I wonder if the North Korean Air Force used up their entire yearly training budget on this flight:

Twelve North Korean military aircraft flew in formation and presumably conducted a firing exercise Thursday, Seoul officials said, in apparent protest over recent military drills between South Korea and the United States.

The group of eight fighter jets and four bombers staged the formation flight north of the inter-Korean air boundary at around 2 p.m., and they were thought to have conducted air-to-surface firing drills, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

Some 30 South Korean fighter jets were immediately deployed to the area in an “overwhelming” response to the flight, which is a move unseen over the past year, the JCS said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Can you idiots stop trying to smuggle drugs through the U.S. mail? How many people have to get caught before they realize this has been tried before and doesn’t work?:

A Japanese man has been sentenced to 13 years in prison and fined about $35,000 for leading a ring that smuggled illegal narcotics into Japan through the U.S. military postal system on Okinawa.

Ken Kominami, 30, who is unemployed and has no fixed address, was first arrested in October 2021 after Japanese police were tipped off to a potential drug-smuggling ring by the U.S. military, a spokesman for Okinawa prefectural police’s organized crime department told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Kominami and nine others imported approximately five pounds of cocaine, two liters of cannabis liquid and nearly four ounces of cannabis flower from unnamed individuals in the United States, a spokeswoman from the Naha District Prosecutors Office said by phone Tuesday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the arrests included a DA civilian and Marine who were sent to jail for their idiocy.

The U.S. is using a standing play from its North Korean provocation playbook by sailing in a U.S. aircraft carrier into the East Sea. This time they are doing it shortly after it already completed an exercise there:

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is redeploying to South Korea’s eastern coast less than a week after it concluded trilateral naval drills with South Korean and Japanese warships.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff in a press release Wednesday said the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group would be entering international waters in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, on the same day due to “highly unusual” timing of North Korea’s activities.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The ROK military was fortunate no one was hurt or killed by the is missile malfunction:

A Hyunmoo-2 short-range ballistic missile malfunctioned and crashed shortly after being launched from a South Korean military base late Tuesday night during a joint drill by South Korea and the United States, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).  
   
The drill was a response to North Korea’s launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM)on Tuesday morning.  
   
In its initial 7 a.m. press release, the JCS said that South Korea and the United States each launched two U.S.-made Army Tactical Missile System (Atacms) surface-to-surface missiles beginning at 12:50 a.m. on Wednesday, which accurately hit mock targets and demonstrated the allies’ capability to deter further provocations.    (….)

The press release made no mention of a South Korean-made Hyunmoo-2 missile fired more than an hour earlier, which crashed almost immediately after its launch.  
   
Residents around the eastern coastal city of Gangneung, Gangwon, reported a fire and a loud explosion close to the location of the 18th Fighter Wing Air Base at around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night. Reports of the joint drill were embargoed until 5 a.m. Wednesday.  
   
Images uploaded to social media by local residents showed an orange fireball.  
   
The South Korean military was forced to issue a clarification about the Hyunmoo-2’s crash-landing after reports of the explosion spread.  
   
“Immediately after its launch, the missile flew inland instead of toward the sea and abnormally landed on a golf course on the base at a location approximately 700 meters (765 yards) from a civilian residential area,” said a military official who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity, implying the missile’s trajectory had been intended for the East Sea.  
   
“The flames (the residents saw) were not from the warhead exploding, but rather from the propellant burning,” he added. “There was no damage to civilians nearby as the missile crashed within the base immediately after the launch.”   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but it appears the ROK military may have tried to keep news of this accident quiet until the social media frenzy became enough they had to issue a statement. This is definitely an embarrassing accident for the ROK military to have happen to them right after North Korea conducts their longest successful ballistic missile test yet.

Here is the latest sign of the growing drug problem in South Korea:

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration is assembling a task force to fight the drug trade and the use of drugs, according to a number of administration sources who spoke off the record.    
   
“Preparations for a war on drugs is happening at a fast pace,” a high-ranking presidential official told the JoongAng Ilbo by phone Sunday. “It is a matter of the country protecting its people.”  
   
The initiative comes as Korea faces a flood of illegal substances from overseas and as the use of drugs becomes more widespread in a society once known as essentially drug free.  (…..) 

The “war on drugs” will involve the formation of a pan-governmental joint investigation team with the prosecution and police partnered with related agencies, such as the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Korea Customs Service, the sources said.  
   
Large cities, like Seoul, Busan and Incheon, are expected to be key areas for the crackdown to block the entry of drugs into Korea.    
   
“The prosecution has already started the basic work to crack down on the overseas supply chain,” a member of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) said.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This is pretty much the last thing that needed to move off of Yongsan Garrison:

The headquarters of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) will relocate to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, this month, ending a four-decade presence in Seoul’s Yongsan District.    
   
The South Korean Defense Ministry said Tuesday that the relocation of the CFC’s headquarters is expected to wrap up by the end of the month.    
   
“Through the relocation, the CFC plans to establish an even stronger combined defense system based on a strengthened alliance spirit and operational efficiency in Pyeongtaek, the new cradle of the alliance,” the ministry said in a statement. (……)

Approximately 700 South Korean and U.S. personnel currently serving at the CFC’s Yongsan headquarters will begin moving to Camp Humphreys starting early this month, while the CFC plans to hold a ceremony in November marking the end of the command’s era in Yongsan.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.