This story from Ft. Bragg is well worth spending a few minutes to read because it is hilarious:

The civilian found living in the barracks of Fort Bragg’s 3rd Special Forces Group was a “con-artist” who had never served in the armed forces, but had enough knowledge of the military to dupe others into believing he was a soldier, according to an investigation obtained by The Fayetteville Observer.

The report does not name the civilian, citing personal privacy, but according to public arrest records that match the circumstances described by the military, the civilian in the barracks was Triston Marquell Chase, 20.

U.S. Army Special Operations Command public affairs officers declined to say what name the civilian was known by to 3rd Group soldiers.

According to the investigative report, the civilian posed as an explosive ordnance disposal specialist for A Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group. He was discovered after a drunken driving arrest on Fort Bragg in December. The civilian — and Chase, according to state court records — has six felony charges from 2014, including identity theft and larceny of a firearm, pending in Harnett County.

In the days following Chase’s arrest, military officials unraveled the story of how he exploited the lack of oversight in the barracks to obtain a room key, access the barracks and live there for months.  [Fayetteville Observer]

This guy must have been quiet the personality considering he had people loaning him their cars, and women regularly stopping by:

The person said he felt sorry for the man and provided him a key to his barracks room on the third floor, according to the investigation.

Investigators learned multiple women had visited the civilian in his barracks room and brought him food. One person told investigators that the man said he never had any money because he used his funds to take care of his family.

Heck this guy was even holding room inspections and holding his own formations!:

The fact-finding soldiers went to the barracks where they saw the man outside with six soldiers standing in formation with no Army combat uniform tops, just brown T-shirts, according to the investigation.

The officer told the man he needed to speak with him. The man said he was busy because “my supervisor told me to get these guys straight.”  (……..)

The man had become such a staple around the barracks that several soldiers said they had seen him conducting room inspections and assigning rooms to new soldiers, according to the investigation.

Sounds like the Army should get this guy to enlist and serve as the barracks manager.

It looks like New York City has a few less Korean prostitutes today.  I wonder how long this will last?:

Joint federal and local Police authorities cracked down on Korean brothels in New York’s Koreatown. According to the police, many of the women who worked at these brothels came from Korea thru a visa waiver program.

The group that operated these businesses attracted customers through elaborate internet website and operated in 11 different premises by disguising to be lawful spa establishments. The arrested group was found to have more than 70,000 customers in a database.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the Dokdo front:

The Dokdo Foundation on Monday released four maps of Shimane Prefecture produced by Japan after the 1905 treaty that forcibly sealed Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea.

All four maps marked Oki Island, which is located 50 kilometers off the prefecture but not Dokdo.

Japan has claimed that it incorporated the Dokdo Islets into Shimane Prefecture with the prefectural notice of February 22, 1905.

The maps, however, prove that Dokdo was not marked on the maps of the prefecture even after the 1905 notice.

An official at the Dokdo Foundation said that maps showing Dokdo in the jurisdiction of the prefecture have yet to be found, not even in Japan.

Given that the maps were produced by the Japanese government, a leading newspaper and a publisher, the official suspects that the 1905 notice of Shimane Prefecture was never officially issued in Japan and must have been an instrument of propaganda to enhance its claims to Dokdo.   [KBS World Radio]

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/721633900913557504

Actress Go A-ra salutes after being named promotional ambassador for the Air Force in Daejeon on Monday. /Newsis

I would hate to think what would happen in South Korea and especially North Korea if the peninsula was ever hit by a major earthquake because of the amount of buildings that appear would not withstand a strong earthquake:

Domestic earthquake experts have warned that the recent quakes in Japan will likely cause a tremor with a magnitude of five to five-point-five on the Korean Peninsula within several years.

Director Chi Heon-Cheol of the Earthquake Research Center under the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources on Monday presented the projection, citing that Kumamoto Prefecture hit by the recent quakes and the Korean Peninsula are located on the same tectonic plate.

Professor Hong Tae-kyung at the Department of Earth System Sciences at Yonsei University also warned that the peninsula could come under additional pressure if strong earthquakes occur around it. He said that South Korea cannot be certain of safety from quakes.

Hong said that when a strong quake occurs, its aftershocks can continue for five to eight years, increasing the number of quakes.   [KBS World Radio]

Like many things with North Korea who knows if this is true, but I would not be surprised if it was:

North Korea has embarked on a nationwide crackdown on residents who wear Western clothing or have Western hairstyles. This includes wearing jeans and having piercings.

According to Japan’s Asia Press, the country is placing tight controls ahead of its 7th Congress of the Workers’ Party in May. The clampdown is mainly focused on North Hamgyong province and Yanggang province which are close to China.  [IB Times]

And look at this, Kim Jong-un even has his own “brownshirts” to carry out his edicts:

It is believed that ‘inspection units’ comprising teenagers dedicated to Kim, are on the streets looking for those who dare to break the new dress code. “They target supposed capitalist tendencies such as length of skirts, the shape of shoes, T-shirts, hairstyles and clothes,” Rimjin-Gang reported.

The North Korean Youth Union which is made up of volunteers who sign up once they reach 15 years old. They are tasked with preventing “the corruption of public morals.” The volunteers also target unmarried women who carry out business in marketplaces as this is forbidden.

You can read the rest at the link.

Doesn’t the State Department have bigger priorities other than criticizing South Korea for what textbooks its government wants to use in its schools?  What would most Americans think if South Korea released a report criticizing the US for government for its No Child Left Behind and Common Core educational mandates?:

The Park Geun-hye administration’s plan for introducing state-issued history textbooks was singled out as a matter of concern in a US State Department human rights report.Section 2 on “Respect for Civil Liberties” in the department’s “2015 Human Rights Report” published on Apr. 13 included two new references to South Korea’s middle and high school history textbooks in an item on “Freedom of Speech and Press.”“In October the Ministry of Education announced plans to require middle and high schools to use only Korean history books authored by the government-affiliated National Institute of Korean History starting in the 2017 school year,” the report noted in a subsection on “Censorship or Content Restrictions.”

“This would end the right of schools, since 2010, to choose from a range of textbooks approved by the ministry,” the report continued.The textbook issue was mentioned again in another item on “Academic Freedom and Cultural Events” in the section on “Freedom of Speech and Press.”“There were no government restrictions specifically targeting academic freedom or cultural events. However, a government plan to end middle and high schools’ right to choose Korean history textbook [sic] raised concerns about academic freedom,” the report noted.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link.

NHK: 11 killed in latest of series of #KumamotoQuakes. #VOAalert #Japan pic.twitter.com/k1EKZibSXX

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 16, 2016

A farmer plants rice by using a machine in a paddy in Cheorwon, 88 kilometers north of Seoul, on April 15, 2016. The rice planting is the first in the region. (Photo courtesy of Cheorwon county) (Yonhap)