The ROK must be getting worried about the possibility of a Trump presidency because they are definitely out defending themselves lately in regards to how much they pay in defense costs:

Seoul’s Defense Ministry says that South Korea is making a considerable financial contribution to the U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula.

Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun made the comment during a regular briefing Thursday after U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump hinted at a renegotiation of defense costs with U.S. allies.

Moon said that although it was inappropriate to assess Trump’s remarks at the briefing, Washington acknowledges Seoul’s considerable monetary contribution to shared defense expenses. The spokesman said that U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Mark Lippert also recently made a remark acknowledging this fact.

Regarding signs that North Korea is preparing for a large-scale artillery drill using a replica of the South Korean presidential office on a shooting range near Pyongyang, Moon said that signs pointing to such drills have been continuously detected.

During a major foreign policy speech Wednesday, Trump said that if elected president, he would call for a summit with Asian allies to discuss a rebalancing of financial commitments.  [KBS World Radio]

I would not want to be part of the North Korean engineer team responsible for the production of the Musudan right now.  It is pretty embarrassing for the Kim regime that three of these Musudans have now failed right after launch:

North Korea fired off a second Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) after it failed in its first attempt on Thursday, but this latest launch also seems to have ended in failure, South Korea’s military said.

“North Korea fired off what appears to be another Musudan missile at about 7:26 p.m. in Wonsan, Kangwon Province, but this also ended in failure,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Earlier in the day, the North launched the same type of missile from the vicinity of Wonsan but it is known to have crashed a few seconds later.

The second attempt marks the third time that Pyongyang test fired its intermediate-range ballistic missile in less than two weeks. The first time it tested the missile was on April 15, but that launch ended in what experts called a catastrophic failure.  [Yonhap]

It appears that whatever issues the North Koreans had with their first Musudan launch they have not been able to identify because the missile has reportedly once again blown up shortly after launch.  What is significant about this is that the Musudan is the missile that the North Koreans have developed to specifically target the US territory of Guam and threaten US forces there with a nuclear strike.  As it is now Kim Jong-un might just be happy if his Musudan gets up in the air much less reaching Guam.  These failed tests also calls into question their other road mobile missile technology such as the KN-08 which they claim can target the US mainland with nuclear weapons:

North Korea fired off what appeared to be its Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) early Thursday, but the launch seems to have ended in failure, a military official said.

The missile appears to be the same model that North Korea tried to launch on April 15, according to the insider.

“The missile, presumed to be a Musudan, was fired around 6:40 a.m. from the vicinity of Wonsan, but it appears to have crashed a few seconds later,” the official said.

“It is highly likely that the launch failed. With that in mind, South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed assessment,” he said.

Others said the missile seems to have plunged into the coastal area, and the failed launch was caught by a U.S. surveillance satellite.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Below is a really good read in today’s Korea Herald that I recommend reading in full.  It is about the history of mixed raced children in South Korea fathered by US military servicemembers.  These mixed race kids definitely had a hard life growing up in South Korea.  Of particular interest is the role that Korean brokers played in trafficking women into the sex industry.  It makes me wonder if these were the same brokers who trafficked women to Japanese soldiers during the Japanese colonial period?:

Jang is one of some 40,000 mixed-race Koreans born in South Korea from 1955-1969, many of whom were born to American soldiers who were temporarily stationed here. Many of the Korean women who gave birth to such mixed-race children were those who were trafficked by Korean brokers to work as prostitutes for the U.S. military.

Many fathers simply went back to the U.S. and never returned. Mothers relinquished their children, as many of them had no financial means to raise them, while suffering from severe social stigmatization for being sex workers. Most of the children were adopted into American families. For those who remained in Korea, like Jang, life was filled with a sense of alienation, racist attacks and longing for her birth parent.  (………)

To this day, Kang doesn’t know if her father died that day or simply decided to leave her mother for good. After her father went missing, Kang’s mother had a number of live-in relationships with American soldiers, who supported her financially.

Her mother soon started working as a dancer for the U.S. military, moving from one base to another. Kang lived in almost every Korean city that had active U.S. military bases, including Dongducheon, Osan, Paju, Pyeongtaek and Uijeongbu. During these years, Kang witnessed many teenage daughters of sex workers being trafficked or forced to work as prostitutes by their mothers’ pimps and brokers.

“Those brokers should still be tracked down now and jailed. … It’s not too late,” she said.  [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.

How to get a gig at the [North Korean] Workers' Party Congress (Rodong Sinmun, 27 Apr.) pic.twitter.com/I1hZRqPNDY

— Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) April 27, 2016

Seen here is wreckage retrieved by the South Korean Navy of a turbo pump from a long-range rocket that North Korea launched over South Korean territorial waters on Feb. 7, 2016. South Korea’s defense ministry made it public on April 27, 2016, saying the launch was for a ballistic missile test. The North claimed at that time it launched not a missile, but a satellite. The ministry provided this photo. (Yonhap)

Kim Jong-un has announced the date for his big political convention in an effort to bolster his grip on power in North Korea:

Facing mounting international pressure over its nuclear and missile ambitions, North Korea has set a date for its biggest political convention in decades next week that is expected to bolster young dictator Kim Jong Un’s grip on power.

The ruling Workers’ Party, led by Kim, will open its 7th congress in Pyongyang on May 6, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday.

It will be the first time the congress, the highest-level decision-making party organ, will be held since 1980, when Kim’s late father Kim Jong Il was awarded a slew of top jobs in a confirmation that he was in line to succeed his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung.  (……..)

South Korea’s spy service said Wednesday it expects Kim to use the congress to try to strengthen and prolong his authoritarian leadership. The National Intelligence Service said the convention would handle personnel reshuffles, review state projects and revise party regulations, according to lawmaker Lee Cheol Woo, who attended the private NIS briefing.

Kim has orchestrated a series of high-profile executions, purgings and demotions in what outside analysts say was an attempt to remove potential rivals or show he’s an absolute ruler.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

Here is what President Obama had to say about the current way ahead with North Korea during an interview with CBS News’ Charlie Rose recently.  It appears that the deployment of THAAD is very likely considering the US President is now commenting on upgrading the posture of missile defenses against North Korea:

In regards to North Korea, Mr. Obama described the regime as “a massive challenge.”

“Our first priority is to protect the American people and our allies, the Republic of Korea, Japan, that are vulnerable to the provocative actions that North Korea is engaging in,” Mr. Obama said.

He said North Korea is “erratic enough” and the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, is “irresponsible enough that we don’t want them getting close.”

“But it’s not something that lends itself to an easy solution,” Mr. Obama said. “We could, obviously, destroy North Korea with our arsenals. But aside from the humanitarian costs of that, they are right next door to our vital ally, Republic of Korea.”

Mr. Obama explained how the U.S. has been preparing to fend off threats from North Korea.

“One of the things that we have been doing is spending a lot more time positioning our missile defense systems, so that even as we try to resolve the underlying problem of nuclear development inside of North Korea, we’re also setting up a shield that can at least block the relatively low-level threats that they’re posing right now,” Mr. Obama said.  [CBS News]

You can read more at the link.

Millennials may need drill sgts beyond basic, Army says https://t.co/8e1N4iXGxH via @MichelleTan32 @ArmyTimes

— Oriana Pawlyk (@Oriana0214) April 25, 2016

This is an artist’s rendering of the second passenger terminal under construction at Incheon International Airport, a main gateway to Seoul. Its topping-out ceremony was held on April 26, 2016. With the completion of the new terminal, located right next to the existing one, next year, the airport will be able to handle 72 million passengers and 5.8 million tons of air cargo per year. (Yonhap)