Shown is the outdoor signboard of LG Electronics Inc. set up at Riyadh International Airport in Saudi Arabia. LG said on Sept. 19, 2014, the 250-meter-long, 12-meter-wide structure has been approved by the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest outdoor signboard. (Yonhap)

It looks like the North Koreans have determined that Kim Jong-un’s gout is not going away and thus have begun a campaign to make excuses for it:

Young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is suffering from “discomfort”, state media has said in the first official acknowledgement of ill health after a prolonged period out of the public eye.

Kim, 31, who is frequently the centrepiece of the isolated country’s propaganda, has not been photographed by state media since appearing at a concert alongside his wife on Sept. 3, fuelling speculation he is suffering from bad health.

He had been seen walking with a limp since an event with key officials in July and in a pre-recorded documentary broadcast by state media on Thursday appeared to have difficulty walking.

“The wealth and prosperity of our socialism is thanks to the painstaking efforts of our marshal, who keeps lighting the path for the people, like the flicker of a flame, despite suffering discomfort,” a voice over for the hour-long documentary said. (Reuters)

You can read more at the link.

Here is an article about the trial of a dirtbag drill sergeant that was sentenced to 20 years in prison for forcing trainees to have sex with him. What I found of interest is another example of why these cases are hard to prosecute:

A medic Sanchez deployed with to Afghanistan accused Sanchez of forcing her to have sex with him while they waited to get evacuated from a combat outpost.
She testified that she didn’t fight back and didn’t report the incident until months later, when she faced repercussions for assaulting a military policeman while drunk in Alaska where she was based.
She mentioned three other men in the military who had assaulted her, but those claims didn’t result in charges. She said the relationship with those men had been consensual at one point.
Pressed for more details about the alleged incident involving Sanchez, the woman testified that she had memory loss from being exposed to three roadside bombs.
“I don’t remember step by step” of how it happened, she told Judge Nance from the stand. (Stars and Stripes)

It is a good thing the prosecution had plenty of other witnesses because if this soldier was the star witness he probably would have gotten off.

North Korean swimmers perform synchronized swimming at a pool in Incheon on Sept. 19, 2014. (Yonhap)

I guess joining the military is another one of those jobs that Americans supposedly won’t do:

A small number of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally will have an opportunity to join the military for the first time in decades under a new Defense Department policy unveiled Thursday.

The new rules will expand an existing program allowing recruiters to target foreign nationals with high-demand skills, mostly rare foreign language expertise or specialized health care training.

For the first time, the program — known as Military Accessions Vital to National Interest, or MAVNI — will be open to immigrants without a proper visa if they came to the U.S. with their parents before age 16. More specifically, they must be approved under a 2012 Obama administration policy known as Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, or DACA.

The new DoD policy may be the first phase of a broader governmentwide effort to ease pressure on immigrants and create new paths to citizenship. President Obama, frustrated with the failure of Congress to pass any substantial immigration reform, has vowed to aggressively use his presidential authority to change the way immigration policies are carried out. (Military Times)

You can read more at the link, but I am sure this is just a coincidence that this was announced shortly before an election.

So it appears the Koreans are still hoping to turn Yongsan Garrison into a giant city park:

Yongsan, along with other U.S. Forces Korea bases in and north of Seoul, will eventually be turned over to South Korea as part of a long-planned relocation of most Army forces on the peninsula to regional hubs in Daegu and Pyeongtaek. Although a handful of buildings at Yongsan are expected to remain under U.S. control, South Korea plans to turn the 635-acre base into a massive Central Park-like green space. (Stars and Stripes)

You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised if a good chunk of that land becomes apartment buildings.

South Korean Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan (R) meets with Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in Cairns, Australia, on Sept. 19, 2014, on the sidelines of a G20 finance ministers’ meeting. (Yonhap)

The sentencing of these three soldiers may appear to be light but from my experience the sentences are consistent with what a Korean would have received in similar circumstances:

SEOUL, South Korea — Three 2nd Infantry Division soldiers were given suspended sentences Wednesday — essentially putting them on probation — for causing a drunken disturbance at a South Korean water park.
The division later issued a statement that said situations such as the May 31 incident at Everland theme park’s Caribbean Bay attraction undermine the volunteer work other 2ID soldiers perform in the community, from serving in soup kitchens to distributing coal and volunteering at orphanages.
“I will not allow careless acts of indiscipline to tarnish 2ID reputation and our strong relationship with our Korean neighbors,” division commander Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Vandal said in the statement.
Three Camp Casey-based soldiers — Pvt. Marcus Cobb, Pfc. Alex Wilkerson and Spc. Nicholas Myers — were sentenced to six months on convictions of obstruction of performance of official duties. (Stars and Stripes via reader tip)

You can read more at the link but the judge may have also considered the punishment the U.S. military will give to these soldiers which hopefully will include bars to reenlistment. We do not need people like this in the ranks that want to act like children instead of being the professionals they are expected to be.

I have not discussed the Andrew Tahmooressi case here on the ROK Drop because of how little information there is out there about it. The usual suspects have been using it to bash the Obama administration, but now people need to seriously consider if he intentionally drove into Mexico with those weapons:

If the judge throws the case out on technical grounds, we’ll probably never know for sure whether Tahmooressi was telling the truth when he claimed that he crossed the border by accident after making a wrong turn out of a parking lot in San Ysidro.

But if the trial goes on, that question will be very much at issue. To find Tahmooressi guilty, the judge will have to determine that he intended to break the law by bringing military-style weapons and ammunition into Mexico, which has strict anti-gun laws.

In May, sources showed the arrest video to a reporter for Tijuana’s fearless weekly magazine Zeta.

In a story headlined “Ex-Marine did not enter Mexico by mistake,” Ines Garcia Ramos reported that around 10:30 p.m. on March 31, as Tahmooressi began to drive into Mexico, border officers who noticed a mattress and other large items in his truck waved him over to an inspection area, where his weapons were discovered during a search. Contrary to his assertion that he stopped to ask how to return to the U.S., she wrote, he appeared to be driving away from the border. (After his guns were discovered, he called 911, telling an American operator he had crossed the border “by accident … and they’re trying to take my guns from me.”) (LA Times)

You can read more at the link, but before Tahmooressi drove into Mexico he walked across the border earlier in the day and checked into a hotel. So if he had no intention of driving into Mexico then why did he check into a hotel and then go back to get his truck?

Detained American Jeff Fowle, awaiting trial in North Korea, has lost his job in Ohio http://t.co/4Njj6KyQHP

— James Pearson (@pearswick) September 20, 2014