You can see the racist conspiracy theories that the Chinese government promoted against Ambassador Harris when he was the INDOPACOM commander has been successfully promoted in South Korea as well:

“I am American ambassador to Korea, not the Japanese American ambassador.”

The former U.S. Pacific commander and admiral spoke not out of frustration but as a matter of fact, responding to suspicions of some Koreans that his Japanese heritage might make him biased in Japan’s favor and influence a U.S. stance on matters related to Korea and Japan. He was born to a U.S. military man and a Japanese mother in Japan and he was the first person of Asian descent to lead the Pacific Command.

He said that while serving as Pacific commander, China also once accused him of favoring Japan regarding his stance on Beijing’s hegemonic moves in the South China Sea. He said that not in the U.S. or elsewhere had his eth-nicity been made an issue during his career.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the ambassador’s critics in Korea even accuse him of wearing a mustache to replicate what Japanese colonial governors of Korea once had.

It looks like Kim Jong-un is setting the stage for whatever future provocations he has in store:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stressed the “need to take positive and offensive measures” to uphold the country’s sovereignty and security “as required by the present situation,” according to a state media report on the second day of a key party conference held Sunday.  

The relatively subdued message was far from the possible bombshell announcement officials in the United States and South Korea worried could emerge from the plenary session of the North Korean Workers’ Party Central Committee, though something worse could come in the following days.  

Kim, according to a report by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday, delivered an address detailing Pyongyang’s agenda that placed a strong emphasis on economic development while describing “problems arising in the overall state building” that hamper growth.  

KCNA said Kim “indicated the duties of the fields of foreign affairs, munitions and armed forces” while “emphasizing the need to take positive and offensive measures for fully ensuring the sovereignty and security of the country as required by the present situation.” (……..)

In his speech, Kim underscored the idea of “intensively struggling against anti-socialism and non-socialism, strengthening the work of the working people’s organizations and tightening the moral discipline throughout society,” an apparent directive aimed at shoring up domestic support for his policies in the face of continuing international sanctions on the economy. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Ambassador Harris says that USFK will not be withdrawn as a result of the ongoing cost sharing negotiations or any deal with North Korea:

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris, like his predecessors, reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the bilateral alliance and the presence of American troops in the South irrespective of the situation.

His reaffirmation, however, seems more meaningful now because it comes amid concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump is using a half-century-old alliance as a bargaining chip and that the alliance is unraveling.

“American forces are here to stay … It’s not an American decision, not a Korean decision — it’s an alliance decision like many of the decisions we have taken in the past years and decades,” Harris said in an exclusive interview with The Korea Times at the U.S. Embassy in downtown Seoul last week. (………..)

Against this backdrop, Harris said, “There is no contemplation of U.S. forces leaving the Korean Peninsula, either as an outcome of Special Measures Agreement discussions or as an outcome of relationships with North Korea.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Whenever an alert drill happens there are procedures each unit runs through. Each unit likely did not get very far in their alert procedures before the all clear was given as a false alarm. This is much to do about nothing other than making sure it is harder for someone to make a user error mistake like this again:

A U.S. Army base in South Korea accidentally sounded an emergency siren Thursday night, sending some soldiers into a frenzy amid threats of an unwanted “Christmas gift” from North Korea, news reports said.

The incident occurred at Camp Casey in Dongducheon, 40 kilometers north of Seoul, the closest U.S. Army base to the North Korean border.

The Washington Post reported that the siren went off around 10 p.m. instead of taps, the bugle call played at military funerals and on military bases to mark the end of the day.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is another opinion on what North Korea will do over the next year:

North Korea could launch maximum “gray-zone” provocations next year just short of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch to extract U.S. concessions in their stalled nuclear talks, an expert said Thursday.

Jun Bong-geun, professor at the state-run Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA), made the remarks amid speculation that the North could engage in provocative acts in a show of anger over the absence of U.S. concessions by Pyongyang’s self-imposed year-end deadline.

“Though strong provocations are expected, the North may not go all the way to an ICBM launch, as the launch could make it difficult for Pyongyang to secure support from China and Russia,” Jun said during a briefing on the outlook of global politics for 2020 by the KNDA Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS).

“But the North would pressure the U.S. to make concessions and change its calculus while engaging in maximum gray-zone provocations,” he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Did China try and pull a fast one on President Moon?:

Seoul has contradicted an attempt by Beijing to back South Korea into China’s official stance on Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in was quoted by the Chinese foreign ministry to have stated that the troubled regions were China’s internal affairs during meetings on Monday in Beijing with President Xi Jinping, who also met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

But the line was nowhere to be found in the official statement issued by the South Korean government and, on Tuesday, a spokesman from South Korea’s presidential office, also known as the Blue House, issued a clarification.

“President Xi explained that Hong Kong and Xinjiang issues were internal affairs. President Moon said ‘well noted’ in response,” the spokesman Ko Min-jung said.

Moon ― who has stayed largely quiet on the protests which have rocked Hong Kong for more than six months ― was the latest head of state to be quoted by Beijing in supportive terms of its policies.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.