What a stupid issue for the Korean left to fighting over:

Fallout from a lawmaker’s response to remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea appears likely to spill over into the security and diplomatic arena.

On Sunday, the conservative main opposition People Power Party accused the Lee Jae Myung administration of “degrading” and “picking a fight” with the US, claiming that the administration was creating another “diplomatic farce.”

“The idea of ‘jurisdiction by a foreign power’ is raised over a single remark by the USFK commander,” People Power Party spokesperson Cho Yong-sool said in a statement on Sunday, saying that any diplomatic concerns with an ally should be addressed through diplomatic consultations and expressions of regret.

Korea Herald

Here is what General Brunson said:

Kim demanded a public apology from Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of USFK and the United Nations Command, in response to remarks the general made at a forum in Washington on Wednesday. At the forum, Brunson said that, from the UNC’s point of view, South Korea started at the southern fence of the Demilitarized Zone, as the UNC managed the DMZ to maintain the armistice.

The DMZ separates the two Koreas in a 4-kilometer-wide strip, 2 kilometers on either side of the Military Demarcation Line.

Kim argued that the 1953 Armistice Agreement gives the UNC authority over access to and administration of the DMZ, but does not give it the power to determine South Korea’s territorial sovereignty.

“These remarks crossed the line by infringing upon South Korea’s territorial sovereignty,” Kim said, calling on Brunson to retract them and apologize to the South Korean public.

You can read more at the link, but all this politician had to do was ask USFK to have General Bruson clarify his remarks which he did in response to this political grandstanding. General Brunson said he was referring to the administrative and military responsibilities assigned to the UNC for the DMZ, not the sovereignty of South Korea.

This is how it starts, you let the criminals out of jail and crime starts to go up. We have seen how this has played out in certain cities in the U.S.:

The number of inmates released on parole before serving 60 percent of their full sentence has increased due to prison overcrowding, a lawmaker said Sunday.

A total of 634 inmates who had served less than 60 percent of their full sentence were granted early parole in the January-August period, Rep. Joo Jin-woo of the main opposition People Power Party said, citing justice ministry data.

The figure is around 3.7-fold bigger than the annual total of 172 in 2025, according to the lawmaker.

The number of inmates who were released before fulfilling 60 percent of their sentence remained below 40 between 2022 and 2024 but sharply jumped last year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The yearly Yasukuni Shrine issue has reared its head again:

A wooden plaque, left, bearing the name of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is seen beside a tree that she sent as an offering to Yasukuni Shrine on the first day of the Autumn Festival in Tokyo, Saturday. AFP-Yonhap

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made an offering at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Saturday, bringing to the fore a decades-old sore point with neighboring Korea and China, both of which suffered heavily from Japanese imperial aggression in the first half of the 20th century.

The offering came as the shrine’s three-day autumn festival began. Japanese media reported that Takaichi plans to hold off on visiting the shrine personally, a move interpreted as an effort to avoid further diplomatic friction.

The shrine honors about 2.46 million people who died in domestic conflicts associated with the 1868 Meiji Restoration and in the subsequent military campaigns launched by imperial Japan. Nearly 90 percent are linked to the Pacific War, Japan’s 1941-45 conflict with the United States and its allies as part of World War II. The religious site also enshrines several Class A war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who was executed in 1948.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but you have to visit to see how stupid this issue is. First of all the media never points out this shrine is privately owned and not government funded. The private religious corporation who runs it decided that everyone who died in service to Japan would be enshrined, not the government.

Secondly the shrine is not that big or impressive. With all the controversy the first time I went there I expected to see statues of war criminals and instead there is nothing. There is no names or anything else to see except a small temple. The soldiers enshrined at Yasukuni are simply names written in a ledger kept in a different building. I found visiting Yasukuni is be totally anticlimactic.

With that said next to the shrine is a military history museum that is far more interesting. The museum has various displays about the history of Japanese wars. The history of World War II section did have some controversial takes. The descriptions in the museum 20 years ago was far more controversial with translations today a little better balanced, but still has a few eye raisers.

You would think the shrine’s critics would criticize the museum instead of the shrine. However, this shows the loudest critics have never even been there before or even know much of what it is about.

Who even knows how real this claim even is. Regardless I guess the ROK will have to respond with their own weapons test:

This photo, carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Oct. 15, 2026, shows the North firing two types of strategic cruise missiles from a submarine the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

North Korea said Saturday it has conducted an underwater test of a new high-speed precision-guided torpedo weapon system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology, noting that the test heralds a “significant” change in the North’s naval capabilities.

North Korea test-fired the Zam-2.0 super-speed precision-guided torpedo weapon system Thursday to confirm the successful technical upgrade of the weapon, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). It did not disclose further details of the weapon.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Definitely not smart to criticize one of the few public professions that most people have a positive opinion of:

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Choo Mi-ae, left, remains silent as a firefighter turns his back on her after his colleagues were injured in a factory blaze in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. Earlier that week, Choo made remarks describing firefighting as a “straw” sucking up the province’s finances. Yonhap

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Choo Mi-ae faces growing backlash over derogatory remarks portraying firefighting as a drain on provincial finances, with her subsequent apology drawing further criticism for lacking sincerity after a firefighter died battling a factory blaze in a city in the province.

Choo’s repeated attempts to explain her intentions have only backfired as they were seen as lacking sincerity, with the opposition demanding a clearer apology and some members of her own party urging a disciplinary measure against her.

The controversy began on Tuesday during a National Assembly audit of the Gyeonggi Provincial Government, when Choo mentioned the burden of firefighters’ personnel costs on local finances.

“Firefighting seems to be the biggest headache, like a straw sucking up our finances,” she said, seeking to highlight that local governments still have to pay firefighters’ salaries even though they are now national government employees.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the timing of her comments only added fuel to the fire (pun intended). That is because shortly after her comments six firefighters were in hired fighting a blaze with one later passing away. At the memorial ceremony the governor was highly criticized by people in attendance.

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

What is significant about cruise missiles launched from submarines is that missile defenses in the ROK now have to be positioned to account for them. Missile defense planning is much easier when you know the general direction of where threat targets are coming from. In the case of North Korea they fly in from the north and across the DMZ towards high value targets in South Korea. The ROK and the U.S. position air defense assets as required against these threat trajectories.

However, if missiles can be fired at the ROK from the east and the west via naval assets, then air defense positioning has to be adjusted or increased to compensate. With that all said, I doubt any North Korean naval asset would survive very long in a conventional war with the U.S. and the ROK, regardless these threats still need to be planned for:

North Korea said Thursday it tested two types of submarine-launched strategic cruise missiles in the East Sea the previous day.

“The test-fire aimed to examine the current mobilized posture of the underwater combat systems and contributed to getting the Navy skilled in performing its strategic missions and showcasing high reliability, trustworthiness and ability of the war deterrents of the DPRK,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency said in an English dispatch.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.