Considering how little time the Soldiers are given to use their phones during boot camp extending this program shouldn’t cause any issues with training:

Soldiers use mobile phones on an Army base in Gapyeong, 50 kilometers northeast of Seoul, Jan. 31, 2019. Yonhap

The military has extended a trial program for new military conscripts at boot camps to use mobile phones for one hour on weekends and holidays, the defense ministry said Wednesday.

In July, the ministry introduced the six-month trial program as part of efforts to allow conscripts to use mobile phones during their mandatory military service to help them better connect with family members and friends.

The ministry said the program has been extended until it decides on a new policy on mobile phone use after analyzing the program’s results and considering measures to address possible security issues and impact on operations.

Conscripts used to be barred from carrying mobile phones for security reasons, but the troops — except for fresh recruits — can now use and possess phones from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Even this recent deadly earthquake in Japan cannot stop the Dokdo madness:

Seoul’s foreign ministry expressed a strong protest against Tokyo on Tuesday as Japan’s weather agency included South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo in a tsunami advisory issued after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Japan.

In a map showing tsunami alerts on the Japan Meteorological Agency’s website, the rocky islets were highlighted in yellow, along with other regions on Japan’s west coast, indicating tsunami advisories were issued for the areas. 

The powerful quake struck the Noto Peninsula and surrounding areas in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture on New Year’s Day, reportedly killing several people and causing tsunamis on South Korea’s east coast.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this is really an issue that President Yoon needs to work with Japan to resolve to further improve bilateral relations.

It is amazing that the crew was able to evacuate so many people from this burning aircraft. Unfortunatley 5 Japanese Coast Guard personnel in the other aircraft involved in the accident died:

All 379 passengers and crew of a Japan Airlines plane miraculously escaped from a fire following a collision with a Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday, but local media said most of the coast guard plane crew had died.

The Coast Guard said the collision involved one of its planes that was headed to Niigata airport on Japan’s west coast to deliver aid to those caught up in a powerful earthquake that struck on New Year’s Day, killing at least 48 people.

Five of the six crew of the coast guard aircraft have died, public broadcaster NHK reported. A coast guard spokesperson earlier said five of the crew were unaccounted for but that the captain had escaped.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Lee Jae-myung will be fine after having successful surgery after being stabbed in the neck. The would eneded up only being one centimeter so that shouldn’t have been too hard to stich up and repair. What everyone is waiting to find out is why did the attacker stab Lee?:

Police identified the suspect as a man born in 1957 and surnamed Kim. He used an 18-centimeter-long knife purchased online for the attack, police said.

The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency said it plans to charge Kim with attempted murder, as he has confessed to intending to kill Lee.

“An investigation is under way for matters such as the exact motive,” Soh Je-han, an officer at the agency, told a press briefing.

Police said they are currently investigating whether Kim is a member of any political party.

The suspect was also found to have been around the site of an event Lee attended in Busan last month.

Video footage uploaded on YouTube shows the suspect waiting for Lee in the crowd but being unable to make close contact. The suspect was wearing the same paper crown with the words “I’m Lee Jae-myung” as he did Tuesday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the last case of political violence liked this was against the DPK head who was campaigning for Lee back in 2022 when he was running for President. Song Young-gil was attacked by a leftist anti-US whacko with hammer. The guy later committed suicide in prison after the attack. If the guy that stabbed Lee ends up being another leftist whacko you will hear little more about this attack, however if he ends up being a right wing whacko expect the DPK and the media to blame President Yoon for the attack.

It is a Presidential election year in the U.S. which means it the beginning of silly season with everyone acting up to gain political leverage to include North Korea:

 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his military should “thoroughly annihilate” the United States and South Korea if provoked, state media reported Monday, after he vowed to boost national defense to cope with what he called an unprecedented U.S.-led confrontation.

North Korea has increased its warlike rhetoric in recent months in response to an expansion of U.S.-South Korean military drills. Experts expect Kim will continue to escalate his rhetoric and weapons tests because he likely believes he can use heightened tensions to wrest U.S. concessions if former President Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidential election in November.

In a five-day major ruling party meeting last week, Kim said he will launch three more military spy satellites, produce more nuclear materials and develop attack drones this year in what observers say is an attempt to increase his leverage in future diplomacy with the U.S.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This is horrible and hopefully Lee Jae-myung is able to fully recover from this attack:

 Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was attacked during a visit to the southeastern port city of Busan on Tuesday and taken to a hospital while conscious.

Lee, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, was attacked on the left side of his neck by an unidentified man at 10:27 a.m. during a question and answer session with reporters after touring the construction site of a new airport on Busan’s Gadeok Island.

Lee was transferred to Pusan National University Hospital approximately 20 minutes after the attack.

At the time of the transfer, Lee remained conscious, but the bleeding continued.

The male suspect, pretending to be one of Lee’s supporters, approached the politician asking for an autograph and then carried out the attack with an unidentified weapon approximately 20-30 centimeters in length, according to eyewitnesses. 

He was arrested at the scene.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this is not the first time political violence like this has happened in South Korea. Park Geun-hye was slashed in the face in 2006 and U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert’s face and neck back in 2015. Hopefully the man that committed this latest political violence spends a long time in jail.