Sailors in Japan are beginning to experience the restrictions that were at one time common place for servicemembers stationed in South Korea:

U.S. Navy sailors have one less hour of revelry in Japan’s bars and nightclubs after Navy Region Japan tightened up liberty restrictions recently imposed on all service members in the country. U.S. sailors in Japan must adhere to a midnight-to-5 a.m. ban on drinking in public establishments off base, according to the order from Rear Adm. Ian Johnson. They may not even be in those places during those hours. The order, which took effect Wednesday, was coordinated with U.S. 7th Fleet, Navy Region Command spokesman Cmdr. Paul Macapagal told Stars and Stripes by email Wednesday.

Stars & Stripes

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This wasn’t a very well thought out plan because it had no chance of ever working:

A former defector, unhappy with life in the South, stole a 25-seat shuttle bus this week and attempted to cross a bridge into North Korea before he was apprehended by guards. The defector, 35, was caught at 12:55 a.m. Monday on the Tongil Bridge, or Unification Bridge, in Paju city, by South Korean military guards and turned over to civilian police, according to military and police spokespeople Tuesday.

Privacy laws prohibit authorities from publicly identifying most people under arrest in South Korea. The defector was held on suspicion of theft and violating the National Security Act, a police spokesman said. The defector found the key to the minibus in a company garage in Munsan town, crawled through a window near the driver’s seat and drove nearly three miles to the bridge’s south checkpoint, a spokesman for North Gyeonggi Provincial Police said by phone.

The lane toward the checkpoint was heavily guarded, so the unidentified defector drove in the opposing lane onto the bridge, the spokesman said. Bypassing the checkpoint and ignoring guards trying to stop him, the defector drove another 900 yards before hitting a barricade in front of the north checkpoint, where soldiers stopped him, the spokesman said.

Stars & Stripes

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The equipment for the next rotational unit in support of the 2nd Infantry Division, the 1-2 Stryker Brigade out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord has arrived to Korea:

The first batch of equipment for a new American rotational force employing the Stryker fighting vehicle arrived at a southern port over the weekend, the U.S. Army in South Korea said Wednesday.

Stryker vehicles and other pieces of equipment belonging to the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team were unloaded in Gwangyang, 291 kilometers south of Seoul, on Sunday to replace the current 3rd Cavalry Regiment as part of a regular rotation, according to the Eighth Army.

“We welcome the Ghost Brigade to the Republic of Korea to enhance the interoperability of the Combined Division and strengthen our alliance with our ROK partners,” Maj. Gen. Charles Lombardo, commander of the 2nd Infantry Division/ROK-U.S. Combined Division, said in a release.

Yonhap

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Via a reader tip comes news that North Korea has supposedly expanded the number of laws they can execute you for. I think all foreign tourists contemplating visiting North Korea need to keep this in mind:

North Korea is expanding its list of crimes punishable by death, according to reports.

Supreme leader Kim Jong Un’s regime expanded the list of offenses warranting the death penalty from 11 to 16 via revisions of criminal law, according to Yonhap News Agency.

New offenses warranting execution as a punishment include: anti-state propaganda and agitation acts, illegal manufacturing, and the illicit use of weapons are included in the new codes. 

Fox News

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It looks like Handbag-gate is officially over. The Korean leftists will need to find some other issue to try and jail the first lady for:

Prosecutors decided Wednesday not to charge first lady Kim Keon Hee in connection with her acceptance of a luxury bag from a Korean American pastor in 2022. 

The prosecution announced the decision following a monthslong investigation into allegations that the first lady illegally received a Dior handbag worth 3 million won (US$2,275) and other expensive items from the pastor at her office in 2022 in exchange for favors. 

Korean American pastor Choi Jae-young secretly filmed the meeting with a hidden camera, and the video was later published by an online news media outlet in November last year, prompting the main opposition party to push for a special counsel probe.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office made its final decision Wednesday to clear Kim of charges that she violated the anti-graft law, concluding that the gifts she received were not related to President Yoon Suk Yeol’s official duties and that no favors were given in return.

Yonhap

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The Japanese are responding to recent Chinese provocations into their ADIZ and EEZ with sailing through the Taiwan Strait:

A Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time on Wednesday, according to a local media report. The destroyer JS Sazanami, along with Australian and New Zealand vessels, sailed south from the East China Sea and through the 110-mile-wide channel separating the island from mainland China, Kyodo News reported, citing an unnamed source who was “familiar with the matter.” The ships were believed to be headed to the South China Sea to participate in exercises, the report said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.