Like I have been saying if the North Koreans do decide to do a launch they will call it a peaceful space launch which gives their allies China and Russia cover to claim nation’s have a right to a peaceful space program. At the same time this will raise tensions to put pressure on the Trump administration to cut a deal with the North Koreans. I don’t think we have reached the point yet of a near term launch since negotiations are still going on, but I guess we will see what happens:
North Korea could be on the brink of a missile launch from a pad on its western coast, said a South Korean official on Monday.
A series of ominous signs – the foremost being the near complete restoration of a missile launch site on the western coast – is fueling speculation that the regime is gearing up to launch its first rocket since its rapprochement with first South Korea and then the United States last year – a move that could reverse a year’s worth of engagement.
Backing up a briefing made by Seoul’s spy chief, Suh Hoon, at South Korea’s National Assembly last Friday, the official said the North’s reconstruction of the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, which started in February, is effectively complete, and a launch only needs a go-ahead from leader Kim Jong-un.
Sohae was the site from which the North launched its Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite in February 2016. Kim Jong-un promised South Korean President Moon Jae-in to dismantle Sohae at their Pyongyang summit last September, and some work was done that appeared to be dismantling.
Sources in Seoul had said early last month that the North could launch from Sohae not a warhead but a satellite equipped with new technology brought in from China, shaking Washington out of a protracted stalemate over denuclearization.
North Korea maintains a distinction between testing of military ballistic missiles and launching satellites, which it maintains have a peaceful, scientific purpose. But nuclear experts abroad say the fact that the same type of rockets are used for both purposes makes that difference meaningless. Missile launches of any type by Pyongyang are banned under UN Resolution 1695, adopted in 2006.
The bus ad: "Do you want to hack the White House?" "Then it's Woosong Univ" in #SouthKorea. Anti-US themes, blatant praise of Kim Jong Un, submissive attitude toward China–not the SK most people know, but made possible by #MoonJaein, his party, his supporters–small % of SK popn https://t.co/g7h0rB1f79
Cherry blossoms in full bloomA man takes a selfie with blooming cherry blossoms in the background in Jangheung, 394 km south of Seoul, on April 1, 2019. (Yonnhap)
This should come as no surprise that the Moon administration is openly collaborating with North Korea for a “pretend denuclearization” deal:
South Korea is in the process of persuading the United States to accept a piecemeal deal for the North’s denuclearization, Seoul’s spy chief told the National Assembly on Friday.
According to one lawmaker who sat through a briefing by Suh Hoon, head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the director said the South Korean government is in the midst of “constant discussions” with the United States in regard to a denuclearization process by the North that “can only proceed piece by piece.”
“Complete denuclearization is not something that can be done immediately since it requires a gradual process,” Suh reportedly said. “But the United States and South Korean positions are not divergent.”
The step-by-step approach at the center of Seoul’s campaign is closer to the “small deal” favored by the North compared to the U.S. push for an all-in-one plan that has reduced negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang to a stalemate since the collapse of the summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, from Feb. 27 to 28.
You can read more at the link, but a piece by piece deal means that the US will drop sanctions for little to nothing in return from North Korea. We have seen this happen already twice during the Clinton and Bush administrations; this is why the Trump administration has been pushing for an all or nothing deal.
It will be interesting to see if the use of over four different genders spreads throughout other government agencies in South Korea:
The National Human Rights Commission will add a non-binary gender option in its official document. / Yonhap
The state-run human rights watchdog is set to add a non-binary gender option in official petition documents in a move to embrace lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people.
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) will be the first government organization to offer a gender-neutral option in official papers.
“After recently receiving a petition urging us to allow a third-gender option in our petition documents, a relevant department reviewed it and reached the conclusion that this was permissible,” said an NHRCK official.
“We are now working to change our petition forms to reflect the decision, and new documents will be available within a month.”
Currently, those who file petitions with the commission must identify themselves as male, female, transgender male or transgender female in their applications.
“We accepted the petitioner’s claim that there could be more than the four genders,” the official said.
You can read more at the link, but at least there is not 71 different gender options yet. Can you imagine what government forms would look like with 71 different gender options on them?
