It seems to me that Kim Jong-un is setting conditions to justify a nuclear test:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for stronger “self-defense” measures to tackle “very serious” security challenges as he presided over a key ruling party session earlier this week, Pyongyang’s state media reported Saturday. 

But there was no specific message issued from the fifth enlarged plenary meeting of the party’s eighth Central Committee with regard to the possibility of the secretive regime carrying out another nuclear test. 

The North stopped short of delivering new major messages toward the United States or South Korea through the three-day high-profile session that ended Friday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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

This guy is lucky he only got fined because there were conservative journalists thrown in jail after their libel suits:

Rhyu Si-min, a former health minister and an influential liberal commentator, was sentenced to a fine of 5 million won (US$4,000) by a court Thursday for defamatory comments made years ago about Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon.

The Seoul Western District Court handed out the monetary penalty after convicting Rhyu of defaming Han by making false remarks about him in public between 2019 and 2020 when the minister was serving as a senior prosecutor.

Rhyu, who formerly headed a foundation memorializing late former President Roh Moo-hyun, was indicted in May last year for alleging on his YouTube channel in December 2019 and in a media interview in July 2020 that a prosecution department led by Han at that time illegally accessed his personal bank account and that of the memorial foundation sometime between late November and early December 2019.

Han, picked last month by President Yoon Suk-yeol as his administration’s first justice minister, was serving as head of the Supreme Prosecutors Office’s Anti-Corruption & Organized Crimes Department when Rhyu alleged the illegal account accesses occurred.

“(Han) appears to have suffered considerable psychological pain from the defendant’s remarks, as he was recognized as a prosecutor who abused his investigative power for an unjust purpose,” the Seoul court said, noting Rhyu may have considerable influence in the formation of public opinion, particularly as a YouTuber with more than 1 million subscribers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is a horrible tragedy over in Daegu:

A fire apparently caused by arson killed seven people and injured 50 others at an office building in the southeastern city of Daegu on Thursday, officials said.

Police pinpointed a 53-year-old man as the suspected arsonist responsible for the blaze based on CCTV footage. The man was killed at the scene, they said.

The fire started at around 10:55 a.m. on the second floor of the five-story building housing lawyers’ offices in Daegu, about 300 kilometers south of Seoul, according to firefighting officials. 

The fire killed seven people, including an attorney and five assistants from a law office on the second floor. 

Fifty others were hurt, suffering burns and inhaling smoke, and 30 of them were sent to nearby hospitals. Many others were evacuated to safety.

Police suspect the alleged arsonist set fire to a lawyer’s office handling a case involving him.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is the new Korean ambassador to the United States:

Cho Tae-yong, the nominee for Korea’s ambassador to the United States, has received diplomatic consent ― known in international affairs as “agrement” ― from Washington, according to media reports.

President Yoon Suk-yeol appointed the diplomat-turned-politician as his first ambassador to the U.S. on May 17 and the approval came two weeks after Cho’s nomination. 

It took two months for Lee Soo-hyuck, Cho’s predecessor under the Moon Jae-in administration, to receive the approval of the U.S. government, raising speculation for some at the time that the delayed consent had been due to Washington’s displeasure with Seoul’s decision to end an information-sharing deal with Japan, although the foreign ministry dismissed such conjecture.

Known by those close to him for possessing a balanced mindset as well as expertise in U.S. and North Korean affairs, Cho, 65, served as the first vice foreign minister and the deputy national security adviser under the Park Geun-hye administration. In addition, he was elected as a proportional representative in 2020 on the conservative People Power Party’s ticket, serving on the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee and Intelligence Committee. 

Last week, Cho resigned from the Assembly to take on the ambassadorship. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is looking like it is only a matter of time before ex-President Lee Myung-bak receives a pardon:

A high-level official in Yoon’s office told the JoongAng Ilbo Wednesday that the president will await the prosecutors’ decision. The head of the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office, Hong Seung-wook, is known to be close to Yoon, who formerly served as head of the state prosecution agency.  
   
Even if Hong green-lights Lee’s suspension, the former president’s jail term will remain valid. Some legal experts predict Hong will authorize Lee’s suspension and Yoon will follow up with a presidential pardon on Liberation Day to finally set Lee free.  
   
Talk about a pardon for Lee has been going for months, especially after former conservative President Park Geun-hye was pardoned last December by former liberal President Moon Jae-in. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This is a really good idea and a nice gesture by a Korean couple who founded the Korean War Foundation:

In Kaycee, Wyoming, the only school library is named for Corporal Demaret Kirtley, a Korean War veteran born in the small American town.  
   
The library got its name thanks to a $5,000 (6.26 million won) donation by Koo Sung-yeol and Kim Chang-hwa to the school in May 2021. 

In 2020, the Korean couple, who have lived in the U.S. for more than 50 years, founded the Korean War Foundation. It has made $5,000 donations to schools in the hometowns of nine American soldiers who died in the Korean War.  
   
Koo and his wife make donations to the schools and deliver nameplates that honor the fallen soldiers.  
   
The couple’s grand notion: to pay respect to the American foot soldiers in the war for Korea’s freedom from all 50 states.  
   
Corporal Kirtley died on Dec. 6, 1950, in the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir on the Gaema Plateau in South Hamgyeong. He was 21 years old. His remains, which were not recovered at the time, were returned to his hometown in June 2019, 69 years after he died. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.