I think it is fair to say that this guy is probably not going to be on any future promotion list:

A court has upheld a two-month suspension imposed on an Army officer for repeatedly leaving his post without permission, verbally abusing soldiers and delaying approval of their leave.

The Busan District Court said Thursday it has dismissed the officer’s lawsuit against his unit commander seeking to overturn the disciplinary action.

Gate records showed the officer drove off the base 64 times during weekday working hours over 10 months without requesting leave or reporting his departures to a commander.

A guard commander testified that the officer frequently left, citing reasons such as “I need to feed my lizard” and “I need to wash my car.”

Between October 2023 and November 2024, he also delayed approval of 698 requests for outings, overnight passes and leave submitted by 26 soldiers. The delays prevented them from obtaining military-supported train tickets, forcing them to pay transportation costs themselves.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Here is how the Seoul city government is preparing for Halloween this year:

Visitors heading to Seoul’s popular nightlife districts for Halloween this weekend may face road closures and subway trains skipping crowded stations as authorities step up crowd safety measures.

Seoul’s special safety measures run from Oct. 23, with heightened monitoring from Friday through Sunday. Authorities are monitoring crowd conditions across 14 areas using AI-equipped surveillance cameras and real-time city data.

Eight areas have been designated for priority management: the Itaewon and Hongdae tourist districts, Ikseon-dong, Myeong-dong shopping streets, Seongsu-dong’s cafe district, the restaurant district near Konkuk University, Gangnam Station and Apgujeong Rodeo Street.

Joint on-site control rooms will bring together officials from the Interior Ministry, Seoul Metropolitan Government, district offices, police and fire services.

Six additional areas are also being monitored: Wangsimni Station, Yonsei-ro in Sinchon, Balsan Station, Sillim Station, Sharosu-gil near Seoul National University Station and Nonhyeon Station.

On Saturday, authorities plan to close Itaewon-ro to vehicles and convert one lane of Hongdae’s club street into pedestrian space. Itaewon-ro may also be closed on Friday depending on crowd conditions.

The designated section of Itaewon-ro runs from the entrance to the Itaewon area to the Cheil Worldwide intersection. The measures apply to the road rather than the entire Itaewon district.

Police will use three levels of traffic control depending on crowd density. The first involves managing illegal parking and obstacles. The second introduces partial vehicle restrictions while keeping an emergency access route clear. The third blocks vehicle entry.

Other roads subject to these measures include sections of Jandari-ro in Hongdae, Yeonmujang-gil in Seongsu-dong, Myeong-dong shopping streets and Donhwamun-ro 11-gil in Ikseon-dong.

Authorities will also separate pedestrian flows in narrow alleys and manage queues outside popular venues to keep walkways clear.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

I have saying for a while that North Korea right now has no reason to seek talks with South Korea. Their current alliance with Russia is providing for all their needs. The Kim regime only pushes for engagement with South Korea when they are in need of aid. They clearly are not in need now and rather be provacative towards the ROK to give their military something to do and see what they can get away with:

 North Korea fired about a dozen short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Thursday, the South Korean military said, in an apparent cold rebuff to Seoul’s offer for talks aimed at easing border tensions sparked by a recent land mine blast.

The missiles were launched from the Wonsan area on the North’s east coast at around 12:30 p.m. and flew about 250 kilometers, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, adding that further analysis of other specifications was under way with coordination with the United States.

Short-range ballistic missiles have a range of 300-1,000 km. 

A military official said the latest missile launch is believed to have involved the North’s KN-25 super-large 600-millimeter multiple rocket launcher, which Pyongyang claims can be fitted with its Hwasan-31 tactical nuclear warheads.

