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

It figures that Korean leftists would be upset the United States military is working on a way to better defend their country:

Korea is back in the hot seat as the U.S. military has announced plans to improve its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries including the one here. 

As the upgrade is focused on extending the range of its defense area, the plan is raising speculations that the launchers may be transferred to Seoul or its surrounding areas, or that additional launchers may be deployed, which may reignite disputes with China over the anti-missile system. A report has also sparked concerns that the U.S. may push Korea to fund the construction of the THAAD base, which could run counter to the allies’ agreement on the issue.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but what is going on here is that the THAAD system’s launchers are hardwired into the rest of the system. What the update will provide is the ability to remote launchers further out away from the rest of the battery wirelessly. What this does is extend the area a THAAD battery can defend.

This is technology that the Patriot missile defense system already has and is only natural that THAAD would eventually develop this technology as well. There are Patriot missile batteries spread out all over South Korea that receive technology updates, but only the THAAD system continues to be continuously protested by the Korean left. Part of this is because former President Park Geun-hye approved the deployment of the battery; to a Korean leftist that means it must be a bad decision.

The second part of this is the China who does not like the deployment of the system. They claim it spies on them which is nonsense, they just use the issue to create a wedge between the U.S. and the ROK. The Moon administration may be calculating that if their supporters keep up their THAAD protests, President Trump will redeploy the system which solves their China problem and is another erasing of a major accomplishment during the former Park administration.

This will cause South Korea to have less ballistic missile defense protection, but to the Korean left they have never looked at North Korea as a threat anyway.

Whatever the Blue House is trying to do with the GSOMIA that have not briefed Ambassador Harris on it apparently:

U.S. Ambassador to Korea Harry Harris said he was unaware of renewed talk in the Korean government about the possibility of scrapping a bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan known as Gsomia, but he stressed that the American position remains that the agreement is “important.” 

Sitting down with JoongAng Ilbo reporters and a video crew after a tour of his residence, Habib House, Ambassador Harris said, “[Gsomia] is a bilateral agreement between Korea and Japan, and the challenges they have – they have to work out.”

In an exclusive report on Monday, the JoongAng Ilbo reported that a hard-line stance in favor of terminating Gsomia was gaining momentum in the Blue House, citing a government source familiar with Korea-Japan ties. 

Terminating Gsomia, short for General Security of Military Information Agreement, continues to be Seoul’s most powerful trump card in negotiations with Tokyo as the two neighboring countries remain stuck in a diplomatic and trade spat over Japan’s use of Korean forced labor during World War II. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes this article that explains why the Moon administration has not implemented robust travel restrictions on flights from China:

South Korea has waffled on these sorts of restrictions. Its dominant trading partner is China. It exports more there than to the United States. Seoul’s current government has sought an outreach to China for many reasons and does not wish to burn this bridge. A rapprochement with China would reduce its dependence on US security guarantees, which the current government finds both irksome and now unreliable under US President Donald Trump. Better terms with Beijing also help forge this government’s much-sought new path with North Korea. And finally, better relations with China offers an alternative to improving relations with Japan, a deeply divisive topic in South Korea because of Japan’s history of imperialism in Korea.

National Interest

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if all these accommodations has led to any increased recruitment from people of these faiths?:

Airmen will be allowed to wear up to 2-inch beards under a new Air Force guidance that outlines grooming standards for religious accommodations.

The updated grooming policy, published Friday, also allows members of the Sikh faith to wear turbans and Muslim women to wear hijabs.

Airmen must have religious or medical exemptions to grow beards, the policy says.

The guidance for beards grown under a shaving waiver remains unchanged: Such whiskers must not be trimmed to give a sculpted appearance and cannot exceed a quarter-inch in length, the updated policy states.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The next rotational brigade to support the 2nd Infantry Division has begun arriving in Korea:

Tanks and other armored vehicles rolled off a ship onto the Korean Peninsula this week in preparation for the arrival of the new rotational brigade.

The Fort Riley, Kansas-based 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, known as the Dagger Brigade, will be the eighth rotational brigade to serve in South Korea since the system began in 2015.

It is replacing the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, which will return to Fort Hood, Texas, after its nine-month rotation.

The transition comes as the U.S. and South Korean militaries are expected to begin joint exercises next month. The allies have reduced the scale of the drills in a bid to avoid antagonizing North Korea amid stalled diplomatic efforts to persuade it to give up nuclear weapons.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It figures that the Moon administration would bring up the GSOMIA issue again before April’s parliamentary elections in order to promote anti-Japanese sentiment:

Controversy is resurfacing over the possible termination of a military intelligence sharing agreement with Japan, ahead of the March 1 Independence Day and the April 15 general election. 

Speculation is mounting that the government could ultimately terminate the General Security of Information Sharing Agreement (GSOMIA), given the absence of any significant outcome from bilateral negotiations to remove Japan’s trade restrictions imposed on certain Korean companies last summer. In response to the restrictions, the government announced the termination of the agreement, but held off on this in November to show its commitment to bilateral negotiations to settle the trade dispute. (……)

During a recent press conference, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said that Korea could still consider terminating the GSOMIA depending on what is deemed best for the “national interest.” “There have been talks between the export authorities, but we have still not returned to the situation before July 1 [when Japan imposed the exports ban],” Kang said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear how important April’s vote is for the Blue House. They have changed election laws that will increase the number of unelected left wing parliament seats, covered up the investigations into Blue House corruption, fired the head of Statistics Korea to get better economic stats, has not reached a cost sharing deal with the U.S., and now threatening to cancel the GSOMIA pact again.