If the Democrats stop this deal I think the real reason is because it is Trump’s idea so it must be bad:

Democratic control of the US Congress could make it harder for South Korea to acquire nuclear-powered submarines and limit President Donald Trump’s ability to reach a deal with North Korea, even as he may seek another summit with leader Kim Jong-un, according to experts Wednesday. (……)

Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Democrats could be more reluctant than Republicans to support South Korea’s efforts to acquire nuclear-powered submarines because of concerns about the spread of nuclear technology.

“Democrats may hold on to non-proliferation norms more strongly than Republicans, which may create obstacles to Lee’s path to acquire nuclear powered subs,” Yeo said, referring to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The Korea Herald has an upate on this baby swapping, murder case that happened five years ago in Daegu:

In 2021, a 3-year-old girl was found dead inside a home in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province. She had been dead for so long that her body was described as “mummified.”

At first, investigators thought they knew what happened: The child had been left alone for months after her mother moved away to remarry. The mother reportedly told investigators that she could not bear to look at the child because she reminded her of her former husband.

What appeared to be a tragic but familiar case of child abandonment, however, took a dramatic turn when the DNA test results came out.

The woman everyone believed was the girl’s mother could not have been her biological mother. She was the girl’s stepsister, and the woman everyone believed was the girl’s grandmother was actually her biological mother.

Korea Herald

You can read the details of this case at the link. The daugher ending up getting 20 years in prison, but look what happened to her mother:

Prosecutors sought a 13-year prison sentence, describing her alleged offenses as “extremely inhumane.”

In addition to the baby-swapping allegation, Seok was charged with attempting to dispose of Boram’s body. Investigators found that she had discovered the body herself a day earlier, on Feb. 9, and allegedly attempted to dispose of it. After the attempt failed, she returned the next day with her husband.

Both lower courts recognized that Seok was the child’s biological mother and convicted her of switching the babies, accepting the prosecution’s case that she had carried out the switch. She was sentenced to eight years in prison.

In June 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the lower courts’ rulings, saying the DNA test results alone could not establish that she had switched the babies. Seok could not be held criminally liable based on the circumstantial evidence investigators had pieced together, it said.

The case subsequently returned to a lower court, which in February 2023 sentenced Seok to two years in prison, suspended for three years, for attempting to dispose of Boram’s body. She was acquitted of the baby-swapping allegation.

She essentially got away with kidnapping a baby which no ones knows where it went. She could of murdered the baby for all we know. This is quite an evil person. No wonder he daughter ended up being evil too.

This sounds like the Lee administration try to appease Trump as much as they can without actually getting involved in the conflict:

The 49th contingent of the anti-piracy Cheonghae unit aboard the 4,400-ton Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin destroyer leaves a naval port in the southeastern city of Busan, some 330 kilometers from Seoul, in this file photo from Oct. 2, 2026, to rotate with the previous crew operating in the Gulf of Aden, in this file photo provided by the South Korean Navy Operational Command. (Yonhap)

 South Korea plans to expand its anti-piracy mission off Somalia to waters near the Strait of Hormuz with additional military assets, including a maritime patrol aircraft and an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) team, to be deployed, officials said Thursday, signaling the country’s first contribution to the conflict-stricken region.

The move follows months of deliberation over its role in international efforts to keep the strategic waterway open since the U.S.-Iran war erupted in February. Seoul has effectively turned down requests from its ally Washington for military support against Tehran. (……)

“The enhancement of the Cheonghae unit’s mission is to protect our citizens and safeguard our economic interests,” a defense ministry official said earlier on the condition of anonymity, stressing that the proposed reinforcement is strictly for non-combat purposes and the unit will operate independently from any allied forces.

“Operations will remain restricted to the open waters south of Oman, and the maritime patrol aircraft will be prohibited from targeting or monitoring Iranian territory, territorial waters or the interior of the Strait of Hormuz during their missions,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It seems the North Koreans cannot let a major American political event pass without firing missiles:

North Korea fired an unidentified projectile toward the East Sea on Wednesday, the South Korean military said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch, without elaborating.

The latest launch came after the North fired around a dozen short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea from the Wonsan area Thursday, less than a week after the South Korean military proposed military talks with Pyongyang over the inter-Korean border.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The Democrat led Congress is probably going to try and stop AI data center construction, but would still need President Trump to no veto anything they try and pass:

South Korean stocks traded sharply lower late Thursday morning as investors were worried about the future of U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) policies after the midterm elections.

After opening 1.82 percent lower, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) extended losses, dropping 185.77 points, or 3.27 percent, to 5,498.03 as of 11:20 a.m.

Overnight on Wall Street, major stock indexes finished higher as investors welcomed the Democrats-led Congress.

However, the election outcome raised concerns that the new House and Senate would tighten regulations on AI data centers.

In Seoul, semiconductor shares traded in negative territory.

Tech giant Samsung Electronics sank 5.05 percent, and SK hynix tumbled 6.52 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is another South Korean tie in to another American culture war issue. This time a Red Baron Pizza stocker was harassed by influencers and he just goes off on them. It seems this is a cultural turning point where people are fed up with these so called influencers. A GoFundMe campaign was started for the worker named Walt in Michigan, and it has raised over $600k for him. The South Korean tie in is that Red Baron Pizza is owned by the South Korean conglomerate Cheil Jedang (CJ) Foods. They actually named Walt as employee of the month. However, there has been many people on Youtube criticizing CJ for not paying Walt and their employees enough so they don’t struggle to pay bills: