Category: Uncategorized

This is interesting, North Korea plans on fielding a Korean K-League soccer team based out of Pyongyang:

If the Pyongyang team participates, the K-League will increase to 15 teams from the current 13, counting the new team from South Gyeongsang province that plans on joining next year.

This will give all of us more opportunities to see North Korean cheerleaders and North Korean soccer hooligans.

New Japanese textbooks that whitewash Japan’s colonial history and involvement in World War II continue to be criticized by Japanese NGO’s:

Japanese textbooks that exercised the country’s colonial victims for months may have been approved but will hardly be taught anywhere, a group says. Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21 says the history and social studies textbooks, sponsored by the rightwing Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, will be adopted by no more than 1 percent of middle schools, amounting to about 13,000 copies. According to the group, as of late July, 300 of Japan’s 584 educational districts had decided on their textbooks, and only one — Tochigi Prefecture’s Odawara City — had adopted the offending texts.

“The initial goal of the Society for History Textbook Reform, an adoption rate of 10 percent, has been blocked,” the group said. “In the days ahead, a battle will unfold over the 1 percent line.” No more than 0.039 percent of schools adopted an earlier version of the textbooks in 2001, and they are currently used in mere 21 schools across Japan.

Think about that, the first set of textbooks that caused all this uproar in Korea and China back then is used by only 21 schools, .039% of the population. The newest edition of these textbooks will once again go to less then 1% of the population. It is obvious that attacks on Japan for the use of these textbooks by Korea and China are politically motivated when many Japanese don’t agree with the books to begin with as well.

Japan could of have saved themselves this headache to begin with if the Ministry of Education didn’t approve these textbooks from the start.

Strategic cooperation between India and Korea continues to improve:

Mr Natwar Singh conveyed India’s interest in joining the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and sought Seoul’s support to help India contribute in this project. The Korean side agreed to consider the request earnestly and consult with other parties to the ITER.

The two Asian powers decided to strengthen cooperation through putting in place institutional framework and regular service-to-service exchanges at senior and middle levels to generate confidence between the two sides, regular ship exchanges and conduct of joint exercise as also cooperation in areas like anti-piracy and search and rescue operations, exchange of training delegations, mutual visits to defense establishments and industries connected with defense production.

It wise for Korea to build relations with India which has a growing economy and a surging technology sector that complements Korea’s technological expertise well. To help build economic ties government is making it easier for Indian businessmen to gain Visas to Korea:

South Korea agreed to seriously consider the issuance of visa-on-arrival at South Korean destinations for visiting Indian businessmen, South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-Moon said Monday.

Addressing a meeting of business leaders organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Ban, who is leading a high-power 10-member official and business delegation from South Korea, said, “One of the most effective ways to augment the vast potential that exists between the two countries from their complementary trade and industrial structures is to speed up efforts to establish institutional framework such as relevant laws, systems and consultations between the two governments.”

India is also interested in the ITER nuclear program probably because India foresees this program as being the way to solve a future energy crisis for India as the country develops and requires more energy. Some of you may remember the bickering between Japan and Korea over this program, that looks like the French will ultimately end up building.

The development of military exchanges between the two countries is also wise. It is helpful to have a strong Asian military power like India to be on your side in case of any future conflict with China over North Korea or Taiwan.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this relationship further develop in the future.

I really don’t know what to think of this:

Scientists for the first time have cloned a dog. But don’t count on a better world populated by identical and resourceful Lassies just yet.

The experiment extends the remarkable string of laboratory successes by Hwang, but also reignites a fierce ethical and scientific debate about the rapidly advancing technology.

I guess there is medical value in these experiments so I am withholding judgment on the ethical values of cloning, but I wonder how the boshintang industry views dog cloning?

The Asia Times has an article that backs my analysis of what the North Koreans want to get out of the current 6 Party Talks:

Thus, the third critical point: the US is going to have to accept this, too. China and South Korea (and Russia) will not back the US demand for “complete verifiable” nuclear disarmament. In these circumstances, it is Washington, not Pyongyang, that risks isolation for pushing too hard. (The Japanese could come down either way.) Doing so could alienate South Korea and marginalize the US on the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia, the real strategic prize. Moreover, accepting the ambiguity surrounding the original plutonium is merely going back to the status quo ante of the Agreed Framework.

By this logic, a six-party agreement would be a gradual process that dismantles the North Korean nuclear infrastructure, starting with the 8,000 fuel rods and then moves on to the disputed uranium-enrichment program. Dismantlement by the North would be matched by economic aid from the South, humanitarian assistance from other parties and diplomatic recognition from the US. The process would be long and carefully calibrated, but by the end the North would be left with whatever nuclear weapons that had been built from the fissile material generated before the Agreed Framework and had been hidden.

The article stresses that to get any deal done with Pyongyang the US will have to allow the North Koreans to keep some nuclear weapons and not have a rigid inspection system to ensure compliance with whatever agreement they cook up at these talks.

