South Korea best be careful on what foreigners it embraces. It needs foreigners that learn to speak Korean and understands Korean culture and history. If not the country could become less Korean and look more like this and this:

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday that local governments’ cooperation with the state was crucial in encouraging foreign residents to settle here to address the population crisis in South Korea.

At a meeting held in Hongseong-gun, South Chungcheong Province, Yoon, who presided over a meeting with heads of the autonomous governments, said the central and local governments should take preemptive actions to support foreign nationals to settle and work in Korean society, as the country faces a growing shortage in its working-age population.

“We must take preemptive action on the labor shortage in the wake of the fast aging of the population coupled with the low birth rate,” Yoon said before some 100 participants. “The low birth rate issue and the foreign worker issue must be seriously addressed through the collaboration of central and local governments.”

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

North Korea’s statement is not entirely true because Trump and Kim’s personal relationship ushered in an era where there was far less provocations and antagonism compared to prior years:

North Korea on Tuesday dismissed former US President Donald Trump’s repeated boasts about his close relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a “lingering desire,” stating that their personal bond did not bring about “any substantial positive change.”

The statement, delivered through the state-run Korean Central News Agency, which is tailored more to external audiences than domestic ones, marked Pyongyang’s first official reaction to Trump’s campaign trail remarks. (…..)

“It is true that Trump, when he was president, tried to reflect the special personal relations between the heads of states in the relations between states, but he did not bring about any substantial positive change,” the commentary read.

“The foreign policy of a state and personal feelings must be strictly distinguished,” it added.

Pyongyang reiterated its stance that the ball is in the US court, urging the US to abandon what it labeled as a “hostile policy” toward North Korea in the commentary. Pyongyang considers the US extended deterrence commitment to South Korea in response to mounting threats from North Korea, such as the deployment of US strategic assets to the peninsula, as part of the hostile policy.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The tit-for-tat balloon antics between North and South continue:

 A trash-carrying balloon sent by North Korea landed on the presidential office compound Wednesday, the Presidential Security Service (PSS) said.

The PSS said it discovered fallen trash on the grounds of the presidential compound while monitoring the latest batch of balloons flown by the North earlier in the day.

North Korea has sent thousands of trash-filled balloons toward South Korea since May in protest of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets sent by activists in South Korea across the border.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Any Air Force types want to comment if it really makes a difference having nine F-16’s stationed on Osan AB instead of Kunsan AB? It is not like that is a very far distance:

Air Force fighter jets are temporarily moving closer to North Korea to “optimize combat capability and increase readiness” on the Korean Peninsula. Nine F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base, roughly 115 miles southwest of Seoul, will be assigned for a yearlong trial to the 36th Fighter Squadron at Osan Air Base, about 30 miles south of the capital, according to an Air Force news release Thursday. The F-16s began arriving at Osan earlier this month, 7th Air Force spokesman Maj. Rachel Buitrago told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday. Two fighter squadrons of F-16s and A-10 Thunderbolt IIs are permanently stationed at the base.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I think the fact that President Yoon is in power instead of the prior left wing administration has more to do with the increase in defections than COVID lockdowns:

Scores of North Koreans staying abroad, such as diplomats and overseas workers, have attempted to defect to South Korea since North Korea began undoing its COVID-19 border closure last year, a former North Korean diplomat said Tuesday.

Ri Il-gyu, a former counselor of political affairs at the North Korean embassy in Cuba, said there have been more successful defections, but many people were also brutally brought back to North Korea, citing the example of a North Korean woman and her son who were caught during their botched attempt to flee Russia.

“As signs of North Korea’s border reopening were detected from March and April last year, many thought it was time to decide whether to return (to the North) or flee it,” Ri said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency, eight months after defecting to South Korea with his family.

South Korea’s unification ministry said the number of North Korean defectors coming to South Korea reached 196 in 2023, and among them, the number of people with so-called elite backgrounds, such as diplomatic and trade officials, came to around 10, the highest since 2017.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing how much money this guy made in just four years selling college entrance exam questions. It makes me wonder how many other teachers are doing this that have not been caught?:

Police have referred an incumbent high school teacher to the prosecution for making college entrance exam questions and selling them to a private cram school for some 250 million won ($ 180,072) over the course of four years, officials said Monday.

The National Office of Investigation (NOI) under the National Police Agency said it has booked 69 people and referred 24 of them initially to the prosecution as part of investigations into the collusive “cartel” ties between public and private education sectors.

A total of 24 such cases are under investigation, officials said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.