I would be surprised if much comes out of this unless there is more going on within North Korea that we do not know about since Kim Jong-un has dropped out of sight the last month:

North Korea’s presumptive No. 2 led members of Pyongyang’s inner circle in a rare trip Saturday to South Korea for the close of the Asian Games, with the rivals holding their highest level face-to-face talks in five years.

After months of tensions, including a steady stream of insults between the divided neighbors and an unusual number of North Korean missile and rocket test firings, expectations for any breakthrough weren’t high, but even the visit itself was significant, allowing valuable contact between confidants of North Korea’s authoritarian leader and Seoul’s senior official for North Korean affairs.

The North Korean delegation to the games in Incheon was led by Hwang Pyong So, the top political officer for the Korean People’s Army and considered by outside analysts to be the country’s second most important official after supreme leader Kim Jong Un. Hwang is also a vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission led by Kim and a vice marshal of the army.

The visit comes as rumors swirl in the South about the health of Kim, who has made no public appearances since Sept. 3 and skipped a high-profile recent event he usually attends. A recent official documentary showed footage from August of him limping and overweight and mentioned his ”discomfort.”  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

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I would not be surprised if there are undiscovered invasion tunnels South of the DMZ, but I find it hard to believe that the North Koreans could have dug a tunnel underneath the Imjim River that reached all the way to Seoul:

Gen. Hahn Sung-Chu never believed North Korea could dig a tunnel that reached Seoul — until now.

Standing inside a basement of an apartment block in the heart of the capital, the former two-star general in the South Korean military says, “This is a kind of invasion, North Korean soldiers working underneath us.”

Hahn says residents had complained of underground vibrations, but the subway does not run beneath them.

He says dowsers detected three tunnels, 13 to 16 feet (4 to 5 meters) wide at a depth of up to 39 feet (12 meters). His team drilled two bore holes to lower a camera, but before they could, they detected two underground explosions and their drill holes were blocked. Hahn is certain that North Korean soldiers were working beneath their feet, protecting the tunnel. [CNN]

You can read the rest at the link, but I don’t think the North Koreans need to dig a tunnel to Seoul to infiltrate a brigade in case of hostilities.  Isn’t that what the KCTU is for?

It appears that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are reaching deep into their playbook to put down the Hong Kong protests.  Instead of the world media seeing pictures of protesters being beaten by security forces the CCP has instead outsourced the beat down to organized crime syndicates:

Pro-democracy demonstrations in two of Hong Kong’s most crowded shopping districts came under attack on Friday from unidentified men who assaulted protesters and tore down their encampments, after a week of erratic and unsuccessful attempts by the Beijing-backed government to end the protests.

The protesters said the attackers were pro-government gangs, and several protest groups called off planned negotiations with the government in response.

Crowds of residents, fed up with the inconveniences of the protests, had cheered on the attacks on the camps.

On Saturday morning, a police spokesman said 19 men, including eight with links to organized crime syndicates, or triads, had been arrested in connection with the violence in one of the districts, Mong Kok, according to Radio Television Hong Kong.

The police also said that at least 18 people had been injured in the violence, including six police officers…….

They shoved and punched protesters, sometimes kicking them after they fell. Others grabbed the scaffolding of canopies and pulled them down until the tents collapsed . Residents said the police were outnumbered and slow to react, and hours passed before reinforcements arrived to protect the protesters from a hostile crowd.

Some threw cans and plastic bottles at the protesters; others spit at them. One protester was led away bleeding from his head as angry residents pressed forward, hurling insults and threats. Another was rushed out on a stretcher, an oxygen mask on his face. Several protesters said the attackers groped and sexually harassed female protesters, and Amnesty International alleged that police officers watched and did nothing.  [New York Times]

You can read more at the link, but long time ROK Drop readers may remember that the Chinese government used this same tactic in Korea when the Chinese Embassy organized and bussed in Chinese students in Korea to attack and beat Free Tibet activists who showed up to protest the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay in Seoul.  The Chinese government sponsored mob attacked Koreans and other foreigners at the protest:

Some of the Free Tibet activists tried to run into the Plaza Hotel in downtown Seoul to escape the mob and the Chinese thugs followed them and beat them in the middle of the hotel:

Could you imagine what the reaction in Korea would be if a bunch of GIs ran amok in Seoul beat down Koreans like this?  Well the reaction from the Korean government was to deport some of the Chinese thugs and tighten visa rules.  There was no demands for an official apology from the Chinese government or removal of the Chinese ambassador from Korea.