I continue to maintain that the North Koreans want a nice face saving deal that gives them the free food, money, and the oil they need to keep the regime going plus have enough flexibility in the agreement to be able to covertly hide their weapons program.

This is what the North Koreans and everyone else wants except the US. The international community wants to resolve this issue without really resolving it, just like the 1994 Agreed Framework. In the coming days we will see if the US is willing to live with a agreement like this.

Korean female golfers continue to excel as Jeong Jang won the LPGA British Open:

Savoring her first victory since her debut on the LPGA tour six years ago, Jang became the fourth Korean golfer to win a major tournament after Park Se-ri, Grace Park and Birdie Kim. She is the second Korean to take the British Open, following Park Se-ri’s 2001 victory.

That’s not mention Korean-American phenom Michelle Wie who continues to impress. Anyone got opinions on why Korean female golfers perform so well?

The Mudville Gazette has a great posting in response to a New York Times article that compares the US military to a bunch of mercenaries. Here is some selected quotes from Mr. David Kennedy’s article:

The United States now has a mercenary army. To be sure, our soldiers are hired from within the citizenry, unlike the hated Hessians whom George III recruited to fight against the American Revolutionaries. But like those Hessians, today’s volunteers sign up for some mighty dangerous work largely for wages and benefits – a compensation package that may not always be commensurate with the dangers in store, as current recruiting problems testify.

Leaving questions of equity aside, it cannot be wise for a democracy to let such an important function grow so far removed from popular participation and accountability. It makes some supremely important things too easy – like dealing out death and destruction to others, and seeking military solutions on the assumption they will be swifter and more cheaply bought than what could be accomplished by the more vexatious business of diplomacy….

I like this quote from Greyhawk on this:

He’s right, in a limited way. The American Left is far, far out of touch with the American military. Since the abolition of the draft Leftists don’t serve.

And when an American Leftist says “mainstream American” they mean themselves – exclusively. They are ignorant of the other, much larger segment of society that does not subscribe to their rigid dogma. (This also is helpful in understanding their confusion over the elected government of the nation.)

Basically what Mr. Kennedy is trying to do is continue to beat the liberal drum that the draft should be reinstated. They want the draft reinstated not because they actually care about everyone participating in the defense of this country, but because it would be political suicide for the Republicans and the Bush administration to do so. What I find really interesting about this arguement is that these same liberals are the ones who fought against the draft during the Vietnam War and now want to bring it back the draft when they are to old serve.

Wonder if my extra $300 bucks a month AIP puts me in the Hessian Mercenary tax bracket?

Was an Al Qaeda operative recently in Korea:

Interpol is trying to determine if a Pakistani man who visited South Korea is a member of the Al Qaeda terror network, local media reported on Friday, citing unidentified government sources.

The Pakistani, 46, visited South Korea from June 23 to July 3 and subsequently received a visa on July 15, numerous media including the Hankyoreh newspaper and YTN television reported, citing South Korea’s National Police Agency and airport officials who are working with Interpol. The man, whose name was not reported, is currently in Malaysia, the reports said.

Who knows if this is true or not, but I hope Korean authorities are taking the allegation seriously and following up on what this guy was doing for those 10 days in Korea. Al Qaeda hasn’t been able to commit a terrorist attack in a northeast Asian country yet and I’m sure they would strike Korea if given the opportunity.

From the Khaleej Times:

A customs official holds clothes hangers that were found to be made out of gold worth 81 million won (US$80,000) at the Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul on Friday. A Taiwan national fabricated the hangers in order to smuggle the metal into South Korea. High taxes on gold sales in South Korea make black market transactions highly profitable. – AP

It should be clear by now for most fair minded people that the incident at Nogun-ri was not a planned execution of Korean civilians. It was the “Perfect Storm” of a multitude of circumstances that ultimately led to killing of the South Korean civilians. First of all there was scared soldiers that had been retreating all night from what they percieved to have been enemy tanks. No one knew that the actual North Korean frontline was actually 15 miles down the road due to the chaos of that night plus the fact the regiment had been operating autonumously due to the piece meal deployment that left them without a division headquarters to relay intelligence information to them.

Secondly the unit had many poorly trained soldiers, who had never done any training above a company level much less training with handling refugees and uncoventional warfare due to the nature of their occupation duties and funding of the division.

Thirdly the 7th Cav was missing adequate leadership due to the few experienced NCO’s they did have being removed from the unit and given to the 24ID.

Also the soldiers at the bridge were not in their typical unit structure due to being a hodgepodge of soldiers pulled from the road to form the defensive line which caused a situation where there was a lot of Indians and not enough Chiefs to relay orders. So an order is put out to shoot above the heads of the civilians and others down the line without the benefit of training and leader supervision also begin to fire.

