Leaders from Nagasaki are urging the world to ban nuclear weapons, which is a nice thought that will not happen anytime soon:

 The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Sunday marked its 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing, with the mayor and dwindling survivors urging world leaders including their own to do more for a nuclear weapons ban.

At the event at Nagasaki Peace Park, scaled down because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Tomihisa Taue read a peace declaration in which he raised concern that nuclear states had in recent years retreated from disarmament efforts. 

Instead, they are upgrading and miniaturizing nuclear weapons for easier use, he said. Taue singled out the U.S. and Russia for increasing risks by scrapping the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

Military Times

You can read more at the link, but it seems to me that Mayor Taue should be more worried about nearby nuclear threat North Korea than Russia and the U.S.

Anyway this is the time of the year to renew the debate on whether the U.S. should have used the bomb or not during World War II.

Well if the monsoon rains were not bad enough, now a typhoon is heading towards South Korea as well:

 South Korea will come under the direct influence of Typhoon Jangmi, the season’s fifth typhoon, this week, which will bring heavy rain to the country’s flood-hit southeastern region, the state weather agency said Sunday.

The tropical storm, which formed early Sunday southwest of Okinawa and started to move northeast, is expected to pass waters 350 kilometers south of Jeju Island around 10 a.m. Monday, according to the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA).

Around 3 p.m. on the same day, it is predicted to arrive in waters 30 km southwest of Busan, some 325 km southeast of Seoul, it said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

With the drop in coronavirus cases across Korea, USFK is easing the restrictions placed on servicemembers and their families:

U.S. Forces Korea will lower its health protection level nationwide starting Monday, allowing personnel to visit Seoul for the first time in months thanks to a decline in coronavirus cases.

The military already had eased most restrictions on service members in May but kept the South Korean capital out of bounds except for people stationed in the metropolis due to fears of cluster infections.

Bars, clubs and other establishments with adults-only entrance remain off-limits in all areas, the command said Friday in an announcement on social media.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

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

Monsoon season is hitting hard this year in South Korea:

The death toll from weeklong heavy rains here rose to 21, officials said Saturday. At least 11 people were reported missing and seven injured, while more than 3,000 were displaced, according to the national disaster control center and local governments.

Torrential rain has wreaked havoc across the country since Aug. 1 amid the prolonged monsoon season. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If the White House settles for something less than full denuclearization a deal can likely be reached with North Korea:

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he will make deals with North Korea “very quickly” if reelected in November.

Trump was referring to his administration’s stalled efforts to get North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for concessions.

“If and when we win, we will make deals with Iran very quickly. We’ll make deals with North Korea very quickly,” he said during a press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey.

“Now whatever happened to the word North Korea? You haven’t seen that, have you?” he continued. “If I didn’t win the election in 2016, our country would now be — maybe it would be over by now — but in war with North Korea.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the best deal North Korea will ever agree to is “pretend denuclearization“.