The Indonesian woman accused of murdering Kim Jong-nam was released last month and it appears next month the Vietnamese woman involved in the murder will be let go as well:
Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong leaves Shah Alam High Court in Shah Alam, Malaysia, Monday, April 1, 2019. The Vietnamese woman who is the only suspect in custody for the killing of the North Korean leader’s brother Kim Jong Nam pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in a Malaysian court Monday and her lawyer asked for leniency.
A Vietnamese woman who is the only suspect in custody for the killing of the North Korean leader’s brother pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in a Malaysian court on Monday and her lawyer said she could be freed as early as next month. Doan Thi Huong had faced a murder charge, which carried the death penalty if she was convicted, in the slaying of Kim Jong Nam, who died after being accosted by two women in a Kuala Lumpur airport terminal. Huong nodded as a translator read the new charge to her: voluntarily causing injury with a dangerous weapon, VX nerve agent. High Court judge Azmi Ariffin sentenced Huong to three years and four months from the day she was arrested on Feb. 15, 2017. Huong’s lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said his client is expected to be freed by the first week of May, after a one-third reduction in her sentence for good behavior. “I am happy,” Huong, 30, told reporters as she left the courtroom, adding she thought it was a fair outcome. While handing out a jail term short of the maximum 10 years the new charge carried, the judge told Huong she was “very, very lucky” and he wished her “all the best.” Vietnamese officials in the courtroom cheered when the decision was announced.
Plastic bags bannedA sign informing shoppers of a ban on single-use plastic bags is set up at a retail market in Seoul on April 1, 2019, when the ban went into effect at big retail markets, departments stores and shopping malls nationwide. (Yonhap)
It is great to see that USFK has finally allowed soldiers to wear air masks:
Pedestrians wear air-filtering masks at Osan Air Base, South Korea, March 6, 2019. Since 2017, the Air Force has permitted masks when pollution hit a certain level. But before a recent change, Army regulations had barred most soldiers from wearing filtering masks in uniform.
U.S. Forces Korea has changed its policy to allow soldiers to wear black filtering masks while in uniform as protection against poor air quality in South Korea. Army regulations had barred soldiers from wearing the masks, which cover noses and mouths, in uniform unless they had a certified medical condition that merited an exception. By contrast, the Air Force permitted masks when pollution hit a certain level. The new policy, posted Monday, says all servicemembers may wear approved masks while outdoors in uniform when the air-quality index is reported as orange or higher, referring to a color scheme showing pollution levels. The change comes as people in South Korea have endured record levels of fine dust that have smothered the country and prompted rising worries in the military community as soldiers spend a lot of time training and working outdoors.
This is another example that there is not freedom of speech in South Korea:
In this photo, provided by a reader, a bulletin board at a university in Mokpo, in South Jeolla Province, bears a North-Korean style poster on March 31, 2019. (Yonhap)
Police said Monday they began a preliminary probe into North Korean-style posters that appeared on walls at several universities nationwide lampooning the current Moon Jae-in government over its key policies. The National Police Agency said it is gathering facts on a number of 112 calls made since Saturday with regard to the anti-government posters found hanging on bulletin boards at least 30 colleges in Seoul, Busan, Gangwon, as well as the southern Gyeongsang and Jeolla regions. “We will see if the content of the posters carry expressions that can be deemed defamation or contempt,” a NPA official said. The 55-by-80 centimeter, two-page poster, entitled “A Letter to South Korean Students,” blasts President Moon Jae-in’s key policies, such as income-led growth, his push to phase out nuclear power and the policy of engagement with North Korea. The poster is printed in the unique typeface North Korea often uses in its propaganda and appears intended as ridicule of the government. It calls for the overthrow of the liberal Moon administration and ends with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s signature, by his official title as chairman of the DPRK State Affairs Commission. The DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The poster, claiming to be written by Jeondaehyup, calls for students to join a massive rally slated for Saturday at a public park near Seoul’s Hyewha Station. Jeondaehyup is an abbreviation for the now-disbanded hard-line national student activists’ association that led key democracy movements in the 1980s. The association had been attacked by South Korea’s conservative bloc for its pro-North Korea tendencies.
