Its official the former Fox News host, Pete Hegseth is now the Secretary of Defense. He has absolutely no experience with the Korean peninsula or the Far East in general. Hopefully he is a quick learner:

The Senate voted Friday to confirm former Fox News Channel host Pete Hegseth as the United States’ next defense secretary, after allegations of sexual misconduct and other issues had dogged President Donald Trump’s pick for the top Pentagon post.

The upper chamber approved Hegseth in a vote where Vice President J.D. Vance broke a 50-50 tie, clearing a hurdle to Trump’s efforts to fill his Cabinet to forge ahead with his America First policy agenda.

In November, Trump tapped Hegseth, an Army veteran with tours in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, to serve as his defense secretary, describing him as a “warrior for the troops and for the country.”

During a confirmation hearing earlier this month, Hegseth described North Korea as a “nuclear power” that poses a threat to global stability, while highlighting the need for U.S. allies to increase “burden sharing” in pursuit of what he termed “healthy” partnerships.

Hegseth is the author of the recent book titled “The War on Warriors,” which Trump said reveals “how we must return our Military to meritocracy, lethality, accountability, and excellence.”

He had been a host at Fox News for eight years. He is a graduate of Princeton University and has a graduate degree from Harvard University.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I wonder what will happen if the legal system convicts Yoon of treason, but the Constitutional Court does not approve his impeachment?:

Attorney Yoon Gap-geun, legal representative for President Yoon Suk Yeol, speaks during a press conference held near Gangnam Station in Seoul on Saturday.

Attorney Yoon Gap-geun argued that the declaration of martial law by President Yoon could never constitute treason, stating, “Martial law is a constitutional authority granted to the president, and there has never been a case where the exercise of emergency powers by the president was punished as treason. This conclusion is supported by the majority of constitutional scholars.”

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

On the North Korean provocation scale, testing a cruise missile is pretty low:

North Korea on Sunday said it tested sea-to-surface strategic cruise-guided missiles, the previous day, in its first provocation since US President Donald Trump officially began his second term.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Missile Administration test-fired the missiles on Saturday, which flew 1,500 kilometers over their flight trajectories for 7,507 to 7,511 seconds before precisely hitting their targets, according to the Korean Central News Agency. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or DPRK is North Korea’s official name.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

The CIO is making themselves look ridiculous at this point. Yoon has told them repeatedly that he is exercising his right to remain silent and yet they are playing this hide and seek game with him:

Oh Dong-woon, chief of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, speaks to reporters as he arrives for work at the office in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, on Jan. 22, 2025. (Yonhap)

Investigators failed Wednesday at their third attempt to forcibly bring in President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning over his botched martial law bid. (……)

Prosecutors and investigators with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) visited the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, south of Seoul, to question Yoon over his Dec. 3 declaration of martial law, but the president refused all forms of interrogation, including on-site.

“We plan to discuss and decide the next steps in the questioning and procedures,” the CIO said in a notice to the press.

The investigators withdrew after five hours while Yoon met with his legal team.

Yonhap

So basically when the CIO shows up Yoon has meetings with his lawyers or he is attending his impeachment trial or going to the hospital:

Investigators went to the detention center on Monday and Tuesday to forcibly bring him in but withdrew both times after Yoon’s side refused to cooperate.

Under human rights protection regulations, investigators cannot question a suspect without his or her consent after 9 p.m.

Yoon returned to the detention center past that time on Tuesday after attending his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court and stopping at a military hospital to get a health exam.

“It kind of turned out like a game of hide-and-seek,” Oh said when asked if he was aware of Yoon’s plans to visit the hospital. “(The investigators) waited at the detention center because it didn’t seem right from the perspective of human rights to go looking for him at the hospital.”

So why is the CIO continuing to play this hide and seek game with someone exercising their right to remain silent?

This really is not surprising that the rank and file North Korean Soldiers did not know they were being sent to fight against Ukraine:

One of the two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine this month has claimed that he arrived in Russia without knowing whom he would be fighting, according to another video of his interrogation released by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Earlier this month, Zelenskyy disclosed that his forces had captured the North Korean soldiers in Russia’s western front-line region of Kursk, sharing videos of their interrogation on the social media platform X.

In the latest video posted on Monday (local time), one of the captured soldiers said he arrived in Russia aboard a ship with around 100 others before being transported inland by rail with them.

“Even after coming here, I didn’t know that I would be fighting the Ukrainian people,” the man said in the video in Korean. The video could not be independently verified.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.