Kim Jong-un has left on a rare state trip outside of North Korea to go cosplay with Emperor President Xi that the CCP defeated the Imperial Japanese during World War II:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has departed aboard an armored train to make his multilateral diplomatic debut in Beijing, where he will join Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders.

North Korea’s state media early Tuesday confirmed that Kim had set off by private train on Monday to attend China’s ‘Victory Day’ celebrations.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency reported the news, citing a notice from Kim Chon-il, director of the department of press and information at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry.

According to the notice, the North Korean leader is accompanied by senior party and government officials, including Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui. However, state media did not provide further details, including the exact location of his departure.

Korea Herald

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I have always supported radio broadcasts as a low cost way to penetrate North Korea’s information blockade of its people and the Lee administration has given it up for nothing in return:

South Korea has halted the broadcast of a propaganda radio program into North Korea, the defense ministry said Monday, as the South seeks to mend frayed ties with the North.

The move is the latest in Seoul’s reconciliatory gestures, with President Lee Jae Myung vowing to restore inter-Korean ties and resume dialogue with Pyongyang.

“The defense ministry has halted the ‘Voice of Freedom’ broadcast as part of efforts to ease inter-Korean military tensions,” the ministry said in a notice to reporters.

South Korea had aired K-pop and news into North Korea through the halted radio program. Last year, it broadcast news on North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia in support of its war against Ukraine.

The ministry reportedly halted the broadcast starting earlier in the day, marking the first suspension of the radio program in 15 years. South Korea resumed the radio program in May 2010, following North Korea’s deadly attack on the South Korean naval corvette Cheonan.

Yonhap

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The ROK military is seeing an increasing surge in officers and NCOs seeking early retirement:

A record 2,502 South Korean military officers applied last year for early honorable discharge, a program that allows service members to leave the service before reaching mandatory retirement, according to data submitted by the Ministry of National Defense to the National Assembly.

The exodus of experienced military personnel presents a significant challenge for the armed forces, which rely on a pool of long-serving officers to maintain operational readiness and leadership continuity. The trend not only raises concerns about a brain drain but also signals growing dissatisfaction among a key segment of the military’s professional ranks, potentially affecting morale and combat readiness amid persistent tensions with North Korea. (……)

Applications for early honorable discharge have risen sharply over the past five years. Annual applicant numbers were 1,176 in 2020, 1,241 in 2021, 1,743 in 2022, 2,364 in 2023 and 2,502 last year. Noncommissioned officer applications nearly tripled over the same period, rising from 609 in 2020 to 1,720 last year. As of August this year, 2,301 service members had applied, including 738 officers and 1,563 noncommissioned officers.

Korea Times

Here is the reasons why they are leaving the ROK military:

The Korea Institute for Defense Analyses surveyed 417 officers with at least five years of service and found that the main reasons for seeking early discharge included low pay relative to workload (22.5 percent), loss of job satisfaction from administrative duties (20.1 percent), feelings of relative deprivation due to rising pay for rank-and-file soldiers (10.6 percent) and family separation due to reassignment (9.6 percent).

You can read more at the link.

Japan’s defense budget request indicates that they realize the future of warfare is unmanned systems:

Japan’s Ministry of Defense on Friday unveiled a record-high defense spending request of $60.1 billion for fiscal 2026, citing what it called severe and continuing security threats from China and North Korea. The proposal, which would mark Japan’s 14th consecutive annual increase in defense spending, is about $1 billion higher than the current fiscal year’s $59.1 billion budget. (…….)

The budget emphasizes standoff defense, unmanned systems and cross-domain operations to counter increasingly diverse, complex and advanced threats, according to the Defense Ministry document. About $874.8 million is earmarked for unmanned aircraft and unmanned surface and underwater vessels as part of the ministry’s Synchronized, Hybrid, Integrated and Enhanced Littoral Defense program, or SHIELD, set to launch by the end of fiscal 2027. (……)

The ministry also seeks about $7 billion for standoff defense capabilities, including $207.3 million to begin mass production of hypersonic weapons, which travel at speeds above Mach 5 and are difficult to intercept.

Stars & Stripes

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For both Kim Jong-un and Putin, the North Korean troop deployment to fight against Ukraine in Russia’s Kursk province has to now be considered a success. The Ukrianians lost a valuable negotiating piece by losing the land they gained in Kursk provice. Additionally many inexpendable Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the Kursk operation fighting very expendable North Korean soldiers:

This image captured on Aug. 30, 2025, shows the music video of the song titled “Remember,” aired by the Korean Central Television, highlighting the contributions made by North Korean troops in the Russia-Ukraine war. (Yonhap)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un finalized his decision to deploy troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine on Aug. 28 last year, shortly after Kyiv launched a surprise offensive into Kursk, a video released by the North’s state media showed Sunday.

The Korean Central Television recently released the music video of a song titled “Remember,” featuring North Korean soldiers who fought in Russia’s front-line region of Kursk.

The video’s background images include a document on a plan to “liberate” Kursk, ratified by Kim, as well as a scene of the leader in a white summer Mao suit presiding over a meeting with key military officials, including Pak Jong-chon, vice chairman of the ruling party’s Central Military Commission, and Ri Chang-ho, vice chief of the General Staff.

Yonhap

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The axis of authoritarianism is meeting in China this week to pretend that the CCP had anything to do with helping to win World War II:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to take an initial step onto the multilateral diplomatic stage in China this week, with his planned trip to attend a military parade in Beijing setting the stage for a possible three-way summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

It will be the first time for Kim, who assumed power in late 2011, to attend a multilateral diplomatic event. His grandfather and the North’s founder Kim Il-sung attended a military parade in Beijing in 1959.

The decision by Kim to attend China’s military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, alongside Putin and Xi, was announced days after both South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump expressed their eagerness to resume diplomacy with North Korea in their high-stakes summit in Washington.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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