It looks like South Korea is going to see some troops wearing the 82nd Airborne patch starting this summer:

About 400 U.S. troops will deploy to South Korea later this summer to help deter North Korean aggression, the Department of the Army announced Sunday.

The troops with the 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division will make a rotational deployment to the Asian ally, the department said in a statement.

“Our Soldiers and units are skilled, tough and stand ready around the clock to defend America. They are ready … to deter North Korean aggression,” Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps, said in the statement.

Col. Erik Gilbert, commander of the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, said that the squadron is an “exceptionally well-led and highly trained unit with very talented and adaptable troopers, which represent both the last and also the very best of the U.S. Army Kiowa Warrior Squadrons.”

“I know they are ready for any contingency and am confident they will be a superb addition to U.S. Forces assigned to the defense of South Korea, particularly at this time of heightened tensions,” he said.   [Yonhap]

The audit of children not attending school in South Korea has led to yet another murdered child.  For some reason I am dubious that all the blame for the murder of this child goes on to the mother:

Police arrested Sunday a middle-aged man in Cheongju, North Chungcheong who admitted to secretly burying his four-year-old stepdaughter’s body on a mountain five years ago.

A day before, the girl’s 36-year-old mother asphyxiated herself after being questioned about the girl’s disappearance by police. She left a suicide note admitting to killing the girl but not saying how.

The case was the latest discovery of a child murder by an ongoing government campaign to find missing kids, which was sparked by the escape in December of an 11-year-old girl who had been imprisoned in her own house for two years and almost starved.

In Cheongju, the girl’s biological mother, who has only been identified by the surname Han, was unmarried when she gave birth to the girl. In May 2011 she married the man in the case, who is surnamed Ahn and is now 38 years old.

Eight months after the wedding, the girl died at the age of four.

According to Cheongju police, Ahn puts all the blame on his late wife. At a press briefing on Sunday, they say he claims his wife was angry at the daughter’s slow progress in toilet-training.

Allegedly, the mother shoved the girl’s head in a tub filled with water “several times” because she wouldn’t obey her orders.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but I wonder what the results in the US would be if each kid that did not show up for school was investigated like they are doing currently in Korea?

Nice day for some protesting in central Seoul. pic.twitter.com/5L0r1Z5guZ

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) March 19, 2016

Runners race through Gwanghwamun Palace in downtown Seoul in the 2016 Seoul International Marathon on March 20, 2016. (Yonhap)

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

South Korea due to its small size seems like an ideal location for the use of eco-friendly and driverless cars. It will be interesting to see how this technology develops over the next few years:

President Park Geun-hye pledged Friday to support the development of self-driving cars to ensure local carmakers won’t lag behind their global competitors.

Park said South Korea can compete with Google and other foreign rivals in developing driverless cars and eco-friendly vehicles, including electric cars, citing the technological prowess of local carmakers and information and technology companies.

South Korea is the world’s fifth-largest automobile producer and is home to Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate, Kia Motors Corp., the two flagship units of Hyundai Motor Group.

“I think our carmakers won’t lag behind global competition and (will instead) stay ahead of it,” Park said at Hyundai’s assembly plant in Asan, about 100 kilometers south of Seoul. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

For those that enjoy reading Korean War history, below I have consolidated the links to my on going series of Heroes of the Korean War. The Korean War is filled with many great heroes, but due to little public interest in the war, the stories of their heroics has largely gone unnoticed. Here at the ROK Drop the leadership, bravery, and sacrifices of the brave servicemembers who fought in the Korean War does not go unnoticed. I hope through my on going series to educate readers about these heroes.  So take the time and read the stories of these brave men who served so notably during the Korean War:

1950:
Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Smith (USA), Commander 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, Taskforce Smith Battle

Major General William Dean (USA), Commander 24th Infantry Division, Battle of Taejon

