In my opinion the blowing up of the two roads by North Korea is more performative for the ROK and international media than anything of substance between the two Koreas. I doubt President Yoon is going to lose any sleep over this:

North Korea blew up the northern sections of two inter-Korean roads, Tuesday, in an apparent attempt to sever all ties with South Korea and formalize a hostile, two-state system on the Korean Peninsula.

“North Korea exploded parts of the Gyeongui and Donghae roads north of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) at around noon,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a message sent to reporters.

Gyeongui Road, which linked the two Koreas in the western part of the country, was primarily used by businesspeople operating factories at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in the North. Meanwhile, Donghae Road along the east coast was utilized by tourists visiting North Korea’s Mount Geumgang.

The JCS said it fired several shots south of the MDL after the road explosions, adding it has intensified its readiness and surveillance posture. South Korea’s military had already observed on Monday that Pyongyang was preparing to destroy the road.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but these two roads have not been used for many years after the closing of the Kaesong Industrial Complex near Panmunjom and the ending of tours to the Kumgang Resort on the east coast. So blowing them up is meaningless and if for some reason one of these two inter-Korean projects were to get restarted the road can easily be repaired probably with ROK money.

North Korea had nothing to lose from this provocation and gained yet again wide media attention which means they achieved thier objective with this stunt.

Has anyone read or seen these movies from South Korea’s recently awarded Nobel Literature award winner Han Kang? Are they worth reading or watching?:

Two films based on the works of Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang will receive special screening sections later this week, CJ CGV said Monday.

The films, “The Vegetarian” and “Scars,” will be shown on Thursday, in celebration of the Korean novelist’s recent Nobel literature award, according to the multiplex cinema chain.

Directed by Lim Woo-seong, the films are adaptations of Han’s novels — “The Vegetarian,” which won the International Booker Prize in 2016, and her 1999 novel, “Baby Buddha.” 

The former was invited to the Panorama section of the Busan International Film Festival’s Korean Movie Today in 2009 and the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 2000. 

Although neither film gained significant attention from the general public at the time of their release, they have attracted renewed interest following her prestigious win last week.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I have to wonder what job these two Filipinas were illegally working at in Busan?:

Two Filipinas, who were apprehended after leaving the Seoul metropolitan government’s pilot program for foreign domestic helpers without permission, have returned home, the South Korean justice ministry said Monday.

The workers were forced to leave Thursday following several weeks of unauthorized absence from their jobs, according to the ministry. 

They reportedly did not contest the immigration authority’s notification of deportation and expressed a desire to return home during the investigation.

After their departure, the workers were banned from reentering South Korea for a specified period.

They arrived in South Korea on Aug. 6 as part of a six-month project led by the Seoul city government to assign foreign nannies to households with kids or newborns to help with child care and housework, and began working on Sept. 3 after about a month of training.

They, however, left their quarters on Sept. 15, the second day of a five-day Chuseok holiday. They were supposed to return to work by Sept. 18 but did not.

The Busan immigration office and police found they illegally got jobs in Busan and arrested them at their residences early this month.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Drones are now clearly the present and future of warfare:

An Air Force F-22 Raptor takes off during a demonstration at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia. Mysterious drones have been spotted flying around one of the U.S.’s most sensitive military areas, leaving defense

U.S. military personnel reported drones appearing in restricted airspace over Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, shortly after sunset during a period of more than two weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

The drones appeared in December last year, according to the report, pulling in officials across the Pentagon, FBI and the Defense Department’s specialized office for investigating unidentified aerial phenomena.

One senior official based at Langley told The Journal that multiple drones headed across Chesapeake Bay and further south toward the city of Norfolk. They reportedly traveled across Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest naval port and the main base for the Navy’s vaunted SEAL Team Six. Unless the drones are an imminent threat, by law they cannot by shot down near military bases.

Newsweek

You can read more at the link, but the drone provocations over Langley went on for 17 straight days and DOD could do nothing about it. These low cost drones if outfitted with munitions could have taken out all the over-priced F-22’s that were stationed at Langley.

It looks like the ROK government may have come up with their response to North Korea’s trash balloon attacks even though they deny it:

 North Korea said Sunday it has ordered its artillery corps near the border with South Korea to fully prepare to shoot after the North threatened a “horrible disaster” over the alleged flight of drones over its capital.

North Korea claimed the South had sent unmanned drones over Pyongyang three times this month. 

In a statement carried by its state media, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North’s leader Kim Jong-un, said the North was ready to take a “strong corresponding retaliatory action” in case drones carrying anti-Pyongyang materials are flown again into the North, warning that the “attack time” can come at any time.

In response, South Korea’s defense ministry said any attempts by the North to harm its people would result in the end of the Kim regime. 

On Friday, North Korea’s foreign ministry claimed that South Korean drones carrying leaflets were detected in the night skies over Pyongyang on Oct. 3, as well as Wednesday and Thursday of this week, and threatened to respond with force if such flights occur again. South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun initially denied that the military had sent any drones across the border, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff later said it could not confirm whether the North’s claims were true.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if the activist group Fighters for a Free North Korea flew this drone with a wink and a nod from the ROK government?

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