Look who made an appearance and is rocking a nice leather jacket:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has returned from a monthlong break from public view to inspect a major development project near the border with China, which he said epitomizes his country’s “iron will” to achieve prosperity in the face of international isolation and pressure. 

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that Kim expressed satisfaction during his visit to Samjiyon city over the progress of construction in an area he called the “sacred place of the sun.” Samjiyon is at the foot of Mount Paektu, the heart of North Korea’s foundation myth revolving around the Kim family and is described by official narratives as the spiritual center of the country’s revolution.

Building Samjiyon into a “model cultured city” was one of the main focuses of a nationwide construction campaign that North Korea had aimed to complete in time for the 75th anniversary of its ruling party’s founding in October last year. But construction was slowed amid pandemic border closures and international sanctions over Kim’s nuclear weapon and missile programs.

Kim has been struggling to overcome what appears to be his toughest period as leader with the country’s self-imposed COVID-19 lockdown creating a further shock for an economy battered by sanctions and decades of mismanagement.

KCNA said the construction at Samjiyon could be finished by the end of this year, which could give Kim a badly needed trophy achievement as he reaches a decade in rule since taking power following the death of his father in December 2011.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link.

It looks like we are going to find out how committed the ROK government is to their new “Living with COVID” strategy as cases continue to rise:

South Korea’s daily new coronavirus cases spiked to surpass the 3,000 mark Wednesday, just shy of an all-time high, health authorities said, deepening concerns over medical capacity amid the continued surge in critical cases.

The country reported 3,187 new COVID-19 cases, including 3,163 local infections, raising the total caseload to 402,775, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). 

Wednesday’s figure, a sharp hike from 2,125 cases the previous day, is the second-largest figure after the all-time high of 3,270 reported on Sept. 25. It is also the second time ever that the country’s daily caseload hovered over 3,000.

The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients hit an all-time high of 522 on Wednesday, breaking the previous record of 495 a day earlier, the KDCA said.

The health authorities earlier said that they can manage around up to 500 critically ill patients in a stable manner under the current medical capacity.

The country added 21 more deaths from COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 3,158. The fatality rate stood at 0.78 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

As I have long said, when DOD instituted the Blended Retirement System a few years ago, it was the first step to eventually doing away with the fixed military retirement system. This latest report will be used to further justify moving military retirement totally to a Thrift Savings Plan model:

Military leaders will need to make some difficult choices on pay and benefits in coming years if they want to maintain funding needed to keep up force readiness and end strength, a panel of defense experts said on Tuesday.

“We need to focus [military] benefits on those currently serving, but the problem is most of the benefits now have shifted to those no longer serving,” said Arnold Punaro, former staff director for the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“There are 2.4 million retirees [receiving benefits] compared to 1.3 million active -duty troops getting them … The deferred piece of military spending has to be dealt with.”

Purnaro’s comments came at a roundtable event on military challenges organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Other panelists echoed his concerns about personnel costs continuing to rise within the Defense Department even as the services’ end strengths have declined. Earlier this fall, CSIS released a report noting that the number of active-duty troops fell by more than 64 percent from 1952 to 2016, but total DOD personnel spending rose by 110 percent over the same period.

Army Times

You can read more at the link.

Though it looks like Texas will be the choice, I am kind of surprised to hear that New York is on Samsung’s short list for their new chip plant considering the state’s infamous taxes:

Samsung Electronics Co. appears to be moving closer to making a final decision on the site for its new chip fabrication plant in the United States, as global semiconductor companies have engaged in increasingly fierce competition amid a global chip crunch.

The South Korean tech giant was found to have withdrawn its application filed in January with Manor Independent School District (ISD) in Travis County, Texas, for corporate tax incentives regarding its new chip plant, the Texas comptroller’s website showed.

School districts in the state constitute an important party in the negotiations over building a new plant. 

The same kind of document filed in July with the city of Taylor, northeast of Austin, can still be found on the public site.

The two locations in Texas have been competing against each other to host the global chipmaker’s new plant believed to be worth US$17 billion. The South Korean company did not rule out other sites in New York and Arizona for potential sites.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

According to the article kids were going to the CDC sick which is what likely caused the outbreak:

Thirteen people, including nearly a dozen children, linked to an on-base children’s center recently tested positive for the coronavirus respiratory disease, an official at the center said Tuesday. 

At least 11 children and two staff members from the Capt. Jennifer M. Moreno School Age Center on Humphreys tested positive within the past week, center coordinator Tiffany Harris told Stars and Stripes by phone. Around 178 children in grades one through five are enrolled in the center, which employs 24 people.

The center, which provides children with after-school programs, was closed Friday for cleaning and sanitizing; it reopened Monday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but if we learned anything from this pandemic it is to not send your sick kid to school or if you are sick don’t go to work.

It looks like the Disney+ app’s launch in South Korea is having some initial growing pains:

Three days after Disney+ became available in Korea, the video streaming service appears to have fallen short of expectations due to poor subtitling and a user-hostile interface.  
   
Shortly after the app was activated locally Friday, some users started posting negative reviews on the Google Play Store and social media, mostly aimed at the low quality of subtitle translations and amateurish app functions. 

While others still welcomed the app and the vast array of Disney’s programming, they pointed out that Korean subtitles seemed machine-translated rather than professionally translated by a human.  
   
“The state of the subtitle translations is just so serious,” according to a review on the Google Play Store on the day of the app’s release. “It’s similar to, or even worse than, Google translations.”  
   
According to the review, in one scene where a character talks about a “GOAT” — a basketball term that refers to the best player — the word was translated into the hangul for the animal. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but I am sure over time the subtitles will be improved. Disney is launching their app in so many countries they likely used computer translations initially for their content and will improve them later. Regardless the Disney+ app is great if you have kids, if not you would need to be a huge Stars Wars and Marvel fan because that is what most of the rest of the content is. There is also some pretty good National Geographic content on the app as well.