South Korea despite not being a NATO member has become the key attendee at the NATO conference underway in Washington D.C.:

One of the most influential people attending the NATO summit in Washington leads a country that is not a member. Yet it holds vast stores of weapons sought by the bloc to help Ukraine fight off Russia, and perhaps tip the battle in Kyiv’s favor. Ukraine needs artillery shells. South Korea has millions, and there is a push to convince its President Yoon Suk Yeol to change a government policy that prohibits Seoul from sending lethal aid to countries at war. Yoon is attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit this week for the third time, but this visit is different.

Just weeks before it opened, his government said a defense pact signed between Russia and North Korea in June has made it consider whether it’s time to start sending weapons to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces. Zelenskyy, who has been seeking weapons from South Korea since Russia’s full-scale invasion started in 2022, will be attending the summit in Washington aimed at proving that NATO is as strong as ever in its 75th year.

He is expected to speak at a meeting of the Indo-Pacific Four partners — Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea — the Yomiuri newspaper reported, where he could again lay out his case for weapons. “The types of weapons South Korea can provide Ukraine are the ones that can make breakthroughs in the current stalemate on the front lines,” said Park Won Gon, a professor at South Korea’s Ewha Womans University specializing in international relations.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Hopefully everyone living on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula is keeping safe:

Heavy rains triggered landslides and flash floods in the Korean Peninsula’s southern regions, Wednesday, leaving at least six people dead and two missing, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and regional fire headquarters.

Record-level downpours — up to nearly 150 millimeters in an hour — pounded the provinces of Chungcheong, Jeolla and Gyeongsang, causing casualties and property damage.

A man in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, was found dead inside an elevator at a residential building after apparently being trapped there.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The very politically charged death of a Marine that died last year from drowning during a botched rescue attempt, has led to charges against multiple officers:

In this file photo, Lee Yong-min, former commander of the Marine Corps’ 7th battalion, pays his respect on June 13, 2024, at the tomb of a Marine conscript who died during a search for missing downpour victims last year. (Yonhap)

Police decided Monday not to charge a Marine division commander accused of responsibility in last year’s death of a young solider during a search operation for flood victims, only referring six other officers to the prosecution for indictment.

The result of the politically sensitive investigation came a year after the then 20-year-old Marine conscript, surnamed Chae, was swept away by a torrent during a search for missing downpour victims in the southeastern county of Yecheon on July 19 last year. He was found dead half a day later. 

The death sparked national outrage over initial findings that conscripts, including Chae, were mobilized for the risky search mission to comb through a swollen, torrential and muddy stream without proper safety gear, such as life jackets or ropes, resulting in Chae’s death.

On Monday, the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency in Andong, near Yecheon, announced that it has decided to forward six military field commanders, including the commander of Chae’s battalion and another battalion chief, to the prosecution on charges of professional negligence resulting in death.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the political aspect of this case occurred when the Marine Corps division commander tried to allegedlly cover up the investigation. The claims are that the division commander was covering up on behalf of President Yoon. This interference is being investigated separately.

It has been a while since GI crime has been an issue on Okinawa, but the disclosure of these two sexual assault cases has given the island’s left wing government plenty to complain to USFJ about:

The U.S. military has yet to announce new restrictions on troops stationed in Japan despite calls from local authorities after two service members were indicted for alleged sexual crimes on Okinawa. “There is currently no update right now in terms of any changes to liberty policy at the moment,” Gunnery Sgt. Jonathan Wright, spokesman for U.S. Forces Japan, told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday.

Tensions have escalated on Okinawa, where the U.S. military stations approximately 30,000 service members, more than 50% of its troops in Japan, following disclosures in late June of the two indictments by the Naha Public Prosecutors Office. The commanding generals of Okinawa-based III Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Corps Installations Pacific directed their commanders to “reinforce their expectations of standards and conduct across the force,” III MEF spokesman 1st Lt. Owen Hitchcock said by email Monday.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link, but as I have said before, the expectation of zero crime from US servicemembers is unrealisitic. There is always going to be some crime that happens, what matters is how low is the crime rate and is it being properly prosecuted? I have seen no indications of a high crime rate on Okinawa from US troops and clearly cases are being prosecuted as these latest incidents show.

If North Korea’s trash balloons are considered soft terrorism, than is the South Korean activists who send balloons into North Korea also soft terrorists?:

North Korea’s obnoxious sending of trash-filled balloons to South Korea is a “form of soft terrorism,” a U.S. think tank report said Tuesday, stressing it should not be taken lightly though it reflects the recalcitrant regime’s “weakness” and “insecurity.”

Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Andy Lim, an associate fellow with the CSIS Korea Chair, released the report that analyzed Pyongyang’s campaign involving garbage-filled balloons in a question-and-answer format.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Korean government is starting to wobble a bit on their initiative to increase the number of medical school students to address the ongoing doctor shortage in South Korea:

The government has decided to drop all punitive measures against striking trainee doctors as it refocuses efforts on swiftly restoring the operation of medical services disrupted by their absences nationwide for months.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday that it shelved its plan to enforce penalties, including the suspensions of their medical licenses, on more than 12,000 trainee doctors for their refusal to comply with its order to return to work.

This would put an end to a nearly five-month standoff between the trainee doctors and the ministry, which refused to approve the resignations of those who left hospitals in protest of its decision to increase the nation’s medical school admissions quota.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is another way for South Korea to respond to increasing provocative behavior from North Korea:

South Korea’s army held live-fire artillery practice near the border with North Korea for the first time in six years, and the first such move since suspending a ban on live drills in June. The artillery drill was conducted at an unspecified firing range within three miles of the Military Demarcation Line, the actual border dividing the Korean Peninsula, according to a news release Tuesday from the South Korean army.

The border is inside the 2½-mile-wide Demilitarized Zone. Numerous air and artillery ranges are scattered near the border with North Korea. U.S. and South Korean troops conduct drills throughout the year at the 3,390-acre Rodriguez Live Fire Complex roughly 16 miles south of the border. Tuesday’s artillery drill focused on South Korea’s “response capabilities and fire preparedness” in the event of North Korean provocations, the release said. The army said it plans to regularly conduct artillery drills around the area for the foreseeable future.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.