I doubt this news is surprising to anyone:

NIER’s report said the days with high fine dust levels were caused by four factors: stagnant air, international pollution, local pollution and a combination of stagnant air and international pollution.

“Of these, we found the combination of stagnant air and long-range transport [of pollutants] made up the majority of cases for the 303 days we analyzed,” the report said. 

“As far as our findings go, it appears that there are three things combined that produce high levels of fine dust in Korea,” said Huh Kuk-young, a researcher at NIER. “High concentration of fine dust particles from China, an air current traveling long distances into South Korea and the mix of domestic and international air pollutants.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

South Korea's new nominee to replace Cho Myoung-gyun as unification minister, Kim Yeon-chul, wrote this for @nknewsorg back in 2017: "Why reopening the Kaesong Industrial Complex won’t violate sanctions" 👇https://t.co/EfaU5bnbUO

— Oliver Hotham (@OliverHotham) March 8, 2019

The next US-ROK cost sharing negotiations will be very interesting if this demand is made:

For years, President Donald Trump has complained that countries hosting American troops aren’t paying enough. Now he wants to get even, and then some.

Under White House direction, the administration is drawing up demands that Germany, Japan and eventually any other country hosting U.S. troops pay the full price of American soldiers deployed on their soil — plus 50 percent or more for the privilege of hosting them, according to a dozen administration officials and people briefed on the matter. (…….)

Victor Cha, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the administration was sending a deliberate message by demanding “Cost Plus 50” from South Korea first, even though that effort fell short.
“We have a more integrated military with South Korea than with any other ally,” Cha said. “To send this message to a front-line Cold War ally is trying to say very clearly that they want a paradigm shift with the way they do host-nation support.” [Bloomberg]

You can read more at the link.

The change in the US-ROK joint military exercises I think was more for international consumption than what the Kim regime thinks. The Trump administration likely knew the Kim regime would protest the military drills since they did not get what they wanted from the Hanoi Summit. The Trump administration beat them to the punch by messaging how the drills were cancelled and replaced with scaled down drills. Now North Korea’s complaints seem hollow:

North Korea on Thursday (March 7) attacked ongoing joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington as an “all out challenge” to moves towards peace on the Korean peninsula.
The US and South Korea agreed on Sunday to replace two major war games that take place every spring – the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills – with a shorter “Dong Maeng” or “Alliance” exercise which kicked off this week.
The move was designed to further ease tensions with the North following the dramatic detente since early 2018. (……)

But the North’s official KCNA news agency has now warned that the ongoing nine-day drills were an “all out challenge” against efforts for peace and stability.

“The suspicious activities by the US and South Korean military are a reckless violation of the joint statement signed by Washington and Pyongyang and North-South declarations that commit to ending hostilities and easing military tensions,” it said.

New Straits Times

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

#breaking Commercial satellite imagery analyzed by @ArmsControlWonk & @mhanham indicates North Korea may be preparing for a launch, possibly in the very near future. They say it’s impossible to know if it’s a missile or space rocket. Sohae launch facilty now fully operational. pic.twitter.com/SyS54zXphD

— Will Ripley (@willripleyCNN) March 8, 2019

It is pretty clear that the South Korean left really dislikes John Bolton now that they resulted to racist name calling which probably means he is doing a good job protecting America’s interests:

Former Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun claimed Tuesday that the abrupt ending of the summit in Hanoi between U.S. President Donald trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was “intentional” and engineered by National Security Adviser John Bolton.

Calling Bolton a “big hurdle” with regard to issues related to the Korean Peninsula, Jeong alleged the security adviser persuaded Trump to walk away from the talks with Kim. 

“Bolton, a North Korea hawk, reminds me of a white cavalry leader in an old Western movie who doesn’t feel guilty about killing Native Americans,” Jeong said while meeting with lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). “I believe the breakdown was intentionally brought about by the U.S. side, and Bolton was the villain in this.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but here is a good Tweet from One Free Korea that calls out Jeong for his past appeasement of North Korea:

Jeong Se-hyun, who when asked in 2003 whether his gov't would speak out against North Korea's gulags & crimes against humanity, said, "Political freedom is a luxury, like pearls for a pig." https://t.co/6n42DG5KJE
Expect more of this sort of inflammatory rhetoric from Seoul. https://t.co/Kgok0QDaNG

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) March 6, 2019

Once again reality continues to hit countries trying to go away from both coal and nuclear power generation like South Korea is trying to do:

With fine dust at choking levels, there are calls for a reduction in power plants fueled by coal and a hike in taxes on diesel fuel to discourage dirty methods of transportation. 

But such measures could backfire.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced Wednesday it will close six aging coal power plants by 2022, three years earlier than originally planned. It will also expand the range of coal plants that will have their operations curtailed when the government issues a fine dust warning. The list, which originally affected 40 plants, was extended to all 60 plants in the country Wednesday. 

Coal plants will conduct more maintenance operations in spring to reduce their hours when fine dust levels are at their highest during the year. 

Yet coal power plants are the largest sources of Korea’s power. Unlike solar and wind-powered plants, coal plants are unaffected by weather conditions in generating electricity (as are nuclear plants).

Korea’s coal power plants currently have the capacity to generate 36,031 megawatts per year, which accounts for 28.6 percent of all power generated in the country. That figure is projected to reach 40,241 megawatts by 2022. 

Its proportion is set to decrease. Coal power plants actually accounted for 45.3 percent of total output in 2017 when several nuclear plants were not in operation. The projection for 2030 is 36.1 percent.

But even then, coal is also expected to remain the country’s biggest energy production source.

The government wants to replace coal plants with liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered plants to reduce fine dust emission levels. But LNG plants are not as efficient and will lead to higher electricity bills. It is uncertain whether the public would accept paying higher electric fees in exchange for less coal power.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.