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I have always found Andrei Lankov’s writing very informative and insightful and his latest in the Korea Times about the North Korean black market is no different:

The North Korea of the 1960s or 1980s was not a society of complete equality. It had its rich and poor. But the affluent people were affluent either because the party-state bureaucracy chose them, such as government officials and a handful of the most prominent scholars and writers, as well as people who were allowed to work overseas and were paid in hard currency, or allowed them to be affluent. For example, this was the case with the repatriates from Japan. From the late 1980s, the situation changed. Some people began to make money not because they were paid and showered with privileges, but because they learned how to use market capitalism.

The markets began to grow explosively around 1990, and North Korean “black capitalism’’ was conceived around this time. The first really rich people began to appear, even though they had to hide their success both from the authorities and their fellow countrymen. And one had to use whatever advantages one had, as competition was tough. In the late 1990s, the North Koreans used to say “there are only three types of people in North Korea: those who starve, those who beg and those who trade.’’

The breakdown of the economy in North Korea also had the side effect of empowering women:

When economic disaster struck, this arrangement had unintended consequences. The men kept going to their factories and offices, even if their wages were becoming meaningless. They were afraid of the still formidable state machine, they wanted to keep the status traditionally associated with proper jobs and they also needed the rations _ as long as the rations were forthcoming. Women, especially housewives, were free to pursue completely different economic strategies. They took up market commerce with great enthusiasm and soon comprised a majority of North Korean vendors. This also meant that the women’s earnings became the major source of income in many Korean families.

This is an interesting article as always from Lankov worth checking out.

This is not very surprising, but Korean National Soccer Team Coach Joe Bonfrere has resigned his head coaching job:

Jo Bonfrere has stepped down as coach of the Korean national football team. The Korea Football Association (KFA) convened a technical committee meeting Tuesday and announced that Bonfrere had expressed his intention to resign. It said a new coach would be named next month at the earliest.

Bonfrere saw the writing on the wall and resigned before he got fired. I don’t really hold Bonfrere responsible for all the problems the national team is having because he is not the one missing all the open shots during the games; the players are. However, coaches always get fired before players so it will be interesting to see how this all works out with the World Cup only one year away.

Any chance you think that they may hire a Korean coach?

A highly sensitive military secret code has been leaked on the Internet:

Army investigators have started into a leak of secret military decryption codes on the Internet. A military source said Monday, a cryptographic code, a class-three military secret, was discovered on an Internet website. “We are tracking the leak and checking the accuracy of the document.”

Cryptographic codes are used to decipher encoded messages, and authorities are checking if the leaked code is currently in use by the military. If it is shared across the board, the armed forces would have to change the way they encrypt confidential communication.

The code was leaked on the Internet by using a picture of a document that contained an actual Army lieutenants name on the document with the code. Somebody is going to get in deep crap over this I’m sure. With UFL going on and so many new people on TDY here in Korea and the vast numbers of ROK Army soldiers on all the US camps, it will be extra difficult to trace who leaked the code.

In honor of Operation: Paul Bunyan I have decided to start a series called, Then and Now, to highlight the rapid changes and development of the Korean peninsula. Look for more Then and Now in the future.

The Bridge of No Return Following Operation: Paul Bunyan:

You can see the left over stump from the tree cutting in this picture

The Bridge of No Return Today:

At the bottom of this picture you can see the plaque commemorating Operation: Paul Bunyan

Here is an article in the Korea Times that really bothers me:

Last week, the Association put up a big display in the newly remodeled shopping area across from Central Station. The occasion was the 60th anniversary of independence from Japanese colonial rule, but they were looking back a little farther, all the way back to 1905, in fact, when Japan formally annexed Korea. Each signboard in the display had a little logo commemorating the 100-year anniversary: 40 years under the Japanese, 60 years under the Americans.

The creators of the signboards put them in chronological order, pulling out all the stops to blame the U.S. for just about every evil that has befallen Koreans in the past 100 years.

These sign boards were put up in the blue collar city of Ansan by the People’s Solidarity Association blaming America for everything within the last 100 years of Korean history which coincidentally enough mirrors Unification Minister Chung Dong-young historical allegations against the US last month.

The signs first of all blamed the US for annexing Korea to the Japanese in 1905 As I have stated before, the US was protecting its colonial interests in the Philippines at the time and had no responsibility in defending Korea against Japan. The people that should have been defending Korea at the time, this may shock some of the revisionists, are the Koreans! Koreans have the responsibility of defending their own country. The lack of modernization and internal bickering caused by the ineffective leadership of the king and the corrupt yangban class is what made Korea easy pickings for the Japanese.

