I would rather North Korea would remove their artillery from the border than loudspeakers. When they do that then we will know they are serious about peace on the peninsula:
South Korea’s military said Saturday it detected North Korea removing some of its loudspeakers from the inter-Korean border, days after the South dismantled its own front-line speakers used for anti-North Korean propaganda broadcasts, in a bid to ease tensions. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t disclose the sites where the North Koreans were removing speakers and said it wasn’t immediately clear whether the North would take all of them down.
It appears the Washington Post is trying to make a scandal out of something that is called negotiating:
Officials of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration considered demanding that South Korea raise its defense spending to 3.8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) during tariff negotiations, a news report said Saturday, citing internal U.S. government documents.
U.S. officials also weighed the idea of requiring South Korea to publicly support operational flexibility of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to better deter China, The Washington Post reported, though it is not clear whether their suggestions were actually discussed in the negotiations with South Korea that were concluded last month.
The documents indicated that the Trump’s administration might intend to use tariffs to help achieve a range of national security goals beyond its stated objective to reduce America’s trade deficits and boost domestic manufacturing, the newspaper noted.
Vietnam’s top leader arrives in S. Korea on state visit Vietnam’s top leader, To Lam (L), and his wife, Ngo Phuong Ly, wave to a welcome delegation upon arriving at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, south of Seoul, as Lam embarks on a state visit at the invitation of President Lee Jae Myung. Lam and Lee are scheduled to hold summit talks Monday. (Yonhap)
This is just yet another part of Cho Kuk’s revenge plan against former President Yoon, to receive a pardon while Yoon and his wife and both likely headed to jail:
President Lee Jae Myung will preside over an extraordinary Cabinet meeting early this week to determine special pardons, his office said Sunday, amid growing speculation that he may grant a presidential pardon to former Justice Minister Cho Kuk.
The Cabinet meeting will take place at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, with the review and potential approval of matters related to special pardons, reinstatements and other considerations for clemency expected to be the focus, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a message to reporters.
It is widely expected that Lee will make a decision on whether to grant a presidential pardon to Cho, who launched the minor Rebuilding Korea Party ahead of the general elections in April last year.
Cho has reportedly been included on the potential list of beneficiaries of presidential pardons, raising the possibility of his early release from prison.
Cho is currently serving a two-year prison term following a conviction on academic fraud charges involving his children and unlawful interference with a government inspection.
This guy must have been pretty desperate to attempt a high risk defection like this. Hopefully he doesn’t have any family left in North Korea that will be punished for his defection:
A North Korean man defected to South Korea after he swam down the coast and evaded armed border guards with orders to shoot anyone fleeing Kim Jong Un’s regime.
The unidentified man was detected late on the evening of July 30, according to South Korean officials, who made the defection public on Thursday. He used tied-on plastic foam for buoyancy and swam down the Korean Peninsula’s west coast.
After a journey of around 10 hours, the man, who reportedly waved his hands and declared his intention to defect, was retrieved by South Korea’s military about 1.6 miles south of North Korean soil.
Defections to the South have become extremely rare in recent years after Kim ordered extra fortifications and boosted security along the border. That has left only dangerous routes and the risk of a death sentence if caught.
This has been long suspected will happen and now it has:
South Korea and the United States will conduct a major joint exercise this month to strengthen their combined readiness posture, the allies said Thursday, but added that around half of some 40 planned field training exercises will be rescheduled to next month.
The announcement came amid speculation that the allies may push back some field training tied to the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise until after September as South Korea seeks to mend frayed ties with North Korea.
The UFS exercise is set to take place from Aug. 18-28 and involves drills incorporating “realistic” threats aimed at enhancing the allies’ capabilities across all domains, their militaries said.
The plan for Cho Kuk’s revenge gets closer to completion:
A special counsel team requested an arrest warrant for former first lady Kim Keon Hee on Thursday, a day after questioning her over allegations of election meddling and other irregularities.
Special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team said it filed for the warrant on charges of violations of the Capital Market Act, the Political Funds Act and a law on the acceptance of bribes for mediation.
“We requested it upon determining that the criteria for an arrest warrant were met,” assistant special counsel Oh Jeong-hee said during a press briefing.
I wonder if this a good cop, bad cop dynamic where Colby is the good cop saying nice things to the ROK while Trump is the bad cop making big demands?:
Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of defense for policy, made the remarks on July 31 in a social media post following a phone call between South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“South Korea continues to be a role model in its willingness to take more of the lead in a strong defense against the DPRK and in its spending on defense,” Colby wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
Colby also said the two allies are “closely aligned on the need to modernize the alliance” in response to shifting regional security dynamics.
Widely regarded as a key architect of Trump’s “America First” strategy in the security domain, Colby has led efforts to push U.S. allies to increase their defense budgets and assume a greater role in collective defense.
