Nothing new here, just the continuation of Biden’s policies:
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Saturday touted the South Korea-U.S. alliance as a “linchpin” of security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and around the world, while underlining Seoul’s “sizable” contributions to the upkeep of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).
Vice President Harris made the remarks in a special contribution to Yonhap News Agency, reiterating America’s “ironclad” security commitment to South Korea, vowing to preserve its global leadership and accentuating the importance of the bilateral alliance forged in blood during the 1950-53 Korean War.
Titled “Let’s Go Forward, Together: Creating a Prosperous Future for Korean Americans,” her exclusive contribution is the first of its kind to a South Korean media outlet in this year’s election cycle. It came just days ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
“In 2022, I stood at the DMZ and reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of South Korea. I know our alliance has been a linchpin of security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and around the world,” she wrote, recalling her trip to the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.
“Trump, by contrast, is demanding that South Korea pay $10 billion a year to host our troops despite its already sizable contributions — disparaging our alliance and disregarding America’s standing in the Indo-Pacific,” she added as she is set to face off against her Republican rival in Tuesday’s showdown.
You can read more at the link.
Who knows how true this is, but apparently 7,000 North Koreans are now deployed near Ukraine’s border with Russia:
Kyiv’s defense intelligence agency has said Russia appears to have deployed more than 7,000 North Korean soldiers, armed with AK-12 rifles, mortar rounds and other assault weapons, to areas near the border with Ukraine.
South Korea and the West have warned that North Korean troops in Russia may soon enter into combat against Ukraine that would pose a major security threat to both Europe and the Indo-Pacific region.
The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) said on Saturday (local time) that Russia moved more than 7,000 North Korean soldiers from Russia’s coastal region to areas near Ukraine last week.
“The North Korean troops were moved to the frontline with the help of at least 28 military transport aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces,” the DIU said on its website.
You can read more at the link.
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
The locals are concerned that these balloon launches could lead to a North Korean provocation against them which is why there has been so much pushback:
A South Korean activist group called off its plan to launch balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North across the heavily fortified frontier on Thursday after facing local opposition and police prevention due to potential security risks to residents.
Choi Sung-ryong, head of the Association of the Families of Those Abducted by North Korea, announced that the organization would cancel its decision to scatter propaganda leaflets in the North during a press conference held at the National Memorial for Abductees during the Korean War in the western border city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province.
The group had initially planned to float some 100,000 copies of the leaflet made of plastic — containing photos and descriptions of six abductee victims — attached to large balloons along with one-dollar bills on this day.
You can read more at the link, but the activists are now saying they are going to instead fly drones into North Korea instead which will actually be more provocative than the balloons.
It appears the North Korean ICBM has been modified to have even greater range now:
North Korea fired what could be a new intercontinental ballistic missile toward the sea east of the Korean Peninsula on Thursday, a day after South Korean defense intelligence authorities warned of Pyongyang preparing to stage large-scale provocations in the run-up to the US presidential election.
The missile flew for approximately 86 minutes, the longest time of any North Korean missile to date, traveling about 1,000 kilometers before falling into the waters between North Korea and Japan, according to South Korean and Japanese assessments. The missile was launched at a deliberately raised angle to reach a maximum altitude of 7,000 kilometers, a record height.
This ICBM is the first that North Korea launched since December last year, when it tested the solid-fueled Hwasong-18, which has a potential range of around 15,000 kilometers on a normal trajectory. The last ballistic missiles North Korea fired were multiple short-range ballistic missiles this September.
You can read more at the link.
It is understandable that the public image of doctor’s in South Korea has taken a severe nosedive with their antics to try and stop the increase of students going to medical schools:
The conflict over the proposed increase in medical student quotas, which has persisted for more than nine months, continues to disrupt medical services nationwide. Despite ongoing discussions, doctors and the government have yet to find common ground. The ruling party’s proposal for four-way negotiations remains untouched, with no formal dialogue having taken place.
While the standoff has continued, Park has felt her understanding of what being a doctor means as a profession changing.
“I had thought of them as selfless heroes dedicated to public health, but now I see them as a privileged group driven by self-interest,” she said.
Park is not the only one who questions the profession’s long-standing reputation for public service.
“The latest tension between doctors and the government has given the public the impression that they are a selfish and (a group) that requires negotiations for everything,” said Lee Ju-yul, professor in the Department of Health Administration at Namseoul University.
Patients with chronic illnesses feel betrayed by doctors, with some complaining they have been treated as bargaining chips.
You can read more at the link.
