Lee Jae-myung is turning into the Bill Clinton of South Korea with all the investigations and suicides around him:

Police launched an investigation Thursday into the apparent suicide of former chief of staff of Rep. Lee Jae-myung, head of the main opposition Democratic Party, investigators said.

Lee’s former aide, surnamed Jeon, was reportedly found dead at his home in Seongnam, south of Seoul, by his family, at around 8: 50 p.m., according to officials. 

Authorities believe Jeon, who served as Lee’s chief of staff during his term as the governor of Gyeonggi Province, died by suicide.

Besides as Lee’s top aide, Jeon had also served as a senior manager of Gyeonggi Housing & Urban Development Corp.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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

How nice of North Korea to launch some fireworks before the start of the Freedom Shield exercise next month:

North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile toward the Yellow Sea on Thursday, Seoul’s military said, in the latest show of force ahead of a major South Korea-U.S. military exercise set to begin next week.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from the North’s western port city of Nampo at 6:20 p.m. It did not elaborate further.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I did not realize it has been this long since an official state visit to the U.S. by a South Korean leader:

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will make a state visit to the United States late next month, and hold a summit with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the two countries’ alliance and deepen political, economic, security, and people-to-people ties.

The South Korean presidential office said Wednesday that Yoon will travel to the U.S. for a state visit in late April and that a state dinner is slated for April 26. The White House said U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and his South Korean counterpart Kim Sung-han discussed preparations for the upcoming visit by Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee.

It will be the first state visit to the U.S. by a South Korean leader in 12 years. The last South Korean head of state to do that was former President Lee Myung-bak, who was invited by then U.S. President Barack Obama in October 2011. Also, Yoon will be the second state guest invited by Biden since his inauguration in January 2021.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is just absolutely horrible to do to any animal. The stench of all these decaying dogs must have been overwhelming:

One of the four surviving dogs. (Screen grab from Care’s YouTube channel)

Over a thousand dead dogs were found on the grounds of a house in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, and police are investigating a man in his 60s on charges of violating animal protection law.

The man said he collected abandoned dogs and starved them to death, but animal rights activists allege that he was paid by dog breeders to get rid of dogs who couldn’t get pregnant anymore or whose commercial value had dipped.

A representative of animal rights group Care told cable news channel MBN that the man was paid 10,000 ($7.60) won per dog to “take care of them,” and he just locked them up and starved them to death from 2020.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Kim Yo-jong is out making wild threats as usual before next weeks US-ROK Freedom Shield exercise:

Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, warned Tuesday the North is ready to take “overwhelming” actions against military activities by the United States and South Korea, as its rivals are staging joint military drills involving American strategic assets.

Kim also warned the North will regard any U.S. attempt to intercept a missile that it will fire as a “clear declaration of war” against the reclusive nation, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“As already clarified, we keep our eye on the restless military moves by the U.S. forces and the south Korean puppet military and are always on standby to take appropriate, quick and overwhelming action at any time according to our judgment,” Kim said in an English-language statement carried by the state-run media.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but all the U.S. is only going to intercept a missile if it fired at areas that threaten U.S. or allied territory. The U.S. Aegis ships and THAAD batteries provide terminal missile defense which means it does intercepts while the threat missile is descending from the atmosphere. This means the U.S. would need to know the area where the missile is descending to shoot it down. That is why these assets are located in areas that military commanders want protected such as the THAAD batteries in South Korea and Guam.

The U.S. also has the GMD system with interceptors located in Alaska and California to protect the U.S. homeland. If North Korea fires a missile any where near the U.S. homeland of course it will be intercepted.