I believe Putin just like his buddies in Beijing don’t want the North Korean problem solved because it ties up so many U.S. military and diplomatic assets to deal with that would be otherwise focused on them:

Putin made the remark during a virtual session with chiefs of global news agencies at an annual economic forum in St. Petersburg on Friday (Russia time), as the nuclear negotiations between the North and the United States remain deadlocked after the breakdown of the Hanoi summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and then U.S. President Donald Trump in early 2019. 

“The North Korean nuclear problem is not going to be resolved by pressuring the North and toughening the sanctions against it,” Putin said through an interpreter when asked by Cho Sung-boo, CEO and president of Yonhap News Agency in Seoul to comment on Moscow’s stance on North Korean nuclear issues.

“Only by ensuring the security of its people, and with patience and a careful approach, should we be able to resolve this problem,” he said. 

Moscow has favored a phased-in approach to denuclearize the North that would come with reciprocal steps, including a partial lifting of U.N. sanctions, as the regime takes measures to roll back its nuclear program.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the Korean wartime forced labor lawsuits against Japanese business firms:

 A local court on Monday dismissed a damages suit launched by 85 South Korean victims of wartime forced labor in Japan and their families against 16 Japanese companies, saying the plaintiffs don’t have litigation rights.

The Seoul Central District Court said South Korean wartime forced laborers cannot claim individual legal rights to damages from Japan, while deciding to reject their collective suit.

The 85 forced labor victims and their families started their damages suit against 16 Japanese companies, including Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., Nissan Chemical Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., in 2015.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is interesting how this ruling is the complete opposite of what the Korean Supreme Court ruled for in favor of compensation for a different lawsuit a couple of years ago.

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

The scandal of a ROK Air Force NCO that committed suicide after being sexually harassed/assaulted has led to the ROK Air Force Chief of Staff to step down:

The top leader of the Air Force said Friday that he will step down from his post over the recent suicide of a female officer who reportedly took her own life due to unresolved sexual harassment by a fellow service member.  
   
General Lee Seong-yong, chief of staff of the Air Force, sent a text message to reporters in the afternoon, saying that he “accepts grave responsibility of the recent situation and has decided to step down as of Friday.”  
   
President Moon Jae-in said Friday that he agrees that Lee will have to step down. The resignation will not be processed immediately in order for Lee to be probed as a member of the military. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

South Korea like many other nation’s in the world has issues with COVID vaccine hesitancy:

Contrary to health authorities’ expectations for high turnouts, there was a great deal of hesitancy about getting the shots, largely driven by safety concerns over AstraZeneca (AZ) jabs — the bulk of which the country has procured for its 51.3 million citizens.

“Rumors and unfounded arguments about AZ side effects circulated through mainstream and social media,” Chun Eun-mi, a professor at Ewha Womans University Medical Center, said. “The deaths and severe abnormal reaction cases, like the 40-something nurse who suffered quadriplegic symptoms, added to the fears,” she said. 

An April survey by Hankook Research conducted on 1,000 adults showed that 61.4 percent of the respondents said they were willing to get vaccinated, down 6.6 percentage points from its March survey. More than 84 percent of them cited the fears about abnormal reactions.

Yonhap News

You can read more at the link, but according to the article the South Korean public is beginning to become more willing to get the vaccine.