Is it politically smart for someone with approval ratings as low as President Yoon to be seen spending so much time with someone who was impeached?:

President Yoon Suk Yeol traveled to the conservative stronghold of Daegu on Tuesday and visited former President Park Geun-hye at her home, in what appeared to be a bid to unite conservatives ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.

The visit came only 12 days after the two met during a memorial ceremony for Park’s late father and former President Park Chung-hee. It was not on the president’s official schedule and only disclosed afterward.

Park greeted Yoon outside her home’s entrance, whereas during Yoon’s previous visit in April last year, she greeted him inside her home, according to presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Only Japan and Korea mandate that cameras have a shutter noise. This is supposed to help prevent people from taking unwanted photos of others. However, there are plenty of third party camera apps that remove the shutter noise which makes this regulation worthless. It seems the vast majority of Koreans now realize this:

Eight in 10 South Koreans think they should be able to decide whether to mute or enable their camera shutter sound on their phones, a survey showed Sunday.

According to a survey conducted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission from Oct. 23 until Saturday on 3,476 respondents, 86.2 percent of those polled answered “yes” when asked if they think individuals should be able to adjust the camera shutter noise settings. Muting the camera shutter sound is disabled for all devices manufactured in Korea.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This facility looks like a pretty fun place to check out:

One of the more esoteric attractions in this part of South Korea is designed to appeal to aficionados of the shooting arts, namely archery. 

The Shooting Zone: Archery Theme Park is the first attraction of its kind in South Korea and features a 200-meter indoor archery range, an on-screen archery simulator, and a café with coffee, tea and snacks.

The facility accommodates three archery disciplines: recurve, compound and hunting bows. You can rent or buy all three types here. 

There are 20 lanes for archery practice. Renting a bow with 24 arrows costs 15,000 won, or about $11. You can get 36 arrows for 20,000 won.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

These new GTX trainlines will connect northern Gyeongi and parts of Gangwon provinces to Seoul in about 30 minutes. The hope is that these express trains will push development furhter away from Seoul in an effort to decrease property prices in the city:

President Yoon Suk Yeol (C) speaks during a public meeting over intercity transport on a train at Dongtan Station in Hwaseong, 45 kilometers south of Seoul, on Nov. 6, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Monday to move up the completion of the Great Train Express (GTX) commuter rail networks as he visited a train station in Seoul’s suburbs to check progress on a new service line.

The GTX networks are set to enter service next year, starting in March with the GTX-A line connecting Suseo Station in Seoul’s Gangnam Ward with Dongtan Station in Hwaseong, 45 kilometers south of the capital.

The GTX-C line connecting Yangju, 29 km north of Seoul, to Suwon, just south of the capital, is set to begin construction at the end of the year, while the GTX-B line connecting Incheon, just west of Seoul, to Namyangju, just east of the capital, will begin construction early next year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

With the amount of people that continue move into and drive in the area around Rodriguez Range these safety incidents are going to continue. However, with that said there really is no where else to go to conduct live fire training on the scale Rodriguez Range provides:

The command responsible for U.S. ground operations in South Korea has taken responsibility for a stray bullet that struck a moving car last week, according to Pocheon city officials.

Eighth Army, headquartered at Camp Humphreys south of the capital, “sincerely [feels] responsible for this accident,” Lt. Gen. Willard Burleson said during a meeting with Pocheon officials Wednesday, according to a news release from the city the next day.

Burleson said the command plans to “permanently close” the firing lane where the accident occurred and relocate training to a safer area, according to the release.

The Oct. 24 incident occurred less than a mile from the 3,390-acre Rodriguez Live Fire Complex, where U.S. and South Korean troops train 16 miles from the Demilitarized Zone.

The windshield of an SUV driven by a South Korean man was struck at 6:30 a.m. by a 5.56 mm bullet, according to Pocheon police. The driver was not injured.

The incident is still under investigation; however, a preliminary analysis “identified an issue with one of the firing lanes,” Eighth Army public affairs director Lt. Col. Juan Martinez wrote in a statement emailed Friday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link and fortunately the man driving the car was not injured by this errant round.

This is one of the few industries that North Korea actually excels at so it makes sense they would want to celebrate it:

North Korea has designated a “missile industry day” to mark a test-firing of its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in 2022, the North’s state media reported Sunday. 

North Korea test-fired the ICBM on Nov. 18, 2022, with leader Kim Jong-un declaring that the missile reaffirmed his regime’s acquisition of a powerful and reliable capability to counter any nuclear threats.

Nov. 18 was designated as the “missile industry day” because it displayed “the might of a world-class nuclear power and the strongest ICBM possessor was demonstrated to the whole world,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

You can read more at the link.