A bunch of 2nd Infantry Division soldiers have apparently made themselves eligible for Army downsizing after being punished for the brawl they were part of at the UN Club in Itaewon:

The Army has punished nine soldiers for a brawl in Seoul’s Itaewon entertainment district, a 2nd Infantry Division spokesman said Tuesday.

 

Video that has been circulating on social media since shortly after the January fight shows a group of foreigners brawling in the street in front of the UN Club, a nightspot popular with U.S. troops that’s a few minutes’ walk from Yongsan Garrison, headquarters of 8th Army and U.S. Forces Korea.

 

The brawl involved both men and women trading punches and wrestling on the ground, oblivious to the efforts of a lone, bespectacled South Korean police officer to bring the situation under control with a glowing-red traffic wand.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but here is the Youtube video of the brawl, what disgrace:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEtOGx1PDSc

Over the weekend USFK had a change of command with General Vincent Brooks taking over for General Scaparrotti.  Being the prior US Army Pacific Commander he should be well familiar with all North Korea issues so I expect this should be an easy transition for USFK:

Gen. Vincent Brooks warned of rising challenges as he took the helm of U.S. Forces in Korea on Saturday, while North Korea reportedly called joint military exercises in the South “tantamount to an open declaration of war.”

 

In a ceremony at U.S. Army Garrison-Yongsan’s Knight Field, Brooks took over from Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who will become the next commander of U.S. European Command and supreme allied commander for NATO forces.

 

The change of command came as the U.S. and its ally South Korea face unprecedented threats from the North, which staged its fourth nuclear test in January, followed by a long-range rocket launch that prompted harsh new U.N. sanctions.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

When dealing with the Middle East actions speak louder than words and so far there has been no action on Iran’s part to support their recent rhetoric:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suggested Monday that his country is opposed to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, a move that underscores growing pressure on the communist country.

“We cheer for peace on the Korean Peninsula and we are, in principle, opposed to any nuclear development,” Rouhani said through a translator in a joint news conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye after their summit in Tehran.

“Our basic position is that nuclear weapons should be removed from the Korean Peninsula and the Middle East.”

Rouhani’s comments are the latest act of international pressure being exerted on North Korea to give up its nuclear program and end its provocations.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Yonhap: #DPRK made false claim about Apr. 23 SLBM launch. #ROK gov’t sources say missile likely exploded in the air. pic.twitter.com/MKReNW8qFa

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) May 1, 2016

Image via KBS World Radio. 

What strikes out at me in regards to President Park’s visit to Iran is that she is wearing a veil.  What made this jump out at me was that I remembered that she did not wear a veil when she visited Saudi Arabia last year:

President Park Geun-hye (left) meets with Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the king of Saudi Arabia, during a bilateral summit. They discuss ways to strengthen bilateral relations across a range of sectors. [Korea.net]

She is not only wearing a veil, but one that is covering not only her hair, but her entire neck.  According to this Korea Times article President Park was trying to show respect for Iranian customs and culture.  How about the Iranian government show respect to her and understand she is a head of state of one of the world’s great country’s and should not be subjugated to Iranian customs.  If Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ever visits South Korea does anyone think we will see them dressed up in a hanbok in respect to Korean culture?

This is actually a legitimate concern that the ROK government should have considering North Korea’s long history of kidnapping foreign nationals:

South Korea warned on Monday there is a risk of its citizens being abducted by Pyongyang in retaliation for the defection of a dozen North Korean staff at a restaurant in China.

Twelve women working at the restaurant in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo defected to the South with their manager last month.

Seoul said they came voluntarily while the North insists they were tricked into defecting by South Korean spies who effectively “kidnapped” them.

The South’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korea affairs, said overseas missions had been advised to heighten their vigilance.

“We are closely watching out for multiple possibilities, including abduction or terrorism … by the North,” said ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-Hee.

“We are trying to ensure the safety of our nationals,” he told reporters.

Seoul’s Hankook Ilbo daily reported Monday that Pyongyang was plotting to abduct South Koreans to trade for the 13 defectors.

“They set the target of 120 people including expats, soldiers and officials,” the newspaper said, citing an official source familiar with North Korean affairs.  [AFP]

You can read more at the link, but if they were going to attempt to kidnap Koreans the easiest place to do it would be in China.  Another country to be careful in would be in Japan considering how North Korea’s has kidnapped so many people before from that country as well.

Maybe while President Park is in Tehran she can tell the ayatollahs to stop selling missile and nuclear technology that is being used to threaten the existence of her country:

South Korean President Park Geun-hye left for Tehran on Sunday on a historic trip meant to boost political and economic relations between the two countries.

Park is set to meet with her Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, on Monday in the first meeting between the leaders of the two countries since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations in 1962.

The summit will set the tone for relations at a time when the Islamic Republic has emerged as a promising market following the lifting of international sanctions earlier this year.

“We expect the trip to serve as an occasion to take a new leap forward in bilateral ties, which have been stalled due to the international sanctions,” said Kim Kyou-hyun, a senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs.

The U.N. has lifted sanctions on Iran in a follow-up to a nuclear deal reached with the United States and five world powers over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

For anyone wondering how the regime continues to supply itself with military components despite the UN’s shipping sanctions and China’s apparent motivation to actually enforce them, this may be the answer:

Among the North Korea-linked ships still on the U.N. blacklist, some are making fresh maneuvers that appear aimed at camouflaging their identities. The North Korean vessel the Dawnlight, which the U.S. has designated since last year, was flagged to Mongolia. In January it was renamed the Firstgleam and acquired by Sinotug Shipping Limited, a company set up just this past September in the Marshall Islands.

 

The U.N., having apparently missed the update, blacklisted this ship on March 2 under its old name of Dawnlight. A day later, despite a provision calling for member states to deflag North Korean ships, the Firstgleam was reflagged to Tanzania, according to Lloyds. As of this week, the ship, which the U.N. and U.S.-sanctions lists still refer to as the Mongolia-flagged Dawnlight, was signaling a position close to Japan. [Wall Street Journal]

One Free Korea has a really good read over at his site on this topic.  It seems to me that the shipping sanctions are working to an extent, but they need to be tightened to ensure military components are not getting into North Korea to assist their missile and nuclear programs.

https://twitter.com/freekorea_us/status/726788397088530432

A crowd of protesters rally for improvements in South Korean labor law in a public demonstration organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the country’s second-largest umbrella union, in downtown Seoul on May 1, 2016. (Yonhap)