Oh Young-jin the chief editorial writer at the Korea Times is at it again.  This time he wrote an editorial titled “Ugly Foreigners” that described three cases of road rage in Korea involving foreigners.  For those that don’t know the ROK recently implemented a new law that made road rage incidents like the one described illegal.  The article is actually good information for foreigners living in Korea to know.  However, there was no need to give the editorial that title so to me it seems that Mr. Oh published the title as click bait which has worked.  Now the Korea Times has been flooded with emails accusing Mr. Oh of racism.  Oh has actually had to publish not one, but two editorials defending himself against racism.  What I continue to love about Mr. Oh is not his penchant for click bait articles, but the fact that he continues to use the email address of foolsdie5@ktimes.com.  It seems that if Mr. Oh wants people to take him seriously he might want to start with using a professional email address.

I have been to a lot of different retirement ceremonies involving personnel from all branches of the military.  I have never seen anything even close to what happened at this airmen’s retirement ceremony:

Retired SMSgt. Oscar Rodriguez is known for his moving and patriotic renditions of a specialized script during the folding of Old Glory at various ceremonies and tributes around the Travis Air Force Base community. He’s been performing the script for years at the invitation of honorees and friends.

But when he showed up to provide his famed rendition at the retirement tribute for MSgt. Chuck Roberson, things went terribly wrong. What should have been a dignified moment creating a lasting memory for Roberson, his family, and the Air Force teammates he was bidding farewell turned into a shameful spectacle. When Rodriguez arose to make his remarks, he was approached by uniformed NCOs who demanded that he shut up and sit down. When he refused, three of the men proceeded to lay hands on on Rodriguez and remove him from the ceremony — and indeed the building — through physical force.  [John Q. Public Blog]

You can read more and see the video of the altercation at the link.

Apparently the squadron commander did not want the retired NCO to take part in the flag ceremony because he uses the word “God” in his script.  When retiree stepped up to take part in the flag ceremony that is when the squadron commander sent personnel to physically remove him from the ceremony.  This whole thing is pretty odd because just about every retirement ceremony has the chaplain give an invocation that uses the word “God” so the ceremony already has religious connotations which the squadron was apparently trying to stamp out by denying the retiree from participating in the flag ceremony.

It seems this whole thing could have been better handled all around, but it does make me wonder if the retirement ceremony was taking place in a venue that the retiree paid for, if the commander can unilaterally make a decision on what guests they can kick out?

Fortunately this accidental discharge did not turn into a larger incident with North Korea:

A South Korean machine gun was recently accidentally discharged toward North Korea, the military in Seoul said Tuesday, though it remained unclear where the shots had landed.

A South Korean military official said two shots from a K-6 heavy machine gun were accidentally fired from a guard post (GP) inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the eastern front on Sunday. The official said the misfire happened during maintenance, but no injuries were reported.

On three occasions, South Korea broadcast messages to North Korea that the shots had been accidentally fired.

“The North Korean military didn’t respond to our messages and didn’t show any particular movement,” the South Korean official added. “We don’t believe the shots reached their GP.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Welcome to Korea Finder.  The way this contest works is that each week a new image is posted and the first reader to accurately describe or locate the image gets a point.  At the end of the year the reader with the highest amount of points will win a Korea related book of their choice.

For this week who can tell me where the below statues are located at?:

2016 Korea Finder Leaders Board

1. Comfortable Chairs – 5
2. Smokes – 2, Dd – 2
3. MTB Rider – 1, JoeC – 1, Setnaffa – 1

Fake twitter account of ROK defense minister Han Min-goo sets social media ablaze with Kim Jong Un death rumor https://t.co/bPskWNrslh

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) April 5, 2016

A group of guests, including the chief of naval operations, poses in front of the new submarine Hong Beom-do during its launch ceremony at a Hyundai Heavy Industries dockyard in the country’s southeastern city of Ulsan on April 5, 2016. The 1,800-ton, diesel-electric vessel, armed with torpedoes and guided missiles, can navigate at a maximum speed of 20 knots. (Yonhap)

The ROK really cannot complain about this considering how private organizations continue to send propaganda leaflets and CDs via balloon into North Korea.  The nuisance of dealing with the litter caused by this propaganda war is worth it in my opinion because of the effect the propaganda has within North Korea:

North Korea has sent leaflets and compact discs criticizing President Park Geun-hye and the ruling Saenuri Party to South Korea, police said Wednesday, the latest move in its propaganda campaign.

