Here is the newest addition to the Odusan Observatory:

Oh Eun Jeong, a poet who fled North Korea in 2009, left behind a younger sister for whom she still longs. Oh, profiled by The Washington Post in 2018 as one of many young North Korean defectors thriving with new lives in the South, said that longing motivated her to write poetry. “I think about my sister every day,” she told Stars and Stripes by phone Aug. 8. “Knowing she’s still there while I’m here makes my heart heavy.” Oh and other former North Koreans now have a place to bring those sentiments. On Aug. 1, the South Korean Ministry for Unification unveiled a monument to those who escaped the North or lost their lives in the attempt. “This monument gives me a place to express that longing, even if I can’t be with her,” Oh said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The past month has been hot in Korea, I mean really hot:

Seoul, Busan and many other parts of the country have been breaking records for the longest streak of consecutive tropical nights, with Seoul having 28 such nights as of Sunday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). 

As the intense heat is forecast to persist for the time being despite forecasts of heavy rain across the country early this week, the regions are expected to continue setting new records every day.

The KMA said Seoul’s lowest temperature from Saturday night to Sunday morning was 27 degrees Celsius, marking the 28th consecutive tropical night since July 21.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I have always said August is one of the worst times to visit Korea due to the heat and humidity.

It has been a rough month for EV’s in South Korea with yet another car catching fire:

Customer concerns about electric vehicles (EVs) have intensified following a recent fire report involving an all-electric Model X luxury SUV from Tesla, the most beloved EV maker in Korea.

The incident further fueled the widespread fear of EVs here, after Mercedes-Benz’s EQE EV burst into flames earlier this month. Drivers have since rapidly lost trust in the once-reliable German carmaker after it became known that the vehicle was equipped with a less-reliable Chinese battery.

The recent fire involving a Model X resulted in the vehicle being completely destroyed after approximately four hours of firefighting efforts. The vehicle was parked on a road in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on Friday afternoon.

Tesla used a battery from Japan’s Panasonic for its EV. This heightened fears that batteries from famous non-Chinese firms are also not safe either.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

With all the corruption investigations surrounding him, Lee Jae-myung pretty much needs to remain the opposition leader in order to claim the investigations are all politically motivated:

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) was set to hold a national convention to elect its new chief Sunday, with former Chairman Lee Jae-myung widely expected to win the race for a second term.

Lee, a former DP leader, has stayed overwhelmingly ahead of other candidates — former Interior Minister Kim Doo-gwan and Kim Ji-soo — winning nearly 90 percent of the combined ballots cast by registered party members in 17 rounds of primaries that concluded the previous day.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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

President Yoon’s comments are definitely not going to go over well with the Kim regime:

 President Yoon Suk Yeol unveiled a vision for unification with North Korea on Thursday, pledging to expand outside information in the reclusive nation and proposing an official dialogue channel that can “take up any issue.”

Yoon made the remark in an address marking Liberation Day, which celebrates the 1945 end of Japan’s colonial rule, saying, “Complete liberation remains an unfinished task” as the Korean Peninsula still remains divided.

“The freedom we enjoy must be extended to the frozen kingdom of the North, where people are deprived of freedom and suffer from poverty and starvation,” Yoon said. “Only when a unified free and democratic nation rightfully owned by the people is established across the entire Korean Peninsula will we finally have complete liberation.”

Yoon laid out three key tasks for unification: defending freedom in South Korea from fake news and other destabilizing elements, bringing about changes in North Korea through human rights improvements and outside information, and strengthening cooperation with the international community.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the statement about bringing in outside information into North Korea likely means the propaganda balloon launches will continue. The fact that North Korea gets so angered by the balloon launches demonstrates that they must be having an effect.