Expect more nuclear rhetoric from Kim Jong-un because currently North Korea is largely being buried in the international headlines due to the Ukraine War and Palestine-Isareal conflict:

North Korea offered a rare glimpse into a secretive facility to produce weapons-grade uranium as state media reported Friday that leader Kim Jong Un visited the area and called for stronger efforts to “exponentially” increase the number of his nuclear weapons.

It’s unclear if the site is at the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, but it’s the North’s first disclosure of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at Yongbyon to visiting American scholars in 2010. While the latest unveiling is likely an attempt to apply more pressure on the U.S. and its allies, the images North Korea’s media released of the area could provide outsiders with a valuable source of information for estimating the amount of nuclear ingredients that North Korea has produced.

Stars & Stripes

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It looks like the North Koreans wanted to help the South celebrate Chuseok with a balloon show:

 North Korea on Sunday launched balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea for the second straight day, the South’s military said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the latest launches, noting the balloons could travel toward the northern part of Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul, and the broader capital area.

The launch came after the North flew around 50 trash-carrying balloons toward the South from Saturday night to early Sunday, with about 10 trash bundles landing in Gyeonggi Province and Seoul, according to the JCS.

The JCS said the trash mostly consisted of paper, plastic bottles and other household garbage, while no hazardous substances have been found.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is Friday the 13th, becareful out there and leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Image from here.

Pending Senate confirmation it looks like the current I Corps commander at Joint Base Lewis-McChord will be the next USFK commander:

U.S. President Joe Biden has nominated Lieut. Gen. Xavier Brunson, the commander of I Corps, to lead the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC), the Pentagon said Wednesday, a nomination ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.

If confirmed, Brunson would replace Gen. Paul LaCamera who has led CFC, United Nations Command (UNC) and U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) since July 2021.

The position for the top U.S. general in South Korea leads the three commands, including the 28,500-strong USFK.

His appointment requires Senate confirmation.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

North Korea’s war against the fish in the East Sea continues:

North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Thursday, the South Korean military said, a week after Pyongyang warned that South Korea and the United States will have to pay a “dear price” for their joint drills.

“The North Korean missiles flew about 360 kilometers and landed in the East Sea,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. It said it detected the missiles launched from the Pyongyang area at 7:10 a.m., but it did not provide any further details, such as the number of missiles fired.

The distance, if fired southward, is sufficient to affect major South Korean cities such as Seoul and Daejeon as well as key military facilities in Gyeryong and Gunsan.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like MCST got caught pushing out unverified reports as facts:

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) recently released a webtoon based on the “North Korea Human Rights Report” that included the claim, “30 North Korean middle school students were publicly executed for watching South Korean dramas.”

However, the Unification Ministry, which published the actual human rights report, stated that no such information is included, raising suspicions that the MCST might have fabricated the news.

According to Rep. Yoon Hu-duk of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, who is also a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, the MCST published a webtoon titled “Talking About the Lives of North Korean Residents Through the 2024 North Korea Human Rights Report” on July 30. The webtoon appeared on the “Korea Policy Briefing,” the official government website that introduces government policies.

In the webtoon, characters claim that “North Korea publicly executed 30 middle school students for watching South Korean dramas on USBs carried by balloons,” and “Not only that, but just recently, 30 teenagers around the age of 17 were sentenced to life imprisonment and execution for similar reasons.”

However, the 2024 North Korea Human Rights Report, which the MCST cited as the basis for the webtoon, does not contain such information.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.