Police retrieved some 20,000 leaflets and 40 CDs from Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, just northwest of Seoul, at around 5 a.m.

Earlier in the day, dozens of leaflets criticizing South Korea’s military and its joint exercise with the United States were found in central Seoul at around midnight, according to police.

Later on Wednesday, a group of defectors in South Korea sent 300,000 leaflets with messages criticizing the communist regime and 4,000 sheets of local newspapers over the border from Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

The same group had sent another 300,000 leaflets to the North last month.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This incident makes me wonder if there was some poor translation done by somebody within the South Korean governmental bureaucracy that makes these decisions because I don’t see how the blog North Korea Tech violates the country’s National Security Law?:

A British journalist who runs a website that documents North Korean technology issues said Tuesday that he’ll appeal a decision by South Korean authorities to block his site for allegedly violating the country’s National Security Law.

Martyn Williams, whose North Korea Tech website has been blocked for almost two weeks, said the site does not violate the security law, which bans praising, sympathizing or cooperating with North Korea. The website “doesn’t seek to glorify or support North Korea,” he said in an email.

Williams, who is based in San Francisco, has written about issues ranging from cellphone usage in North Korea and its satellite technology, to a little-known computer operating system developed by North Koreans. He said much of the content on his website is based on announcements made by the North and South Korean governments and reports in the media.

The South’s Korea Communications Standards Commission confirmed Tuesday that it decided on March 24 to block the site because it allegedly violated the security law. The censorship body blocks websites deemed illegal or harmful to society, such as pornography, gambling and North Korea’s official outlets.  [Associated Press via reader tip]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest intelligence assessment provided by 38 North using commercial satellite data on when they think North Korea will conduct another nuclear test:

Activities detected at North Korea’s main nuclear complex in Yongbyon are increasing speculation that Pyongyang is preparing to conduct a fifth nuclear test.

Citing satellite images showing exhaust plumes that were uploaded Monday by 38 North ― a U.S. website on North Korea issues ― analysts here said Tuesday that Pyongyang may be taking preparatory steps for another nuclear test.

The analysts predict that the fifth test could be conducted on the occasion of the seventh Workers’ Party Congress, a rare congressional meeting scheduled to take place in May for the first time since 1980.

“North Korean leader Kim Jong-un apparently wants to run a big event to publicize his leadership at the Workers’ Party Congress,” said An Chan-il, head of the World Institute for North Korea Studies. “And it’s possible North Korea could test a nuclear bomb using one of the three materials ― plutonium, uranium or hydrogen.” [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link or over at 38 North.

North Korea is continuing with their propaganda campaign and this time they have released a video depicting rockets landing into Seoul and destroying such iconic buildings as the Blue House, the Ministry of Defense and the War Memorial.  They also have a scene of rockets landing and destroying a 2nd Infantry Division camp, but it is hard to tell which one it is:

North Korea released a video Monday that depicts an attack on South Korean government buildings, including the presidential Blue House. The 88-second video is called “if the ultimatum goes unanswered” and ends with the words “everything will turn into ashes.” Over the past several weeks, the country has repeatedly issued threats against Seoul and Washington, largely in response to annual joint military exercises that began in early March. The Korean People’s Army has issued an “ultimatum” demanding South Korean President Park Geun-Hye apologize for the larger-than-usual war games, which include an operation built to “decapitate” Pyongyang’s leadership, should a full-scale conflict arise. A little more than a week ago, the website released a video showing a nuclear attack on the United States.  [The Daily Beast]

You can watch the full video at this link.