It appears the North Koreans are probing to see what they can get away with along the DMZ under the new Lee administration:

Around 30 North Korean troops recently crossed the inter-Korean border despite warning broadcasts, triggering warning shots from the South Korean military, a spokesperson of the U.S.-led U.N. Command (UNC) said Sunday, citing its investigation into the incident.

The spokesperson made the remarks in response to a question from Yonhap News Agency, a day after North Korea berated the South Korean military for having fired more than 10 warning shots at North Korean troops who were conducting a border reinforcement project last week.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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

This is actually a little surprising to me that President Lee did not hedge on maintaining the forced labor and comfort women agreements with Japan. It is good to see that he is maintaining policy consistency between governments. We will see what happens in the future though when he needs a distraction from some domestic political scandal of some kind. It always seems like that is the time ROK politicians play the anti-Japan card:

On relations with Japan, Lee said his government will uphold past agreements on the issues of wartime forced labor and former sex slave for Japanese troops, euphemistically called “comfort women.”

“It is very difficult for the South Korean people to accept these agreements,” he said in the interview. “But as they are promises made between countries, it would be undesirable to overturn them.”

Although Lee had previously criticized the agreements, he said that as president he intends to honor them in the interest of bilateral relations, noting his dual responsibility to ensure policy consistency and maintain national trust while also considering the views of the Korean public, victims and their bereaved families.

He also expressed hope that Seoul and Tokyo can confront painful historical issues squarely and move relations forward.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

How cute President Lee thinks he can get the Kim regime to denuclearize:

President Lee Jae Myung has said he will pursue a three-stage denuclearization plan for North Korea, with Seoul approaching such a strategy via active efforts for dialogue with Pyongyang based on the solid alliance with the United States. 

In an interview with Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun ahead of his visit to Tokyo for summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Lee said he will seek to freeze North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs in the first stage. 

In the second and final stage, Lee said he will seek to reduce and dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program, according to a script of the interview provided by the presidential office.

South Korea, while maintaining close coordination with the U.S., will actively pursue inter-Korean dialogue to establish conditions for the goal, Lee told the Japanese newspaper.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I am sure Lee knows that he has no chance of getting North Korea to denuclearize. That is why his plan first has pursuing a nuclear freeze deal. This is the only viable deal that can be pursued with North Korea at this time. A cap on the number of North Korean nuclear weapons and ICBMs in return for dropping sanctions might be something the Kim regime may go for.

This is supposedly the first time open source imagery has located one of North Korea ICBM bases:

North Korea has an undeclared ballistic missile operating base near its border with China, which likely possesses intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the continental United States, a U.S. monitor confirmed Wednesday.

Beyond Parallel, a project of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, unveiled the Sinpung-dong Missile Operating Base in North Pyongan Province, about 25 kilometers from the border with China, as it released its analysis of satellite imagery taken July 11.

It marks the first open-source study confirming the base, according to the monitor.

“Preliminary analysis suggests that the base likely houses a brigade-sized unit equipped with a total of six to nine nuclear capable Hwasong-15 or -18 ICBMs, or an as yet unknown ICBM, and their transporter-erector-launchers (TEL) or mobile-erector-launchers (MEL),” it said in a report posted on its website.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is a bit surprising that South Korea is holding on to North Korean operatives when they have aged into their 90’s:

 Six former North Korean soldiers and spies who were jailed in South Korea for refusing to renounce their socialist beliefs have asked the Seoul government to repatriate them to the North, officials said Tuesday.

Yang Won-jin, 96, Ahn Hak-sop, 95, and four others have recently submitted the formal request to the unification ministry, seeking to return to North Korea, a ministry official said.

Known as “unconverted” long-term prisoners, they are former North Korean soldiers and spies who were arrested in the South before and after the 1950-53 Korean War, an ideologically driven conflict that left the Korean Peninsula divided into the communist North and the democratic South.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

For anyone curious what the former President and his wife are eating while in jail that menu sounds very familiar to what ROK Army Soldiers eat from my experience:

With former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee being held in separate Seoul detention centers, public curiosity has zeroed in on the couple’s daily life behind bars — particularly their meals.

According to the monthly meal plan from correctional authorities, Yoon is expected to have a 1,730 won ($1.25) jail meal consisting of beef and vegetable porridge with steamed potatoes for Wednesday’s breakfast.

The Justice Ministry revealed that three meals are provided per day for every inmate at the Seoul detention center, budgeted at 5,201 won. This amounts to approximately 1,730 won per meal.

Meals for lunch and dinner are served in a traditional Korean style, with rice, soup, side dishes and kimchi. The detained former president, who has been in custody at the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, since July 10, is scheduled to have braised chicken with seasoned dried seaweed and stew with soft tofu for Wednesday’s lunch and dinner, respectively.

Meanwhile, sliced white bread with strawberry jam, salad and sausage are available for the former first lady’s breakfast on Wednesday, according to the Korea Correctional Service.

Kim will have pork kimchi stew with sweet and sour dumplings for lunch, like any other inmate at the Seoul Southern Detention Center. Wednesday’s dinner will be chilled cucumber and seaweed soup with rice and kimchi. Kim’s attorneys have relayed to media that she has not been eating well.

The inmates are provided with nutritious meals totaling over 2,500 calories per day. No outside food is allowed.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.