We will see in a few months if this dip in popularity translates at the election box for President:

Public support for the main opposition People Power Party(PPP) has risen to hit 40 percent for the first time in a Realmeter weekly survey.

In the poll of two-thousand-517 adults between last Monday and Friday, 40 percent of respondents said they supported the conservative main opposition, up two-point-nine percentage points from a week earlier.

Meanwhile, support for the ruling liberal Democratic Party(DP) fell point-one percentage point to 32-point-five percent. The gap between the rival parties, seven-point-five percentage points, was outside the margin of error.

KBS World

You can read more at the link.

This sounds like childish jealousy from the North Koreans:

North Korea on Monday questioned whether South Korea’s newly unveiled submarine-launched ballistic missile is a real SLBM, claiming even if it is, the “clumsy product” is just in the elementary development stage and cannot serve as an effective means of attack.

The chief of the North’s Academy of National Defense made the claim in an article carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), days after South Korea unveiled its first homegrown SLBM by announcing the successful test-launch from the 3,000-ton-class Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine.

“The disclosed pictures show that the weapon has the structure and shape of a typical ground-to-ground tactical ballistic missile. Though the photos could have deliberately been retouched for secrecy, the missile in the picture looked somewhat like a poor weapon without all its shape and far from an underwater weapon,” agency chief Jang Chang-ha said. “What was shown in the pictures was clearly not SLBM.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but what this does mean is that what little resources the DPRK does have they will likely now pour into SLBM development, not because they really need it, but to keep up with the ROK.

China has tightened regulations on kids who play online video games:

Korean game companies face a major hurdle as China, the world’s biggest game market, has recently released tougher measures for juvenile online gaming.    
   
The Chinese government announced on Aug. 30 that minors under the age of 18 will only be allowed to play online games on Fridays, weekends and holidays, from 8 to 9 p.m. each day. This limit is a tightening of the existing 90-minute per day regulation that had been in place since October 2019 and is aimed at curbing juvenile game addiction.   
   
While not taking direct aim at the Korean market, the regulations have had a ripple effect as seen in the fall of stock prices of game companies in recent weeks.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but there is another option called parenting where parents tell their kids to go to bed and take the gaming devices from them if they don’t.

I always keep a little bit of skepticism when it comes to these unverifiable stories out of North Korea, but this one I can see having some truth to it:

Almost two years since its release and subsequent rise to global popularity, the K-drama “Crash Landing on You” continues to leave an impact on its fans. In North Korea, where the drama’s storyline is based, several teens caught watching the series are allegedly facing prison time among other harsher sentences. The incident, while unconfirmed, has heightened awareness of the country’s human rights atrocities after being shared in a viral video.

Seoul-based publication The Daily NK, which specializes in North Korean news that relies on a network of sources from inside the hermit kingdom, reported in late August that eight teens were put on public trial for watching and imitating the characters of various South Korean dramas including the popular “Crash Landing on You.” 

Next Shark

You can read more at the link.

The biggest concern about South Korea acquiring nuclear weapons is the arms race it could cause in the region. However, the arms race is already happening with the North Koreans showing no signs of slowing their nuclear weapons program:

A retired Army general who oversaw all U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula said he believed nuclear weapons would not give South Korea a strategic advantage and may instead escalate tensions to “an unnecessary degree of danger.”

Vincent Brooks, the former commander of U.S. Forces Korea and United Nations Command, spoke during a virtual roundtable discussion hosted by the Korea Defense Veterans Association on Tuesday. 

He described South Korea as a “mature democracy” that had “withstood great pressures and tests,” but possessing a nuclear weapon would not help it deter threats from North Korea. In light of North Korea’s ongoing nuclear program, the subject of Seoul possessing nuclear weapons has been raised by many South Korean politicians in recent years, including primary candidates in the upcoming presidential election.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

South Korea has a waste crisis, but NIMBYism is causing new landfills and incinerators from being constructed:

The ministry is planning to announce statistics for 2020 in December, and the figure is expected to have surged further, as people stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic have come to depend more on online shopping for food and daily necessities, resulting in their production of more waste from packaging and other disposable materials. 

Once waste is produced, there are only two ways to dispose of it ― in a landfill or by incineration. This has inevitably raised the need to create additional landfills or build more incineration plants.

But it has been difficult for the authorities to find eligible sites, because local residents fiercely oppose the siting of such facilities in their regions. 

Suwon City in Gyeonggi Province has been facing protests from residents in Yeongtong District due to its plan to renovate an incineration facility there. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it is a needed public service that no ones wants in their backyard.

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