Like it has done just about every August in recent memory, the North Koreans are continuing their offensive on the fish in the East Sea:

North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, South Korea’s military said Thursday, in apparent protest against combined South Korea-U.S. military drills.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launches from an area in or around Sunan in Pyongyang between around 11:40 p.m. and 11:50 p.m. Wednesday.

The missiles each flew some 360 kilometers before splashing into the waters, the JCS said, with the allies’ intelligence authorities conducting further analysis.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Presidential office is serving some really good seafood this week:

Senior presidential secretary for press affairs Kim Eun-hye (L) is served a tray of sliced raw fish at the in-house cafeteria of the presidential office in Seoul on Aug. 28, 2023, in this photo provided by the office. (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo ate seafood during their weekly lunch meeting Monday, the presidential office said, as the government tries to promote seafood safety in the wake of Japan’s release of radioactive water into the ocean.

Seafood was also served at the in-house cafeteria of the presidential office. The top office has said various kinds of seafood will be served at the cafeteria throughout the week, beginning with sliced raw fish and grilled mackerel Monday.

“The number of people who dined at the cafeteria today was 1.5 times more than usual, including many staff members who canceled their lunch appointments to dine at the cafeteria,” the presidential office said in a notice to reporters.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I actually like Mr. Pizza, but it looks like they are willing to use dirty tricks against their pizza rivals:

A Mr. Pizza sign [YONHAP]

Korea’s antitrust regulator said Tuesday it has decided to slap a fine of 400 million won ($302,158) on local chain operator Mr. Pizza for obstructing a rival’s operations.  
   
The punitive action against Mr.Pizza came in response to the company’s interference with Pizza Union Coop’s operations, including disrupting the supply of ingredients, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said.  
   
Pizza Union Coop was founded by individuals who previously operated Mr.Pizza stores but left the franchise following disagreements with the market’s second-largest player. 

In 2017, Mr.Pizza directly opened new locations near Pizza Union Coop’s stores where it rolled out massive discount promotions.  
   
The regulator said it was evident that Mr.Pizza opened its directly controlled stores with the intention to obstruct the operation of Pizza Union Coop, as it previously opened such shops only in busy areas, including Gangnam in southern Seoul.  
   
It also filed a lawsuit against the founder of Pizza Union Coop for defamation and exerted influence on ingredient suppliers to cut off shipments to the newly established firm. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It looks like President Yoon is actually trying to be a conservative who actually wants to reduce spending unlike U.S. conservatives who only seem to care about cutting spending when they are not in charge:

President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Tuesday to stick to a sound fiscal policy, strongly criticizing the preceding Moon Jae-in government for increasing national debts with reckless spending.

Yoon made the remark during a Cabinet meeting, pledging to reject temptations of spending for political purposes, as the government proposed a national budget of 656.9 trillion won (US$495 billion) for 2024, the slowest on-year growth since 2005. 

“Due to the previous administration’s lax fiscal management, the national debts rose by 400 trillion won, and reached over 1,000 trillion won for the first time last year,” Yoon said in opening remarks at the Cabinet meeting. 

Thanks to his administration’s efforts to achieve fiscal soundness, Yoon said the growth of national debts has markedly slowed, and the government will continue to stick to a sound fiscal policy for the sake of external credibility and price stabilization.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The protesters don’t care about facts like this, they only care about push anti-Japanese narratives and bashing the Yoon administration:

This image provided by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries on Aug. 27, 2023, shows locations, marked by dots, in South Korea’s territorial waters where radiation tests are being or will be conducted by Seoul, as Japan began to release radioactive water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. (Yonhap)

The radiation levels in the waters near South Korea remain well below the standards for drinkable water defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), Seoul’s oceans ministry said Sunday.

It was the first such test conducted on 15 locations in three areas of South Korea’s territorial waters after Japan began to release radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean last Thursday.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said it released the results of the radiation tests, carried out Friday, on five locations in the southeastern waters, and plans to disclose the rest of the test results on 10 other locations as soon as they are available.

In the latest result, the concentration levels of cesium-135 and cesium-137 stood at 0.067-0.094 and 0.077-0.098 becquerel per liter, respectively, compared with the WHO’s 10 becquerel per liter for drinking water.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I don’t know if this is really a fight worth having for the Yoon administration:

The government is considering relocating a bust of revered independence fighter Hong Beom-do from outside the defense ministry headquarters due to his past record of collaborating with Soviet communist forces, officials said Monday.

Earlier, the defense ministry said it is considering relocating the busts of five Korean independence fighters, including Hong’s, from the Korea Military Academy in northern Seoul, sparking protest from opposition parties and the Heritage of Korean Independence, an association representing the independence fighters and their descendants.

The move is seen as being in line with the Yoon administration’s push to align closer with the United States and Japan in the face of growing cooperation among North Korea, China and Russia.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but of course the opposition party is backing keeping the busts of communist supporters in place.