It looks like whatever team the US military put together for the international military Olympics currently being held in South Korea wasn’t very good:

The K-league football club Sangju Sangmu has defeated the United States 7-0 in its opening match of 2015 CISM World Games Korea, an international sports event for military service members.

Sangmu, the sports division of South Korea’s military, overwhelmed the American team in the first Group A match of football on Wednesday in Moongyeong, North Gyeongsang Province.

Forward Cho Don-gun and midfielder Lee Seung-ki scored two goals each for the host team.

The 2015 CISM World Games officially kick off on Friday and continue until October 11. About 73-hundred soldiers from some 120 countries will participate in the international sports event, which will be held in eight cities and counties.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read the rest at the link.

As we have seen in the past in South Korea, the anti-US activists like to use the environmental card to bash the US military with.  The Japanese government is getting out in front of this issue by getting this agreement in place that allows them to have personnel on US military bases to monitor environmental issues:

The U.S. and Japan signed an accord Monday that will permit Japanese access to U.S. military facilities in Japan for environmental surveys.

The agreement – signed at the Pentagon by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida – supplements the long-standing Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement that allows the United States to maintain military bases in Japan. While this does not officially amend the SOFA, it is the first such bilateral supplement to the agreement since its implementation in 1960, according to a defense official who was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

Kim Jong Un tours new luxury river cruiser in Pyongyang http://t.co/xRyG2Mjcop

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) September 28, 2015

South Korean President Park Geun-hye (R) speaks with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in New York on Sept. 26, 2015. (Yonhap)

I have stated repeatedly that after a North Korean regime collapse that the ROK military should be the ones to secure North Korea not the US military.  Documents like this that advocate for 150,000 US troops in North Korea is why the Chinese government keeps the Kim regime in power.  Does anyone think the Chinese want 150,000 US troops that may potentially be there long term on their northeastern border?  What would people in the US think if 150,000 Chinese just parked themselves in Tijuana?

An additional 150,000 U.S. troops would be necessary to cope with the aftermath in the event of North Korea’s collapse, such as securing the communist nation’s nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, a U.S. think tank said Tuesday.

“North Korea might suddenly collapse — either as a result of war or the failure of its economy and government. After such a collapse, a key U.S. concern would be to find, seize, secure, and remove its WMD, in particular its nuclear weapons,” RAND Corp. said in a report, titled “Building the Army We Will Need.”

“In such an event, the greatest burden would likely fall on U.S. forces to eliminate these weapons … We estimate that a North Korean collapse would require an additional 150,000 U.S. troops over and above the forces already stationed and presumed to be available in the Asia-Pacific region,” it said.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

The subway doors were once considered a good idea to reduce the deaths of people falling in front of oncoming trains, but now have become a safety liability after a subway workers was killed by the doors last month:

The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to replace platform doors at subways with retractable doors.

The city government said Monday that it will replace doors at three subway stations by the end of the year.

The doors have been criticized for making evacuations during emergencies difficult as some are installed between billboards that cannot be moved.

All platform doors at stations on Line 9 can be opened, but 25 percent of the doors on Lines 1 through 8 are stationary.

Seoul plans to replace all platform doors down the road, but is in consultations with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport about receiving government grants as the replacement is expected to cost over 50 billion won.  [KBS World Radio]

Nothing is going to stop the ROK government from putting on the best Winter Olympics that they possibly can, not even 500 year old trees:

Campaigners in South Korea have accused organisers of the 2018 winter Olympics of destroying a “sacred” forest to make room for a ski slope, and dismissed official assurances that the site will be restored to its original state after the Games.

Environment groups say the recently-completed removal of tens of thousands of trees from the slopes of Mount Gariwang, including ancient and rare species, amounts to an ecological disaster.

The site in the country’s north-east will host several days of Alpine skiing events during the Games in Pyeongchang, which will become only the third place in Asia to host the winter Olympics after Sapporo and Nagano in Japan.

The row between environmentalists and the Olympic organisers centres on a 500-year-old mountain forest that some South Koreans consider sacred due to its connections to the Chosun ruling dynasty.

Green Korea United claims that the removal of tens of thousands of trees will inflict irreparable damage on the area’s delicate ecosystem.  [The Guardian]

You can read the rest at the link, but since Green Korea United is involved in this I would take their claims with a grain of salt since they were involved in the bogus USFK water dumping scandal.  Additionally it was alleged that environmental groups like Green Korea had ties to North Korea back during the Il Shim Hue spy scandal a few years ago.

Remember China's Announced 300,000 Troop Cut? Not Everyone's Happy About It http://t.co/5CVcb5cr4u pic.twitter.com/sEXGrYIaRG

— The Diplomat (@Diplomat_APAC) September 28, 2015

Members of the Washington-based North Korea Freedom Coalition, including its head Suzanne Scholte (2nd from R), rally in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington on Sept. 24, 2015, to urge China not to deport North Korean defectors. (Yonhap)

These are just words on the part of the Chinese leader which are important, but I am more interested to see what action they would take in response to the next North Korean provocation:

In an apparent warning to North Korea, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Friday he opposes any action that violates U.N. Security Council resolutions as he and President Barack Obama reaffirmed their commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

Xi made the remark during a joint press conference after summit talks with Obama at the White House as concerns have grown that North Korea could launch a long-range rocket or conduct a nuclear test next month in violation of U.N. resolutions.

“We reaffirm our commitment to realize the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful way and we oppose any action that might cause tension in the Korean peninsula or violate U.N. Security Council resolutions,” Xi said.

Xi did not mention North Korea by name, but it was pretty clear that he was referring to Pyongyang.

It is highly unusual for a Chinese leader to publicly issue such a warning, given that Beijing has been reluctant to criticize North Korea and has usually urged all sides to exercise calm and restraint when it comes to tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”

Xi also said that a 2005 agreement on North Korea’s denuclearizations and U.N. resolutions should be “implemented in full and all relevant parties should work together to firmly advance the denuclearization process of the Korean peninsula and maintain peace and stability so as to achieve enduring peace and stability in Northeast Asia.”  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.