As I speculated yesterday, the Kim regime has confirmed the missile test is linked to the upcoming joint exercise:

Anchor: North Korea has confirmed that it test-fired “new tactical guided weapons” on Thursday, with leader Kim Jong-un personally overseeing the launches. The North’s state-media described the provocations as a “solemn warning” to South Korea. 

Kim Bum-soo has more.

Report: After firing two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea Thursday, North Korea has issued a warning to South Korea. 

The North’s state-run media said Friday that leader Kim Jong-un personally oversaw what it called a “new tactical guided weapon” test in a show of military might.

The Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) said the launch is a “solemn warning” to South Korean “military warmongers,” who were described as “running high fever in their moves to introduce the ultramodern offensive weapons and hold military exercises in defiance of the repeated warnings.” 

Earlier this month, the South Korean Air Force received two U.S.-built F-35A stealth fighter jets and hopes to deploy a total of 40 by 2021. Seoul and Washington are also scheduled to stage their joint 19-2 Dongmaeng military exercise next month. 

In an apparent reference to President Moon Jae-in, Kim was cited as advising the “South Korean authority” to “stop such suicidal acts as adopting new weapons and military exercises.” Kim also urged Moon to return to his reconciliatory position on display during the inter-Korean summits last year.

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link, but notice how North Korea has no problem bashing President Moon, but are unwilling to criticize President Trump. This is because they are still hoping that President Trump will relax sanctions on them for a freeze deal. A freeze deal means they give up nothing because they are just required to stop testing. They can restart testing at a time of their choosing after collecting enough foreign revenue and then blame the U.S. for the failure of the deal.

Kim Jong-un has always said that he is waiting until the end of the year for a deal to be reached. If a deal is not reached he could restart ICBM testing. He is giving the Trump administration a preview of what he could start doing right in the middle of President Trump’s re-election campaign next year if a deal is not struck.

If anyone has any spare cash lying around you could buy Asiana Airlines this week:

Asiana Airlines is expected to be up for sale as early as Thursday. 

Kumho Industrial, Asiana’s biggest shareholder, and the airline’s credit holders plan to start the sale process on Thursday or Friday. They are looking to find a buyer and sign a main contract by the end of this year. 

Market observers presume it will take one trillion won to two-point-five trillion won to buy South Korea’s second largest airline. Some local conglomerates are being mentioned as potential bidders, including SK, Hanwha, CJ and Aekyung. 

Earlier this year, the Asiana’s creditors led by the state-owned Korea Development Bank(KDB) decided to provide one-point-73 trillion won in financial assistance to help normalize the cash-strapped airline, setting a goal to sell it by year-end.

KBS World Radio

#KimJongun "threatens" by rejecting #SouthKorean rice aid. That should scare the #MoonJaein administration, since it wants so badly to give rice to the Kim regime. But without Wise Honest ship, how will Kim export the rice for cash anyway? https://t.co/YiIXsgOYqh

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) July 24, 2019

If the Moon administration allows the auctioning of the assets of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in South Korea, I wonder what the Japanese response will be? Would they try and auction off the assets of a major Korean company like Hyundai in Japan in response? If so this dispute could get even uglier:

Plaintiffs who won a compensation suit against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for its wartime forced labor filed a formal request to a local court Tuesday to seize and liquidate the Japanese firm’s assets in Korea, after the company refused to abide by a November Supreme Court ruling in their favor.

The request came amid an escalating feud between the two countries following the court verdict and Japan’s alleged retaliatory move restricting exports of key materials to Korea. 

The action comes eight months after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling, which sided with 87-year-old Yang Geum-deok and four other plaintiffs who were forced to work without pay at a Mitsubishi aircraft plant in Nagoya during World War II. The court ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay between 100 million won ($85,000) and 150 million won to each victim in legal compensation. 

But the company refused to pay, and also ignored multiple requests to negotiate an agreement, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers. During this time, three plaintiffs passed away. 

“There is a limit to waiting,” civic groups that supported the five said in a press conference on behalf of the plaintiffs, Tuesday. “As we warned, we have asked the court to order the sale of Mitsubishi Heavy Industry’s assets in Korea.” 

The request was filed with Daejeon District Court, targeting the “liquidation of six patents and two trademark rights” which the company was granted in Korea, including its new MHI English logo. Earlier in March, they asked a court to allow them to “seize the intellectual properties,” a request that was accepted. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest provocation from North Korea:

North Korea on Thursday fired two new short-range ballistic missiles, Seoul officials said, in an apparent move to put pressure on the United States ahead of possible nuclear talks between the two sides.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that Pyongyang fired one missile toward the East Sea at around 5:34 a.m. and the other at 5:57 a.m. from Hodo Peninsula near its eastern coastal town of Wonsan. They flew around 430 kilometers and 690 km, respectively, both at an altitude of around 50 km. 

