This seems more like PR than a major policy change:

The military will provide vegetarian and Muslim enlistees with a vegan diet excluding any meat and ham starting next year, the defense ministry said Sunday.

From February, prospective draftees will be asked to mark if they are a vegetarian when they take physical examinations, the ministry said.

Two columns marked as “vegetarian” in both Korean and English will be available on the form.

Such personal information will be sent to the unit that the enlistees will serve in, allowing for a systematic ration program for vegetarian and Muslim soldiers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but currently in the ROK military only two soldiers have identified themselves as Muslim and vegetarian.

The Joong Ang Ilbo has an interesting article highlighting the contributions of Dutch soldiers and sailors during the Korean War:

“Battles were fierce, but sometimes we had relatively cordial contacts with our enemies,” wrote Kelders to the Korea JoongAng Daily on Dec. 3. “We used to wave at them and, unarmed and wearing armbands, could recover our wounded.”  
   
Kelders was a Browning automatic rifleman with the Netherlands’ Van Heutsz Regiment. On Jan. 8, 1952, he arrived in Korea at the age of 23.  
   
Like the 4,747 other Dutch soldiers who came to the aid of South Korea during the war, Kelders volunteered to fight for South Korea.  
   
“Because North Korea received help from China and was supported by Russia in the background, I wanted to help South Korea win this war and stop communism,” he said. 

Although the Netherlands were just emerging from the Second World War and Indonesia’s battle for independence from the Dutch Empire, thousands of Dutch soldiers volunteered to join the front lines.

“It was not an easy decision when the United Nations called for [assistance in Korea],” said Joanne Doornewaard, ambassador of the Netherlands to Korea, in an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Dec. 3. “But we decided to contribute to the defense of South Korea and made a call for volunteers. There were more volunteers than were expected, so many soldiers registered.”  

The first batch of Dutch ground forces left for Korea on Oct. 27, 1950, and landed in Busan on Nov. 23, 1950.  (………………….)

Throughout the war, a total of 122 Dutch soldiers were killed in action. Three had gone missing, 463 were wounded and 20 members of the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army attached to the Dutch battalion were killed in action, according to the Dutch Embassy in Korea. The remains of five Dutch soldiers have yet to be recovered. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read the rest at the link.

China’s rhetoric continues to increase in regards to its territorial disputes with its neighbors:

Under Chairman-for-life Xi Jinping, Beijing’s belligerent rhetoric has been scaling new heights.

“Chinese people don’t want war, but we have territorial disputes with several neighbouring countries instigated by the US to confront China,” the Communist Party’s Global Times propaganda service declared in September.

Again, neighbouring countries would disagree over the identity of the instigator.

China has sea disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. It has land disputes with Russia, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Laos, Mongolia, Tibet and Myanmar.

But the intended audience isn’t those neighbours. It’s the rest of the world.

It wants to plant the seed of plausible deniability in the minds of the international community.

“First, we must make it clear that the other side, not China, is the one that breaks the status quo,” Communist Party appointed editor Hu Xijin states. “Second, we need to make it clear that the other side is the provocateur in a complex situation.”

He goes on to argue that any scenario must be couched in such a way as to justify China’s behaviour. That way “a just war can be started in an upright manner”.

News.com.au

You can read more at the link, but analysts believe that it is more likely than not that China will eventually use their military to enforce territorial gains. What is going on now is that they are trying to set conditions to where it looks like they are not the aggressors. That is why the U.S. and its allies have to be careful to not give the Chinese their rationale for a “Just War”.

This is complicated by Beijing’s use of paramilitaries, most notably their militia fishing boats that are used to provoke confrontations that Beijing can then use as propaganda domestically that country X is picking on the poor Chinese fishing boat who is just trying to make a living.

Unless you already live in Japan don’t expect to be visiting the country at least in the near term:

The government of Japan will ban nonresident foreigners from entering the country starting Monday through January, to reduce the risk of a new, potentially more transmissible form of the coronavirus from expanding its presence, according to media reports.

Reuters news service reported Saturday that Japanese citizens and foreign residents starting Monday may enter the country, but must show proof of a negative coronavirus test within 72 hours of departing for Japan and must quarantine for two weeks after arrival. Reuters cited a government statement issued Saturday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

An impeachment of Yoon Seok-youl would have been a gift to Korean conservatives who could have argued that the Moon administration was trying to get rid of the prosecutor who was investigating their corruption:

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) on Saturday urged restraint in the ongoing feud with the state prosecution service, although a few in its ranks are calling for the impeachment of Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl.   
   
Last Thursday, the Seoul Administrative Court reversed President Moon Jae-in’s two-month suspension of Yoon, leaving the DP divided about the next steps in the administration’s drive to tame the prosecution service.  
   
Some hardliners in the party, like Rep. Kim Doo-gwan, argued the DP should wield its large majority in the legislature to impeach Yoon — an action unprecedented in Korean political history that would inevitably generate a constitutional standoff.  
   
But cooler heads apparently prevailed, with DP Spokesman Huh Young on Saturday calling on members to “control” their emotions and refrain from positions that could further alienate the party from a public increasingly repelled by the administration’s war against Yoon.  
   
Impeachment proceedings against Yoon “could lead to a rejection by the Constitutional Court,” Huh wrote — in other words, they could fail spectacularly. He added the party should avoid action that might backfire and focus, instead, on building a stronger legal basis for prosecutorial reform.  
   
Yet the factor most instrumental in tempering the party’s antagonism towards the top prosecutor was a public statement from the president himself on Friday. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the fact that the ruling party was considering impeaching Yoon could be an indication that they are worried that he will uncover more ruling party corruption.

The latest attempt to get rid of Yoon Seok-youl has failed once again:

Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl was reinstated Thursday after a court granted an injunction against his suspension by the justice minister amid feuds over prosecution reforms and politically sensitive probes.

The decision by the Seoul Administrative Court amounts to a setback for Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae, who has been at odds with Yoon for months.

On Dec. 16, the ministry suspended Yoon from duty for two months due to four counts of alleged misconduct, including the surveillance of judges hearing cases involving former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and some presidential officials. President Moon Jae-in immediately endorsed the order.

“I will do my best to defend the spirit of the Constitution, the rule of law and common sense,” Yoon said, expressing his thanks for the court’s decision.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Yoon is like a cat with nine lives; he keeps surviving every attempt the Moon administration tries to get rid of him. Just a reminder to everyone that the Moon administration has been trying to take out Yoon because he had the nerve to investigate corruption within the administration.