For those that have followed the North-South family reunions before the news that strict controls on what the South Korean families can discuss and the fact that the North Korean relatives are closely monitored should be no surprise:

The Koreans tearfully reuniting this week after being torn apart by war for six decades yearn for details about their loved ones. But with strict rules and constant hovering by North Korean officials, the brief reunions have often ended with deep regrets over questions not asked and future meetings never to come.

Participants from democratic, wealthy South Korea travel with a guidebook warning about what not to say to relatives from impoverished, authoritarian North Korea: nothing about food shortages and economic malaise; nothing that questions the competence of three generations of Kim dictators.

“I just looked at their faces and asked questions like how many family members were still living in the North,” said Jang Choon, 83, who was reunited with his younger brother and sister at the last round of the reunions before this week’s. “We should have been given more time,” said Jang, who still weeps whenever he thinks about the siblings he saw in February of last year but knows he’ll likely never see again.

After the tears and hugs, genuine conversation is often tough, maybe impossible, during the reunions at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort.

Here’s a look at what past participants say happens when the journalists covering the reunions, which end Monday after two three-day rounds, leave and long-lost families from two starkly different countries have time to themselves:  [Associated Press]

You can read the rest at the link.

Here is the latest reason that US servicemembers and their DoD civilian counterparts are at threat of not receiving a paycheck next month:

Congress was poised Tuesday to send an annual defense policy bill to President Barack Obama, setting up a showdown that could leave the Department of Defense without a budget and hundreds of thousands of federal employees facing furloughs.

Obama will have until Halloween to decide whether to make good on his repeated threats to veto the National Defense Authorization Act, which lays out military pay and benefits. This year, the bill also includes an historic reform of the 20-year pension system, hikes in Tricare fees, protections for the A-10 Thunderbolt II and a review of troops carrying personal guns on bases.

A veto could throw the whole defense budget into uncertainty, with Congress scrambling to come up with a new plan by Dec. 11 when the current temporary budget expires. The DOD said troops would not receive paychecks and about 400,000 civilians would be furloughed if defense spending is not resolved by then.

Republicans rallied Tuesday in an effort to paint Obama and his veto threat as an obstacle to defense priorities despite increasingly threats around the world.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but I would be surprised if some last minute deal isn’t worked out because it would seem to be political suicide for anyone that allows this happen.

The popular military site, We Are the Mighty has published a list of the 10 worst armies in the world and on it they claim the North Koreans are the third worst:

On the outside, the North Korean Army looks like its the priority for the Kim regime. In many ways, it is. The border towns of Panmunjom and Kaesong, as well as Nampo (where a series of critical infrastructure dams make a concerted military effort necessary) and DPRK newsreel footage boast tall, strong-looking North Korean troops with new equipment, weapons, jeeps, and full meals. Deeper inside the Hermit Kingdom, however, the Army starts to look a bit thin. Literally. On a 2012 trip to North Korea, the author found most Korean People’s Army (KPA) troops to be weak and used mainly for conscripted labor. It would have been a real surprise if they all had shoes or could walk in a real formation. Most units appeared lightly armed, if armed at all.  [We Are the Mighty]

Just because the North Koreans have mandatory conscription which allows the regime to use the military as free labor does not mean the whole military is horrible.  The North Koreans have a very large special operations force of 180,000 troops which is larger than most militaries in the world.  Just keeping those personnel trained and equipped is enough to meet their defense needs while using the rest of the conscripts for work projects and border security.

Shinzo Abe becomes first Japan PM to board US carrier http://t.co/qFhWXvkEoS

— Erik Slavin (@eslavin_stripes) October 18, 2015

Kegan Schouwenburg, the 29-year-old chief and co-founder of the 3-D printing startup SOLS, gives an interview in the central city of Daejeon on Oct. 19, 2015, on the sidelines of the World Science & Technology Forum, a five-day global meeting of science ministers and experts to discuss ways to achieve sustained economic development and improve the quality of life through technological innovations. SOLS, based in New York, creates shoes and insoles that perfectly fit one’s feet with a combination of 3-D scanning and printing. (Yonhap)

It looks like since the rocket test got squashed for whatever reason the North Koreans are going back to their other popular provocation in their playbook which is a nuclear test:

South Korea’s spy service believes North Korea is preparing for a fourth nuclear test but not in the immediate future, according to South Korean lawmakers who attended a closed-door meeting with agency officials Tuesday.

The office of lawmaker Lee Cheol Woo said the National Intelligence Service made the assessment after monitoring activities at North Korea’s main Nyongbyon nuclear complex.

Lee and another lawmaker, Shin Kyung-min, said the spy agency didn’t say how it obtained the information. Shin said it also didn’t elaborate on what test preparations meant. The spy agency’s public affairs office said it could not confirm the reported assessment.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

Due to the Korean War there are many more families like this one that have remained separated for decades.  It is good they have finally been able to see each other:

The long-awaited reunions of some 530 members of 96 families separated for over six decades following the Korean War (1950-53) kicked off Tuesday at Mount Kumgang in North Korea in a flurry of tears of joy and sorrow over the time together stolen from them.

Lee Sung-kyu, from Changwon in North Chungcheong, was separated from her husband Oh In-se in June 1950 at the outbreak of the war. She was just 19 years old.

Lee was one of 389 South Korean participants eager to reunite with 141 North Koreans at the reunion center on Mount Kumgang at around 3:20 p.m.

Some were anxious over whether they would recognize the faces of a child, spouse, sibling or parent after more than half a century had passed, in the first round of the 20th inter-Korean family reunions that will run until Thursday.

Lee, now 85, was accompanied by her and Oh’s son and daughter-in-law. Her eyes swelled with tears upon seeing her 83-year-old husband in a gray suit, a fedora hat and hearing aids.

Their 65-year-old son Oh Jang-kyun uttered the salutation “Father” for the first time in 65 years.

“I tried to live proud to be your son,” said Oh, who was born during the war and never knew his father in North Korea. “We look alike.”

His father beckoned him, said, “Come nearer,” and stroked his son’s face. It was their first conversation.

Jang-kyun and his wife proceeded to give a deep bow to his father, a sign of respect to elders.

For 37 years, Lee thought her husband was dead and even conducted memorial services for him every year.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the whole thing at the link.

South Korea sends a ship to Japanese naval review for first time since 2002. http://t.co/5EFsFrbemO pic.twitter.com/QGCFScTqgt

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) October 18, 2015

About 3,000 people raise their cups to make a simultaneous toast in a Korea Record Institute record attempt for the largest toast during a beer festival on a street in Seoul’s Sinchon region on Oct. 17, 2015. (Yonhap)

I guess we will see if the Kim regime manufactures a reason to cancel these reunions at the last minute, but it appears these reunions are pretty much set to happen this time:

South Korean families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War gathered at a resort on the country’s east coast Monday to prepare for reunions with their North Korean relatives later this week, officials said.

The first batch of the nearly 400 South Koreans, part of 96 families, stopped in the city of Sokcho on their way to the scenic resort on Mount Kumgang for the reunions with their family members in North Korea from Tuesday to Thursday.

The upcoming event, the first since February 2014, is the result of the deal South and North Korea reached in August to defuse military tension and resume the family reunions.

The second round of the reunions involving some 250 South Koreans, part of 90 families, will be held from Saturday to next Monday at the North Korean resort, which is about a half-hour drive from Sokcho.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.