It looks like it will be a wet weekend for the Korean peninsula:

Typhoon Danas is moving toward the Korean Peninsula after forming off the Philippines. 

The storm ― classified as “small,” with central pressure of 996 hectopascals (hPa) ― is moving northeast at a speed of 23 kilometers an hour. 

Danas ― packing maximum sustained winds of 54 kph and gusts of 82.8 kph as of Tuesday ― is expected to slam into Taiwan on Thursday, advance to Shanghai on Saturday and reach the West Sea on Sunday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). 

Taiwan authorities have warned people in central, southern and eastern areas to brace for torrential rain. 

If it travels as expected, the entire Korean Peninsula will be under the typhoon’s influence this weekend. 

Korea Times

This guy was clearly having a bad day, and the next day was even worse when he was detained by the MP’s for this stupidity:

The soldier was in full uniform when a decidedly civilian conflict unfolded outside a shopping mall in Savannah, Georgia.

But by the end of a shouting match — which lasted at most a couple of minutes — the man had ripped off his camouflage jacket, twisted a woman’s arm behind her back and declared in an expletive-laden tirade that he didn’t care about the Army and he didn’t care about the country its members are sworn to protect.

The dispute apparently began over a parking space in what local media identified as a lot outside the sprawling Oglethorpe Mall, which is less than a mile from Hunter Army Airfield in the coastal Georgia city. Videos of the incident surfaced on social media Monday, quickly racking up tens of thousands of shares and over a million views.

On Tuesday, an Army spokesperson told the TV outlet WSAV that the man pictured was detained by military police in connection with his actions in the parking lot.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but this guy needs to find another profession because the Army does not need people like this around other soldiers.

I've spent the last week in DC, and it seems a deal with NK is, at last, in the works. Instead of chasing the impossible, diplomats now hope to achieve a more realistic “small deal," and both Trump and Kim have good reason to accept it, I write @nknewsorghttps://t.co/CrCDLu4bvz

— Andrei Lankov (@andreilankov) July 15, 2019

It seems President Trump thinks that threats in the North Korean media to restart nuclear and ICBM testing is a bunch of hot air:

After North Korea threatened to end its moratorium on nuclear and missile tests if U.S.-South Korean military drills go forward, U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that “time is not of the essence” in his administration’s negotiations with Pyongyang.  

The president’s words reinforced his ever-sanguine view of his relationship with North Korea and new talks about denuclearization, brushing aside two statements issued by Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday warning that talks “would be affected” by joint U.S.-South Korean summertime exercises, which it described as “rehearsals for war.”  

In one statement given in a Q&A with the Korean Central News Agency, a spokesman for the North’s Foreign Ministry said the country would “formulate our decision on the opening of […] working-level talks, while keeping watch over the U.S. move hereafter.”

A second statement released by the ministry pointed out that the North’s 20-month self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and missile tests was a voluntary gesture to improve relations with Washington and not a binding promise of any sort. It said the United States was “unilaterally reneging” on Trump’s alleged vow to not conduct further joint drills that he made during the summit held with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the border village of Panmunjom on June 30.

The drills, known as the Dong Maeng exercises, were described by Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn as routine combined training that had already been “adjusted” for the sake of engagement with North Korea. Eastburn said the exercises would proceed as scheduled this August between U.S. and South Korean troops and that they are intended to show the U.S. commitment to South Korea’s defense.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the Dong Maeng exercise is what has replaced the prior UFG exercise.

Good luck with this:

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon announced on Sunday his vision to turn Seoul into a bicycle-friendly city, including installing elevated bike roads above bus lanes in Seoul, during his visit to Bogota, Colombia.  

“My intention is to turn Seoul into one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world,” Park told Korean reporters in Colombia’s capital on Sunday, during his trip to several South American cities to bridge inter-city cooperation on urban regeneration. 

“And there are a few options to go about this plan. One is to take some of the car lanes and turn them into bike highways while making sure that they are completely separated from car roads.”

“Another option,” he continued, “is to build elevated bike roads above bus lanes, or to build enclosed bike lanes on either side of bridges across the Han River.”

Park is traveling through South American cities, including Mexico City, and Medellin and Bogota, both Colombia, from July 8 to 17 to explore inter-city cooperation on urban regeneration.

He made the announcement during a day of ciclovia, which is a local practice in some South American cities such as Bogota and Medellin that involves blocking certain roads from traffic and opening it up to pedestrians and cyclists on Sundays or other designated days.

“In all the options that the city government is considering, it is trying to build a so-called Cycle Rapid Transportation highway, an unprecedented attempt,” the Seoul city government said in a statement on Sunday. “The bike highway would be completely separate from roads used by cars and by pedestrians.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said it will inject 300 million won ($254,400) within this year to conduct feasibility studies on the plan. 

Jeong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

“The [Mercedes] cars traveled by ship for 41 days to Dalian…then put on a ship for Osaka…to Busan…Then came the most mysterious part of the passage. The containers were transferred within one day of arrival to…a cargo ship sailing under the flag of Togo,” for Nakhodka, RU https://t.co/DmPxWvpTtH

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) July 16, 2019

The Kim regime was not going to miss a chance to bash Japan:

North Korean media outlets are strongly criticizing Japan amid growing confrontation between Seoul and Tokyo over Japan’s trade restrictions. 

Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North Korean ruling party, on Wednesday portrayed the Japan’s exports curbs on South Korea as retaliatory measures over the South Korean top court’s decisions on Japan’s forced wartime labor and accused Tokyo of seeking to realize its imperial purposes. 

The paper also asserted that Japan has shown no repentance over its “sinful deeds” in the past and warned the North will not just sit and watch Japan trample the Korean people’s interests. 

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link, but notice how North Korea bashes Japan for its export restrictions on South Korea as being against the “Korean people’s interests”. This demonstrates how North Korea views South Korean citizens as part of their own population.

If the North Koreans conduct a nuclear or ICBM test, I think that would officially end diplomatic efforts:

The United States looks set to break a promise not to hold military exercises with South Korea, putting talks aimed at getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons at risk, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

The United States’ pattern of “unilaterally reneging on its commitments” is leading Pyongyang to reconsider its own commitments to discontinue tests of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the ministry said in a pair of statements released through state news agency KCNA.The United States looks set to break a promise not to hold military exercises with South Korea, putting talks aimed at getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons at risk, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

Reuters

You can read more at the link.