The Kim regime will definitely do something around the Presidential election time period, but a nuclear test seems pretty high on the provocation meter for them to use:

South Korea is not ruling out the possibility of North Korea conducting a nuclear test before or after the U.S. presidential election in November to bolster its leverage, Seoul’s defense chief said in a media interview published Monday.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik made the remarks in an interview with Bloomberg in Tokyo on Sunday as he was in the Japanese capital for a trilateral meeting with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Minoru Kihara.

“North Korea has completed preparations to conduct a nuclear test when a decision is made,” Shin said. “We cannot rule out the possibility of that decisive moment being right before or after the U.S. presidential election to raise its leverage against the U.S.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is another example of a U.S. Soldier being a drunken idiot in Seoul:

Police in South Korea arrested a U.S service member earlier this month on suspicion of brandishing a knife and scissors inside a pub in Seoul. The unidentified troop’s charges — intimidation and obstruction of business — were referred to prosecutors on Tuesday, a Mapo Police detective told Stars and Stripes by phone that day. The detective did not release the service member’s branch of service or his name.

South Korean law enforcement agencies typically do not identify suspects unless charged with a serious crime, and officials regularly speak to the media on a customary condition of anonymity. Police responded around 7:15 a.m. July 5 to a disturbance call saying a person had a deadly weapon inside a pub in Mapo District, the detective said. Mapo is a popular area of Seoul known for its numerous bars and nightclubs.

The service member, who is stationed at Camp Casey, a U.S. Army outpost 13 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone that separates North Korea from South Korea, entered the pub alone and went inside the kitchen, where he picked up a knife and scissors, according to the detective. He proceeded to the dining area and made a “stabbing motion with his hands, but did not stab himself,” the detective said.

The pub’s patrons fled outside but the service member did not explicitly threaten them, according to the detective. The service member was arrested without incident and taken to Mapo Police Station, where he was later picked up by U.S. military police, the detective said. No injuries were reported.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

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.