A South Korean Navy cruise training group, including 151 naval cadets, arrived at a port in Maryland on Monday, for a visit to mark the 70th anniversary of the alliance between South Korea and the United States. ROKS Hansando (ATH-81), a training ship, and ROKS Hwacheon (AOE-59), a combat support ship, berthed at the Port of Baltimore — one of 14 destinations during the Navy’s annual 141-day cruise program that set sail on Aug. 28.
The loss of this election in Seoul is supposedly not a good sign for upcoming elections for the PPP which currently holds the Korean Presidency:
Jin Gyo-hoon, center, main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) candidate for Gangseo District mayor, speaks after his victory was declared at his campaign office in western Seoul, Wednesday. At right is DPK floor leader Rep. Hong Ihk-pyo. Joint press corps
Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea candidate (DPK) Jin Gyo-hoon clinched a landslide victory in a by-election to elect the mayor of Gangseo District in western Seoul, Thursday, which was widely seen as a bellwether of the 2024 general elections.
The election drew considerable attention, as it was the last chance to gauge public sentiment before the general elections slated for April 10. The rival parties sent seasoned politicians to support the candidates, considering the election’s impact in the six-month race for seats in the National Assembly, and Wednesday’s result will likely boost the DPK’s crusade against the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and the ruling People Power Party (PPP).
According to the National Election Commission, Jin gained 56.52 percent of the votes, outpacing PPP candidate Kim Tae-woo with 39.37 percent.
Jin will immediately begin the remaining term of approximately three years as the district mayor.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
Fortunately according to the article no South Korean citizens were killed or kidnapped by Hamas:
South Korean tourists wait in line to check in for their return flight at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Oct. 10, 2023, amid an ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas militants. (Yonhap)
A South Korean passenger jet carrying dozens of citizens is set to return home from Israel, the foreign ministry said Tuesday, after violence erupted between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
The Korean Air Co. flight carrying 214 passengers, including 192 Korean nationals, departed from Tel Aviv at 1:50 p.m. Tuesday (local time) and is expected to arrive at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, at around 6:10 a.m. on Wednesday.
It will be the first flight to transport South Koreans back home since tensions quickly escalated in the region after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel over the weekend.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
If North Korea conducts a nuclear test getting international attention seems to be reason why they would do it, not a food crisis as the ROK government is speculating. A nuclear test may also be something done in coordination with Iran to divert U.S. resources from the Middle East as Iran continues to use its proxies there to wage war on Israel and Sunni Arab states:
The reigniting of the Israel-Hamas conflict, coupled with Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, could shift the United States’ attention further away from North Korea’s nuclear quandary, analysts said Tuesday.
The conflict flared up following the Palestinian militant group’s deadly surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, as Washington’s stated commitment to diplomacy with Pyongyang has fallen on deaf years amid the North’s unceasing drive for nuclear armament.
President Joe Biden pledged “full support” for Israel. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin deployed the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean while Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed the U.S.’ “solidarity” with Israel.
The U.S.’ apparent reapportioning of diplomatic and security resources for conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe has raised speculation that it would be harder for the U.S. to pay more attention to addressing the North Korean conundrum.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
If you want to read more about General Monclar read my prior Heroes of the Korean War posting about him.
It seems like we have been talking about North Korea conducting a possible nuclear test for the past two years and for whatever reason they haven’t done one yet. I am not convinced that a food crisis is what is going to cause them to conduct a new nuclear test:
Defense Minister Shin Won-sik speaks during a visit to the command center of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division in Paju, 37 kilometers north of Seoul, on Oct. 9, 2023, in this photo provided by his office. (Yonhap)
North Korea may stage various provocations, including a nuclear test, to divert its public’s attention from the country’s ongoing food crisis, South Korea’s defense ministry said Tuesday.
The ministry made the assessment in a policy report for a parliamentary audit amid growing tensions after North Korea revised its constitution late last month to stipulate the policy of strengthening its nuclear force.
“In order to pass on internal complaints of food woes and failures in economic policy to the outside world, there is a possibility of (the North) conducting various strategic and tactical provocations, including a seventh nuclear test,” the ministry said in the report.
The isolated regime, which has faced chronic food shortages, last conducted a nuclear test in September 2017.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
This is an interesting historical footnote from World War II:
Deep in the forests of southwestern Oregon is a redwood sapling — a peace offering at the site of an act of war.
Friday marks the 81st anniversary of the end of the only enemy aerial bombing campaign to strike the continental United States during World War II.
The plan was to firebomb the vast forests of America’s northwest in retaliation for the April 18, 1942, Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. The Japanese hoped their modest effort would torch millions of acres of trees and deprive the U.S. defense industry of tons of wood crucial to the war effort. The Americans would have to send thousands of troops to fight the fires.
Nobuo Fujita, a veteran Japanese Navy pilot, advocated the attack and was given the honor of taking the war to the American home front.
Twice he would fly his submarine-launched floatplane over the forests near Brookings, Ore., release his bombs and make his way to a rendezvous with the I-25 transport submarine waiting for him off the coast.
Though Fujita did not know it at the time, nearly all the bombs fizzled. An alert student forest ranger stomped out one small flare-up. The wet forest floors took care of the rest.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
This is a great program that the ROK continues to run for Korean War veterans that has now expanded to include post-Korean War USFK veterans:
Former soldiers who served in U.N. Command (UNC) and U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) after the 1950-53 Korean War, will visit South Korea on Tuesday upon the invitation of the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.
Six of them are sons of war veterans who fought for South Korea under the U.N. flag. They include Dennis Michael Bullard, 67, James Edward Truman, 66 and David Lee Nutter, 67.
Two war veterans ― Robert Eugene Jenkins, 88, and Kenlym Hinshaw Moy, 92 ― are also on the invitation list, the ministry said, noting that a total of 91 people ― 87 U.S. nationals, two Swedish nationals and two Italian nationals ― including families of the former soldiers will visit and stay in Korea until Oct. 15.
During their visit, the guests will tour Osan Air Base, Camp Humphreys, the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjeom, Seoul National Cemetery and the War Memorial of Korea.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
