Moon Jae-in definitely did leave office on a much higher note than his predecessors:

“Thank you, thank you everyone,” Moon spoke into a microphone before boarding a KTX train around noon after attending the inauguration of Yoon Suk-yeol.  
   
“Who among past presidents could have had such a beautiful end? Thanks to all of you, I was a happy president until the end.”   
   
When the couple arrived in front of the Pyeongsan village hall, located only a few blocks from their retirement home, hundreds of people were wearing blue shirts or caps and holding blue balloons, Moon’s signature color since his 2017 presidential campaign.They erupted in cheers as the former presidential couple appeared.   
   
Moon is the first president to retire with an approval rating over 40 percent since direct elections were restored in 1987. His approval rating a year into his presidency was also the highest for a Korean president in history, 83 percent, according to Gallup Korea.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

She definitely took the advice many were offering that she keep an extreme low profile due to the various minor scandals that were surrounding her during the campaign. It looks like the Yoon administration will now slowly role here back out into the public eye:

First lady Kim Keon-hee made her first official appearance in public on Tuesday after keeping a low profile for months as she accompanied President Yoon Suk-yeol on a visit to the Seoul National Cemetery and then to his inauguration ceremony.

Kim first paid tribute to fallen patriots at the cemetery together with Yoon before moving to the National Assembly Plaza for the inauguration ceremony, where some 41,000 people gathered to witness the start of the new government.

It was the first time the couple has made a public appearance together since Yoon’s election in March.

After arriving at the National Assembly, Kim, dressed in white, walked behind Yoon, greeting well-wishers lining the path to the podium with fist bumps.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The claims against Ken Rhee makes me wonder if this is a Russian disinformation campaign targeting him? With that said he is a YouTuber so of course he is going to have people filming him:

Rhee Ken, a Korean YouTuber and former Korean Navy special warfare officer who went to Ukraine in March to fight Russia, denied allegations that a cameraman follows him around while he is on the battlefield and said that his team will take legal action against the person who is spreading this false information.  

A staff member working behind the scenes of Rhee’s YouTube channel “Rokseal” on Monday denied the claims about Rhee being accompanied by a cameraman in Ukraine by posting a photo of Rhee on the battlefield and writing, “This person claims that the man who departed with Lee [to Ukraine] is a cameraman, but he is actually a former sergeant major of the Marine Corps. He was given a clear mission which was to obtain evidence of war crimes requested by the International Criminal Court (ICC). But the situation became too dangerous, and with Rhee’s call, the former sergeant major did not partake in the mission.”  

Rhee’s YouTube channel staff member also added that Rhee has been fighting in Ukraine since the beginning of the war and that Rhee is “on duty as the commander of the International Corps’ most important team.”  

He gave additional reasons for Rhee’s participation in the war such as “granting special warfare technology and know-how in advanced countries, granting operational strategies as field commanders, and securing evidence for war crimes to be submitted to the ICC.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

I took a Blue House tour many years ago that was closely monitored by security and I didn’t really get to see much. I definitely need to go back and experience visiting the place without any security restrictions since it is now fully open to the public:

 Cheong Wa Dae was flooded with thousands of visitors Tuesday morning, the first day the former presidential office and residence fully opened to the public after new President Yoon Suk-yeol relocated the top office. 

Following an opening ceremony, more than 6,000 people entered the compound in central Seoul at 11:38 a.m. to look around the 250,000-square-meter space, including the main office building and the residence that were used by South Korean presidents for the past 74 years, as well as gardens and the state guest house of Yeongbingwan.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I hope President Yoon is ready for disappointment because North Korea is not going to denuclearize. Why would they? The best he can hope for is that North Korea pretends to denuclearize in return for economic incentives:

President Yoon Suk-yeol took the oath of office Tuesday, vowing to rebuild the nation on the foundation of a liberal democracy and market economy and offering to revive North Korea’s economy with an “audacious plan” should it take steps to denuclearize.

In his inauguration address at the National Assembly Plaza, Yoon outlined various challenges facing the country and the world from pandemics and rearrangements in global supply chains to record-low growth and rising unemployment. (….)

“While North Korea’s nuclear weapon programs are a threat not only to our security and that of Northeast Asia, the door to dialogue will remain open so that we can peacefully resolve this threat,” Yoon said in his inaugural speech.

“If North Korea genuinely embarks on a process to complete denuclearization, we are prepared to work with the international community to present an audacious plan that will vastly strengthen North Korea’s economy and improve the quality of life for its people,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This claim has long been hinted by Trump himself due to the cost sharing issue with South Korea. Trump wanted the ROK to pay more for USFK which the Moon administration declined to do. The media now is trying to sell this as a new story when it is actually an old one:

Mark Esper, the former secretary of Defense under President Trump, says that the former president proposed a number of “outlandish” foreign policy proposals while he was in the White House, including pulling troops out of South Korea and shutting down embassies in Africa, according to an excerpt from Esper’s upcoming memoir.

In a new excerpt, shared by Politico, Esper wrote that shortly after he was hired to be the new Pentagon chief in 2019, Trump was railing against NATO and corruption in Ukraine, two personal issues that the rest of the national security and foreign policy team tried to tamp down because they weren’t considered leading concerns at the time.

Trump also said he wanted a “complete withdrawal” of forces from South Korea and that he wished to “bring our people home” from embassies in Africa, according to Esper.

The Hill

You can read more at the link.