Jongno-gu in central Seoul is blanketed in fine and ultrafine dust on Thursday. (Yonhap)

If you wondering why Google doesn’t have a robust Google Maps service in Korea, according to this article it has more to do about taxes than national security:

Yoo Ki-yoon, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Seoul National University and former director of Korea’s National Geographic Information Institute, poses at the university’s department library. (Courtesy of Yoo Ki-yoon)

For 19 years, Google has been asking South Korea for permission to take the country’s detailed 1:5000 map data overseas. For 19 years, Seoul has said no. The conventional explanation is national security: Korea is technically still at war, and precise maps in foreign hands pose a risk.

But last week, Google submitted a revised proposal that effectively undermined that narrative. It now meets virtually every security condition the government had set.

The one thing it refused to include was a plan to build a data center in Korea.

For Yoo Ki-yoon, former director of the National Geographic Information Institute, the government agency that produces Korea’s base maps, framing this as a regulatory or server location dispute misses the point.

“If the economics justify it, Google will come in, pay taxes and compete. That’s what happened in Japan recently,” Yoo, a professor of geospatial engineering at Seoul National University, said in an interview with The Korea Herald. “The reason Google hasn’t done so in Korea is not that it’s being blocked. It’s simply that the company has decided the returns don’t yet justify the cost.”

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Congratulations to Brig. Gen. Moon on her leadership appointment in the 2nd Infantry Division:

A South Korean brigadier general has become the first South Korean woman to serve as a deputy commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, the only U.S. Army division that integrates troops from another country into its ranks. Brig. Gen. Moon Han-ok assumed the post — one of three deputy commanders and the only South Korean — during a Feb. 4 ceremony at Camp Humphreys as the allies prepare for the eventual transfer of wartime operational control to Seoul.

“I believe this case will have positive influence on service women in the combat branch and bring hopeful messages to them,” Moon said in a statement provided to Stars and Stripes on Tuesday by a South Korean spokesman for the division. Before Moon, the last woman to serve as a 2nd ID deputy commander was Brig. Gen. Lori Robinson, who held that role until February 2023, when she was named commandant of cadets for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It looks like more American coal could soon be heading to South Korea:

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday his administration has clinched “historic” trade agreements with South Korea, Japan, India and other countries to boost US coal exports “dramatically.”

Trump made the remarks during the “champion of coal” event, underlining his support for coal mining.

“In just the past few months, we’ve made historic trade deals with Japan, Korea, India and others to increase our coal exports dramatically,” he said at the White House event. “We are now exporting coal to all over the world.”

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Eric Trump (C), executive vice president of The Trump Organization, is briefed by Hanam Mayor Lee Hyun-jae (R) during his visit to the city, just east of Seoul, to tour development projects, in this photo provided by the municipal government on Feb. 11, 2026. (Yonhap)

Kenneth Bae is a name I haven’t heard in a long time since his detainment and release from North Korea:

American missionary-turned-human rights activist Kenneth Bae, who was once detained in North Korea for more than two years, said he will engage in a broadcasting propaganda initiative using shortwave radio to reach North Korean people.

The head of the New Korea Foundation International said in an interview with The Korea Times that he will spearhead a public fundraising campaign to establish a North Korea-focused radio service called Korea Link.

“The effort is centered on North Korean citizens rather than the Kim Jong-un regime in the North,” Bae said during the interview at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, Feb. 4.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see if the Lee administration tries to crackdown on these radio broadcasts.

What is interesting about this latest school shooting was that the shooter was once again trans. Of course the media is not going to look into why there are so many trans shooters:

President Lee Jae Myung (2nd from L) attends a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae in central Seoul on Feb. 10, 2026. (Yonhap

President Lee Jae Myung on Wednesday expressed condolences over a deadly school shooting in Canada, voicing hope that the country will heal from the tragedy.

“On behalf of the Republic of Korea, I convey my heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved families and to the people of Canada who are mourning this profound loss,” Lee wrote on the social platform X, using South Korea’s official name.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I don’t think someone can take credit for publishing a book when AI wrote it for them:

ISBN issuances surge in 2025 as AI accelerates publishing, but fears mount over flood of low-quality titles

It took me about an hour to produce a 50-page-long children’s book. All it required was a handful of prompts to ChatGPT.

The task was simple: Write a children’s story about a journalist living in the age of artificial intelligence, set at The Korea Herald, with a main character named Jane.

Readers can decide for themselves if the result is convincing enough to pass as something written by a human.

But this experiment shows just how quickly a book can be made with AI, something South Korea’s publishing industry is trying to cope with, for better or worse.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.