Since this strategy worked so well in Seoul the CCP probably thinks it will work in Hong Kong as well which they are probably right about.  I do not see the CCP backing down from their decision to remove democracy from Hong Kong and will use their hired thugs to wear down the protesters.

With the Asian Games soon to be over is this a sign that the North Koreans plan to begin another provocation cycle in the coming months based on a rocket launch at this upgraded launch facility?:

New satellite imagery suggests North Korea has completed the upgrade of a launch site in its northwest that will allow it to launch much bigger rockets than the long-range projectile it fired from the base two years ago.

In a report featuring satellite photos of North Korea’s Sohae launch site, about 50 miles northwest of Pyongyang, 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, said construction appeared to have ended after a yearlong revamp.

“Should a decision be made soon to do so in Pyongyang—and we have no evidence that one has—a rocket could be launched by the end of 2014,” the report said.

North Korea in December 2012 launched a long-range rocket called Unha-3 from the site that put a satellite into space. Other countries, including the U.S. and its Asian allies, viewed the launch as a test of long-range missile technology.  [Wall Street Journal]

You can read more at the link.

Just another example of what a fiasco the Asian Games being held in Incheon has become:

But while touting their own victories, North Korea’s coverage of the games has made virtually no mention of the other 44 countries participating, the fact that South Korea trails only China in medals won, and has far more than the North, or, more politically tricky, the setting of the games south of the Demilitarized Zone.

In sharp contrast, the South’s media, while duly reporting the results of each event and heralding their own team’s achievements, have been quick to find fault with the Incheon organizers, and to lament how the games have failed to generate much interest, let alone inspire their nation.

In particular, they have pointed out that empty seats — never a problem at major televised events in the North — have been visible in almost every games venue.

But they have also noted another reason why Pyongyang might want to dance with joy — South Korea’s taxpayers may well end up footing the bill for the North’s propaganda coup.

According to South Korea’s Yonhap news, Seoul is prepared to pay as much as 1 billion won ($940,000) to cover the North’s rental of satellite broadcast equipment, worth around 400 million won, and the cost of their delegation’s stay at the athletes’ village.  [Associated Press]

You can read the rest at the link.

Via a reader tip comes news that many nations are unhappy with what they believe is cheating that is going on at the Asian Games in favor of host South Korea:

The 2014 Asian Games ends Oct. 4, Saturday in Incheon, South Korea and it appears to close on a low as rampant cheating allegations have been levied against hosts. Fans of different athletes and teams from other Asian nations are up in arms online and elsewhere for questionable and controversial results in the quadrennial event with most outcomes favouring South Korea.

The most blatant alleged cheating happened in the sport of boxing involving women fighters from India (Sarita Devi) and South Korea (Park Jina).

The South Korean won the semifinal match in the lightweight division despite the Indian boxer dominating the fight. Devi made his stand during the medal awarding ceremony refusing to receive the bronze medal and even giving it to the Korean.

“It was a protest for all the sportsmen and women of the world against injustice in sport. There should be fair play in sport,” the Indian boxer Devi said to the press about her actions at the podium.

Aside from the India vs. South Korea controversy, other countries like Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand and a few other countries felt slighted by the results in some other matches although there were no formal protests filed. [International Business Times]

You can read more at the link, but it seems hosts being able to cheat during international competitions has become standard practice now a days.

You would think that Koreans would have learned from the US housing market crash where eased mortgage lending was a major factor in the crisis and not to replicate the same conditions in Korea.  However, just like in the US it appears political expediency is more important than sound financial judgment:

South Korea recently relaxed restrictions on mortgage lending to jump-start its housing market. While it’s too early to judge the impact, there have been some initial signs that sales are picking up.

The move has also made some economists nervous about already high household debt levels turning critical. South Korea’s household debt has more than doubled over the last decade to almost $1 trillion. The debt-to-disposable-income ratio in South Korea of over 160% is much higher than that of the U.S., Germany, France and the U.K.

Among those worried about the ever increasing amount of borrowing is South Korean lawmaker Park Won-seok of the opposition Justice Party. Mr. Park recently released data from the Financial Supervisory Service showing how Koreans use money they have borrowed in the form of mortgage loans.

Out of the total 67 trillion won ($63 billion) in mortgage loans made during the first seven months of this year, 32 trillion won, or just under half was used for purposes other than home buying.

According to Mr. Park, the pattern of mortgage loan usage is a concern because eased lending rules will encourage Koreans to take on more borrowing for things like living expenses, business costs and education. That will likely make those living on borrowed money even more vulnerable to falling into a debt trap of borrowing to keep repaying debt in an unsustainable way. [Wall Street Journal]

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty amazing that almost half of the mortgages are not even for home purchases.