Incheon International Airport has always been a major vulnerability for South Korea and here is another example of that:

North Korea’s recent campaign of launching trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea has disrupted operations of Incheon International Airport, the South’s main gateway, on 12 occasions, a lawmaker said Tuesday, citing government data.

According to data from the Seoul Regional Aviation Administration submitted to Rep. Yang Bu-nam of the main opposition Democratic Party, runways at the airport have been shut down for a total of 265 minutes across 12 occasions due to the balloons sent from North Korea.

The first disruption incident occurred from 10:48 p.m. to 11:42 p.m. on June 1, four days after North Korea first began launching the balloons. The most severe disruption occurred on June 26, when runways were shut down on eight occasions, resulting in 166 minutes of halted takeoffs and landings.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

N. Korean leader inspects flood-hit areas

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (sitting) inspects the Air Force’s rescue work during a visit to flood-hit areas in Sinuiju and Uiju, North Pyongan Province, on July 28, 2024, in this photo provided by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. (Yonhap)

It is kind of surprising that Kakao is not able to dominate the younger social media market in South Korea:

Instagram has emerged as the social media app South Korea’s teens spend the most time on, outpacing KakaoTalk by more than double, data showed Monday.

According to data from mobile marketing and data analysis company IGAWorks, Korea’s smartphone users under 20 spent a total of 94.1 million hours scrolling on Instagram in June, making the app the leading social media platform in popularity for the age group. This figure was nearly double the time they spent on the next most popular app, mobile messenger KakaoTalk, with 48.2 million hours.

Instagram’s popularity is particularly salient in the under-20 age group, given that KakaoTalk is the most used social media app among Korea’s general population.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

It seems in a society with so many old male military figures that Kim Jong-un’s daughter would have a hard time consolidating power if Kim Jong-un was to die within the next 10-20 years:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Ju-ae, is being groomed to succeed her father, though the selection is not final and he could ultimately choose someone else, two lawmakers quoted South Korea’s spy agency as saying Monday.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) made the report to the parliamentary intelligence committee, saying North Korea has suggested Ju-ae is a strong candidate to succeed her father by adjusting the frequency of her public appearances to gauge public sentiment, Rep. Lee Seong-kweun of the ruling People Power Party and Rep. Park Sun-won of the main opposition Democratic Party said during a press briefing.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Another example of the growing trilateral cooperation in Northeast Asia:

The defense chiefs of South Korea, the United States and Japan signed a document on the Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework (TSCF) on Sunday , Seoul’s defense ministry said, in a move solidifying their continued commitment to three-way security cooperation against North Korean threats.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Minoru Kihara, respectively, inked a Memorandum of Cooperation on the framework in Tokyo amid their deepening security cooperation in response to the North’s persistent nuclear and missile threats and growing military alignment with Russia.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This looks pretty suspicious:

South Korean police questioned three Chinese students who used a drone to record panoramic views of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt at Busan in June, a Busan Metropolitan Police officer said Thursday. The three were suspected of illegally recording video of the carrier and South Korean Naval Operations Command on June 23 and June 25, the police officer told Stars and Stripes by phone. The students, who police described as being in their 30s or 40s, were questioned and released but remain under investigation, the officer said.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This seems like a fair compromise, Japan gets their UNESCO site and South Korea gets a marker explaining the history of Korean forced laborers:

South Korea has given the green light to designate Japan’s gold and silver mines on Sado Island — where an estimated over 1,500 Koreans were forced to work at the end of Japan’s colonial rule — as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Foreign Ministry announced on Friday.

Japan’s ongoing efforts to have the Sado Island Gold Mines recognized have fueled a dispute with South Korea. The controversy revolves around Japan’s deliberate omission of its history regarding the forced mobilization of Koreans during its brutal colonial rule over the peninsula. (….)

An inscription on the World Heritage list typically requires a two-thirds majority vote from the WHC member states. However, it has become customary for the final decision to be reached through consensus, ensuring broader agreement and cooperation among the committee members.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry’s confirmation came hours after Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported that a preliminary agreement had been reached. Under the agreement, Japan will display the history of Korean forced laborers at the site in exchange for South Korea’s consent to the inscription of the Sado Mine complex as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.