Another ordinance round landing outside the limits of Rodriguez Range is the last thing USFK needed to happen at the increasingly controversial firing range.  It will be interesting to see if the investigation results will be released because it would helpful to know if this was human error or a problem with the TOW missile?  Regardless activists will undoubtedly jump on this in their effort to get paid:

The U.S. military has suspended training at the Rodriguez Live Fire Range in South Korea after a stray missile struck a nearby building.

No one was injured in the Wednesday incident, which is under investigation, 8th Army spokesman Col. David Patterson Jr. said Thursday.

The tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided (TOW) anti-tank missile was fired by Marines training at the range, 2nd Infantry Division spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hyde said. It landed 200 meters outside the range boundary in an abandoned building within the Pocheon city limits.

“All operations have been ceased at the range,” Patterson said.

Rodriguez Live Fire Range is a 3,390-acre complex used year-round by both U.S. and South Korean forces. While most of the surrounding area is rural, residents have long voiced complaints over noise, fires and other incidents.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

Here is a look at North Korea’s computer operating system for their Intranet software.  It looks like the NSA will have a very difficult time ever snooping on the North Koreans based on how their Intranet and Red Star software is designed:

North Korea’s homegrown computer operating system mirrors its political one, according to two German researchers who have delved into the code: a go-it-alone approach, a high degree of paranoia and invasive snooping on users.

Their research, the deepest yet into the secretive state’s Red Star OS, illustrates the challenges Pyongyang faces in trying to embrace the benefits of computing and the internet while keeping a tight grip on ideas and culture.

The researchers, Florian Grunow and Niklaus Schiess of German IT security company ERNW GmbH, spoke to Reuters before presenting their findings to the Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg on Sunday, a gathering of hackers and security researchers.

The operating system is not just the pale copy of western ones that many have assumed, they concluded after downloading the software from a website outside North Korea and exploring the code in detail,

“(Late leader) Kim Jong Il said North Korea should develop a system of their own,” said Grunow. “This is what they’ve done.”

North Korea, whose rudimentary intranet system does not connect to the outside internet but allows access to state media and some officially approved websites, has been developing its own operating system for more than a decade.

This latest version, written around 2013, is based on a version of Linux called Fedora and has eschewed the previous version’s Windows XP feel for Apple’s OSX — perhaps a nod to leader Kim Jong Un, who like his father has been photographed near Macs.

But under the hood there’s a lot that’s unique, including its own version of encrypting files. “This is a full blown operation system where they control most of the code,” said Grunow.

This, the researchers say, suggests North Korea wants to avoid any code that might be compromised by intelligence agencies.

“Maybe this is a bit fear-driven,” said Grunow. “They may want to be independent of other operating systems because they fear back doors” which might allow others to spy on them.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link.

200th Overseas Paris Baguette Opens in China – https://t.co/F9qkTlN0Mg

— Korea Noodles (@Korea_Noodles) December 29, 2015

These file photos show Chey Tae-won (L), the head of South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK Group, and his wife Roh Soh-yeong, whom the business tycoon wants to divorce. Chey confessed in a letter released through a local daily on Dec. 29, 2015, that he has been living with another woman and had a daughter with her, now six years old. Chey and Roh had married in 1988, soon after Roh’s father, Roh Tae-woo, took office as president. SK Group-related shares fell on speculation that Chey’s control of the conglomerate may weaken as the couple sort out their financial settlement for the divorce. (Yonhap)

This should be considered unsurprising that the US back the ROK-Japan comfort women deal, but I have yet to see what China’s official response is yet.  It would think it would not be in their interest to reach a deal with Japan because of the domestic propaganda it provides:

Civil society support for the Korea-Japan agreement on resolving the issue of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery will be crucial to the deal’s success, the State Department said Tuesday.

“Everyone will make their own judgments about this agreement. But I do hope, we do hope, as the United States, that others, including here in the U.S., will support this agreement and its full implementation as we do,” State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said at a regular briefing.

“We believe it’s an important gesture that will promote healing and reconciliation and the support of civil society for this settlement will be crucial to its success in the end,” he said.