There also exists a possibility that the North conducted a mixed-salvo drill combining various offensive assets alongside the ballistic missiles, such as cruise missiles, drones or rocket artillery systems smaller than the 600-mm launcher, according to the South Korean military.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is pretty amazing this veteran was able to spend his entire 20-year Army and later Air Force career in Japan:

At 96, Arthur Picotte still drives himself to the home of U.S. Forces Japan, where he recently recalled a military career that he says took him from postwar Japan to wartime Pyongyang and eventually back to the Tokyo area for good. Picotte said he arrived in Japan as a 19-year-old soldier in 1949 and deployed from there to Busan, South Korea, in July 1950, shortly after the Korean War began. What he expected to be a three-week mission turned into more than a year at war, he told Stars and Stripes at Yokota on Sept. 24.

“As young kids we thought we were going to go over there and kick a few butts,” he said. Picotte said he advanced with Eighth Army headquarters as far as the North Korean capital before an influx of Chinese troops drove United Nations forces south. More than 75 years later, Picotte said his memories of Korea remain vivid. He recalled attending a show by vaudeville performer Al Jolson in Busan and riding in the back of a truck in freezing weather during the retreat from Pyongyang. His saddest memory, he said, is looking over a wall and seeing a woman and child lying frozen in the snow.

Stars and Stripes

You can read much more about his life at the link.

Here is the latest update on the Marine accused of murdering an Okinawa woman:

Anna Yagi is pictured March 6, 2019, in this screenshot from her Facebook page. (Facebook)

A U.S. Marine has been formally charged with killing and robbing a Japanese woman at a hotel in Okinawa’s capital, three weeks after his arrest prompted calls for changes to the status of forces agreement governing American military personnel in Japan. Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, was indicted Sunday on a charge of robbery causing death in the killing of Anna Yagi, 39, according to a copy of the indictment provided by the Naha Public Prosecutors Office.

They allege Ballard wrapped a telephone handset cord around Yagi’s neck in the early hours of Oct. 3 “with intent to kill,” strangled her and stole her backpack containing a wallet and other belongings. Ballard, who was arrested the next day, has denied the allegations, according to Okinawa Prefectural Police. If convicted, he faces the death penalty or life imprisonment under Japan’s penal code.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I suspect other installations will start banning these vehicles as well. Many of the Chinese automobiles are equipped with cameras that could send imagery back to intelligence operatives. The risk of intelligence collection is just not worth having them on base in my opinion:

The Air Force has barred vehicles manufactured by Chinese automaker Build Your Dreams from entering Kadena Air Base on Okinawa due to “unacceptable and unmitigable” risks to operations, according to the 18th Wing. Wing commander Brig. Gen. John Gallemore made the decision “after a thorough, consultative process which determined that these vehicles present an unacceptable and unmitigable risk to our personnel and our mission,” spokeswoman Lt. Col. Alli Stormer said by email Monday.

The restriction applies to privately owned vehicles, taxis, delivery trucks and contractor vehicles, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported Friday, citing unnamed U.S. military officials in Japan. Kadena is the only U.S. base in Japan to ban BYD vehicles, Air Force Col. John Severns, spokesman for U.S. Forces Japan, said by email Friday. “If that changes, we’ll announce it to our base populations,” he wrote. The vehicles are not barred from U.S. military bases on the Korean Peninsula.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the biggest question is why would any Japanese or Korean want to buy a Chinese made car in the first place?

Even with the U.S. military bogged down with Iran, any invasion of Taiwan would be extremely costly for China. Xi has to decide if the loss of life, economic destruction, and diplomatic ramifications worth it?:

U.S. Army Pacific has prepared the Indo-Pacific theater under the assumption that China will have the capacity — and possibly the intent — to seize Taiwan by military force next year, its commander said Tuesday. The threat posed by what has come to be called the Davidson window is “still valid,” Gen. Ronald Clark told the audience at the TechNet Indo-Pacific conference in Honolulu.

In 2021, Adm. Philip Davidson, then head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told a Senate committee that China was on course to achieve the military capacity to seize Taiwan by 2027. The six years leading up 2027 during which China achieved that capacity became widely known as the Davidson window, and it has driven U.S. defense budgeting and strategy in the Pacific with the goal of either deterring or obstructing such an invasion.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.