I always thought the Hillary Clinton email scandal was just the tip of the iceberg because of how many emails she was sending out and no one was questioning it.  That made me think it must be accepted practice in the State Department to use private email to get around Freedom of Information Act laws.  Well now we know Caroline Kennedy the US Ambassador to Japan was doing the same thing.  Reading all this just makes me wonder what people would say if a US military Brigade Commander was sending out official emails from a Yahoo account.  It would raise eyebrows immediately and definitely cause a JAG to get involved:

Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and senior staff at the U.S. embassy in Japan used personal email accounts for official business, an internal watchdog report said Tuesday — making Kennedy the latest Obama administration official to run afoul of email security guidelines.

The State Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) report said it received reports concerning the use of private email accounts for official business, and identified instances where emails labeled “sensitive but unclassified” were sent from or received by personal email accounts.

“On the basis of these reports, OIG’s Office of Evaluations and Special Projects conducted a review and confirmed that senior embassy staff, including the Ambassador, used personal email accounts to send and receive messages containing official business. In addition, OIG identified instances where emails labeled Sensitive but Unclassified were sent from, or received by, personal email accounts,” the report said.  [Fox News via reader tip]

You can read more at the link.

https://twitter.com/SoCindilicious/status/636438913662324736

Senior North Korean officials hold a national meeting at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang on Aug. 24, 2015, to mark the 55th anniversary the next day of the day of “songun,” or the North’s military-first policy, in this photo released on Aug. 25, 2015, by the North’s Korean Central News Agency. (Yonhap)

Like I suspected the ROK offered the North Koreans some significant financial rewards if they apologized for the landmine attack.  basically what his comes down to is that two ROK soldiers had to have their legs blown off so the ROK could pay off the North Koreans to apologize.  This is another example of why the North Koreans commit provocations, because they work:

A landmark inter-Korean deal to resolve heightened cross-border tensions could give fresh momentum to bilateral economic cooperation that has been stalled due to strained relations between the archrivals, analysts said Tuesday.

The agreement, reached early Tuesday after marathon negotiations, defused the military standoff triggered by a land-mine explosion that maimed two South Korean soldiers on Aug. 4, and an artillery exchange on Thursday.

Excluding the joint industrial complex in Kaesong North Korea, inter-Korean economic projects have been in limbo since South Korea imposed a blanket ban on economic cooperation and personnel exchanges in March 2010, in retaliation for the North’s sinking of a South Korean naval vessel near the western maritime border.

Observers said the overnight breakthrough could make it possible for the two sides to restart negotiations on suspended economic cooperation projects and possibly lifting the sanctions.

The latest deal does not mention lifting Seoul’s comprehensive sanctions although it calls for high-level talks to take place as soon as possible which can touch on broader outstanding issues.

North Korea watchers speculated that Pyongyang raised the issue of lifting sanctions and the resumption of tours to the Mount Kumgang resort on its southeast coast, which were halted in July 2008 when a South Korean female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier.

Seoul demanded Pyongyang allow a renewed on-site probe into the death of the tourist and take measures to ensure the safety of its citizens. Pyongyang, however, claimed it had done everything it could, including a verbal promise by then leader Kim Jong-il to make sure no such tragedy would happen again.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the answer to the question, a lot:

The number of undocumented immigrants from South Korea in the U.S. has increased eightfold in 25 years to an estimated 190,000, according to a new report by the Migration Policy Institute.

South Korean undocumented immigrants now number eighth in population, overall estimated to be about 11 million.

According to MPI, about 9,000 South Korean undocumented immigrants — or about 20 percent of the 44,000 eligible for deferred action of childhood arrivals — have applied for the program.

Undocumented immigrants from Mexico top the list in population, at 6.2 million, followed by Guatemala, El Salvador, the Honduras, China, India and the Philippines.  [Korea Times]

I figured it was only a matter of time before the South Korean media picked up on some of the inaccurate comments about Korea that Donald Trump has been repeating.  I figure by now he has to know his comments are untrue, but just repeats them because they resonate with uninformed voters.  It is pretty sad that we have gotten to the point that politicians have to craft messages that appeal to the uninformed:

Trump’s rise in popularity also garnered attention in South Korea after his remarks on the security of the two Koreas and the American military involvement.

Initially, South Korean media covered Trump’s remarks against women and immigrants as noteworthy international headlines, speculating that Trump’s popularity was American conservatives’ reaction against Obama’s more liberal policies, such as the Affordable Care Act and marriage equality.

However, Korean interest in Trump increased after he suggested that South Korea gives nothing back in exchange for U.S. military protection.

“(Whenever) they’re in trouble, our military takes care. You know what we get? Nothing,” he said during a South Carolina rally last month.

His comments made in 2011 before the 2012 presidential election also resurfaced in hindsight, when he also said that the U.S. military protected South Korea, but “they don’t pay us.”

Trump made similar remarks on Korea again last Sunday, saying that South Korea makes “a fortune” from their exports. “Between Samsung, and LG, and Sharp, they all come from South Korea,” he said, misidentifying Japanese company Sharp as Korean.

“Why are we defending everybody? And these are rich nations. South Korea makes billions and billions. We get nothing. We are like the stupid people that go and defend everybody,” he added.

His remarks drew some ire from the public, and South Korean news outlets described Trump’s remarks as “misinformed” or “misguided,” citing that South Korea has long shared the cost of having a U.S. military presence in the country.

Korea currently has about 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country to help defend against North Korea. Additionally, it is also seen as being in America’s interests to be within geographic proximity to China.

Last year, Korea renewed its agreement with the United States to pay 920 billion won ($770 million) toward the upkeep of U.S. troops here, a 5.8 percent increase from the previous year.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

Oops! http://t.co/fkKvPJBsQK pic.twitter.com/29NEmhhQ1O

— J. D. McPherson (@ZenKimchi) August 24, 2015

A unification observatory, a tourist attraction in Goseong, a town around 200 kilometers northeast of Seoul near the border, is closed for the third day on Aug. 23, 2015, amid military threats from North Korea, with high-level talks between the two neighbors slated to resume later in the day to discuss how to ease tension on the Korean Peninsula.  [Yonhap]

This photo taken on Aug. 25, 2015, shows a traffic signpost collapsed as strong wind and rain were caused by Typhoon Goni in the southeastern coastal city of Busan. The strong typhoon is expected to reach the sea 160 kilometers off the city’s eastern coast at 3 p.m. that day. (Yonhap)

Great job by this airman who was involved in taking down a terrorist before he could fully launch his attack:

The Air Force is awarding Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone its highest noncombat honor, the Airman’s Medal, for his heroic actions aboard a Paris-bound train, the Air Force announced Monday.

Stone, Alek Skarlatos and college friend Anthony Sadler took down a gunman wielding an AK-47 and box cutter as he began an assault on a high-speed train headed for Paris late Friday.

The trio have been hailed as heroes in France, where they were awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest honor, on Monday by French President Francois Hollande.

“What the gunman did not expect was a confrontation with our very own Captain America. Believe it or not, that is what Airman Stone’s friends nicknamed him during Air Force technical training,” Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James told reporters Monday when announcing the medal.

If it had not been for Stone’s actions, James said, “I’m quite sure today we would be sitting here considering a bloodbath.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.