https://twitter.com/SouthKoreaDaily/status/637756489302564865

The Quantum of the Seas, Asia’s largest cruise ship, arrives in South Korea’s southern port city of Busan on Aug. 29, 2015. [Yonhap]

I like this type of engagement with North Korea where reforesting the environment is beneficial to both sides, however Seoul should not have agreed to pay for their studies in Germany.  Instead they should have offered them to train in South Korea.  If the Kim regime can afford nuclear weapons and ICBMs, they can afford to send their own scholars to school in Germany.  By the way I guess this guy won’t be going to training in Germany:

Seoul plans to provide funding for North Korean forestry specialists to study in Germany, a U.S. news report said Saturday, in its latest effort to restore deforested mountains in the North.

Under the plan, South Korea will help around 30 North Korean experts study in Germany by providing US$70,000, according to the Voice of America (VOA), which cited the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

The specialists will visit Germany in four batches between September and November. Germany, with forests covering one-third of its area, has one of the world’s leading forestry industries. [Korea Times]

The report doesn’t say whether the changes were made after or before the recent cross border incident that led to a negotiated settlement between the North and the South.  If these changes were made afterwards maybe Kim Jong-un was not aware of the operation to plant landmines on the southern side of the DMZ?  It seems unlikely to me though because that would be something pretty audacious for a military commander to think he could get away with doing something like that without consulting the regime inner circle first:

Kim Jong Un, the querulous North Korean leader, said the recent standoff with South Korea was resolved not through negotiation but “thanks to the tremendous military muscle” of the country’s nuclear weapons.

Some analysts have suggested that Pyongyang’s recent eagerness to hold talks with Seoul could be a sign of domestic vulnerability for Kim, whose official titles include first chairman of the National Defense Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army.

But according to North Korea’s version of events, last weekend’s standoff with South Korea was a sign of the former’s strength.

“We protected the dignity and sovereignty of the country, the gains of the revolution and the happiness of the people by our own efforts amid the tempest of the history without anybody’s support and sympathy,” Kim told officials at a meeting to analyze and review the “revolutionary measures” the regime had taken over the past week, according to the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.

The news report, published Friday, also said that the 30-something leader had dismissed some members of the Central Military Commission, which is responsible for the Korean Workers’ Party’s military policies, and appointed new ones. But it did not say which officials had been replaced. The dismissals come after an extended period of sometimes-brutal personnel changes in North Korea, notably Kim’s execution of his defense minister this year.  [Stars and Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

I am sure this news is probably not surprising to most people who are familiar with South Korea.  I am also sure most people in Korea know the hyper competitiveness is what is causing the high suicide rate, but little will probably be done to correct it:

An average of 29.1 people per 100,000 in South Korea committed suicides in 2012, exceeding the OECD average of 12, according to the OECD Health Data 2015.

The countries of Hungary followed next with 19.4 people per 100,000 taking their own lives and then Japan with 18.7 percent.

Korea has been posting a sharp increase in its suicide rate since 2000. While suicide rate in Japan remains high, it has been on the decline since 2010.

Suicide is a major concern in the nation; it is also cited as the top cause of death among teens and young people in 2013. [Korea Times]

North Korea shows up cooperative farm with own spa: http://t.co/e7MAu1DyzU pic.twitter.com/4Y2Omm0ogG

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) August 29, 2015

Protestors, including Korean-American groups, demand in New York on Aug. 28, 2015, that Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush apologize for accusing Asian people of abusing the birthright citizenship law. (Yonhap)

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

I think it is pretty clear that the Japanese are keeping their options open with their new “destroyer”:

Japan on Thursday launched the helicopter destroyer Kaga, the second version of the largest ship the nation has produced since World War II.

Kaga’s completion at Japan Marine United’s Yokohama Isogo plant gives Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force two Izumo-class helicopter destroyers, alongside two smaller Hyuga-class destroyers.

None of those vessels looks anything like the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

The flat-top ships more closely resemble aircraft carriers, though they aren’t equipped with arresting wires, ski-jump ramps or other features used to launch fighter jets. The anti-war clause of Japan’s constitution has long been interpreted to bar weapons deemed offensive in nature, which includes aircraft carriers.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but the deck on this ship is large enough to support both V-22 Ospreys and F-35B vertical take off fighters.  It will be interesting if these ships will be offered up for future Joint training with the US Marine Corps.

US Admiral: China 'Very Interested' in RIMPAC 2016 http://t.co/ej2uNCod2m

— The Diplomat (@Diplomat_APAC) August 30, 2015