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

With such short mandatory service times in Korea there is not much training V is going to receive to make him a very effective special operator. I wonder if he volunteered for this unit or the ROK military put him in it for publicity reasons?:

Photos of K-pop supergroup BTS member V in the gear of a counter-terrorism unit have been unveiled, a Facebook page on the South Korean military showed Thursday.

Images of V wearing pitch black Special Duty Team (SDT) attire were released Wednesday on the page, which serves as an anonymous bulletin board for military service members.

V enlisted in the military last December for his mandatory service and was accepted to join the military police during boot camp training, according to the Army.

The BTS member has since been assigned to the SDT, which focuses on counter-terrorism and other special operations, under the Army’s 2nd Corps.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It appears to be more about domestic politics in Japan than actually making any breakthrough with North Korea:

Why is Kishida so interested in holding a summit with Kim? According to expert analysis, Kishida needs a diplomatic breakthrough to change the bleak trajectory of his premiership, which has been plagued by domestic scandals. The approval rating of his Cabinet dipped to a dismal 20.1 percent in February 2024, right when public discussion of a Kim-Kishida summit ramped up. North Korea seems to agree with this analysis; Kim Yo Jong’s March statement claimed that Kishida was not serious about improving Japan-North Korea ties but only seeking a summit in a “bid for popularity.”

Another potential motivation for Kishida is that inter-Korean relations are facing serious challenges during South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s term, and North Korea-U.S. relations are relatively deadlocked. Meanwhile, the threat from a series of North Korean ballistic missile tests, particularly the April 2 test of an intermediate-range ballistic missile equipped with a hypersonic warhead, has pressured the United States and its allies. 

Japan, as one of the United States’ traditional allies, intends to take advantage of this chaos as a chance to showcase its “bridging role” in terms of conflict mediation. Kishida may hope to reinforce regional peace and stability, similar to South Korea’s efforts under former President Moon Jae-in. 

The Diplomat

You can read more at the link, but North Korea has repeatedly said no to any summit with Japan that includes the abduction issue or missile tests. Those two issues are really the only thing the Japanese care to discuss with North Korea thus why there will be no summit.

Here is a wacky story out of Thailand of a female politician getting caught having an affair with her adopted son who is a Buddhist monk:

A man in his 60s in Thailand recently released a video of an affair between his wife in her 40s and his adoptive son in his 20s, sparking controversy, the British daily Daily Mail reported. His wife is a local politician in Thailand and his adopted son is a monk.

According to the Daily Mail, A (64), a Thai real estate developer, released a video of his wife B (45) and her adopted son C lying in bed naked at home.

The video has now been widely shared on Thai social media.

According to the released video, when A enters the room, B stands up naked in surprise and tries to take A’s cell phone away. His adopted son, Mr. C, is also lying naked. He jumps up and hides himself in one side of the room.

MK.com

You can read more at the link, but this was a creative way for the lady to get her side action.

This does sound extremely far fetched and likely an attempt by some YTN reporter to draw attention to themselves:

The presidential office denied reports Wednesday that two people close to former President Moon Jae-in are under consideration for the next prime minister and presidential chief of staff.

Broadcasters TV Chosun and YTN reported that President Yoon Suk Yeol is considering tapping former SMEs Minister Park Young-sun for prime minister and Yang Jung-chul, former head of the Institute for Democracy, a think tank under the main opposition Democratic Party, as his chief of staff.

“Appointing people such as former Minister Park Young-sun and former Institute for Democracy chief Yang Jung-chul, which has been reported by certain news outlets, has not been considered,” the presidential office said in a notice to the press.

Park served as minister under the former liberal president, while Yang is known as one of Moon’s closest confidants.

The reports come as Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, presidential chief of staff Lee Kwan-sup and most senior presidential secretaries have submitted their resignations to take responsibility for the ruling party’s crushing defeat in last week’s parliamentary elections.

According to sources in political circles, Yang told people close to him that he thinks the reports are “farfetched.” (……)

“It’s an absurd story,” a senior presidential official told Yonhap News Agency.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This guy just needs to take a trip to some cities in the U.S. where he will be championed for cross dressing and going into a women’s bathroom. In fact he will probably be asked to do drag queen story hour at a local library as well:

A man in his 30s, dressed as a woman and entered the women’s bathroom at dawn, was caught.

The Gwangju Police Station in Gyeonggi Province announced on the 16th that it is investigating A on charges of violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes (infringement of multiple use places for sexual purposes).

A wearing a skirt and lipstick is suspected of entering an outdoor women’s bathroom in Songjeong-dong, Gwangju, around 3 a.m. that day.

Maeil Kyeongchae

You can read more at the link.