Bad week for South Korea. Russian A-50 AWACS plane broke into S.Korean airspace in East Sea (Sea of Japan) on July 23 during joint Russia-China military exercise, testing the tattered S Korea-U.S.-Japan triangle alliance after recent sentimental trade war between S.Korea and Japan. Total of 18 South Korean F-15 fighters had to scramble, firing 360 warning shots to force the Russian plane out. It was the first time Korean airspace was violated since the end of Korean War in 1953. When asked for apology, Russia snapped that it was Korean pilots who went crazy enough to fire shots. Angered by South Korea's recent deployment of F-35 stealth fighters, N.Korea's Kim Jong-un fired two short range ballistic missiles again on July 25, which Donald Trump said was O.K. Adding insult to injury, Italy's Juventus manager put Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench throughout the match against K-League All Star team on July 26, thumbing his nose at 65,000 packed spectators and millions glued to TV at the expectation the super star would play minimum 45 minutes.
S.Korean neighbors are poking fun at South Korea. China is still making economic retaliation for allowing THADD missiles in a U.S. base in S.Korea. Japan is slapping on S. Korea with export restriction on key materials used for semi conductors. Russia is making a dangerous entry to Korean territory. A cartoon in French newspaper Le Monde below describes the current situation very well with Japanese, Chinese and Russian anglers trying to catch a fish called Coree (Korea). The funny thing is this cartoon was published over 110 years ago around 1904. Japanese angler eventually caught the Coree in 1910, and put it on sashimi plate for dinner. History better not repeat.
