This will be a big upgrade to the ROK Army’s combat capabilities if they are able to field these additional K2 tanks which are a pretty impressive piece of military equipment:

South Korea’s military is pushing to field some 100 additional units of the locally built K2 Black Panther tanks to strengthen frontline defense against North Korea, a military official said Thursday.

“The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) submitted the request citing the need for 100 or so more K2 tanks in October and the Ministry of National Defense is carrying out a verification of the demand,” the military official said.

K2 is the South Korean Army’s main battle tank (MBT) and has been produced since 2013. The tank developed in the country has been reaching frontline units starting in 2014, with a total of 206 K2 tanks having been deployed or are in the process of being delivered.

The additional production plan, if accepted, would push up the number of the South Korean military’s fleet to more than 300 tanks. The K2s augment the K1 battle tanks that are in widespread service among the country’s military.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like this so called Kenyan refugee will be having an extended stay in Korea after committing this brutal murder of a PC bang employee:

An African man who has applied for refugee status killed an employee at a PC cafe in Gwangju on Wednesday, and then robbed a customer.

The man, 28, a Kenyan, whose name has not been released, went to the cafe in South Jeolla Province in the morning. He chatted with an employee, a Korean man, 38.

The otherwise empty cafe’s security camera showed the two chatting briefly before going to a washroom in the basement.

The camera then shows the Kenyan returning to the cafe alone.

The man then robbed a male customer, 22, stealing his winter jacket and smartphone, and then fled. The customer reported the theft to police, who later arrested the Kenyan.

Police found the cafe employee dead in the washroom, with a chopstick and spoon jammed in his mouth. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Has Moranbong Band been dissolved? Leader Hyon Song-wol (female, ctr) not in uniform or w/ group at Party Congress. pic.twitter.com/rFlrNmkCAz

— Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) May 10, 2016

A senior student photographs herself and her friends after having their graduation album photos taken at Ewha Womans University in Seoul on May 9, 2016. (Yonhap)

This really isn’t anything surprising that the new USFK commander is signaling to North Korea that he would like to resume dialogue in regards to any armistice issues like has been done in the past:

The new commander of the United States military forces in South Korea said Thursday he expects resumption of talks and coordination with North Korea during his first visit to the frontline region separating the two sides.

The Joint Security Area (JSA), the inter-Korean truce village where South and North Korean soldiers are standing face-to-face, was the choice for Gen. Vincent Brooks’ first field inspection as the top commander of the 28,000-strong U.S. Forces Korea.

“Each time I come back (here), it reminds me of how quickly things can change on the Korean Peninsula and why it is that we must be ready all the time and remain strong,” Brooks, who took command last month, said in front of an observation post inside the JSA. The officer had served in South Korea in the past during his long military career.

“It also reminds me that as we are in the military armistice controlled areas, there’s a need to continue dialogue and coordination (with North Korea),” the general, clad in a combat uniform, noted.

“We look forward to the time that (talks) can resume again,” he said, expressing hopes on talks with the North on the context of the armistice which ended the 1950-53 Korean War. [Yonhap]

Anything that goes beyond Armistice talks would fall within the purview of the State Department which has made it clear that talks will only happen when North Korea is serious about denuclearization.

The North Koreans could be doing a deception operation for all we know to make it appear they are not going to do a nuclear test before actually doing one:

Recent satellite images of North Korea’s nuclear test facility raise doubts that another underground blast is looming, a Washington-based think tank says.

“Despite predictions by the South Korean government that a nuclear test appeared imminent to coincide with [North Korea’s ruling party congress], that gathering is now ended and there are no apparent signs that a detonation will occur in the near future,” said 38 North, a website run by Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies that monitors North Korea activities.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

This is a pretty brutal murder that happened recently in Gwangju where two siblings upset with their father decided to brutally kill him with a screwdriver and knife:

A recent case of parricide in Gwangju, in which a brother and sister allegedly stabbed their father in the heart and neck, has received more than the usual amount of media attention this week because of the day the siblings chose.

A 47-year-old woman and her 43-year-old brother were arrested for allegedly killing their father on Sunday, when the rest of the nation was celebrating Parents’ Day. The victim was 76.

Gwangju police say the siblings have admitted to killing their father on Sunday, but they don’t believe their professed reason.

The suspects have asserted under questioning that they have been deeply upset with their father over the past two decades because of his ill treatment of their mother, who passed away in 2011 after years of suffering from mental and physical illnesses.

The mother was disabled in a car accident in the 1990s and suffered from dementia before she died, the police quoted the siblings as saying.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link as well as over at the Korea Herald.

Curiosity aside, I wouldn't want a North Korea assignment. Don't want to give regime money for limited insight, Potemkin Village stories.

— Erik Slavin (@eslavin_stripes) May 11, 2016

Army Gen. Lee Sun-jin (L), chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, talks with Gen. Vincent Brooks, the new commander of U.S. Forces Korea as they inspect a honor guard during a ceremony at the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command in Seoul on May 10, 2016, to welcome the U.S. military leader, who also heads the command. (Yonhap)

This is ironic coming from a country that since World War II ended has invaded Tibet, tried to destroy South Korea, fought border skirmishes with both India and Vietnam and is currently in the process of bullying their neighbors to take over the entire South China Sea:

China told Japan on Wednesday that Tokyo should not repeat its history of militarism as U.S. President Barack Obama plans to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima later this month.

Obama would become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima since it was hit by an American nuclear bomb in 1945. Along with a second nuclear bombing on Nagasaki, these attacks forced Japan to accept unconditional surrender that ended World War II.

The visit by Obama to Hiroshima will be closely watched by Japan’s neighbors, including South Korea and China, at a time when Japan’s revisionists deny its wartime atrocities, including the sexual enslavement of women by the Japanese Imperial Army.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters that, with Obama’s upcoming visit to Hiroshima, “The Japanese side would show to the world that it will never again travel the path of militarism.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.