The ROK government is still showing its unhappiness with Russia over its recent military pact with North Korea:

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday denounced a pact signed between North Korea and Russia last week as “an anachronistic act” that goes against the progress of history and Pyongyang’s repeated provocations as “despicable and irrational.”

During his televised speech to mark the 74th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950, Yoon said the pact, which forges stronger military and economic cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, “blatantly violates the United Nations Security Council resolution” designed to contain North Korea through sanctions.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The trash attacks into South Korea are continuing:

North Korea on Monday sent balloons presumed to be carrying trash toward South Korea again, Seoul’s military said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the balloons appeared to be travelling in a southeastern direction from the northern part of Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul.

It advised the public to not touch fallen balloons and report them to military or police authorities.

On Friday, Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of the North’s leader, hinted about launching more balloons after North Korean defectors in the South sent balloons with anti-Pyongyang leaflets toward the North earlier in the week.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

South Korea is now on the best level in regards to combating human trafficking according to the U.S. State Department:

The State Department put South Korea back on a top-tier list of countries for meeting standards for the elimination of human trafficking, while leaving North Korea in the lowest third tier for the 22nd straight year, its annual report showed Monday.

The department released the 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report, where South Korea was listed in the Tier 1 group of 33 countries and territories, including the United States, Britain, Taiwan, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Poland and Sweden.

Countries, whose governments fully meet the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, are included in Tier 1. South Korea was put into Tier 2 in the 2022 report for the first time in 20 years and remained in the tier in last year’s report.

The report measured progress in efforts to eliminate trafficking in 188 countries and territories. Its reporting period was from April 1 last year through March 31.

“The Government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,” the report read, referring to South Korea by its official name. “The government made key achievements to do so during the reporting period; therefore the ROK was upgraded to Tier 1.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This has to be the worst type of fire that a firefighter could try and extinguish. We have all seen the videos of how hard it is to extinguish an electric car that catches fire, imagine trying to put out the flames from an entire factory of lithium on fire:

At least 22 workers, mostly Chinese nationals, were killed in a lithium battery plant fire in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, Monday, firefighters said, in what could be the worst accident to occur at a chemical factory in the country.

The death toll could rise further as one went missing while being out of contact, according to the authorities.

As of 6:30 p.m., 22 workers had been killed, with two seriously injured and six others suffering mild injuries.

Among those confirmed killed, 20 are foreigners — 18 Chinese nationals, one Laotian and another whose nationality is not known, they said.

Yonhap

Here is how the fire supposedly started:

One witness, who escaped from the second floor of the plant, told the Hwaseong Fire Station that an explosive combustion occurred in one battery cell at the time of the fire.

The station said the fire spread rapidly as the battery cells inside exploded continuously, making it difficult for rescuers to go inside and search. At least 35,000 batteries are believed to be inside the plant. 

CCTV footage unveiled by the fire authorities showed a small amount of smoke started from one battery cell and sharply grew to fill the inside of the factory in just 15 seconds

You can read more at the link.

That is what some in the U.S. government and think tanks believe:

The idea of South Korea developing its own nuclear weapons is resurfacing among some U.S. pundits in light of the strengthened military partnership between North Korea and Russia.

However, while local analysts describe this as highly unlikely, they are skeptical about whether the growing camaraderie between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin is significant enough to push South Korea to withdraw from its decades-long commitment to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), a move that would likely draw major international sanctions.

Allison Hooker, former senior director for Asia at the National Security Council under former U.S. President Donald Trump, suggested, Friday, that the deepening military relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang might prompt Seoul to consider pursuing its own nuclear weapons.

“I think we cannot rule out the possibility that South Korea might move more rapidly toward its own nuclear program. We need to determine how we feel about that within the U.S. and the alliance context as well,” Hooker said during a webinar hosted by the Asia Society Policy Institute.

Her remarks came a day after Republican Senator Roger Wicker called for redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea, reiterating a proposal he floated in late May.

“With our allies South Korea, Japan and Australia, we should discuss nuclear burden-sharing agreements. It’s time for them to step forward and join us in nuclear burden-sharing,” Wicker said Thursday on the Senate floor, as he spoke about the latest Kim-Putin summit.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the ROK officials the Korea Times interviewed believe this talk is all a bluff by the U.S. side. This is because the ROK developing its own nuclear deterrent would decrase U.S. influence in South Korea. It is also believed it would cause a nuclear domino effect with Taiwan and Japan wanting their own nuclear deterrents as well.

The last time she visited Camp Humphreys was in 2007. It is too bad she did not get a chance to come back and see how much larger the installation is now compared to back then:

Betty Nance Humphreys, of Fayetteville, N.C., the widow of Chief Warrant Officer 2 Benjamin Humphreys, for whom the largest overseas U.S. military base is named, died June 10 at age 93. “It is with heavy hearts that we mourn the passing of Betty Nance Humphreys, a remarkable woman whose legacy is deeply intertwined with the very fabric of our garrison,” U.S. Army Col. Ryan K. Workman, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys, told Stars and Stripes by email Friday. On her last visit to Camp Humphreys, South Korea, in March 2007, she planted a tree in memory of her late husband at the base of Beacon Hill at Memorial Park, according to a post Friday on the base’s official Facebook page. “That tree stands as a living testament to their enduring love and commitment to our military family,” Workman said.

Benjamin Humphreys was assigned to the 6th Transportation Company (Light Helicopter) at what was then called Sub-post K-6. Humphreys died Oct. 13, 1961, when his H-21 Shawnee helicopter developed mechanical trouble and crashed into a rice paddy near Osan, killing him and the seven soldiers he was transporting, according to the Facebook post. The Army renamed the airfield Camp Humphreys in 1962. Today the base dubbed “the Army’s Home in Korea” is home to the U.S. Eighth Army, 2nd Infantry Division, U.S. Forces Korea, the Combined Command and the United Nations Command. The 2nd Aviation Combat Brigade is also stationed at Humphreys. The major headquarters relocated over several years from Yongsan Barracks in the heart of Seoul.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

By the way the picture of above of COL Taliento the former Camp Humphreys garrison commander in 2007 brought back memories. His dispute with the business owners outside the gate had them put up banners asking him to seek psychiatric treatment.