Also America in 1905 was not the America of today. We did not have an Army and a Navy that could just pickup and go to Korea and defeat a competent military force such as the Japanese. The US did not even have the ability to defeat the Japanese if they attacked the Philippines much less Korea. This was proven true decades later in World War II.

The US made the right decision for its own national interests at the time. The ultimate responsibility for national defense relies with the nation itself. The Koreans have defeated past Japanese aggression before with competent leadership which is what they lacked in 1905 and that is not America’s fault.

The sign boards were also blaming America for the division of the peninsula. It is true that America divided the peninsula by occupying South Korea, I can’t argue that. I guess the People’s Solidarity Association would have rather had the Russians occupy the whole peninsula so that Korea could be united. How many people are willing to bet the Russians would of packed up and left and that Korea would have the economic might it has today? Eastern Europe should serve as an example of what Korea would have been. It would have been a Soviet client state with an authoritarian government, low living standards, and a stagnant economy. Not the dynamic Korea of today.

An additional sign board of course blamed the US for the Korean War, which once again the United States came back and freed the southern half of the peninsula after the South Koreans could not defend themselves once again in part to poor leadership from the Korean President and internal strife between capitalists and communists in the south. Then of course no anti-American display would be complete without the Nogun-ri incident being brought up, which I have already previously posted about.

The final example from the article I will provide of the historical revisioning going on, is that the US gets blamed for the Gwangju Massacre. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t that tragedy involve Koreans killing Koreans? The US military does not control the ROK Army in peace time only in war time. Plus does Korea really want the US military taking an active role in their internal affairs?

I fully agree with the columnist’s closing points regarding this revisionism going on in Korea:

I saw two problems with the display in Ansan. One is that it was an effort to whitewash history, a subject that Koreans ought to be particularly sensitive to. When I walked by it, the display was crowded with school children who had just gotten out of class. What the Solidarity Association is doing is teaching these impressionable youth to hate America without giving them the full historical picture or the capability to judge for themselves.

The second problem is that _ and you won’t hear me making this argument too often _ the Americans are being mistreated in what should otherwise be a civil democratic debate.

These same groups that accuse the Japanese of whitewashing history are the same people whitewashing Korean history to fit their own distorted political agendas against the United States. Plus they are focusing their propaganda on the Korean youth. Many in the younger generation do not have the life experience to decipher propaganda from fact and take much of the propaganda to be the truth.

Finally this whole topic of the USFK withdrawal from Korea should be a civil debate. The US obviously wants to have a smaller footprint here with the continuing troop withdrawals from the peninsula and the plan to relocate USFK forces away from the DMZ to the Pyongtaek area south of Seoul. If the US forces are not wanted here than Korea should have a national referendum on whether to withdraw USFK forces from the peninsula. The problem is that no ROK political leader wants to put themselves out on a limb pushing for a USFK withdrawal because the economy may suddenly collapses afterwords which they would be blamed for. A strong leader would push for this referendum none the less but the current ROK leadership doesn’t even have the political leadership to get a land deal in Pyeongtaek done right now.

Liberation after World War II, 36,000 lives lost during the Korean War, and over 50 years of stability and economic development on the Korean peninsula provided by the United States should be worth at least a face saving withdrawal off of the Korean peninsula instead of this crap we are going through right now.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you haven’t had enough anti-Americanism for one day read this additional article in the Korea Times. I can always count on the Korea Times to provide me the latest in anti-Americanism.

Korean female golfers continue their recent surge of success with Kang Soo-yun bringing another LPGA title home to Korea:

Five years after debuting, South Korea’s Kang Soo-yun finally claimed her first LPGA title, also marking the 15th Korean _ South Korean or of Korean descent _ winner in the tour, at the Safeway Classic in Portland, Ore., Sunday.
Kang scored a 3-under 69 in the final round, to a three-round total of 15-under 201, four strokes ahead of compatriot and British Open winner Jang Jeong to earn the fifth Korean title of the season. With $210,000 in prize money, Kang jumped to 13th place on the Tour’s money list at $633,417.

It marked a memorable tournament in Korean LPGA history as the top five spots of the leaderboard were all occupied by Koreans for the first time. Gloria Park followed Kang and Jang in third at 10-under 206, leading Kim Joo-mi by two strokes. Yim Sung-ah shared fifth place with Beth Daniel of the United States at 7-under.

