Anyone believe Kim Yo-jong’s claim:

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again denied Friday that her country has exported any weapons to Russia, as she labeled outside speculation on North Korea-Russian arms dealings as “the most absurd paradox.” The U.S., South Korea and others have steadfastly accused North Korea of supplying artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for advanced military technologies and economic aid.

Both North Korea and Russia have repeatedly dismissed that. Foreign experts believe North Korea’s recent series of artillery and short-range missile tests were meant to examine or advertise the weapons it was planning to sell to Russia. Kim Yo Jong called outside assessments on the North Korean-Russian dealings “the most absurd paradox which is not worth making any evaluation or interpretation.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I don’t know why anyone would want to visit North Korea other than for morbid curiosity. Ever dollar spent there is helping to fund the regime:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed on tourist exchanges between Moscow and Pyongyang and preparations for his visit to North Korea are underway, the Kremlin has said.

The Russian news agency TASS on Saturday (local time) quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying, “Preparations for the visit are proceeding at their own pace.”

Putin has not visited North Korea since July 2000.

TASS also reported that Alexander Kozlov, the environment minister for Moscow, who is leading an intergovernmental commission on cooperation with North Korea, touted the growing popularity of tourist exchanges between the two countries during his meeting with Putin earlier Saturday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If anyone is looking for someone to do remote work for them, closely check their documents because they could in fact be North Koreans:

The United States offered Thursday to provide a reward of up to US$5 million for information on three North Korean IT workers and their manager who were engaged in a scheme enabling the workers to get illicit telework employment with false identities belonging to U.S. citizens.

The State Department announced the reward for the workers using the aliases Han Jiho, Jun Chunji and Xu Haoran and their manager Zhonghua who were involved in the scheme that it said generated at least $6.8 million for the North Korean regime.

From October 2020 through October 2023, Christina Chapman, a U.S. national, helped the workers obtain work as remote software and applications developers with companies in a range of sectors and industries, it said. They used false identifies belonging to more than 60 real U.S. people.

The workers also made a failed attempt to gain similar employment at two U.S. government agencies, according to the department.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

No foul play is suspected which likely means either a medical emergency of some kind or suicide; tragic either way:

A 22-year-old soldier stationed at Camp Humphreys was found unresponsive in his barracks Wednesday and later pronounced dead, according to the 2nd Infantry Division. Spc. Jaggert Oakes, of Barberton, Ohio, was a human resources specialist assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 11th Engineer Battalion, 2nd ID Sustainment Brigade, the command said in a news release Friday.

Oakes was pronounced dead at 10:23 a.m. Wednesday at Humphrey’s Brian D. Allgood Army Community Hospital, according to the release. No criminal activity is suspected but the base’s Criminal Investigation Division is looking into the death, the release said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read the rest at the link, but condolences to SPC Oakes’ friends and family.

Crime may be dropping in Seoul, but the perception apparentlhy is that crime is a growing problem to be concerned about:

The number of crimes in Seoul has been declining, however, anxiety about the issue among residents is increasing, particularly among women and older adults, according to a report released by the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family, Sunday.

The foundation published the report based on data provided by Statistics Korea, which interviewed 3,007 Seoulites aged 20 and older in 2022.

According to the report, the number of crimes in the city declined from 296,178 in 2020 to 279,507 in 2022. The five major violent crimes — murder, robbery, theft, assault and sexual violence — also decreased from 92,679 to 90,339 during that period.

Despite this decline, residents’ sense of safety has not improved. On a scale from 1 (very safe) to 5 (very unsafe), the average score increased slightly from 3.13 in 2020 to 3.17 in 2022, indicating a growing perception of insecurity.

The report highlighted that women feel more anxious than men about potential crimes in their daily lives. On a scale from 1 (feeling very safe) to 10 (feeling very anxious), women scored 6.38 compared to men’s 5.4.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I think the media highlighting major crimes is probably what feeds into the public’s anxiety.

If these Korean doctors keep striking they may not have as many jobs to go back to if foreigners start filling them:

Those holding a medical license issued from foreign nations will be allowed to legally practice medicine in South Korea in the case the government declares a top-level medical service warning, the health ministry said Wednesday.

The revision to the enforcement regulation of the Medical Act came as the country is experiencing major medical service disruptions due to the monthslong walkout by trainee doctors in protest of the government’s push to increase the number of medical students by 2,000 starting next year from the current 3,058.

Under the revision, those who have foreign medical licenses will be able to practice medicine in South Korea upon the approval by the health minister when the country is in the highest medical disaster alert mode.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.