The final factor that contributed to this was the fact that the refugees were there to begin with. 28 refugees from the village claim they were removed from the village of Imgae-ri by US soldiers. This claim is possibly true as there was US units within three miles of the village at that time. Here is a quote from the US Army Report I found noteworthy:

While the U.S. Review Team cannot rule out the possibility that the movement of the villagers occurred as described by the Korean witnesses, there was no sound military reason for soldiers to travel approximately three miles off their designated movement route to the village of Im Gae Ri during a hasty withdrawal for the purpose of encouraging an additional 400 refugees onto the already crowded roads and aggravating further the congested conditions. It is also unlikely that the soldiers would have performed this evacuation given the widespread knowledge and fear of North Korean infiltrators believed to be present in refugee concentrations.

Let’s assume the village was evacuated by US soldiers, they were wrong to do so. The village should of been evacuated by the Korean National Police who would of then escorted the villagers out of the area. Maybe the US unit didn’t get the message from higher on how to handle evacuating villages and refugees? Who knows this part is lost to history right now. However, whatever happened at Imgae-ri was the final part of the perfect storm that put the villagers on the bridge that day in the line of sights of the hodgepodge of 7th Cav soldiers.

I think it is quite obvious by the evidence that these 7th Cav soldiers were not just sitting on a hill waiting for the next group of helpless refugees to shoot at because they were under orders to do so by some general who just didn’t want to deal with refugees anymore.

I also think that it is obvious that 400 people did not die on the bridge that day. I say a maximum of 50 people died that day. This is still a tremendous amount of civilian casualties that should not be discounted. The only way I can see 400 deaths is from a combined total of deaths of civilians in the area at the time and not just at the bridge. I would buy that 400 civilians died overall in that area between crossfire between the combatants, stafings, and artillery fire. This is highly possible and villagers are just assuming their relatives died at Nogun-ri.

However, why is 400 dead at the bridge brought up over and over again instead of 50 which the facts more heavily favor? 50 is still a horribly large loss of life. It is because 400 deaths are what Pulitzer Prizes are made of and $400 million in compensation money is awarded from.

What is the motivation of the many veterans who lied about their involvement in this tragedy. Maybe some of these people were disgruntled at the military, wanted notariety, or maybe just simply with age do not remember the incident accurately. Money has also been found to be a motivator. However, the lies caught up with one veteran only looking for his payday:

Prosecutors successfully proved to the court that Daily had filed a claim with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on shrapnel injuries he said he received while he was a Korean War veteran. He also claimed POW status. From February 1986 through the end of 2001, Daily received $324,911 in payments wired to his bank, and $87,928 in medical care for service-related disabilities. The war veteran?s fraudulent claims were discovered following a Stars and Stripes investigation of the Associated Press story about Nogun-ri. Investigators with U.S. News also found discrepancies in the testimonies of witnesses named in the Associated Press story. Declassified Army war diaries and other declassified documents showed that Edward Lee Daily was not a member of a 7th Cavalry Regiment line company. Instead, he was a mechanic with the Army?s 27th Ordnance Maintenance Company. Daily?s claim to be a 1st Lieutenant in the Army was also false, according to his own admission in court.

On September 13, 2002, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger pronounced sentence against Daily. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Daily was sentenced in federal court to 21 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. In addition, Daily must repay the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs $412,839?money which he illegally obtained from the government by wire fraud.

I realize that even with the evidence I have displayed some people will never except the possibility that these soldiers were part of what I term a “Perfect Storm” of circumstances that combined to create this tragedy. Some people will continue to maintain these soldiers are war criminals and were under orders to kill all refugees and whatever else the current mythology preaches. Some will claim that these guys are war criminals because if they had been there that day they wouldn’t have fired. That is an extremely bold statement coming from someone sitting at home. Getting shot at in a war brings a new perspective to things you cannot even understand unless you are there. Watching Saving Private Ryan over and over again doesn’t mean you understand soldiers and the nature of warfare.

Many will also continue to demand compensation for what happened an Nogun-ri. Isn’t the loss of 32,000+ American lives enough compensation to Korea? There is nothing more valuable to a country than their youth, and America gave the lives of 32,000 of their youths plus the ten of thousands of more wounded to give a country no one even heard of before a chance at a better life free from communism. I just hope that fair minded people will give Korean War veterans a chance to restore the honor they have lost by the unfair reporting and sensationalism of this tragedy.

Tomorrow: The Media and Nogun-ri
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I hope I have been able to better educate people that may not know much about the incident to look more into it and to draw their own conclusions because I am quite confident in what I think happened that tragic day in July, 1950. So what do you think? Feel free to place your commetns. Here are some books and links I highly recommend if you have further interest in this topic.

This Kind of War, T.R. Fehrenbach

No Gun Ri, Robert Bateman

The Bridge at No Gun Ri, AP reporters

South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu, Roy Appleman

Official US Army Report on No Gun Ri

Korean War Educator