If you are a foreigner and pass away in South Korea, there is a high probability your loved ones will not know how you died:

The government has failed to establish the causes of more than 40 percent of deaths of foreign nationals who died in Korea in recent years, a Ministry of Justice report shows.

According to the report disclosed Saturday by Rep. Cha Gyu-geun of the minor opposition Rebuilding Korea Party, 15,325 foreign nationals died in Korea between 2018 and 2022.

A total of 7,698 of them, or 50 percent, were confirmed to have died of disease, followed by car accidents (211), natural causes (177), falling (155), self-harm (152), natural disasters (71), drowning (61), homicides (19) and addiction (10).

Most notably, a staggering 44.2 percent, or 6,771 deaths, were attributed to “other” causes, meaning the reasons were unclear. This figure is significantly higher compared to the number of deaths among Korean nationals.

According to data released by Statistics Korea, the No. 1 cause of death of Koreans in 2022 was cancer, followed by heart disease, COVID-19 and pneumonia. “Others” are not among the top 10 causes listed.

Korea Times

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North Korea kind of does have a point, it can do what it wants with things on their sovereign territory:

North Korea accused U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of “double standards” Sunday, saying he urged Pyongyang to exercise restraint following its destruction of inter-Korean roads while remaining silent about South Korea’s alleged drone infiltration into the North.

Kim Son-gyong, North Korea’s vice foreign minister for international organizations, issued the statement after Guterres called for efforts to ease tensions and resume dialogue after the North blew up roads and rail lines on its side of the heavily fortified border on Tuesday. 

“I express deep displeasure over and categorically reject the remarks of interfering in the internal affairs” of North Korea, Kim said in the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

Kim claimed the destruction of roads and rail lines within its territory falls under North Korea’s “sovereign right from A to Z” and should not be subject to interference from the U.N. secretary-general.

Yonhap

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It might be time for the ROK to start flying propaganda drones over Pyongyang again in response. This has clearly been something that got the Kim regime’s attention the last time they did it:

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the trash-loaded balloons were sent across the border between Saturday night and early Sunday and the fallen objects were household waste, such as paper and vinyl, and included no hazardous items.

The number of dropped items does not necessarily correspond to the number of balloons, as each balloon, which measures approximately 2 to 3 meters in diameter and 3 to 4 meters in length, usually contains several smaller bags.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see when these large formations of North Korean Soldiers begin appearing on the frontlines in Ukraine:

A satellite image provided by the National Intelligence Service on Oct. 18, 2024, shows a Russian naval vessel suspected of transporting North Korean troops from the northeastern port of Chongjin. 

One of the three pictures that South Korea’s intelligence agency disclosed as evidence of North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia was captured by a satellite that the South has been operating, a government source said Sunday.

Two of the three photos were attributed to Airbus, a global satellite imagery provider, but the third was not attributed when the National Intelligence Service (NIS) presented them Friday while confirming the North’s deployment of troops to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

Disclosing the satellite images, the NIS said that the North has decided to send around 12,000 troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine and has already deployed 1,500 special forces troops to Vladivostok.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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

It looks like the North Korean cannon fodder for Putin’s war in Ukraine may be more than originally believed:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that North Korea is preparing to send around 10,000 soldiers to Russia to support its war against Ukraine, calling the development “a big problem.”

Zelenskyy cited Ukrainian intelligence reports indicating that North Korean personnel have already been deployed in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, with additional troops being prepared to join the fight. 

“We know about 10,000 soldiers of North Korea that they are preparing to send to fight against us,” Zelenskyy said during a press conference in Brussels after the European Union summit. “That’s really, I think, a big problem.”

Zelenskyy suggested that Russia is relying on North Korean forces to compensate for its substantial troop losses, as many young Russians seek to avoid conscription. 

“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin is afraid of mobilization very much because social opinion is against his,” he said. “That’s why he (Putin) is trying to involve other participants of this war.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The issues around Rodriguez Range is very similar to noise complaints by people who build homes around airports. The range had been there long before the population began increasing around the area. It looks like the ROK government will now invest enough money in the area to keep the locals quiet for the time being:

U.S. troops may now employ attack helicopters in live-fire drills at a range 16 miles from North Korea, according to the South’s Ministry of National Defense. For the past six years, the Army could fly AH-64 Apaches in exercises at the Rodriguez Live Fire Complex, but not fire their weapons. Representatives from the ministry, South Korean army and a citizens’ group investigating noise complaints from the range, signed a memorandum Monday to “normalize” training by U.S. forces, according to a ministry news release that day.

Concerns over noise generated by the Apaches prompted a U.S. noise study earlier this year, Kang Tae Il, chairman of the citizens’ group — Pocheon Live Fire Range Countermeasure Committee — told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday. “We, local residents, originally wanted to get this range moved and closed,” he said. “However, in the situation in our country that is a standoff with North Korea, soldiers need to train somewhere.”

The change near the border came as tensions continue to tick higher on the peninsula. On Tuesday, North Korea destroyed parts of inter-Korean roads on its side of the border, after claiming that South Korean drones flew over Pyongyang. To compensate Pocheon residents for the noise, the ministry agreed to construct a gymnasium, golf course and other sports facilities around the range at an undetermined date, Kang said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.