Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan say they plan to donate 99% of their $FB shares to charity https://t.co/MCFsqY8Sff pic.twitter.com/KQOcHssIkH

— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) December 1, 2015

A Navy honor guard marches down a road in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Dec. 2, 2015, part of a parade celebrating the naming of the 1.75 km road as “The MacArthur Road.” The local office of the conservative Korea Freedom Federation both petitioned to name the road beginning from a statue of late U.S. General Douglas MacArthur at the city’s Freedom Park and organized the parade. Around 500 people participated in the parade in honor of the general, who turned the tide of the 1950-53 Korean War by successfully leading the Incheon Landing Operation on Sept. 15, 1950 against invading North Korean forces. (Yonhap)

It seems like every few months we hear a report of the North Koreans getting ready for a nuclear test so no one really knows for sure:

North Korea is believed to be excavating a new tunnel at its nuclear test site located in Punggye-ri, according to a U.S. research center that specializes in North Korea affairs, Wednesday.

The conclusions reached by the center’s analysis have prompted speculation that Pyongyang is preparing for a forth nuclear test.

Citing satellite imagery taken from October to November, 38 North have said that Pyongyang is excavating a new tunnel in a new area of the site in addition to the three others where the repressive state has either conducted nuclear tests or excavated tunnels in the past.

“While there are no indications that a nuclear test is imminent, the new tunnel adds to North Korea’s ability to conduct additional detonations at Punggye-ri in the coming years if it chooses to do so,” said the institute. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

You would think she should just be happy she has refuge in the United States after being part of the Kim regime’s inner circle and would want to keep a low profile:

The US-based aunt of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un filed a defamation suit in South Korea on Wednesday against three defectors from her reclusive homeland.

Ko Yong-Suk, who looked after Kim for years when he was at school in Switzerland, said the three defectors, who escaped the North and settled in South Korea in the 1990s, were guilty of repeatedly “spreading false information” about her and her family.

Ko took asylum in the United States in 1998 with her husband, and the suit was filed on her behalf by her Seoul-based lawyer, Kang Yong-Seok.

The younger sister of Kim’s mother, who died in France in 2004, Ko is seeking a total of 60 million won ($51,900) for remarks the defectors made on South Korean TV talk shows between 2013 and 2014.

Kang said the defamation allegations covered claims that Ko once managed a secret fund for Kim’s late father, Kim Jong-Il, that her father collaborated during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula and that she had plastic surgery after defecting to the US.

“The defectors made groundless remarks without really knowing about her life,” the lawyer told AFP.  [AFP via reader tip]

You can read the rest at the link.

Here is an interesting story about how a Korean train was used in an attempt to rescue US soldiers besieged in the city of Daejon during the Korean War.  Two of the Korean railroad workers from this rescue attempt were honored recently by the US military:

Two train workers who risked their lives in an ill-fated attempt to rescue U.S. troops during the Korean War received honors Tuesday from the Pentagon in Daejeon, South Korea.

Hwang Nam-ho and Hyun Jae-young were posthumously awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service for helping to guide a train carrying about 30 troops through enemy territory on July 19, 1950, in a bid to reach forces cut off by a North Korean advance.

Trapped personnel included Maj. Gen. William Dean, commander of the 24th Infantry Division and an eventual Medal of Honor recipient.

Hwang and Hyun were among the few survivors of the rescue mission, which nevertheless made it to Daejeon on the bullet-riddled train, according to KORAIL, the Korea Railroad Corp.

The train’s lead conductor, Kim Jae Hyun, died from multiple wounds and received the same award from the Pentagon in 2012.

On Tuesday, Hwang’s and Hyun’s relatives accepted the awards on their behalf in front of Patriotic Railroad Square, where statues of the three men stand. U.S. military officials and railroad company representatives were on hand to honor the wartime workers.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

It is was only a matter of time before Powerpoint made its way into tactical vehicles and it appears some of the higher level command Strykers will be the first vehicles outfitted with a Powerpoint capability.  So how long before this spreads to other vehicles?

The Stryker, an eight-wheeled armored vehicle used almost exclusively by the U.S. Army, has had a tumultuous history. But now, according to an Army release, it might have found a new calling as a specially outfitted command vehicle that will give troops inside unprecedented communications capabilities.

Fielded in the early 2000s, the Stryker first saw combat in Iraq and had to be modified after its armor was deemed too thin for some of the lower-tech weapons, such as improvised explosive devices, employed by Iraqi insurgents. Strykers are light armored vehicles and sort-of in between for military transportation: Not quite a tank, and not quite a truck, they are often used to move troops quickly with sufficient defensive armament. Traditionally the Stryker is mounted with either a heavy machine gun, a cannon or sometimes even a 105mm howitzer.

The Army’s Mobile Tactical Communications Network to Enable Mission Command on the Move, which goes by the much shorter acronym MCOTM, is testing a Stryker that replaces its main armament with something much more sinister: PowerPoint.  [Washington Post]

You can read the rest at the link.

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/671301601085255680

Minor opposition Justice Party leader Shim Sang-jung speaks at a debate at the National Assembly on Dec. 1, 2015, while wearing a mask in a message against government moves to ban the covering of faces during protests. After a violent demonstration on Nov. 14, the ruling party has proposed a bill to prohibit protesters from wearing masks to hide their identities. Unionists and civic groups are planning another mass rally for Dec. 5, despite the government disallowing it. (Yonhap)

Here is the latest on South Korea’s efforts to develop a new fighter jet:

The State Department said Tuesday, amid skepticism over the project’s prospects following the U.S.’ refusal to hand over core technologies.

The department has denied export licenses for the four technologies conditionally promised last year to be transferred by U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin, citing its national technology protection policy. The four are critical in crafting integrated systems for an active electronically scanned array radar, electro optical targeting pod, infrared search-and-track and radio frequency jammer.

Instead, the two countries’ defense ministers agreed last October to set up a working group to boost cooperation to facilitate the 18.1 trillion won ($15.55 billion) program, nicknamed KF-X or Boramae. South Korea hopes to unveil its first KF-16-class warplanes by 2025 and deploy 120 units by 2032.

“The U.S. continues to support the Republic of Korea’s defense programs and priorities through the transfer of many of our most sensitive defense technologies. We seek to support the KF-X indigenous fighter program to the maximum extent possible,” department spokesperson Katina Adams told Yonhap News.

“The U.S. government is in discussions with Lockheed Martin to address ROK areas of concern. We will continue to work closely with Lockheed Martin throughout this process to ensure continued support to the KF-X program.”  [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link, but I am sure Lockheed Martin would love to sell South Korea some Joint Strike Fighters instead.

USFK personnel looking to get a phone through a Korean telecom company will no longer receive the same subsidies that Korean consumers receive unless they remain in country at least two years:

The South Korean government has ruled that cellphone subsidies given to thousands of U.S. servicemembers stationed there on short tours were illegal, officials said Tuesday.

The Korean Communications Commission fined LG U Plus 186 million won (about $161,000) for violating the country’s Mobile Distribution Law, which bars handset subsidies for customers committed to anything less than a 24-month contract.

Thousands of U.S. servicemembers in South Korea are stationed there on one-year tours — particularly at bases north of Seoul where 2nd Infantry Division soldiers often serve unaccompanied.

LG U Plus counts about 7,200 U.S. Forces Korea servicemembers, civilians and others as subscribers, according to a KCC official who spoke with Stars and Stripes on Tuesday.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.