It is hard for me to say that a lack of training caused the recent accident mishaps by the ROK Air Force like this defense analyst claims. Sometime accidents just happen and fortunately no one was killed unlike the U.S. Blackhawk helicopter that flew into a commercial airliner in Washington, D.C. After that crash no one claimed the U.S. military lacked training:
South Korea’s military has come under fire for lax discipline following a series of major accidents in recent months, including the latest involving the Air Force’s accidental dropping of two gun pods from a KA-1 light attack aircraft during training on Friday.
The series of incidents came amid a leadership vacuum in the military that began in December, prompting security concerns due to signs of a weakened defense posture. Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and several other key unit commanders were arrested and have been detained for their alleged roles in ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law declaration on Dec. 3. Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho is currently serving as the acting defense minister.
“On the surface, (the series of accidents) may seem to be merely a lack of discipline within the military, but it’s more an accumulation of inadequate military training,” said Yang Uk, a research fellow in military strategy and weapons systems at the Asan Institute of Policy Studies, speaking via phone on Sunday.
“It’s the result of inconsistency in military training, with the liberal Moon Jae-in administration having halted and scaled back several key drills and then the Yoon administration failing to revive the momentum of the exercises,” he said.
North Korea is the last country that should be critical of the U.S. selling weapons when they have been selling Russia weapons and even Soldiers to fight in the war in Ukraine:
North Korea on Sunday denounced U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent easing of domestic weapons export regulations, calling it a move aimed to “expand wars.”
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) issued the criticism, citing Trump’s April 9 executive order that mandates a review of rules governing U.S. military equipment exports, aimed at facilitating easier overseas sales of defense products.
“For the United States, arms sale is not only merely a money-making space to meet monetary desire but also a major means of supporting the realization of aggressive foreign policy, the hegemony-seeking one,” the KCNA claimed.
Repairs aren’t what is needed at Cheongwadae, a thorough sweeping for listening devices is what is needed after being open to the public for so long:
Presidential contender Rep. Lee Jae-myung’s proposal to move the presidential office back to Cheong Wa Dae has reopened a divisive national debate — not only about public access to the symbolic site but also about how presidential power should be situated in Korea.
In the liberal Democratic Party of Korea’s first televised primary debate on Friday, Lee said that if he is elected, he would continue using the current presidential office in Yongsan District for the time being but move to Cheong Wa Dae “after necessary repairs are made.”
He said he eventually wants to move the presidential office to Sejong City, the nation’s administrative capital. But he added that moving directly to Sejong is unrealistic at this point, calling Cheong Wa Dae “a feasible interim step.”
I can’t remember an 8th Army commander ever having such a short command, but LTG LaNeve is going on to do bigger and better things at the Pentagon:
After just a year leading American ground forces in South Korea, Lt. Gen. Christopher LaNeve relinquished command of the Eighth Army this week as he prepares for a new post as senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. During a Wednesday ceremony at Eighth Army headquarters, LaNeve formally passed command to Brig. Gen. Sean Crockett, his deputy, who will serve in an acting capacity until a permanent successor is nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate.
LaNeve assumed command April 5, 2024, and was nominated for his new role on March 25. His predecessor, Lt. Gen. Willard Burleson, served for four years, following nearly three years under Lt. Gen. Michael Bills. Speaking at the ceremony, LaNeve emphasized the enduring partnership between the United States and South Korea, a cornerstone of security on the peninsula since the end of the Korean War, according to a statement emailed Thursday by command spokesman James Choe.
Cleaning legendary admiral’s statue Workers spray water on the statue of Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) Adm. Yi Sun-sin at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul on April 16, 2025, as part of a springtime cleanup detail. Yi led the Korean Navy against Japanese invaders in the 16th century. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
As we have seen with just about every immigration case the media brings up there is always more to the story they leave out. In this case it is hard to say what happened, but it appears he may have had a visa to be a researcher at Ohio State University and then took a job to teach at the University of Houston instead which might have been in violation of his visa:
As the second Trump administration expelled illegal immigrants, a Korean scientist, a professor at an American university, suddenly canceled his visa and left for Korea.
U.S. media, including the University Herald, the Houston Chronicle and the Daily Cougar, reported on the 15th (local time) that Korean assistant professor Cho Hyung-sun, who works at the University of Houston’s mathematics department, is preparing to leave for Korea after her visa was abruptly canceled. Jeon served as a postdoctoral researcher at Ohio State University in the U.S. from September 2022 to June 2024, and began teaching as an assistant professor at Houston University last fall.
Jeon is known to have been notified of the cancellation of his visa because he is working on a doctoral program at another institution. He was virtually kicked out after failing to finish the course he was in charge of this semester to go back to Korea and solve his identity problem.
You can read more at the link, but this guy appears to be handling things correctly by going back to Korea and reapplying for the appropriate visa to teach at the University of Houston. It sounds like a lot of visa holders had been able to cut corners for a long time in regards to what their visas could be used for and ICE is now cracking down on it. Anyone that has a visa in the U.S. should fully understand what their allows them to do and comply by it because clearly ICE is strictly enforcing immigration laws now.
Anyone surprised by this finding? I doubt anyone will be held accountable though:
The previous Moon Jae-in government fabricated key official data on housing prices, income distribution and employment for nearly four years to make the public believe that its real estate and economic policies are effective, the state audit agency said Thursday.
Moon’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae and the land ministry instructed the Korea Real Estate Board (REB), a public agency affiliated with the land ministry, to make downward adjustments of weekly and monthly housing price fluctuation rates or manipulate statistics to make it appear as if real estate policies were effective on a total of 102 occasions from January 2018 to October 2021, according to the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI).
The manipulation of official data was also widespread in the fields of income distribution and employment to conceal the negative consequences from widening income inequality and a surge in non-regular workers, the BAI said.
