It seems like the Kim regime is rhetorically building up towards a near term nuclear test. With the new ROK President taking office this month and activists restarting propaganda balloon launches into North Korea it seems like almost a certainty a major provocation is coming:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stressed the need to bolster the country’s military power to “preemptively and thoroughly contain” nuclear threats from hostile forces, according to Pyongyang’s state media Saturday.

He met with top military commanders who organized a massive street parade in Pyongyang earlier this week, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Kim was quoted as calling on his military commanders to maintain the “absolute superiority” of the armed forces and constantly develop in order to “preemptively and thoroughly contain and frustrate all dangerous attempts and threatening moves, including ever-escalating nuclear threats from hostile forces, if necessary.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Cases are declining just in time for the end of the outdoor mask mandate:

South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases fell below 40,000 on Sunday, marking a steady decline from early last month, with the country set to lift the outdoor mask mandate in a major step toward return to normalcy. 

The country reported 37,771 new COVID-19 infections, including 30 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 17,275,649, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. 

Sunday’s tally is a marked drop from the previous day’s 43,286 and 50,568 reported Friday. In terms of Sunday figures only, the latest tally is the lowest in 12 weeks.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Considering the serious national security damage this captain could have done some very serious punishment needs to implemented like life in prison to deter others:

An Army captain and a virtual assets service CEO have been arrested and charged with leaking military secrets to a suspected North Korean hacker. 

According to the military, police and prosecution authorities, the cryptocurrency service owner identified by the surname of Lee received a total of 700 million won ($555,000) worth of cryptocurrency on two separate occasions from February to April of last year, in return for winning over personnel from the country’s military.

Lee and the captain were introduced to the North Korean spy through their acquaintances and communicated through Telegram, an instant messaging app. 

Lee then bought a digital watch with a hidden camera and sent it to the officer in January via the mail, which he smuggled into the military, the investigation team said. Lee also bought a Poison Tap ― a USB hacking tool that exploits data from locked computers ― and used it in an attempt to program military computers remotely with the lieutenant’s help.

The investigation revealed that the military officer provided the Korean Joint Command and Control System (KJCCS) login information to the North Korean spy but the hack was not successful.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

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

I guess he should have told them to turn that f-ing crap off instead and he would have been okay:

It came in response to complaints from Marines who said Neary used the N-word in front of them after taking offense to the use of the word in a rap song that was being played during physical training outside MARFOREUR headquarters. 

Neary acknowledged his use of the N-word in that instance, according to his statements contained in the IG report.

“I was using this as a teaching moment, is what I was doing,” Neary told the IG. “Because again, there is no place for discriminatory behavior at all, in our Marine Corps, across the board.”

However, the IG said Neary’s language, which it said also involved the phrase “you people” when addressing Marines “under the guise of providing correction,” made the situation worse.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but Neary claims he never said “you people”.

This isn’t the first and likely not the last large corruption case to happen at Camp Humphreys:

More than two dozen South Koreans, including several employed by the U.S. military, were indicted on charges of employment fraud following a two-year investigation, South Korean police said Monday.

Twenty-six people, including 10 current and former U.S. Forces Korea employees, pocketed roughly $138,700 in exchange for preferential treatment of Korean job candidates between April 2018 and December 2020, the Daegu Metropolitan Police statement said. 

USFK is the military command in charge of roughly 28,500 troops on the Korean Peninsula.

Two defendants, including an official with the USFK Labor Service Corps, were arrested according to police. The labor official and others are suspected of receiving between $23,800 and $31,700 from five job seekers in exchange for favorable reviews during their interviews.

The defendants allegedly created fake certifications required for employment. Police confiscated around $126,800 from the defendants prior to their arrest.

The investigation was launched after the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division obtained information about the bribes and relayed it to South Korean authorities. An Eighth Army spokesman declined to comment on whether the suspects were privy to sensitive military information.

“These arrests involved persons and activities that may be related to the Korean Service Corps and are currently the subject of a criminal investigation,” Army Lt. Col. Neil Penttila said in a statement Tuesday. “We will withhold further comment until the completion of that investigation.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.