Our enemy China is illegally buying oil from our enemy Iran http://t.co/HCndC36H2Z China loves it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2013

It appears that the North Koreans are trying to get President Trump to remove anyone from negotiations that opposes their “pretend denuclearization” strategy:

North Korea is urging the U.S. government to remove Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from the current nuclear negotiations. 

Pyongyang’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Thursday ran an interview with the director of the North America desk of the North Korean Foreign Ministry.

The official said rather than Pompeo, Pyongyang hopes for a more amicable and seasoned official to represent Washington should the stalled North Korea-U.S. negotiations resume. 

Arguing that Pompeo caused the collapse of the Hanoi talks, the official said it is fortunate that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un maintains good relations with U.S. President Donald Trump.

North Korea and Pompeo have had a rocky relationship.

In a briefing to foreign diplomats in Pyongyang on March 15, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui condemned Pompeo and White House National Security Advisor John Bolton for obstructing the talks in Hanoi.

KBS World News

You can read more at the link.

It looks like North Korea has decided to fire a battlefield rocket which allows them to slowly increase tensions without creating a full blown crisis that firing a ballistic missile would do:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Wednesday supervised a test firing of a “new-type tactical guided weapon” developed by an institute responsible for its missile program, according to state media. 

The development of the new weapon system was an “event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People’s Army,” read the state-run Rodong Sinmun’s English report on the test, which attributed the system’s development to the Academy of Defense Science. 

Several military analysts in South Korea said it could be a variation of a short-range ballistic missile launcher imported from Russia called the 9K720 Iskander, which North Korea displayed at a military parade in Pyongyang last February. 

The only description of the weapon itself in the Rodong Sinmun report was that its “design indexes” had “advantages … appreciated for the peculiar mode of guiding flight,” indicating that it was outfitted with a type of guidance system. The test involved “various modes of firing at different targets” that verified “the load of a powerful warhead,” the report added.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but Kim Jong-un promised President Trump to suspend missile and nuclear tests. When he decides to fire a ballistic missile is when we know negotiations are over. This test was just a warning to the Trump administration that the Kim regime is losing patience and want their “pretend denuclearization” deal.

The Moon Jae-in administration is again trying to pull a fast one to avoid North Korean sanctions:

The Korea Customs Service (KCS, 관세청) of South Korea has begun to consider measures to approve a ‘Made in [South] Korea’ label, not just for products made in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, but also for goods made all over North Korea.  There is still a difference of opinions between the government of South Korea and the U.S. Nevertheless, the South Korean government seems to continue to try to evade economic sanctions against North Korea.

In the last summit between the U.S. and South Korea [on April 10, 2019], President Trump made clear that he is against easing the economic sanctions for resuming the Gaeseong industrial complex and Geumgang Mountain tourism.

President Trump said on April 11, “When we’re at the right time, I’d have great support; this isn’t the right time [to soften the sanctions].”

In contrast to the U.S. government’s position, the Korea Customs Service in March prepared the “Comprehensive Aid Roadmap,” which approves North Korean-made products as made in South Korea, and began an internal review.  They want products made in all regions of North Korea to be labeled as “Made in Korea.” [Numerous products made in South Korea are labeled “Made in Korea” and most consumers would assume the goods are made in South Korea, not North Korea.]

East Asia Research Center

You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration even wants to allow the Kim regime to export “Made in Korea” items directly from North Korea under the ROK’s FTA agreement. This is absurd I cannot imagine that the Trump administration is going to fall for this scheme.

Arguing that North Korea considers its relationship with the US more important than its relationship with SK is myopic. Why? It would be completely antithetical to its long-term ideological project. NK seeks the ejection of the US & integration with, and slow subjugation of, SK. https://t.co/64jmn6vyPD

— 🇰🇷Edward Oh🇺🇸 (@EdwardHBOh) April 16, 2019

This is an absolutely horrible crime:

A man in Jinju, southeastern South Korea, set his apartment aflame on Wednesday and attacked fleeing residents with a knife, killing five of them and injuring 13, police said.
The arson and murder suspect, identified only as a 42-year-old man, set fire to his apartment building in Jinju, about 435 kilometers southeast of Seoul, at around 4:29 a.m. before randomly stabbing other residents coming out of their houses to evacuate, police said.

Five residents, including a 12-year-old, were stabbed to death in the apartment stairways, and 13 others were injured, with three of them in critical condition, police said.
The suspect was detained on the scene at about 4:50 a.m. after a confrontation with police.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but condolences to all the victims’ families.

President Moon’s friend is released from jail after 77 days despite his involvement in rigging online opinion to influence a Presidential election while a journalist received a 2 year jail sentence for reporting facts and was not released after such a short time:

South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo was released Wednesday after 77 days of detention over his role in a massive rigging of online opinions.
The Seoul High Court approved Kim’s request for bail but attached a condition under which he should only stay in his residence in Changwon, 400 kilometers south of Seoul.
Kim, known as a confidant of President Moon Jae-in, was sentenced to two years in prison in January for colluding with a power blogger to carry out an illicit cyber operation to sway public opinion in favor of Moon ahead of the 2017 presidential election.
“(I) will prove once and for all that truth will come around no matter how far it is thrown away,” he told reporters. “(I) will reveal the truth through an appeals trial.”
Kim, 51, earlier requested the bail on the grounds that the provincial government suffered a setback in doing its work due to his absence. For the 200 million-won (US$176,025) bail, the court ordered him to pay half of the amount in cash.
Kim received the two-year jail term for collusion with the power blogger, better known by his nickname, Druking, to artificially jack up the number of likes of Internet comments on sensitive political news to benefit the ruling Democratic Party (DP), the then main opposition party, and its presidential candidate Moon ahead of the 2017 elections.
Moon won the snap election in May, replacing former President Park Geun-hye, who was ousted from office in March 2017 over a corruption scandal.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the excuse that the provincial government could not work effectively because he is in jail is one of the lamest excuses I have heard yet. Would any other criminal be let out of prison early because their work place suffered a setback with that person’s absence?

We could be seeing the beginning of the end of Asiana Airlines:

Thirty-one years and two months ago, Asiana Airlines was founded. Very soon, it could be history after its controlling shareholder said it would be selling off the debt-laden carrier.

Asiana Airlines was formed in 1988, the year the Olympic Games were held in Seoul, as Seoul Air International. 

The Chun Doo Hwan government in February 1988 approved the Kumho Group, as it was known at the time, to form the country’s second private airline. The market had been monopolized by Korean Air.

The Summer Games put Korea on the global map, but there was a shortage of flights to transport the visitors. In August 1988, Asiana inaugurated its first service and changed its name in December.

While the airline first operated with a single Boeing 737, it enjoyed the Golden Age of travel in the 1990s along with its competitor as the government lifted the overseas travel ban, and Koreans started going abroad en masse.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more about Asiana Airlines at the link. I like flying Korean Air better than Asiana Airlines, but I still thought it was a good airline. I would rather fly Asiana than any of the major US airlines.