Category: Uncategorized

Here is a truly sad article in the Korea Times about a 35 year old daughter pleading to have her father who was abducted 18 years ago by North Korean agents while fishing returned to South Korea:

Choi Woo-young, 35, president of the Families of the Abducted and Detained in North Korea (FAD), still vividly remembers the day when her father and 11 other fishermen were abducted by North Koreans.
“The entire family got together to hold a service to honor our ancestors. My younger brother suddenly rushed into the house, saying that he heard that my father’s fishing boat, Tongjin-ho, was kidnapped,’’ said Choi, daughter of Choi Chong-suk, the captain of the boat.

The fishing boat was captured by the North near the maritime border on the West Sea on Jan. 15, 1987.

“He went out to sea to fish, and it was the last time I saw his face. He is still a 42-year-old father to me although 18 years have passed since his disappearance,’’ she said.

(…)

Ahead of her father’s 60th birthday, which falls on Oct. 26, she put an advertisement in a local newspaper yesterday with a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to return her father and the other crew members.

What is really amazing is that there are 3,790 other South Koreans just like this woman’s father that have been reportedly kidnapped by North Korea. You would think the South Korean government would be working hard at winning the release of these prisoners. No, think again:

“I am disappointed with the government although it said it was trying its best. But there have not been any visible results. When the South Korean government sent North Korean “long-term unconverted prisoners’’ to the North, we were hoping that our family members could return to the South,’’ she said.

She said that the South Korean government should place priority on the abduction issue in its relations with North Korea as Japan has done.

“The Tokyo government received Pyongyang’s apology about the abduction of a dozen Japanese, but the Seoul government didn’t even try to raise the issue of thousands of detained citizens in the North,’’ she said.

“When I saw the abducted Japanese return to their country, I felt a sense of shame due to our government’s lack of concern about this matter,’’ she added.

You can say what you want about Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi but he cares about his citizens, unlike some politicians here in Korea. It is the same thing with President Bush. He would reduce Pyongyang into a parking before 3,790 Americans ever got kidnapped by North Korean agents. You would think that if President Roh put a little pressure on the North Koreans, he would be able to get some of the hostages returned. He could pressure the North Koreans by with holding fertilizer and other aid unless they give up some of the hostages, but no they give them all the aid they want and even gave them back their spies that were arrested and held here in Korea. Absolutely mind boggling.

Sad story, I sincerely hope this woman will be able to get her father returned.

North Korea has now responded to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo:

North Korea has become the latest country to criticize Tokyo over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit to a controversial war shrine. Koizumi visited the Yasukuni monument on Monday.

The secretive Stalinist state added that the shrine is “a symbol of militarism, in spite of the unvarying opposition from the international community,” AP said.

“A symbol of militarism”? Give me a break, the North Koreans are complaining about a shrine promoting militarism when their entire country promotes militarism.

In fact if you believe this Chosun Ilbo report the North Koreans should get along well with Koizumi because his dad allegedly recruited Koreans in Japan to return to North Korea:

The father of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was a key figure in efforts to lure Koreans living in Japan to North Korea. Junya Koizumi died in 1969.

With promises that North Korea was a “Paradise on Earth,” repatriation organizations between 1959 and 1984 sent 93,340 Koreans to the Stalinist country. Despite opposition from the South Korean government, leading Japanese politicians and intellectuals on Nov. 17, 1958 formed a repatriation association which was to support efforts to send Koreans to the North. Once repatriated, these people would find themselves slandered as “a disruption to society,” Japanese spies or collaborators, and a significant number were carted off into forced labor and never heard from again.

Nobody forced them to go to North Korea. Also how come the South Koreans didn’t try to take them in? Yes, Koizumi is stupid for doing his shrine visits, but the reaction by everyone else in the neighborhood is even stupider and hippocritical. Just more mindless Japan bashing if you ask me.

So who knows where this building is located? I guarantee everyone has seen this building before, just looks different from above.

All you Hanchongryun types out there get your bamboo poles, rocks, masks, and anti-American slogans ready because both US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President George Bush are coming to a city near you.

First of all Secretary Rumsfeld is coming to Korea this week to not only meet with Korean military officials but also US soldiers in Korea:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will meet with U.S. troops in South Korea this week, senior defense officials said on Friday.

They declined to give specific information on when Rumsfeld would be in each country. It was also unknown Friday which troops Rumsfeld will meet with in South Korea.

Then next month it will only get better when President Bush comes to Pusan for the APEC summit:

US President George W. Bush will travel to Japan, China, South Korea, and Mongolia in November, White House spokesman Scott McClellan confirmed.

The trip will by anchored on the November 18-19 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit in the South Korean city of Busan.

Hopefully they will leave the children at home this time but I doubt it.

Also it looks like Mongolia is the happening place this winter for US officials. Maybe they saw these photos linked from Marmot’s site.

After reading this article in the Chosun Ilbo you would think the Japanese are concerned a South Korean attack on their islands:

Japan appears worried about Korea’s defense reform plans including large-scale troop cuts and increases in spending on cutting-edge technology and has asked Korea’s Defense Ministry for details of the plan, according to a source.

“The Japanese Defense Department has, on a few occasions, informally requested explanation of the background and contents of the National Defense Reform Act,” a government source said. Tokyo appears to worry that the new-model submarines and Aegis combat vessels to be acquired under the plan could be a threat to the island country.

