pressed.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link, but the South Korean military believes their is a structural defect with the Russian BM-25 engine they modified for their Musudans.  Also according to the article it is believed that North Korea has 50 Musdudan missiles in their inventory.  At this rate they are going to blow them all up testing them.

What is even more significant about these failures is that their road mobile KN-08 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) could also be considered to be of low capability since it has never been tested.  The KN-08 is North Korea’s main weapon they use to threaten the United States with nuclear destruction.  If they cannot get their road mobile Musudan IRBM technology to work what are the chances that their road mobile ICBM works to threaten the US with?

The ROK has decided that it needs to keep up with the Kims and develop their own SLBM technology:

The South Korean Military is developing submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), a high-ranking military official said.

“On the 3,000-ton Jangbogo-III submarine, which is currently under production, we are installing a vertical launching pad,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. SLBMs are fired undersea and are therefore difficult to detect by radar. He added, “The installation of a vertical launching pad indicates that the SLBM is already under development.” The official also went on to say that the SLBM is being developed under the aegis of the Agency of Defense Development and is expected to be completed by 2020.

The South Korean Navy’s arsenal currently includes the submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM). However, as North Korea’s endeavor to develop SLBM technology has almost reached completion, the need within the South Korean military to initiate a response has become urgent.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I would think this is another military development by the ROK caused by North Korea that China cannot be too happy about considering its potential implications to deter aggressive behavior by the Chinese regime as well.