Corporal Mitchell Red Cloud Jr. (USA), Squad Leader 2-19 Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, Battle of the Chongchon River

Captain Charles M. Bussey (USA), Commander 77th Engineer Combat Company, Firefight at Yechon

General Tahsin Yazici (Turkey), Commander 1st Turkish Brigade, Battle of Kunu-ri

Ensign Jesse L. Brown (USA), US Navy 32nd Fighter Squadron, Chosin Reservoir

Lieutenant Colonel William W. Harris (USA), Commander 65th Infantry Regiment, Chosin Reservoir

Lieutenant Colonel Russell Blaisdell (USA), Chaplain US Air Force, Operation Kiddy Car Airlift

1951:

Captain Lewis L. Millett (USA), Commander E Co. 27th Infantry Regiment, Battle of Bayonet Hill.

Colonel Paul Freeman (USA), Commander 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, Battle of Chipyong-ni

Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Monclar (France), Commander French Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, Battle of Chipyong-ni

Lieutenant Colonel James P. Carne (UK), Commander Gloucestershire Battalion, Battle of the Imjim x

Lieutenant Colonel J.R. Stone (Canada), Commander Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Battle of the Kapyong

Lieutenant Colonel Dionisio Ojeda (Philippines), Commander Philippines Expeditionary Force To Korea (PEFTOK), Battle of the Yultong

First Sergeant Benjamin Wilson (USA), First Sergeant Company I, 3d Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, Battle of Hell Hill

Private First Class Anthony T. Kaho’ohanohano (USA), 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, Battle of Chup’a-ri

1952:
Brigadier General Haydon Boatner (USA), Commander Geoje POW Camp

Colonel Young-oak Kim (USA), Commander 1-31 Infantry Regiment, First Asian-American Battalion Commander

1953:
Lieutenant Colonel George Koumanakos (Greece), Commander Greek Battalion, Battle of Outpost Harry

Post-Korean War:

Lieutenant General Subayya Kadenera Thimayya (India), Commander of the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission (NNRC), Operation Big Switch

This is what the ROK and everyone else should do to these thug Chinese fishermen who violate territorial waters and then endanger the lives of Coast Guaed personnel responding to their illegal actions:

Buenos Aires (CNN)Argentina’s coast guard says it sank a Chinese fishing vessel that was fishing in a restricted area off the South American country’s coast.

The Argentine Naval Prefecture chased and eventually sank the Lu Yan Yuan Yu 010 vessel after detecting it illegally fishing within the country’s exclusive economic zone, officials said Tuesday.

First, according to a statement from the Argentine coast guard, warning shots were fired. The Chinese vessel, Argentine authorities said, responded by turning off its lights and deliberately trying to crash.

“On distinct occasions, the offending boat realized maneuvers aimed at colliding with the coast guard, putting not only its own crew at risk, but also the personnel of the coast guard,” the statement said.  [CNN]

You can read more at the link. 

A U.S. Army Stryker armored personnel carrier (L) and a South Korean Army K-200 armored vehicle mobilize as soldiers of the two allies take part in a street combat drill at the Rodriguez complex in the city of Pocheon, northeast of Seoul, on March 15, 2016. (Yonhap) (END)

Here we go again, hopefully the hotel has security cameras that caught exactly what happened in the hotel lobby:

(CNN)A U.S. serviceman has been arrested in the southern Japanese prefecture of Okinawa on suspicion of raping a Japanese tourist, local police have confirmed to CNN. The alleged attack took place in the serviceman’s hotel room in Naha, the prefectural capital.

The man, identified by Okinawan police as 24-year old Navy sailor Justin Castellanos, stationed at Camp Schwab in Okinawa, allegedly took the victim, a 40-year-old woman from the Japanese prefecture of Kyushu, to his room after finding her asleep, drunk, in the hotel’s lobby before raping her. [CNN]

You can read the rest at the link but it does bother me how the media names the accused sailor in the article before he even goes to trial.