It seems that North Korea is slowly working their way up towards another provocation cycle if they don’t get what they want:
These photos published by the North’s daily Rodong Sinmun on June 9, 2017, show the launch of the country’s new surface-to-ship cruise missile. The report said the country’s top leader Kim Jong-un observed the missile launch, which South Korea detected a day earlier. The North’s media said the test-firing was aimed at verifying the “combat application efficiency of the overall weapon system.”
North Korea fired two cruise missiles off the west coast Sunday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday, Pyongyang’s first missile test in about a year seen as aimed at testing the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden without being too provocative.
“We detected two projectiles presumed to be cruise missiles fired from the North’s western port county of Onchon early Sunday,” a JCS officer told reporters.
Dr. Eberstadt: "Pyongyang further insists the South will not be genuinely denuclearized until all US troops in the South…are removed from Korean soil, forever. Thus, full denuclearization of the South will require an end to the US-ROK security alliance." https://t.co/b0XBR5Jzp2
An increase in coronavirus cases on Okinawa has led to a ban on off base dining again:
A hospitalman fills a syringe with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at Naval Hospital Okinawa on Camp Foster, Jan. 27, 2021.
The Marine Corps and Air Force ordered an indefinite end Monday to indoor dining at off-base restaurants on Okinawa, citing an increase in coronavirus cases on the island and at their respective installations.
Since March 5, the Marines have seen “a steady rise in COVID-19 cases both on and off-base,” Marine Corps Installations Pacific announced in a Facebook post. “Due to this result, the [health protection condition] measures were re-evaluated and changed for the health and safety of everyone on island.”
Here is another example of the Chinese using their auxiliaries to push around a weaker neighbor in the South China Sea. The Philippines is in a tough spot because if they send in Coast Guard and Naval assets to remove the auxiliaries than that gives the Chinese military the excuse to move in and protect them. This is a fight the Philippines cannot win thus why they are turning to the international media:
In this March 7, 2021, photo provided by the Philippine Coast Guard/National Task Force-West Philippine Sea, some of the 220 Chinese vessels are seen moored at Whitsun Reef, South China Sea. The Philippine government expressed concern after spotting more than 200 Chinese fishing vessels it believed were crewed by militias at a reef claimed by both countries in the South China Sea, but it did not immediately lodge a protest.
The Philippine defense chief on Sunday demanded more than 200 Chinese vessels he said were manned by militias leave a South China Sea reef claimed by Manila, saying their presence was a “provocative action of militarizing the area.”
“We call on the Chinese to stop this incursion and immediately recall these boats violating our maritime rights and encroaching into our sovereign territory,” Lorenzana said in a statement, adding without elaborating that the Philippines would uphold its sovereign rights.
A government watchdog overseeing the disputed region said about 220 Chinese vessels were seen moored at Whitsun Reef, which Beijing also claims, on March 7. It released pictures of the vessels side by side in one of the most hotly contested areas of the strategic waterway.
Notice how these politicians are always pushing out their goals to dates they will likely not even be alive to avoid political responsibility for their decisions:
President Moon Jae-in on Friday declared 2021 as the starting year of South Korea’s green transition for daily infrastructure, reiterating his commitment to the Green New Deal policy.
Attending a government strategy meeting on the Green New Deal policy at the Boryeong Thermal Power Plant in Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province, Moon said the nation’s political, economic, social and cultural sectors should be overhauled “with an extraordinary determination that the Green New Deal is the only way for the nation to survive.” The Moon administration has been campaigning for the Green New Deal aimed at fostering environment friendly industries in tandem with a push for balanced national development.
On his vision of South Korea achieving carbon neutrality and reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2050, Moon said the nation has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 10.8 percent over the past two years, thanks in part to the earlier-than-scheduled closures of coal power plants.
Is this a sign that the Korean people are tiring of Moon Jae-in and the ruling Democratic Party:
This composite photo shows Park Young-sun (L) of the ruling Democratic Party, Oh Se-hoon of the main opposition People Power Party (C) and Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
Two leading opposition candidates for next month’s Seoul mayoral by-election are double digits ahead of their ruling party rival should they unify candidacy and run in a two-way race, a survey showed Sunday.
Conducted by three pollsters, Ipsos, Korea Research and Hankook Research, the survey found that Oh Se-hoon of the main opposition People Power Party garnered 47 percent with Park Young-sun of the ruling Democratic Party winning 30.4 percent in a hypothetical two-way race.
Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party got 45.9 percent versus the ruling party candidate’s 29.9 percent in a two-way contest, according to the survey commissioned by three broadcasters, SBS, KBS and MBC.
Surfers amid spring weather Surfers enjoy riding the waves at Jukdo beach in Yangyang, Gangwon Province, on March 21, 2021, with the advent of spring. (Yonhap)
Historian Robert Neff has another interesting historical nugget in the Korea Times about one of the first reported bank robberies in South Korea:
The three Japanese banks in Jemulpo in the early 20th century. Courtesy of Diane Nars Collection
One of the first bank robberies in Korea took place in Jemulpo (modern Incheon) on June 25, 1892 ― a dreadfully hot day. A young Japanese employee of the First National Bank of Japan went to the Korean Customs Office to collect the daily duties on goods being imported and exported through the port. It was a fairly substantial amount of money ― nearly 700 dollars.
The latest Korean manufactured satellite has been launched:
Russia’s Soyuz-2.1a rocket takes off from a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 22, 2021, carrying South Korea’s next-generation observation satellite, in this photo provided by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
South Korea’s next-generation midsized observation satellite successfully entered its target orbit and made its first contact with a base station on Monday, the science ministry said, marking the country’s latest step to boost its space industry.
The 540-kilogram satellite made contact with the Svalbard Satellite Station in Norway around 100 minutes after its launch on Russia’s Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at around 11:07 a.m. (local time), according to the Ministry of Science and ICT.