Of course, Nomad has plenty of good pics of the latest sexy Korean female golfer.

South Korea’s newest heart throb is not even Korean; he is, get this an American from Michigan:

A somber crowd at Tom Ford’s ready-to-wear fall 2005 Gucci collection in South Korea erupted into cheers as 25-year-old Daniel Henney strode into the spotlight in a tight fitting, all-black outfit earlier this month.

“Women gushed and sighed all night as they peered — again and again — into their digital cameras and mobile phones that captured the distant image of Daniel Henney in three impossibly sexy Gucci suits.”

Henney’s mom was also at the event and learned full well what Korean mobs, or what I like to call ajumma rugby is like:

“It was unbelievable the things they asked him to sign — shoes, clothing, pictures, ultrasounds of their babies…” she said.

“There had to be at least 500 people there,” Christine said. “We walked in and all of a sudden we just heard everybody scream, cameras going off. It’s unbelievable the way everybody recognizes him. We almost got smothered and had to run out the back without eating.”

His mom is actually an interesting story as well because she was left at the doorstep of an orphanage when she was an infant:

A highlight of the trip for Christine was visiting an orphanage she had been adopted from by Americans in 1958. This was the first time Christine had been in Korea since she was an infant. She and her son visited the site of the former Isabelle Orphanage in Pusan, where her parents had left her on the doorstep.

“I wanted to get the feeling of the sense of the orphanage and how the children were cared for and what they were like,” she said. “It was quite emotional. When I got out of the car and saw the building that they had searched and found for me, I was just overwhelmed.”

She was adopted at 1 years old by American parents and moved to America. Her son hopes to become a spokesman for mixed race orphans here in Korea. He should contact the American USO because they run good programs that support many orphanages around Korea. I’m sure they would appreciate his help.

I think more ROK Army soldiers will be ready to commit suicide if this plan goes through:

In a campaign to boost the morale of its conscripted soldiers, the Defense Ministry released four new rap and pop songs that were recorded by soldiers who are also famous performers.
Among the performers are Private Yoon Kye-sang, former member of boy band g.o.d., Private Hong Kyung-in, a former actor, and Private Park Kwang-hyun, a former actor and singer.

An official who participated in the project said, “Using these songs will show the Army’s effort to improve its image.”

Only in Korea.

A no drinking order put out by the 2ID commanding general has created a stir with local bar owners in Dongducheon:

Dongducheon bar and restaurant owners met 2nd Infantry Division officials recently to complain about an alcohol ban imposed on troops during a training exercise this month.

According to Hodges, both parties walked away from the meeting understanding each other’s position, and KSTA leaders agreed to place the 2nd ID order banning soldiers from drinking during the exercise at the entrance of entertainment establishments, Ivey said.

I doubt the Dongducheon bar owners will be putting up a banner asking LTC Hodges to go to Afghanistan, but they are unhappy over the policy.

I like this quote from the article though:

The policy that bans soldiers from drinking states: “Consumption of alcoholic beverages is inconsistent with the readiness that U.S. Forces must maintain when deployed to defend our national interests, and it is equally inconsistent with effective, realistic training.”

Drinking hampers readiness during the training exercise but we will let the soldiers go to the club and consort with drinky girls all night and that has no effect on effective realistic training?

Only in 2ID.

I would be surprised if this is allowed to happen:

The Air Force lieutenant charged in an alleged shakedown of bars outside Osan Air Base while leading an Air Force police team that patrolled the bar district has asked the Air Force to let him resign instead of court-martialing him, officials said Wednesday.

(…)

“Lt. Davis has requested resignation in lieu of court-martial …” commonly called RILO, said Smith. “Each request is evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the secretary of the Air Force and takes into consideration all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the case.”

“It’s a standard provision that an officer facing a court-martial can ask to resign instead of going to trial.… Any officer facing court-martial has this right to request this,” Smith said.

The military allows you to resign instead of facing prosecution for low level crimes, however how is what 1LT Davis done considered to be a low level crime? With the emphasis on prostitution and human trafficking the military has here in Korea plus the publicity this case has received in the Korean media; I really see no way that he will be allowed to resign and walk away. Plus he still has to face trial for crimes he committed that broke Korean law. To make matters worse for him he is an officer which makes the crimes more serious because officers are held to higher standards than compared to a private, and rightfully so. Like I always tell soldiers, do what your rank can handle.