Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
The few times I have gotten off the subway at Jamsil Station makes me believe this finding is accurate; it is a very busy subway station:
Jamsil Station on Seoul’s Subway Line No. 2 has replaced Gangnam Station of the same line as the capital’s busiest station, with over 150,000 passengers using the station per day, Seoul Metro said Thursday.
Jamsil Station in southeastern Seoul served a daily average of 155,229 passengers in the first four months of this year, compared with Gangnam Station with a daily average of 151,607 passengers, according to Seoul Metro’s analysis of traffic at all stations on Lines 1-9.
Gangnam Station in southern Seoul had long ranked as the capital’s busiest station.
Gangnam and Jamsil are traditionally crowded because the subway is faster and more convenient there than cars due to severe traffic congestion.
Other busy stations with a daily average of over 100,000 passengers include Hongik University Station on Line No. 2 (147,356), Guro Digital Complex Station on Line No. 2 (106,564), Seoul Station on Line No. 1 (105,265), Sillim Station on Line No. 2 (103,582) and Samseong Station on Line No. 2 (101,475), the operator said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
This is a bit surprising that the Chinese have decided to join the ROK and Japan in a trilateral summit in Seoul:
Leaders of South Korea, China and Japan will hold a long-suspended trilateral summit in Seoul next week for the first time in 4 1/2 years, the presidential office said Thursday.
President Yoon Suk Yeol will meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Seoul on Monday, Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo said during a press briefing.
Yoon will separately hold bilateral talks with Li and Kishida at the presidential office on Sunday. It will be Li’s first visit to South Korea since taking office in March 2023.
It marks the first trilateral summit among the Asian countries since December 2019, after a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and strained Seoul-Tokyo relations over historical disputes.
Kim said the summit will cover six areas of cooperation, comprising economy and trade, sustainable development, health issues, science and technology, disaster and safety management, and people-to-people exchanges, which will be included in a joint statement.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see if any tangible comes out of this.
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.