I think the Japanese are more concerned about South Korea not being able to defend themselves from North Korean attack than fearing an invasion of Tsushima island. The less capable the South Koreans are of defending the peninsula more unstable the entire region becomes if the North Koreans look to exploit it.

I would think the Japanese have every reason to want to obtain as much information as possible about the ROK military transformation in regards to their own national security.

Korean police made more in roads in stopping human trafficking to the US:

Police on Sunday arrested a job broker suspected of luring some 200 women into prostitution in the U.S. and elsewhere. Acting on a complaint from a 25-year-old woman identified as Lee, Seoul Metropolitan Police arrested five people including the 53-year-old broker identified as Hyun for involvement in the flesh trade.

Police say the gang forged employment certificates to obtain U.S. and Japanese visas and smuggled women into the U.S. through Canada. They charged the victims W8 million (US$8,000)each for the processing, earning some W600 million altogether.

This is good to see the Korean police continue to work on cracking down on prostitutes being sent to the US to work.

Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak continues to advocate a Seoul to Pusan canal:

Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak Sunday continued to endorse his idea of building a massive cross-country waterway that connects the northern and southern rivers of South Korea.

“Many journalists questioned me at the conference at Kwanhun Club last week on why I keep commenting on the building of the Kyongbu Canal. However, it’s a simple fact that many cities around the world were benefited by making the best use of their rivers and seas,’’ said Lee during a news conference held at the Chongju Art Center in Chongju, North Chungchong Province.

Mayor Lee has been pushing his trans-Korean canal project idea more publicly since the recent success of his Cheongyecheon Stream project in Seoul. The proposed canal would be approximately 20 kilometers long and would connect the Han River that runs through Seoul with the Naktong River that runs through Pusan.

I haven’t heard much about what the feasibility of the idea is, but what I like about Mayor Lee is that he continues to focus on the future of Korea instead of being weighed down by past history and empty slogans so envogue today in Korean politics. Korea still has the potential to do great things and Mayor Lee sees this. The canal idea is more than a construction project; it is also a project that will create jobs and unite national will instead of the nation wide ideology divisions you see today.

Curzon over at Coming Anarchy provides this interesting picture of field rations of various national militaries.

The picture doesn’t have the ROK Army’s rations but having tried their field rations before it is not that bad if you are used to Korean favorites such as ramen and kimchi. However, even if you are not used to Korean cuisine it has got to be better than whatever that is, the Chinese Army is eating in the picture.

It looks like there was another taxi cab related incident in Uijongbu:

U.S. soldier was detained by South Korean police after a taxi driver in Uijeongbu reportedly was assaulted Friday, 8th Army officials confirmed.

An 8th Army spokesman said the Camp Casey Provost Marshal office was notified of a reported assault on a taxi driver at 12:05 a.m. that morning by a soldier stationed in Uijeongbu.

The spokesman said the assault allegedly resulted in facial injuries to the driver.

“The accused soldier was apprehended and detained by Korean National Police, then released to the Camp Red Cloud Provost Marshal office for further processing,?the spokesman said.

This is not the first taxi cab related incident in 2ID and I assure you that it won’t be the last. You can read more about taxi cab related incidents here, here, and here.

As I have chronicled before the taxi cab drivers in Uijongbu are vultures who are looking to rip off GI’s. They know that the GI’s are desperate to get back to camp before curfew, so they feel free to charge exuberant fees, knowing full well that the soldier will more than likely pay it because they have to get back to camp. However, sometimes when you got a GI that is drunk and the cab driver tries to rip him off, tensions mount and the incidents occur. It is not an excuse for a soldier to get in a scuffle with a taxi driver, but it is just the reality of what is happening.

I have long advocated that it is best to swallow your pride and walk away from incidents with Korean nationals because you cannot win. Looks like another soldier will find this out the hard way.

I can hear the calls of the unfair SOFA agreement already.

According to Dongguk University professor Jang Shi-ki, African countries remember North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung as a great leader and example for Africa:

“Ranked among the likes of India’s Gandhi, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Mao Zedong of China, Kim Il-sung stands out as a great leader, revered by the people of the Third World,” Jang writes. “Therefore, the people of Africa feel more affinity with North Korea than with South Korea.”

Dongguk University says Prof. Jang has been on sabbatical since last July and is in South Africa. From there, he writes, “Most of the fighting against dictatorships in Africa was actually directed against the outside power of the U.S., so for them Kim Il-sung, the leader of a Far Eastern country who was brave enough to stand up to the U.S. even before they did, makes him as worthy of honor as their own leaders. Whenever I am given preferential treatment just because I come from the same country as Kim Il-sung, I feel a little embarrassed.”

How Gandhi gets ranked with Mao, Nasser, and Castro shows what an idiot this Professor Jang is. The only people in Africa that think that Kim Il Sung is a great hero are the Robert Mugabe types.

Remember this useful idiot comes from the same university that gave us another useful idiot Kang Jeong-koo who the conservatives have suddenly given martyr status to by investigating him for breaking the National Security Law. They should have just let Kang stagnate in his own irrelevance instead of giving him a greater platform for his views by investigating him.

Is Dongguk University the Berkley of Korea or is it representative of all universities in Korea? They definitely got some kooks hanging out in this school probably getting payed real well to teach young Koreans their love for Kim Il Sung.