This claim has long been hinted by Trump himself due to the cost sharing issue with South Korea. Trump wanted the ROK to pay more for USFK which the Moon administration declined to do. The media now is trying to sell this as a new story when it is actually an old one:
Mark Esper, the former secretary of Defense under President Trump, says that the former president proposed a number of “outlandish” foreign policy proposals while he was in the White House, including pulling troops out of South Korea and shutting down embassies in Africa, according to an excerpt from Esper’s upcoming memoir.
In a new excerpt, shared by Politico, Esper wrote that shortly after he was hired to be the new Pentagon chief in 2019, Trump was railing against NATO and corruption in Ukraine, two personal issues that the rest of the national security and foreign policy team tried to tamp down because they weren’t considered leading concerns at the time.
Trump also said he wanted a “complete withdrawal” of forces from South Korea and that he wished to “bring our people home” from embassies in Africa, according to Esper.
The new ROK President has been inaugurated and as promised has begun his term by moving the presidential office to Yongsan:
President Yoon Suk-yeol’s office at former headquarters of the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul’s Yongsan District, Monday. Yonhap
President Yoon Suk-yeol will start his first day at the top job of the government very differently from that of his predecessors: his office is no longer in the secluded foothills of Mount Bugak. Instead, it’s at the center of Seoul’s crowded downtown Yongsan District near Samgakji subway station, an election promise emphasizing his willingness to make himself and his office open to the public.
With the start of his term at the former headquarters of the national defense ministry in the bustling district, Cheong Wa Dae, which has been the office and residence of the country’s presidents since 1948, becomes a public venue for tourists.
The Era of Yongsan begins at midnight on Monday with Yoon receiving a phone briefing from the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the commander-in-chief at an underground bunker beneath his office building. The briefing signals the transfer of the country’s military command from former president Moon Jae-in to Yoon.
Suspension bridge in Wonju Visitors cross a suspension bridge at Mount Sogeum, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Wonju, 130 kilometers east of Seoul. (Yonhap)
Tying your legacy to North Korean denuclearization is losing proposition:
Outgoing President Moon Jae-in appealed for the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue Monday as he delivered a farewell address on his last day in office amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s repeated tests of weapons.
“Peace is a condition of survival for us, a condition of prosperity,” Moon said. “I sincerely hope that efforts for denuclearization and institutionalization of peace will continue with the resumption of dialogue between the South and the North.”
Taking a look back on his five years as president, Moon touted his role for converting the 2017 crisis, when North Korea conducted a nuclear test and fired ICBMs, into dialogue and diplomacy.
You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans learned from Saddam, Gaddafi, and most recently Ukraine why you never give up your nuclear weapons program. Does anyone think Ukraine would be getting attacked right now by Russia if they possessed nuclear weapons? The Kim regime is using this same calculus for developing their own nuclear weapons program.
This seems like quite a stretch to me because I doubt whether or not someone can have an abortion will play any role on whether someone wants to join the military:
Members of Congress, including Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-New York), Rep. Jackie Speier (D-California), Rep. Barbara Lee (C-California) and others join a pro-choice rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as the justices hear hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a case about a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, on December 01, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/TNS)
As employees of the federal government, doctors on military bases are already banned from performing abortions so female troops — and the female spouses of troops — must seek out the procedure on their own. That would become much more difficult if the Supreme Court overturns the precedent set in its Roe v. Wade ruling almost five decades ago, as a leaked draft ruling indicates it’s likely to do.
At least 26 states probably would place restrictions on abortion laws, including Texas, Florida and other southern states that have many of the nation’s military bases, according to Sean Timmons, a managing partner at Tulley Rinckey who specializes in military law.
The potential impact on recruitment and retention would come as the military is already struggling to find qualified troops. Women make up almost 20% of the 1.3 million-member active-duty force.
It looks like Lee Jae-myung and Ahn Cheol-soo are going to keep themselves relevant in South Korea’s politics by running for office again in the National Assembly:
Former Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea holds a press conference in Gyeyang, Incheon, Sunday, to run for the parliamentary seat in the Gyeyang-B district in the June 1 by-elections. Yonhap
Former presidential candidates Lee Jae-myung and Ahn Cheol-soo declared their bids, Sunday, for parliamentary seats in the June 1 by-elections, transforming the event to one of potentially high political stakes.
Lee of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is the former Gyeonggi Province governor who lost the March 9 presidential election to President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol by a razor-thin margin, while Ahn Cheol-soo, the head of Yoon’s transition committee, also ran for president and merged his campaign with Yoon’s days prior to the election.
Lee will run for the seat representing Incheon’s Gyeyang-B district, which has been vacant since former DPK Chairman Rep. Song Young-gil resigned to run in the Seoul mayoral election in April, while Ahn will run for seat representing Bundang-A district of Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province, left by the Kim Eun-hye of the People Power Party (PPP), the former presidential transition committee spokesperson who is now running for the Gyeonggi provincial governor post.
Preparing for Yoon’s inauguration ceremony An honor guard of South Korea’s defense ministry rehearses for the inauguration ceremony of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, set for May 10, 2022, in front of the National Assembly’s main building in western Seoul on May 8. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
As predicted it seems like less and less of Yongsan Garrison will become a park:
Moving trucks are parked at the defense ministry building in Seoul, May 5, as the ministry wraps up relocation work to empty its main building, which will be used as the country’s new presidential office. Yonhap
The incoming Yoon Suk-yeol government is planning to convert part of a U.S. Forces Korea base adjacent to the new presidential office in Yongsan into a cultural space reminiscent of a “Little LA” and open it to the public in September, officials said Sunday.
The 500,000-square-meter space is just outside the defense ministry headquarters, which is being converted into the new presidential office.
The USFK plans to return the land to the South Korean government at the end of this month as part of its ongoing relocation to Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul.
“We plan to let the people see it in its exotic state as much as possible,” an official involved in the project told Yonhap News Agency, noting the area features various religious, educational and sports facilities used by the USFK.
More facilities could be added, such as cafes and exhibition or concert halls, to evoke a sense of “America Town” or “Little LA.”
You can read more at the link, but I guess using this portion of Yongsan to create this “Little LA” area is better than just putting up more apartment buildings. Any predictions on how much of the old Yongsan Garrison actually becomes a city park?
