When these drones were flown over Pyongyang it was clear this was in response to the North Korean trash balloons that the Yoon administration was struggling to find a response to. If Yoon wanted to provoke a military confrontation with North Korea there would have been better ways of doing so such as sinking a North Korean patrol ship that crossed the NLL this past October:
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff denied allegations that the military scattered anti-communist propaganda leaflets in North Korea to prompt a reaction from Pyongyang, according to a spokesman Thursday. It was “not true” that the South Korean military carried out activities “to induce provocations from the enemy” that were intended to warrant a counter response from Seoul, South Korean army Col. Lee Sung-jun, a Joint Chiefs spokesman, said Thursday at a press conference in Seoul.
South Korean lawmakers from the opposition Democratic Party have accused former President Yoon Suk Yeol of attempting to justify his abrupt martial law declaration last month by directing the military and intelligence agencies to provoke North Korea. North Korea alleged the South sent military drones north of the border to distribute propaganda leaflets in October. One of these drones crashed and was recovered Oct. 13 in Pyongyang, North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported six days later.
N. Korea’s art performance celebrating new year North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves as he attends an art performance ushering in the new year at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang on Dec. 31, 2024, in this photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency the next day. (Yonhap)
I don’t think I have ever heard of an airport being raided by the police before, but here we are:
Police on Thursday raided Muan International Airport, the office of Jeju Air and other locations over the airline’s deadly crash that killed 179 people.
The Jeonnam Provincial Police conducted search and seizure operations into the airport in southwest South Korea, the Seoul office of Jeju Air and the Muan office of the Busan Regional Office of Aviation, officials said.
The search warrant was issued on charges of professional negligence resulting in death, officials said.
You can read more at the link, but maybe the police should also raid the offices of the politicians who decided to build a little used airport in the middle of a bird migration wetland as well?
This could get really ugly if the Korean police try to raid the Presidential office and get into a fight with Presidential security:
Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, in a message to conservative supporters rallying outside his Seoul residence, vowed to “fight to the end” against “anti-state forces,” while his legal team warned Thursday that police officers attempting to detain him could face arrest by his presidential security service or even civilians.
Yoon’s latest statement of defiance came as the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials prepared to execute a detainment warrant against him that was issued by a Seoul court on Tuesday and is valid for one week. The warrant was issued after Yoon evaded multiple requests to appear for questioning and blocked searches of his office, hindering an investigation into whether his short-lived power grab on Dec. 3 amounted to rebellion.
Oh Dong-woon, the anti-corruption agency’s chief prosecutor, has indicated that police forces might be deployed if Yoon’s security service resists the detention attempt, which could occur as early as Thursday. But it remains unclear whether Yoon can be compelled to submit to questioning. Yoon’s legal team issued a statement on Thursday warning that any attempt by the anti-corruption agency to use police units for his detention would exceed their legal authority. The lawyers said police officers could face arrest by either the “presidential security service or any citizens” if they try to detain Yoon. They didn’t elaborate further on the claim.
As with anything coming from Ukraine I recommend having some skepticism on how true these reports are:
North Korean troops deployed to Russia’s western border with Ukraine are conducting “human wave tactics” on the battlefield, leading to more than 1,000 casualties within their ranks last week, a White House spokesman said recently.
North Korean troops supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are conducting ground assaults in the Kursk region against Ukrainian forces that have led to “heavy casualties,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday during a news conference in Washington, D.C. “It is clear that Russian and North Korean military leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses,” he said. “These North Korean soldiers appear to be highly indoctrinated, pushing attacks even when it is clear that those attacks are futile.”
You can read more at the link, but you would think there would be drone or other footage of a massive human wave attack that would be shown to prove this claim? Since there isn’t this leads me to believe they are probably rushing Ukrainian positions in small squad sized numbers and this is being called a “human wave” attack.
Newborns on New Year’s Day Fathers hold their newborn babies with their baby bump nicknames — (from L to R) Nikke, Kkomuri and Dingguri — at a hospital in Goyang, near Seoul, on Jan. 1, 2025. (Yonhap)
Hopefully other countries learn from what happened in Korea and inspect all their navigation facilities as well to make them safer if a plane overshoots the runway:
The government will inspect navigation facilities that assist in aircraft landings at all domestic airports, following mounting evidence that a concrete structure supporting a localizer — a navigation aid — may have exacerbated the severity of the impact when the ill-fated Jeju Air plane crashed at Muan International Airport, the transport ministry said Wednesday.
The investigation will focus on whether the materials used for the structure and its distance from the runway comply with domestic and international standards.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it is investigating the materials used in navigation aid facilities at all airports nationwide. The localizer, a key navigational aid, helps aircraft align with the runway during landing.
