Let this be lesson to people that you can’t get back at people who dump you by posting sex videos online:

A 25-year-old Kunsan-based airman has been fined for posting a sex video online after recording it without his partner’s permission.

On Jan. 13, the Jeonju District Court fined the dual U.S.-South Korean citizen 2 million won, or about $1,848, and ordered him to attend a 16-hour sexual violence therapy program for breaking a South Korean law concerning violent sexual crimes, according to sentencing documents.

Using his cell phone, the airman shot an approximately 20-second video of himself and a 25-year-old South Korean woman having sex in a hotel in July 2013. He posted the video on two websites in September and October 2014 after becoming angry at the woman.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Kim Jong Un to Visit Indonesia Marking First Official Trip Abroad / Sputnik International – http://t.co/xfTuZRsYfc

— Zachary Keck (@ZacharyKeck) January 26, 2015

A farming couple harvest tomatoes at their greenhouse on the outskirts of Busan on Jan. 26, 2015. (Yonhap)

I wonder if there is more to this story that just went down to the bottom of the Han River:

A former Navy rear admiral under investigation over his alleged involvement in a defense industry graft case jumped off a bridge in a Seoul suburb on Wednesday, police said.

The Gyeonggi Goyang Police Station said an unidentified person called at 8:10 a.m. to say the 61-year-old man, identified only by his surname Ham, plunged off the bridge over the Han River that flows through Seoul into the Yellow Sea.

Ham, also a former executive member of a defense firm, was scheduled to face questioning this morning. Prosecutors said they considered him a witness, rather than a suspect.

The details of the case he was involved in were not immediately clear. He was once in charge of the Navy’s shipbuilding division.

“We send our condolences to the bereaved family for this tragedy,” an official investigating the case said, asking not to be named. “Ham never complained about the interrogation process and we’re confident we’ve followed the proper protocol.”

Police said they discovered a car, a suicide note and a pair of shoes near the scene. Professional divers have been deployed to search for the body, they said.

In November, South Korea launched a task force comprised of prosecutors, military officers and government officials to root out corruption in the defense industry.

The move came after an expensive homegrown salvage ship was proved defective at the peak of efforts to save those missing from a ferry disaster last year. The sinking claimed more than 300 lives.  [Yonhap]

It is hard to believe there has never been a woman in charge of one of Lotte’s Department stores until now:

Although women play a limited role in management at conglomerates, their presence is slowly growing. Lotte Department Store named two female department store managers on Monday.

Women have headed smaller stores and outlet malls for the group before, but none have ever been put in charge of a department store branch.

Promoting the two women reflects Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin’s announcement last year that he would put more women in higher positions.

Lee Min-sook will be the chief manager of Lotte Department Store in Gwanak District, southern Seoul, while Lee Joo-young will take the top position at the Ansan branch in Gyeonggi.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Can someone please explain to me what diplomatic initiatives with North Korea the US government is pursuing currently that would make this a concern?

Putting North Korea back on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism would complicate not only future diplomatic initiatives between Washington and Pyongyang, but also Seoul’s efforts to improve relations with Pyongyang, according to a U.S. congressional report.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, which was dated Jan. 21, also said that redesignating the North as a terrorism sponsor is unlikely to inflict significant economic punishment on North Korea, particularly in the short term.

Redesignation “could have a significant impact on international diplomacy with North Korea,” it said, adding that the regime could take redesignation as a threat to its two track policy of nuclear development and economic development, with the latter goal partially dependent upon influxes of foreign investment.

Calls have risen for re-listing North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism since the FBI determined the North was responsible for the cyber-attack on Sony Pictures. U.S. President Barack Obama also said the administration would review such a possibility.

The CRS report said the U.S. has more to lose than gain from redesignation.

“Placing North Korea back on the list could forestall future diplomatic initiatives between Washington and Pyongyang, particularly if North Korean leaders, as well as Chinese leaders, interpret it as a sign that the United States is not interested in dialogue,” it said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the only initiative I can think of is if appeasement is the strategy the US wants to pursue?

Gay North Korean soldiers spotted on South Korean CCTV http://t.co/m9M5TpXdLf #ROK #DPRK

— Tammy 진 (@KungPaoKimchi) January 26, 2015

The popular tourist district of Haeundae in Busan proposes on Jan. 25, 2015 that it will install umbrellas overarching the streets near its namesake beach this coming summer. The picture shows the end-product envisioned by the district officials. (Photo courtesy of Haeundae District)

Via One Free Korea comes this NY Times article that discusses how the Obama administration was able to pin down North Korea as the source of the cyber attack against Sony Pictures:

The trail that led American officials to blame North Korea for the destructive cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in November winds back to 2010, when the National Security Agency scrambled to break into the computer systems of a country considered one of the most impenetrable targets on earth.

Spurred by growing concern about North Korea’s maturing capabilities, the American spy agency drilled into the Chinese networks that connect North Korea to the outside world, picked through connections in Malaysia favored by North Korean hackers and penetrated directly into the North with the help of South Korea and other American allies, according to former United States and foreign officials, computer experts later briefed on the operations and a newly disclosed N.S.A. document.

A classified security agency program expanded into an ambitious effort, officials said, to place malware that could track the internal workings of many of the computers and networks used by the North’s hackers, a force that South Korea’s military recently said numbers roughly 6,000 people. Most are commanded by the country’s main intelligence service, called the Reconnaissance General Bureau, and Bureau 121, its secretive hacking unit, with a large outpost in China.

The evidence gathered by the “early warning radar” of software painstakingly hidden to monitor North Korea’s activities proved critical in persuading President Obama to accuse the government of Kim Jong-un of ordering the Sony attack, according to the officials and experts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the classified N.S.A. operation.  [New York Times]

You can read more at the link, plus I recommend reading One Free Korea’s take on this issue as well.

For any English speaker interested in being a tool for arguably the most repressive regime on Earth they have job openings for you:

Looking to beef up your teaching resume? Like to get off the beaten path? North Korea, one of the most reclusive countries in the world, might be just the answer.

London-based Juche Travel Services, which arranges travel packages to the North, is now offering volunteers one-month stints teaching English and tourism management and development at the Pyongyang Tourism College.

Even though the North isn’t exactly known as a travel hotspot, Juche Travel’s David Thompson told the Mirror newspaper that the country wants to expand its tourism services in coming years and needs more foreign-language skills and travel expertise to do so.

The company hopes to run the program in May and November.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.