Shown in the picture released on Oct. 3, 2015, is a comparsion of satellite photos of the North Korean town of Rason along the border with China and Russia, taken on September 2013 (top) and 2015. (Google/Yonhap)

UPDATE:

https://twitter.com/CurtisMelvin/status/650825007451533312

The Chinese have indicated that they will attend the 70th Anniversary of the Workers’ Party celebration in North Korea which leads me to believe the the Chinese government must have convinced the Kim regime to not begin another provocation cycle:

North Korea is likely to go for an ostentatious military parade for the celebration of the ruling party’s founding anniversary later this month, instead of a much-trumpeted launch of long-range missile, according to officials on Friday.

North Korea is expected to celebrate the landmark 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Oct. 10 with unusual events to show off its military might as the country has often done on major occasions.

Launch of a long-range missile has been the most speculated event, but officials said North Korea has so far not shown any signs of preparations for the launch before the anniversary date.

Instead, the country is putting together a military parade at an airfield in Pyongyang, which may involve new types of weapons.

“Various equipment and troops like combat jets, artillery equipment and missiles have been deployed to the Mirim Airport in Pyongyang. The North is preparing a parade event in commemoration of the party foundation,” a government official said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

The Sunshiners are back and they just cannot bring themselves to admit that they wrong.  All the Sunshine Policy did was keep one of the world’s worst governments in power with money and food aid that in turn was used to develop ballistic missiles and a nuclear program that are now a threat to the rest of the world:

At symposium, participants argue that if conciliatory policies had been continued, inter-Korean relations wouldn’t have deteriorated

At an academic conference to mark the eighth anniversary of the October 4 North-South Declaration, several voices called for a restoration of the Sunshine Policy and other initiatives to improve inter-Korean relations. On Oct. 2, the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, Korea Peace Forum and Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs) co-hosted an international symposium for the eighth anniversary of the October 4 declaration at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in central Seoul.

At the symposium, James Hoare, a Chatham House fellow who was charge d’affaires and HM Consul-General at the British Embassy in Pyongyang, said that what South and North need right now is a return to the Sunshine Policy initiatives enacted by Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun from 1997 to 2007. He added that if Lee Myung-bak had continued such initiatives instead of abandoning the October 4 Declaration, it would have helped inter-Korean relations immensely.　Moon Jae-in, leader of the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, claimed that if the initiatives of the October 4 declaration had continued, the lives of 70 million people would now be “brimming with hope and prosperity,” while the Korean Peninsula “reached out to the international community as a whole.” “The past eight years of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, however, have thrown inter-Korean relations back to the dark ages,” he added, adding that if measures such as the special zone of peace and cooperation in the West (Yellow) Sea and economic reunification had been properly implemented, the nation could have focused its efforts on conquering problems like stagnant growth, the decline of the middle class, and youth unemployment. The October 4 declaration included agreements to establish a “special zone of peace and cooperation” in the West Sea, including the city of Haeju and the surrounding maritime region, as well as the launch of joint fishing areas and peace districts.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link.

It must be nice being an ex-President and traveling in style:

Former U.S. President George W. Bush will be the last passenger of a private jet the Samsung Group plans to sell off to Korean Air later this month.

Samsung bought the jet for its chairman Lee Kun-hee, but he has been in a coma since last May.

Industry sources on Wednesday said Bush will use the jet when he visits Korea next Tuesday for the opening of the 2015 Presidents Cup golf tournament.

The tournament, which pits U.S. and other international male pro golfers against each other, opens in Incheon on Oct. 8.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

https://twitter.com/freekorea_us/status/649907352817266689

In this photo taken on Oct. 1, 2015, a monument to the 1943 Cairo Declaration on Japan’s unconditional surrender and Korea’s independence stands at the Mena House Hotel in the Egyptian capital after it was unveiled during a ceremony, organized by the South Korean Embassy there. The monument has a central part of the declaration, issued by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek, inscribed that reads, “Korea shall become free and independent.” The embassy held the event to mark the 20th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between South Korea and Egypt, and the 70th anniversary of Korea’s independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. It also turned a spotlight on the declaration’s historic value. (Yonhap)

This just goes to show how important B-52’s based out of Guam are to supporting deterrence on the Korean peninsula:

The U.S. Pacific forces commander requested that an additional six B-52 bombers remain on Guam in August when military tensions were running high on the Korean Peninsula, according to a U.S. military commander.

Gen. Robin Rand, commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command, revealed the request during a House Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday, explaining the roles the U.S. strategic bombers play in defending the country and its allies.

“Most recently, in North Korea, when there was a flareup back in August, we had our six B-52s that have been on a continuous bomber presence at Guam for the last decade nonstop, and we are in the middle of a swapout. Six were going in to replace the six that were there,” Rand said.

“And the PACOM commander immediately contacted the Joint Staff and Air Force Global Strike and said, ‘Could we leave those six additional B-52s longer? We really like the presence,'” he said, referring to Pacific Command commander Adm. Harry Harris.

Rand did not say whether the request was accepted and the additional six bombers had remained there.

In another example, the general also said that in 2013, B-52s and B-2s flew nonstop to South Korea and dropped training ordnance on a bombing range as a show of force against North Korea when the communist nation ratcheted up tensions with near-daily threats of war against the South and the U.S.  [Yonhap]

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

Analysis: International service unlikely to N. Korea’s new Wonsan Int’l Airport – https://t.co/qurUTOHqTk

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) October 1, 2015

South Korean singer Ailee poses for a photo during a publicity event in Seoul on Sept. 30, 2015, to promote her first album “Vivid.” (Yonhap)