On the Korean Peninsula

 A lot going on ...

 

 

A merry Gwangbokjol to all y'all.

 

 

How magnanimous:

Severe flooding caused by intense monsoon rains have prompted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un into an atypical response that may signal a dire situation in the isolated country amid the coronavirus pandemic.

 

These floods:

Severe floods in North Korea have killed at least 22 people and left four others missing, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

In a statement citing figures from North Korean officials, the IFRC said the floods have also caused widespread crop damage, intensifying economic concerns in a country that already suffers chronic food shortages.

The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Friday that nearly 40,000 hectares of crops have been damaged and 17,000 houses destroyed or inundated. "Lots of roads, bridges and railway sections [were] broken, a dam of a power station gave way and there was other severe damage in various sectors of the national economy," the KCNA report said.

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Part of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex may have been damaged as the Kuryong River overflowed its banks, according to the website 38 North at Johns Hopkins University on Wednesday.

The website warned that flood waters reached the pump houses that send cooling water into the 5 MW nuclear reactor there, which could at least mean that it had to be shut down.

 

 

If it makes one feel better, one's government can declare that suing veterans, especially ones who have lost limbs, is the right thing to do:

The Defense Ministry on Monday announced that a soldier's salary will rise to W963,000 a month by 2025 as part of measures to make military wages more compatible with Korean society. That will require the related budget to be raised from the current W2 trillion to W3 trillion. One of President Moon Jae-in's campaign pledges when he ran for office in 2017 was to raise soldiers' pay. Already it doubled from W197,000 in 2016 to W405,000 in 2018, and Moon now plans to more than double that again.

Moon has also pledged to shorten the mandatory military service from 21 months to 18 months next year. As a result, Korea's 620,000 standing troops will fall to 500,000 by 2022. The number of soldiers was set to decline anyway due to Korea's low birthrate. Yet no matter how sophisticated weapons are, a military's strength is fundamentally determined by the number of foot soldiers. One study shows that 260,000 to 400,000 soldiers would be necessary just to stabilize the situation in case of an emergency in North Korea. The mandatory conscription period needs to be increased to maintain troop numbers, but the government is experimenting with the opposite.

Last month, a North Korean defector was captured seven times on military surveillance equipment as he escaped back to the North, but the military was completely unaware of his return until North Korea's state-run media broadcast it because nobody had been watching the screens. The shortened conscription period and boosted soldiers' wages are enticing offers for young voters and parents. But it has to be doubted whether that will do the country's defense any good.

 

Also - photos of the North Korea some would rather one not see.