The tsunami waves in South Korea got up to 67 inches which is just over 2 feet, so fortunately these were pretty small waves that hit South Korea:

South Korea reported small tsunamis in parts of the East Sea on Monday following a major earthquake off Japan’s west coast.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said a 7.6 magnitude quake that struck Ishikawa and nearby prefectures around 4 p.m. caused minor tsunamis in waters off South Korea’s east coast province of Gangwon on Monday evening.

According to the KMA, a wave off the east coast city of Gangneung reached 20 centimeters at 6:01 p.m., while a wave seen off another coastal town of Donghae was measured at 45 centimeters at 6:05 p.m.

As of 8 p.m., a tsunami wave had hit 67 centimeters off Mukho, a district in Donghae. Earlier in the day, the KMA had estimated that the maximum vertical height of the tsunami waves in the region would stay below 50 centimeters — a level that will prompt a tsunami warning. The KMA also said even waves at 20 to 30 centimeters can still cause damage.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Psy’s 2012 song Gangnam Style continues to be one of the top videos of all-time on Youtube:

“Gangnam Style,” a 2012 global sensation by South Korean singer-rapper Psy, reached another milestone Saturday as the song’s popularity has continued for more than a decade.

The music video for the song exceeded 5 billion views on YouTube.

Unveiled in July 2012, the main track from Psy’s sixth full-length album became a global sensation as its comical music video and the singer’s trademark horse dance went viral.

The song made him the first K-pop act to rise to No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 main singles chart. Psy spent a total of seven weeks in the position.

Its music video became the first video to exceed YouTube’s view limit when it surpassed 2 billion views in May 2014, prompting the service to upgrade its counter. The video later surpassed 3 billion in November 2017 and 4 billion in March 2021.

Korea Herald

Even though Gangnam Style hit 5 billion views it still has not cracked Youtube’s Top 10 Videos; it actually ranks #11 right now. If you can believe it the number one video on Youtube is the Baby Shark Dance with over 13 billion views!

Happy New Year to all my readers of the ROK Drop! As part of starting out 2024 I figured I would pull my blog stats and take a look back at the most read postings from 2023. As can be seen below the Overall Top 25 most read postings last year on ROK Drop is pretty well spread out across the past two decades. However, the passing of convicted USFK murderer Kenneth Markle in 2023 was easily the most read story of the year.

Yeonmi Park, juicy girls, room salons, and criminal cases are also popular postings. Some of my older longer form blog posts about USFK camps and GI incidents are still doing very well on Google as well. What is interesting is that despite all the headlines North Korea makes, it is not something people are using Google to look up information for. In my top 25 only one posting made it that was North Korea related. Many years ago North Korea postings were very popular, which shows how numb this topic has become with many people. ICBM launches and nuclear threats used to be big news and now no one really cares because they happen so frequently. What this means is that North Korea is really going to have to up their provocation strategy if they want to capture the world’s attention in 2024.

