This shouldn’t be too surprising because it will likely be months before North Korea’s scientists are able to asses the data and repair whatever went wrong with their previous space launch. Additionally they likely have to build another satellite to put on top of the rocket:

The office of President Yoon Suk Yeol said Sunday it is not letting its guard down even though the window for North Korea’s satellite launch has expired, as the country can go ahead with a launch at any time.

North Korea had set a period between the start of May 31 and the start of June 11 as the window for a satellite-carrying space rocket launch. The country fired the rocket on the first day of the window, but the launch ended in failure with the rocket crashing in the Yellow Sea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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

This is a bizarre accident I have never heard of happening before:

An escalator ran reversely at a subway station in Bundang, south of Seoul, on Thursday, leaving 14 people injured, police said.

The accident occurred around 8:20 a.m. when the upwards escalator leading to exit 2 of Sunae Station on the Bundang Line reversed suddenly and went backward for several seconds, according to police and fire authorities. 

Three people were transported to a hospital after sustaining injuries on the back and legs. Eleven others sustained minor injuries, received treatment and were sent home. None of them were in life-threatening condition.

Police are looking into the exact cause of the accident but said there is little chance of someone using the escalator’s manual operating system to reverse its direction. 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It makes me wonder if their were marital difficulties and the wife defected knowing what the consequences for her husband would be:

Authorities in Vladivostok, a port city in the far eastern region of Russia, have launched an investigation into the disappearance of two North Koreans, Russian news outlets reported Tuesday.

The missing North Koreans are believed to be wife and son of an official working at the North Korean consulate general there, according to the Arguments & Facts weekly owned by the Government of Moscow.

The two — 43-year-old Kim Kum-sun and 15-year-old Park Kwon-ju — were last seen leaving the North Korean consulate general office in Vladivostok on Sunday morning and have been unaccounted for since, the report said.

The report said the cab driver who picked them up outside the consulate general office told authorities he dropped them off near a building on the city’s Russkaya Street, which was confirmed by closed-circuit TV footage.

The investigation was opened following a missing person report filed by the North Korean consul general office.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The Seoul Queer Culture Festival will go on as planned this year, but in Seoul’s Euljiro neighborhood:

This year’s Seoul Queer Culture Festival (SQCF) will be held as scheduled on July 1 in downtown Seoul’s Euljiro area due to the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s disapproval of its event taking place at Seoul Plaza, according to the festival organizer, Wednesday.

“The (festival’s) use of Seoul Plaza was disapproved by the discriminatory administration of the Seoul Metropolitan Government,” Yang Sun-woo, chairperson of the SQCF organizing committee, said during a press conference in Seoul, Wednesday. “The 24th SQCF and parade will be held in the Euljiro 2-ga area.”

The SQCF, which was launched in 2000 with around 50 participants in the capital’s northeastern Daehangno area, grew in size over the years, eventually settling in Seoul Plaza in 2015, one of the biggest public squares in the capital. This will be the first edition of the event to not be held there since 2015 except for the two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the city government rejected the committee’s request to use the city square in favor of a youth concert by the Christian Television System (CTS) Culture Foundation instead. 

In response, the committee filed a notice of assembly for the Euljiro area to secure an alternative venue. One month prior to the event, 64 activists and supporters took turns lining up at three police stations in the jurisdiction of the locations for 89 hours to receive police authorization for use of the public space. As permission is granted on a first-come, first-serve basis, they had to compete with Christian activists also lining up to book the same spaces in order to deny them a venue, according to Yang. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is a big win for President Yoon to secure this seat on the U.N. Security Council at a time of increasing tensions with North Korea:

South Korea was elected Tuesday as a nonpermanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term, expanding its foothold in the U.N. body to better address the North Korean issue and other global security challenges.

As the only candidate nation in Asia, Seoul was chosen in a vote at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, returning to the UNSC in 11 years after last sitting on the council in 2013-14.

South Korea won the seat after garnering 180 votes among 192 member states during the assembly.

This marks the third time for South Korea to serve as one of the 10 nonpermanent UNSC members. It previously served in the seat during the 1996-97 term.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.