On Monday, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, reached the agreement that centers on Japan’s admission of responsibility for the wartime crime and plans to pay reparations to the victims. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes the below news that a close aid of Kim Jong-un has died in a car accident.  Considering Kim Jong-il’s recent track record it makes me wonder if this was really an accident or not?  However, the North Korean state media “closest comrade-in-arms and steadfast revolutionary comrade” and he was given a state funeral.  If Kim Jong-un wanted Kim Yang-gon dead maybe he is now doing it in a way that doesn’t bring negative international media attention?  Either that or it really was just a car accident:

 A senior North Korean ruling party official and a top aide to leader Kim Jong Un has died in a car accident, the state news agency reported on Wednesday, in the latest event to hit the close circle of deputies of the country’s leader.

Kim Yang Gon, who was a secretary of the Workers’ Party and the head of its United Front Department, the unit that handles the North’s ties with South Korea, was Kim Jong Un’s “closest comrade, a solid revolutionary partner,” KCNA said.

Kim as the top official managing ties with the South was part of a high-level delegation that held talks in August after the rival states exchanged artillery fire, raising tensions to one of its highest points in recent years.

Those talks produced an agreement that ended the standoff and for the two sides to work to hold more discussions to improve ties.

KCNA said Kim died on Tuesday in an automobile accident at the age of 73. It gave no details of the accident.  [Reuters]

You can read the rest at the link.

Dr. Victor Cha (@vcgiants) outlines the key takeaways of this week's ROK-Japan Comfort Women agreement: https://t.co/sWKgmRojdl

— Andrew NK (@northkoreafront) December 28, 2015

Passengers sit with their feet aligned with heart-shaped stickers on the floor of a subway car on Seoul’s Line No. 3 on Dec. 24, 2015. Seoul Metro, the operator of the subway system, has introduced the stickers in a bid to rid its passengers of the habit of spreading or crossing their legs beyond the confines of their hips and taking up too much space. (Yonhap)

That is the question that Foreign Policy magazine looks at due to a number of left wing publications are claiming it.  For people that have been to third world countries we know this claim is idiotic, but if there is an area that America is reaching third world status it would be in the American media.  The sensationalism and intentionally divisive media environment in the US which just asking this question is an example of is something that belongs in a third world country:

It’s a bombastic question, and usually it’s the domain of the nativist right or the anchorless left. Patrick Buchanan, for example, framed the question in terms of illegal immigration from Latin America:

Thousands of U.S. troops safeguard the border of South Korea. U.S. warships patrol the South China Sea to stand witness to the territorial claims of Asian allies against China. U.S. troops move in and out of the Baltic States to signal our willingness to defend the frontiers of these tiny NATO allies. Yet nothing that happens on these borders imperils America so much as what is happening on our own bleeding border with Mexico. Over three decades, that border has been a causeway into the USA for millions of illegal immigrants who are changing the face of America — to the delight of those who think the country we grew up in was ugly.

And a number of left-of-center publications — Rolling Stone and The Nation — for example, have argued that in terms of social services, infrastructure, and government services, the United States is slipping into third world territory.  [Foreign Policy]

You can read more at the link.

Something to think about the next time you decide to buy seafood:

Radioactive material was discovered at detectable levels in domestic and Russian seafood products, a recent study confirms.The news comes amid growing concerns about radiation contamination in seafood products entering the country since the 2011 disaster at Japan’s Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. In response, environmental groups are calling for more intensive inspections of seafood for radioactivity.The findings were announced on Dec. 23 after a study by three groups: the Institute for Environment & Community Development Studies (IECDS), the Korea Radiation Watch Center, and the Gwangju chapter of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement.

Analysis of 150 samples of mackerel, pollock, cod, kelp, and sea mustard taken from discount stores and markets in Seoul, Busan, and Gwangju between March and November showed the presence of radioactive cesium-137 in eight of them, or 5.3%.Cesium-137 is considered one of the chief examples of a radioactive isotope detected in the process of artificial nuclear fission, with an acceptable standard of 100 becquerels per kilogram.The isotope was found in samples of pollock and cod from Russia and domestic mackerel and kelp at levels of 0.37 to 1.09 becquerels per kilogram.The highest rate of detection was for Russian cod at 13%, followed by Russian pollock at 11.5%, Korean kelp at 7.7%, and Korean mackerel at 3.3%.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read the rest at the link.