The test came 77 days after Pyongyang’s short-range missile launch in early May. (……..)

Experts have said Thursday’s launches appear to have involved the North’s version of Russia’s Iskander, a short-range, ground-to-ground ballistic missile known as KN-23, as it test-fired in May.

Yonhap

What is significant about the Iskander is that it is a solid fuel missile. What this means is that unlike a liquid fuel missile it does not need to be fueled before launching. The act of fueling missiles takes time and could be observed while a solid fuel missile can be simply rolled out and fired.

What About THAAD?

The Iskander also has a lower flight trajectory which gives it a shorter time of flight which reduces decision making time. In the article they claim the Iskander makes the THAAD system ineffective. The article fails to mention there are different missile defense systems for different threats. For lower flying trajectories that is what the Patriot missile batteries located around South Korea are for.

THAAD was never meant to be a magic bullet that engages all threats on the peninsula. THAAD engages targets at higher altitudes than Patriot. One of the main reasons it was deployed was because of the threat of lofted trajectory missiles that North Korea was testing.

Additionally, by using a lofted flight trajectory, North Korea could use medium-range and intermediate-range missiles to strike South Korean targets over shorter distances by firing them at higher angles. For example, on June 22, 2016, North Korea was able to limit the distance of the intermediate-range Musudan missile to around 400 kilometers (from a normal distance of more than 3,000 kilometers) by using this lofting method. In this scenario, the warhead is traveling at a high velocity by the end of its trajectory, thereby undermining the effectiveness of the Patriot missile system.

Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy

Now the North Koreans are testing a lower flying system that Patriot can engage, but once again it is not the flight profile that is of the most concern, it is the solid fuel capability that allows them rapidly fire these missiles with little early warning.

Why Test Now?

So why did the North Koreans fire this missile now? First of all the yet to be named joint US-ROK exercise is still scheduled to be executed next month. The exercise gives the Kim regime cover to conduct this test to further prove its capability. Additionally this keeps pressure on the Trump administration to give-in to North Korean demands to lift some of the sanctions in return for a freeze on missile testing.

Kim Jong-un has always said that he is waiting until the end of the year for a deal to be reached. If a deal is not reached he could restart ICBM testing. He is giving the Trump administration a preview of what he could start doing right in the middle of President Trump’s re-election campaign next year if a deal is not struck.

Maybe this was just how this guy was beating the heat 😉 :

Police are hunting for so-called “G-string man,” a man in his 20-30s who visited a coffee shop in Chungju wearing a G-string on July 17. 

The investigation started after photos of the man ― wearing a black mask, a tight short-sleeved white shirt and a black G-string ― went viral online. 

Police confirmed with CCTV footage that the man visited a coffee shop in the city’s west about noon on July 17. Investigators said he walked in, queued, ordered a drink, sipped it and left. He didn’t care about people’s attention and did nothing wrong in the shop, they said. 

“A man in a G-string came in, ordered a drink and paid normally,” an investigator quoted a cafe employee as saying. “He left after drinking for a short time in the shop.” 

Police say they plan to check his mental state if he is caught. 

Korea Times

#MoonJaeIn's Deobureo Minjoo Party (Democratic Party of #Korea) created a "Special Committee to Respond to #Japan's Economic Retaliation," then quickly renamed it "Special Committee to Respond to Japan's Economic Invasion." An invasion? Ruling party stoking anti-Japan sentiment. https://t.co/fWfdY8jByO

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) July 23, 2019

Here is the latest economic measure the Japanese are looking at taking against South Korea:

Japan’s plan to remove Korea from its “white list” of countries with preferential trade treatment will endanger the alliance between Korea, Japan and the United States and threaten regional security in Northeast Asia, the trade minister said Wednesday.

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo said the Korean government has delivered its “written opinion” to Tokyo. This is the first time Korea has delivered a message this way to Japan over economic issues.

The document contains details on why Japan’s July 4 export restrictions on three materials for manufacturing semiconductors, and an additional move to remove Korea from its whitelist of 27 countries are unfair and groundless. 

“The groundless export curbs on three materials for semiconductors should be lifted immediately and the action to remove Korea from its whitelist should also be scrapped,” Sung said during a press conference at the Government Complex in Seoul.

“The attempt to remove Korea from its whitelist is an especially serious issue which sways the foundation of the cooperation between Korea, Japan and the U.S. on security in Northeast Asia, as well as dealing a heavy blow to the Korea-Japan economic partnership which has lasted over 60 years.” 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but this is clearly tit-for-tat because earlier this week the ROK said they were considering ending the GSOMIA security pact with Japan. So Japan comes back with a threat to take South Korea off their white list.

This whole dispute could be ended if the Moon administration stops with its plan to forcibly seize the assets of Japanese companies within South Korea.