USFK has a new commander just in time for Christmas:

Gen. Xavier Brunson took office as the new commander of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) on Friday, vowing a continued commitment to upholding the South Korea-U.S. alliance amid persistent threats by North Korea.

Brunson replaced Gen. Paul LaCamera to lead the 28,500-strong American troops in South Korea in a change-of-command ceremony held at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, attended by top officials from both nations, including acting Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Commander Adm. Samuel Paparo.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but General LaCamera is retiring after 44 years of service. That is a lot of Army! Congratulations to him on a well deserved retirement.

Yoon has already been impeached there is is no need for this protest. Wait until the Constitutional Court renders its final decision on the impeachment before deciding to protest:

Tractors driven by a farmers’ group calling for President Yoon Suk Yeol’s arrest are stopped by police in southern Seoul on Dec. 21. [NEWS1]

A group of farmers headed into central Seoul aboard tractors to stage a protest for President Yoon Suk Yeol’s arrest were stopped by police on Saturday on the outskirts of the capital, causing severe traffic congestion. 
  
Some 30 tractors and approximately 50 cargo trucks affiliated with the Korean Peasants League were prevented by police from traveling north of the Namtaeryeong pass in southern Seoul at 12 p.m., according to the farmer’s group and police. 
  
The group had planned to stage a protest using tractors in front of Yoon’s residence in Yongsan District and Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, but the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency restricted their entry, citing their demonstration’s potential impact on traffic.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but according to the article these protesters with their tractors were clogging up traffic in Seoul. Traffic is bad enough in Seoul without these idiots making it worse.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Considering all the past North Korean drone incursion issues the ROK has had they need to get better at detecting and countering these drones:

A pair of military exercises over South Korea emphasized air defense and ground support this week as 2024 nears its final days. The country’s military branches trained Thursday afternoon to improve the nation’s air defense response to North Korean drone intrusions, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The joint exercise, announced Wednesday, involved a simulated attack by multiple drones over the East Sea, or Sea of Japan, and the Yellow Sea, and rear areas, according to a news release by the Joint Chiefs. “This training will simulate responses to potential provocations involving multiple small North Korean drones infiltrating South Korean land and sea, including operating a large number of small drones as virtual enemy aircraft,” the release states.

Units of the South Korean army, navy and air force worked to detect, identify and simulate the downing of small drones, according to the Joint Chiefs.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

President Yoon is so unpopular in South Korea I doubt these boycotts by his supporters will have any impact on sales:

Singer and actor IU promotes New Balance’s apparel in this undated photo. Courtesy of E-Land

Political disputes about President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment over his botched martial law declaration have had unexpected impacts on brands endorsed by IU and other celebrities, who supported protests against him, as well as on companies related to his allies.

On Friday, IU’s agency announced that the singer prepaid for food and hand warmers for her fans participating in a candlelight protest for Yoon’s impeachment near the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul. After the announcement, Yoon’s supporters began to encourage the boycott of companies who hired her as a spokesmodel, sharing the list of brands.

On the list were New Balance, HiteJinro and Woori Bank.

Although her endorsement agreements with water brand Jeju Samdasoo and Domino’s Pizza have already ended, the names of the brands were also on the list shared by pro-Yoon consumers.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

More and more people are immigrating to South Korea:

The number of immigrants in South Korea, which includes foreign nationals residing here as well as naturalized citizens, reached a record high of over 1.56 million in 2024, according to government data released Tuesday. Similarly, the number of employed foreign nationals also hit an all-time high at 1.01 million.

The number of those having resided in South Korea for at least 91 days, aged 15 and above, reached about 1,561,000 as of May, compared to 1.48 million tallied a year earlier, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea.

Specifically, foreign nationals accounted for 1.51 million, with naturalized citizens being 51,000.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

I really think a number of senior Army leaders did not initially push back on General Hamilton’s attempts to manipulate the command selection process because they did not want to be accused of being racist. Clearly General Hamilton was playing the race card in his effort to get this lieutenant colonel a command:

But the four-star general spent about a month lobbying for the lieutenant colonel, despite deficient performance on the new command selection boards. The lobbying began before her board, when Hamilton made references to panel judges — a trio of two-star generals — that he knew the lieutenant colonel they would be reviewing.

Hamilton also reached out to an adviser at the Army Talent Management Task Force and the head of the Army’s BCAP for documents related to the lieutenant colonel’s assessment.

That lobbying was intense enough that Col. Robert O’Brien, head of the Army’s Command Assessment Program, wrote a memo detailing Hamilton’s effort, Military.com reported.

Both Hamilton and the former subordinate are Black, which Hamilton said has been a factor in mentoring the officer. In an Aug. 16, 2024, letter that he wrote to Wormuth about the battalion commander selection process, he said the new command selection method “fails to account for the psychological effects that systemic bias, discrimination, and overt racism can have on prospective officers.”

Army Times

What is even worse is that the Chief of Staff of the Army and the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army even ended up giving in to General Hamilton’s lobbying for this lieutenant colonel to be on the command list even though she failed the selection process twice and being in the bottom 1%:

The lieutenant colonel scored in the bottom 1% out of about 800 candidates for command, failing the initial BCAP panel in a 0-5 vote after being found to be an “ineffective” leader.

Military.com

The BCAP panel interviews are done without the evaluators seeing the officer and all names are removed from reports so they can’t see the persons race. Yet General Hamilton was still claiming racism in the selection process. Also of interest was that this lieutenant colonel received a legion of merit as a major which I have never seen or even heard of before. A legion of mertit award usually goes to a Colonel after a successful brigade command or senior staff position. That should of been a red flag there.

The investigation into Hamilton did find he had an overly close relationship with the lieutenant colonel, but could not prove a sexual relationship. These false claims of racism has now done significant damage to the Army’s attempt to create as fair as possible system to select commanders in its attempt to stop any perceived racism in the command selection process. Fortunately an anonymous whistleblower came forward to the IG to call out this inappropriate conduct because if they hadn’t this unfit lieutenant colonel would have been commanding troops.