It will be interesting to see if the personnel deported will be allowed back into the country again in the future with a proper work visa. With that said I am sure every Korean business is reviewing visa status of their workers now:

The Korean government said Sunday that talks with U.S. authorities to release more than 300 Korean workers detained in Georgia were finished, and that only administrative steps remained before a chartered plane would be dispatched to bring them home.

Presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik announced the development at a high-level policy meeting in Seoul, saying the release as imminent thanks to swift cooperation among government ministries, business groups and companies.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The real story here is not this botched mission into North Korea, but why is it being leaked now after six years?:

A group of Navy SEALs emerged from the ink-black ocean on a winter night in early 2019 and crept to a rocky shore in North Korea. They were on a top secret mission so complex and consequential that everything had to go exactly right.

The objective was to plant an electronic device that would let the United States intercept the communications of North Korea’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong-un, amid high-level nuclear talks with President Trump.

The mission had the potential to provide the United States with a stream of valuable intelligence. But it meant putting American commandos on North Korean soil — a move that, if detected, not only could sink negotiations but also could lead to a hostage crisis or an escalating conflict with a nuclear-armed foe.

It was so risky that it required the president’s direct approval. 

For the operation, the military chose SEAL Team 6’s Red Squadron — the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden. The SEALs rehearsed for months, aware that every move needed to be perfect. But when they reached what they thought was a deserted shore that night, wearing black wet suits and night-vision goggles, the mission swiftly unraveled.

A North Korean boat appeared out of the dark. Flashlights from the bow swept over the water. Fearing that they had been spotted, the SEALs opened fire. Within seconds, everyone on the North Korean boat was dead.

The SEALs retreated into the sea without planting the listening device.

The 2019 operation has never been publicly acknowledged, or even hinted at, by the United States or North Korea. The details remain classified and are being reported here for the first time.

NY Times

You can read more at the link, but there is a reason someone is leaking this story now. My guess is that someone is trying to make it impossible for Trump to conduct any negotiations with North Korea. Kim Jong-un may ratchet up tensions in response to finding out his own citizens were killed by U.S. Navy Seals.

The Pentagon needs to investigate and find the leaker. Whoever did this should receive a long jail sentence as a future deterrent because this is likely being done for political reasons.

It looks a subcontractor was trying to skirt US immigration laws. With ICE strictly enforcing immigration laws companies need to do their due diligence to comply with them:

Nearly 500 people were arrested as part of an immigration raid at a Hyundai Motor battery plant under construction in Georgia as part of a criminal investigation into employment practices at the site, a Homeland Security official said Friday.

The operation Thursday resulted in the arrest of 475 individuals. More than 300 were South Korean nationals, according to an official from the country.

Those arrested had illegally crossed the border, entered through a visa waiver program that prohibited them from working or had overstayed their visas, Steven Schrank, a special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Atlant a, said at a press conference Friday morning.

“This was the largest single site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security investigations,” Schrank said.

Wall Street Journal

You can read more at the link, but instead of getting an H1B visa the workers had B1 visas. These visas are for attending business meetings not construction work. The subcontractor probably got their workers into the U.S. using the B1 visa because H1Bs are more complicated and highly scrutinized since you have to show an American can’t do the work.

What would Korea do if 300 Americans showed up on a wrong visa and began constructing a building in Seoul? They would probably have the same reaction to what is happening in Georgia.

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

In year North Korea has had almost as many Soldiers killed as the U.S. did in 20 years of fighting in Afghanistan:

The spy agency estimated around 2,000 North Korean troops dispatched to Russia for combat in Ukraine were killed, lawmakers said Tuesday.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) shared the assessment during a closed-door briefing to the parliamentary intelligence committee, Reps. Park Sun-won and Lee Seong-kweun told reporters.

The NIS said Pyongyang is planning to additionally send some 6,000 soldiers to Russia in its third batch of troop deployment to aid Moscow’s war with Ukraine, while around 1,000 combat engineers have already arrived in Russia.

The existing troops are stationed in the “rear front as reserve forces,” the agency said, pointing to the possibility of a leadership change among the dispatched troops.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The Wall Street Journal has an article on how the CCP is brainwashing their citizens to believe Communist guerrillas were responsible for defeating Imperial Japan in World War II:

Within China, the party is projecting its war narratives on television and cinema screens. A 10-part documentary, “Victory,” recounted the Communist Party’s “mainstay role” in fighting Japan. One new historical drama depicted how a band of Communist guerrillas in northeastern China, after being routed by Japanese forces, regrouped and fought back.

Promoting the Communists’ “mainstay” role in the resistance will help people understand the party’s “greatness, glory, and correctness,” and “unite the masses more closely around the party center with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core,” Zhu Jiamu, a senior historian at the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote in a recent essay.

Wall Street Journal

You can read more at the link, but the then ruling Chinese Nationalists are the ones that fought Japan throughout the war while the Communists largely hid out in the countryside. The attrition of Chinese Nationalist troops during the war is part of the reason the CCP was able to win the Chinese Civil War following World War II.

If Xi cared about history he would be thanking Nationalists troops, the U.S., and its Pacific allies for defeating Imperial Japan, but we know that will never happen. Maintaining a fictional narrative is more important. As George Orwell once said, he who controls the present controls the past.

It looks like Kim Jong-un could be on the road again after being invited to Russia by Putin:

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to visit Russia again, a Russian report said, as they held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a military parade in Beijing.

The two leaders met at the Diaoyutai state guest house after attending the military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in 1945.

As Putin escorted Kim to his car at the end of the meeting, the North Korean leader told him, “See you soon,” to which Putin replied that he will be “waiting”, urging him to “Please come,” Russia’s Tass news agency reported.

Kim has visited Russia twice so far, in 2019 and 2023, for talks with Putin.

During the talks Kim also thanked Putin for hailing the North’s troops deployed in Russia to aid Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

Putin said he will “never forget” the role of North Korean soldiers who fought “bravely and heroically” in Russia’s front-line region of Kursk in the war against Ukraine.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear Kim Jong-un is projecting strength with his Russian and Chinese allies. This is important for him if he plans to conduct any negotations with South Korea and the United States in the future. He does not want to enter negotiations appearing weak. If anything Kim’s position is probably as strong as it has ever been right now.