Considering how calculating her murders were it would seem she would deserve the death penalty:

Prosecutors on Tuesday sought the death penalty for a woman accused of killing two men and injuring four others by giving them laced drinks.

Kim So-young faces charges of giving drinks spiked with benzodiazepine, a depressant, to three men between December 2025 and February this year. Two died, while one recovered.

She faces additional charges of causing bodily injury to three more men using similar methods.

The prosecution requested the Seoul Northern District Court to sentence her to death during the final hearing of her trial. 

Kim has claimed that she handed the drinks to stop the men from touching her.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This makes me wonder if Trump is trying to get a deal with Kim Jong-un this year in order to get a foreign policy victory before the November mid-term elections?:

South Korea and the United States have agreed to halve the duration of the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise at Washington’s request, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Wednesday.

The allies decided to end this year’s UFS exercise on Friday, shortening the drill to Aug. 17-21 from the originally planned Aug. 17-27 schedule, according to the JCS.

The exercise kicked off Monday as initially planned.

This is the first time a major combined exercise has been abruptly adjusted after getting underway. (…..)

UFS is typically conducted in two phases, with the first focused on defending South Korea against a simulated attack and the second on counteroffensive operations.

“The second phase, which focuses on counteroffensive operations, will not be conducted under the shortened schedule,” a military official in Seoul said. (……)

The reduction comes as Trump seeks to revive diplomacy with Pyongyang. Trump has suggested that Kim has responded to his overtures, although he has not disclosed details of any exchanges.

Trump is also seeking a face-to-face meeting with Kim this year, according to reports, with a possible encounter around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, in November.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This shouldn’t be surprising as Trump has often communicated policy via social media:

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said Wednesday the government had not been informed in advance of U.S. President Donald Trump’s directive to scale back combined military exercises.

“Neither our government nor U.S. officials knew what President Trump wrote on his Truth Social,” Cho told the National Assembly Committee on Foreign Affairs and Unification.

“We were not notified in advance,” he said.

Regarding the reduction of an ongoing South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise, Ulchi Freedom Shield, he said Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back was believed to be in “close consultations” with U.S. counterparts.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is basically the first step to creating a professional military. Few people are going to agree to be a conscript for 4-5 years no matter how good the job is. This is why the pay is going to have to be significantly higher compared to a conscript to get them to agree to that contract. This essentially means you now have a professional soldier and not a conscript:

President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday stressed the need for Korea to adopt a selective enlistment system to transform the country’s armed forces into a “smart, elite and powerful military” centered on advanced equipment and technology.

The president reaffirmed his long-standing commitment to the revised system, which was one of his election campaign pledges. The proposed system would let individuals choose between serving as active-duty conscripts for 18-21 months or as technology-intensive noncommissioned officers for four or five years — a longer commitment than rank-and-file conscription, offset by incentives such as higher salaries meant to attract volunteers.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.