Top 25 Overall Most Read Postings of 2023

1. INFAMOUS CONVICTED USFK MURDERER, KENNETH MARKLE PASSES AWAY AT AGE 50 (2023)
2. HAS YEONMI PARK BEEN EXAGGERATING HER CLAIMS ABOUT HER LIFE IN NORTH KOREA? (2014)
3. SOUTH KOREA TO “TOUGHEN” SEX CRIME PENALTIES (2011)
4. GI FLASHBACKS: THE 1992 PRIVATE KENNETH MARKLE MURDER CASE (2015)
5. PICTURE OF THE DAY: KIM JONG-UN MAKES KIDS CRY (2023)
6. “BLING RING” LEADER RACHEL LEE DAUGHTER OF NORTH KOREAN IMMIGRANT (2010)
7. WHAT ROOM SALONS ARE LIKE IN SOUTH KOREA (2015)
8. KOREA TIMES PROFILES JUICY GIRLS WORKING TDC VILLE OUTSIDE OF CAMP CASEY (2018)
9. ANYONE WANT TO DATE THIS WOMAN? (2005)
10. A PROFILE OF US MILITARY BASES IN SOUTH KOREA SERIES ARCHIVE (2016)
11. WHAT IS A “TENPRO” GIRL IN SOUTH KOREA? (2017)
12. CONVICTED USFK MURDERER SPEAKS OUT (2006)
13. GI FLASHBACK: THE 1981 INGMAN RANGE MASSACRE (2014)
14. AAFES PLANS TO PHASE OUT ANTHONY’S PIZZA BRAND (2021)
15. A PROFILE OF KOREA’S TEOKGEO-RI VILLE (2011)
16. A PROFILE OF THE BOSAN-DONG VILLE IN DONGDUCHEON, KOREA (2011)
17. A PROFILE OF THE “TDC VILLE”, SOUTH KOREA (2007)
18. KOREAN WOMAN ACQUITTED OF SWITCHING 3-YEAR OLD DAUGHTER WITH HER OWN GRANDDAUGHTER WHO WAS FOUND MURDERED (2023)
19. PLAYBOY RANKS THE TOP 10 HOTTEST KOREAN WOMEN (2015)
20. “BIKINI BIKER COUPLE” FACE POSSIBLE CHARGES AFTER RIDING MOTORCYCLE THROUGH GANGNAM (2022)
21. A PROFILE OF CAMP RED CLOUD, SOUTH KOREA (2005)
22. DMZ FLASHBACKS: THE 1970 JAL 351 “YODOGO HIJACKING” (2018)
23. GI FLASHBACKS ARTICLE ARCHIVE (2015)
24. A PROFILE OF CAMP PAGE, SOUTH KOREA (2015)
25. A PROFILE OF USFK CAMPS IN DONGDUCHEON, SOUTH KOREA (2007)

Top 10 Posts from Only 2023

1. INFAMOUS CONVICTED USFK MURDERER, KENNETH MARKLE PASSES AWAY AT AGE 50
2. PICTURE OF THE DAY: KIM JONG-UN MAKES KIDS CRY (2023)
3. KOREAN WOMAN ACQUITTED OF SWITCHING 3-YEAR OLD DAUGHTER WITH HER OWN GRANDDAUGHTER WHO WAS FOUND MURDERED
4. ROK DROP OPEN THREAD – AUGUST 18, 2023
5. PICTURE OF THE DAY: CAMBODIAN BOY WHO MET WITH FIRST LADY HAD HEART SURGERY IN SOUTH KOREA
6. PICTURE OF THE DAY: NAKED MARATHON
7. ROK DROP OPEN THREAD – SEPTEMBER 01, 2023
8. PICTURE OF THE DAY: AERIAL REFUELING DRILL
9. SERGEI SHOIGU TURNS UP IN PYONGYANG FOR KOREAN WAR ARMISTICE CELEBRATION
10. DEATH TOLL FROM KOREAN FLOODS RISES TO 40 PEOPLE

The Kim regime has big plans in 2024 and none of them involve improving the welfare of its citizens:

North Korea aims to launch three additional spy satellites and produce more nuclear weapons next year, as it is accelerating war readiness against various forms of U.S. military threats, Pyongyang’s state media said Sunday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un set forth the goal as he wrapped up five days of the plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Saturday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“Based on the experience of successfully launching and operating the first spy satellite in 2023 in the space development sector, the task of launching three more spy satellites in 2024 was unveiled and all-out measures to spur the development of the space science technology were discussed,” the KCNA said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like there will be a lot of snow men being made in Seoul this New Year’s Day:

 Seoul residents battled through the heaviest snowfall recorded for December since 1981, as a winter storm dumped more than 10 centimeters Saturday, with more snow expected in many parts of the country ahead of the new year.

A heavy snow advisory was in effect for the entire capital, except for southwestern Seoul, parts of Gyeonggi Province and most parts of the eastern province of Gangwon earlier in the day, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.

As of 4 p.m., the advisory remained in effect for most parts of Gangwon, with up to 1 to 4 centimeters of snowfall per hour pounding the inland and mountainous areas of the province.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The last Open Thread of 2023. I hope everyone has a fantastic 2024, however with a U.S. Presidential election coming in the new year expect it to be a crazy one. Hopefully though it doesn’t get as crazy as the last election year in 2020 got.