Putin must really need the munitions that North Korea produces considering how chummy he is getting with Kim Jong-un:

This Sept. 14, 2023, file image, taken from Korean Central Television footage, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to North Korea this week may produce a treaty on a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in light of changes in geopolitics and bilateral relations, though it will not be aimed against other nations, Russia’s state media has reported.

Citing Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s aide for foreign affairs, TASS reported that Putin is set to visit Pyongyang on Tuesday and Wednesday for a summitry program that he cast as “very eventful” and “very intensive.”

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency also confirmed that Putin will pay a state visit to the North at the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. It would mark Putin’s first visit to the North in nearly a quarter of a century.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is interesting that it took this long for this massacre to be confirmed:

This photo, released on Wednesday by South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, shows the cemetery of Christians who were massacred by North Korean soldiers at Byeongchon Holiness Church in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province.

Dozens of Christians were tortured and killed en masse at a church in Nonsan by communist soldiers during the Korean War, South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission said Wednesday.

After two years of investigation into the case, the commission confirmed that 54 Christians, including 29 minors, were murdered for their faith at Byeongchon Holiness Church by communists between July and September 1950.

After taking control of the city in South Chungcheong Province in July, within just one month after their invasion on June 25, 1950, North Korean soldiers initially tortured and killed three leading figures at the church.

But just before retreating from the region, following the successful U.N. Command mission at the Battle of Incheon, North Korean soldiers massacred the remaining church members and their families in late September, the investigation concluded. Thirty of the victims were women.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the article says that over 1,700 Christians in total were executed during the war and many of them by communist sympathizers in South Korea that allied with North Korea.

This is just probably busy work to create fortifications to stress the South Korean threat to the North Korean Soldiers:

North Korea’s military has been carrying out unexplained construction inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, according to a military source Saturday.

“Recently, the North Korean military has been erecting walls, digging up the ground and constructing roads in some areas between the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) and the Northern Limit Line in the DMZ,” the source said.

The source added it was unclear whether these activities indicate an intention to build a long wall north of the MDL or simply to establish defensive structures at specific points.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see if this idea of a trilateral summit between the U.S., ROK, and Japanese legislatures ever happens. It seems it would be hard to do with the ROK National Assembly controlled by the Korean Democractic Party which has many anti-Japanese members who would not want to be seen with anyone from the Japanese government:

This file photo, taken Aug. 18, 2023, shows South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (L), U.S. President Joe Biden (C) and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attending a press conference at Camp David in Maryland. (Yonhap)

In an April interview with U.S. magazine TIME, Trump suggested that Washington could withdraw the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea if South Korea, a “wealthy” country, does not increase its contributions for the upkeep of the U.S. troops.

The remarks added to deepening security concerns fueled by Pyongyang’s unceasing push to advance its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and its burgeoning military cooperation with Russia.

In the face of the North’s persistent threats, Bera drove home a reassuring message: The alliance remains sturdy.

“I think it’s as strong as ever, maybe even stronger than it was a decade ago,” he said.

The lawmaker also underscored Congress’ efforts to advance trilateral cooperation among South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, which has firmed up against the backdrop of growing North Korean threats.

“We’ve been talking about the legislative equivalent of what happened at Camp David, where you could get members of Congress, leaders in the Diet and leaders in the National Assembly together to just reaffirm that outside of the executive branch,” he said.

He was referring to the first-ever standalone trilateral summit that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held at Camp David in Maryland in August, in a culmination of their three-way collaboration.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

After all these months why would the government give in now to these entitled doctors? If anything the government should start making demands against the doctors saying their medical licenses will be permanently revoked for intentionally leaving their jobs and canceling appointments:

Lim Hyun-taek, chief of the Korean Medical Association, announces the association’s plan to go on strike against the government’s medical reform measures during a press conference of the organization in Seoul on June 9, 2024. (Yonhap)

The country’s biggest doctors’ group offered Sunday to hold a vote on whether to go ahead with a mass walkout this week if the government accepts three demands, including revisiting the issue of increasing medical school admissions.

The Korean Medical Association (KMA) made the offer two days before it is scheduled to launch the walkout involving medical professors at the “Big 5” hospitals in Seoul, as well as community doctors.

The walkout will be in support of trainee doctors who have remained off the job since February in protest of the government’s medical school enrollment hike plan.

The KMA said it will give the government until 11 p.m. Sunday to respond to its three demands, which also include revising and supplementing key points in the government’s policy package for the essential medical services sector and canceling all penalties against the trainee doctors.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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