Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
The Lee administration probably wants to drag out this investigation of the explosion on the ROK cargo ship in order to prevent having to answer hard questions on what to do in response to if it was an Iranian strike:
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday rebutted U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertion that a Korean-operated vessel was attacked as it was acting on its own without U.S. protection in the Strait of Hormuz — a focal point of the ongoing war between the U.S. and Iran.
“The corresponding ship, for several days before the fire broke out, had been anchored in the relevant waters near the United Arab Emirates on the inner side of the Strait of Hormuz,” the ministry said in a statement.
The remarks followed an explosion of unidentified cause that triggered a fire aboard the HMM Namu, a Panama-flagged bulk carrier operated by Korean shipping company HMM, Monday.
You can read more at the link.
With the sentence reduce to 15 years Han Duck-soo may at least has more of a chance to get out of prison before he dies:
An appeals court on Thursday reduced former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo’s sentence from 23 years to 15 years in prison over his role in former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief imposition of martial law.
The Seoul High Court handed down the sentence after finding Han guilty of playing a key role in an insurrection by aiding and abetting Yoon’s declaration of martial law in December 2024.
The eight-year reduction, however, appeared largely due to differences with the lower court over whether the former prime minister neglected his duties when he failed to stop the former president from imposing the order.
You can read more at the link.
Let me get this straight, President Lee gets to choose who the special counsel will be that will have the power to acquit him of all the corruption charges he previously faced before becoming President? Could you imagine if Trump did something like this, the left in the U.S. would be going crazy. However, in Korea you will hear nothing from the left there:
Hong Ihk-pyo, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, speaks at a press briefing at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on May 4, 2026. (Yonhap)
President Lee Jae Myung has stressed the need for public input and careful deliberation, a presidential official said Monday, as the ruling Democratic Party (DP) pushes for a special probe into allegations that he was indicted in multiple cases based on fabricated evidence during the previous administration.
Hong Ihk-pyo, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, made the remarks at a press briefing, citing the president, after the DP proposed a bill last week to mandate a special counsel probe.
The bill calls for an independent investigation into suspicions that the prosecution under the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration indicted Lee, then head of the main opposition party, in multiple cases, including a real estate development scandal, based on fabricated probes and evidence.
Lee was standing trials on various charges before proceedings were suspended or indefinitely postponed after he took office in June last year.
The bill allows a special counsel to take over Lee’s cases from the prosecution and decide whether to proceed with them, while giving the president the authority to appoint the counsel from among three recommended candidates.
Opposition lawmakers have argued that the proposed bill would give the special counsel grounds to drop charges against Lee, calling it a move to acquit him in the cases.
You can read more at the link, but wouldn’t it be funny that if another Korean conservative takes power that they choose a special counsel to investigate the special counsel that dropped charges against Lee in order to reinstate them? We all know these charges will be dropped because otherwise President Lee would not be doing this.
There may be only 300 JSDF personnel involved with this exercise, but the fact it is happening in the southern Ryukyus is sending a strategic message to China. The southern Ryukyus are the weak point to any Chinese blockade of Taiwan that the Japanese have been busy fortifying with both offensive and defensive fires over the past three years:
The Japanese army’s highest operational command will focus on remote southwestern islands near Taiwan for the first time in training that includes command-and-control drills with U.S. Marines. The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s Ground Component Command will practice deploying troops and transporting supplies in the Nansei Islands from May 17 to 22, according to a Ministry of Defense news release April 24.
The Nansei chain, also called the Ryukyus, includes Okinawa and stretches from Kyushu to Taiwan. The exercise will primarily take place on Ishigaki, Yonaguni and Miyakojima. About 300 Japanese soldiers from all regional armies will participate, a Ground Staff spokesman said by phone Tuesday.
You can read more at the link.
