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.
You can read more at the link.
This is a clever response by North Korea to try and create doubt about the ROK’s hypersonic capabilities. Even if the Kim regime’s claim is false, they calculate that the leftists in the ROK will believe it is true and amplify the claim. However, since a conservative is not in power the false claim will face much smaller amplification in the media:
South Korea’s defense ministry on Thursday refuted a claim by North Korea’s missile chief that questions Seoul’s recent test launch of a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV).
Earlier in the day, Jang Chang-ha, director-general of North Korea’s Missile Administration, claimed that South Korea’s test of the HGV may not have achieved hypersonic flight because its outside appearance was “not stained with any soot,” according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency.
Jang cited photos provided by South Korea after last Thursday’s test, but Seoul’s defense ministry countered by saying the vehicle has advanced thermal-protection technology and the visible appearance of “soot” is impossible during hypersonic flight.
You can read more at the link.
We know this is all political theater, but the Japanese politicians are all showing who is more outraged after the murder of a Japanese woman on Okinawa:
In this screenshot from security footage, a woman who appears to be Anna Yagi walks in front of the Tesio sausage shop in Okinawa city, Okinawa, Oct. 2, 2026. (Tesio)
Japan’s prime minister criticized the U.S. military response to a Marine’s arrest in an Okinawa homicide investigation Tuesday, calling a monthlong overnight curfew for American troops inadequate. Sanae Takaichi questioned whether the midnight-to-5 a.m. restriction would prevent further incidents after Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, was arrested Oct. 4 on suspicion of killing and robbing a Japanese woman at a Naha hotel.
She made the remarks during a House of Representatives budget committee meeting in reply to Okinawa lawmaker Masahisa Miyazaki, who challenged the effectiveness of the U.S. response. “I question how banning outings during the time people are asleep actually fosters reflection or leads to realistic measures to prevent a recurrence,” Miyazaki said, according to a livestream of the meeting on the assembly’s website. Takaichi said she considered the measure “insufficient” after reviewing it in her office.
You can read more at the link, but on top of the curfew the Okinawa politicians want action taken against the Marine’s supervisors:
The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly passed a resolution and statement Friday calling on the U.S. military and Japanese governments to apologize to Yagi’s family, provide compensation and revise the status of forces agreement governing U.S. military personnel in Japan. The documents also seek “disciplinary action against those with supervisory responsibility.”
This is a ridiculous request because I have seen plenty of great NCOs and officers have Soldiers screw up and do something criminal. Personnel sometimes do criminal things and they should be held accountable for it, not people that had nothing to do with it. Now if a unit shows a consistent trend of indiscipline then that unit’s leadership is held accountable by being relieved of duty which most times ends their careers. This is something I have seen happen before. Does this Marine’s unit have a long indiscipline problem? I don’t know, but I am sure the leadership in USFJ is closely looking at it and will take action if warranted.
With that all said, if the Okinawa politicians want to play this game, then who should be held accountable for all the murders on Okinawa not committed by U.S. military personnel? The last murder on Okinawa committed on Okinawa by a U.S. servicemember was a 2019 murder suicide. That means there two murders committed by a U.S. servicemember in 7 years.
According to ChatGPT there was 13 total murders on Okinawa in 2025 and the island typically averages about 15 a year. Presumably, the vast majority of these murders are committed by Japanese. The facts show that someone on Okinawa is far more likely to be murdered by a Japanese person than a U.S. servicemember. Because of this fact, is the Okinawa legislator going to demand that all these Japanese who are parents of a criminal be brought up on charges as well? Better yet maybe they should also go after the mangers of whatever business the criminal worked at?
The long arm of the law caught up with this alleged British criminal:
A British man in his 30s who fled to his home country after stabbing a woman in Seoul has been arrested in the United Kingdom, Korean police said Saturday.
The Korean National Police Agency said the suspect was arrested in the UK on Thursday, local time, in cooperation with the UK’s National Extradition Unit (NEU).
You can read more at the link.
If this is the type of crime that Korea is worried about, as a society they are overall doing pretty good. Can you imagine what would happen to an unstaffed shop in a major U.S. city? It would be far worse than accidentally forgetting to plug back in a freezer:
Frozen desserts at an unstaffed shop were left melted after a woman unplugged a freezer to charge her phone and left without plugging it back in.
The shop owner on Monday vented the frustration in a post on FMKorea, a major South Korean online community and internet forum, sharing a photo of a notice posted inside the store. (…..)
“Reported for obstructing business. Turned off the freezer to charge her phone,” the notice read. It added that the melted ice cream could no longer be sold and had to be thrown out.
A similar incident occurred in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, in March 2022, when a woman in her 60s unplugged a freezer at an unstaffed ice cream shop, causing about 500,000 won ($375) worth of ice cream to melt.
The woman received a four-month prison sentence, suspended for one year, as she reportedly had a history of similar offenses.
You can read more at the link.
It looks like the FBI has shutdown the IT worker scheme being run by North Korea:
The US Justice Department said Tuesday it has clamped down on North Korean remote IT worker schemes that affected more than 70 American companies and generated millions of dollars in revenue allegedly linked to the North Korean regime.
The department announced a series of recent coordinated law enforcement actions in Ohio and Texas, including an indictment, two arrests and the seizure of 187 computers used by North Korean IT workers to obtain fraudulent employment at US companies.
You can read more at the link, but the scheme the North Koreans were running is fooling legitimate U.S. businesses into thinking they were contracting legal remote workers. However, due to sanctions the North Koreans cannot provide remote IT services to American businesses. So the North Koreans were doing actual work, but most of the money was probably being funneled into illicit programs. Supposedly this scheme was generating up to $600 million a year for the regime. Maybe legaling IT workers from North Korea is something that President Trump can offer to Kim Jong-un as a carrot if they do restart any negotiations again.
