Category: Uncategorized

Former US Army deserter Charles Jenkins, now back in Japan, after visiting his elderly mother in North Carolina, is now speaking up against the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il.

“The Japanese government has never pushed me to say anything,” Jenkins told Kyodo News on the phone from his home in the city of Sado, Niigata Prefecture.

Jenkins said that unlike in North Korea there is freedom to speak in Japan. He added it was in fact Pyongyang that used him as a propaganda tool.

As much as dislike Jenkins for what he did 40 years ago he does have an opportunity now to redeem himself some what if he becomes a vocal advocate against Kim Jong Il. However, if he does decide to continue to speak out against Kim Jong Il; if I was him I would make sure I locked the doors at night.

Hat Tip: JP

South Korea, Japan, and the US are demanding a written commitment from North Korea to abandon their nuclear weapons program:

A diplomatic source who participated in talks between the three nations said the trio felt the process discussed up to the third round of talks — a preliminary freeze followed by dismantlement ? was no longer meaningful. He said North Korea must announce a strategic decision to unconditionally dismantle its nuclear program.

The three countries will not be content with vague reference to “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” or a preliminary freeze, and Washington and Tokyo have threatened to stop the talks and impose sanctions if no written undertaking is forthcoming. A Korean official said Sunday the goal of the six-party talks was “the dismantling of the North Korean nuclear program” and the sole aim of the fourth round to confirm this principle in writing.

North Korea in turn wants a security guarantee in writing that they will not be attacked. I think both written guarantees are fair but the written agreement with North Korea means nothing if it cannot be verified.

I have said this before, but the North Koreans just 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.

In turn they will keep quiet and give the appearance of good behavior to the international community, all the foreign diplomats can pat each other on the back about what a great job they did, heck maybe somebody can even get a Nobel Peace Prize out of this like Kim Dae Jung did back in 2000. All the while the North Koreans will be sitting back enjoying their spoils, their people still starving, make no progress on human rights, and continue to covertly make nuclear weapons.

A written agreement means nothing if it cannot be verified.

It appears that 2ID is even exporting our taxi cab related incidents to Japan:

A 20-year-old U.S. Army soldier from South Korea pleaded guilty Friday in Naha District Court to robbing a cab driver of about $55.

Pvt. James Joiner Jr. of Camp Red Cloud, Uijongbu, South Korea, said he regretted his actions.

“Had I not been drinking, I would never have done that,” he told the court.

Joiner was charged with robbing Sakae Kuba, 56, at 3:35 a.m. May 11 in Okinawa City. He hailed Kuba’s taxi on Gate Two Street near Kadena Air Base to go to the Uechi bar district. As Joiner left the taxi, police said, he grabbed the driver from behind and fled with 5,000 yen (about $45) and $10 in U.S. currency.

If cab drivers in your area are pissing you off, and you think it is time to do something about it, well you to can have 2ID’s finest in your area to teach those cab drivers a lesson. Feel free to contact the 2ID Public Affairs Office so they can get some TDY orders cut, so your area can enjoy 2ID’s finest as well. Our rates are competitive and the taxi dancing show is as always free of charge.

Four suspects were detained on Friday in connection with the mugging of two ROK Army soldiers with the help of descriptions given to police using hypnosis:

After a tip, police questioned four men Friday night in connection with an incident in which two soldiers were stripped of their rifles and ammunition on Wednesday.
The military released an artist’s rendition yesterday of one of the three assailants. One of the men who is being questioned is said to resemble the sketch.

Police said that man was discharged from the military last year, and soldiers who knew him suggested the man to police. The men were detained in Donghae, Gangwon province. Police are offering a maximum 10 million won ($9,000) reward for information on the assailants. The soldiers were hypnotized and were able to give a description of one of the men but not the other two, police said.

I would think a lawyer would have a field day with this if any arrests are made. Anyone know if descriptions from using hypnosis can be used to make arrests?

American billionaire Ted Turner is to go to North Korea next month. Allegedly the trip is for environmental conservation reasons:

Diplomatic sources in Washington said that Turner, accompanied by a huge CNN media corps, was planning a visit to North Korea in mid August to discuss North Korea’s ecosystem conservation measures in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with the Turner Foundation, an international environmental conservation organization which he runs.

Having personally seen much of the DMZ, I wonder if the North Koreans plan to show Mr. Turner all the deforested hills adjacent to the DMZ as shown in this picture looking into North Korea from Freedom Village near the JSA? I imagine they will probably parade him around the DMZ on the East Coast where it is not nearly as deforested as the Western portion of the DMZ. I have always found it interesting to see how the brown, deforested, land of North Korea gives way to the green, forested landscape of South Korea at the DMZ.

Is it any wonder why so many crops and people get washed away which seems like every monsoon season in North Korea when they have mismanaged their forests so badly. Well, now they got Ted Turner coming to town to tell the world how great and eco-friendly their land is, never mind the deforestation, land mines, artillery emplacements, bunkers, infiltration tunnels, and tanks destroying the environment adjacent to the DMZ.

Apparently USFK and a nuclear waste dump have a lot in common in Korea now a days according to this Joong Ang Ilbo article:

The Pyeongtaek problem has in many ways the potential to become another Buan incident. The residents of Buan also had confrontations over the choice between the livelihood of the residents and the economic gains from the construction of nuclear waste disposal facilities. However, with the intervention of outside forces, the logic for environmental protection and the development logic collided each other and the problem was expanded to a national level and became a political issue, making it more difficult to solve.

We shouldn’t leave the Pyeong-taek situation alone so that it can become another Buan incident. In order to stop this, the government and local autonomous organizations must actively mediate friction among the residents over their livelihood and business interests. The greater the friction among the residents is, the more room there is for outside organizations to intervene. Therefore, minimizing the chances of internal friction is the shortcut to keeping the problem from expanding to the national level. After that, the government must make an effort to find a contact point where those parties to the Pyeongtak issue who emphasisze the importance of the alliance and those who emphasize the importance of peace can compromise.

Maybe a nuclear waste dump is a good analogy for USFK. A nuclear waste dump is something no one wants in their back yard but the pay off of cheap electrical power is worth the annoyance of keeping the nuclear waste dumps around. Maybe USFK is the same way; an annoyance but useful to keep around.

However, I think the USFK “nuclear waste dump” that is trying to be expanded in Pyongtaek is being held up by the local farmers, not because people don’t want it in their backyards, because Camp Humphreys is already in their backyards, but because they want more money from the government for their land. The anti-USFK parasites are just jumping on to this issue to try and make it look like the big American bullies are pushing around Korea again to further their own political agendas. They could care less about the farmers. However, once the farmers get their pay day from the government the majority of them will happily move out to greener pastures.

Here is something in the article I need to point out that just annoys me:

For the sake of our alliance with the United States, they want the Pyeongtaek issue to remain a non-political and local problem. They think that the Pyeongtaek problem can be solved by efforts to improve such procedural matters as eliminating unequal elements in the Korea-U.S. alliance, not by the demand to withdraw the U.S. forces from Korea.

Quick somebody name these unequal elements in the US-ROK alliance? This is a common quote I hear over and over again but never see anything to substantiate it. It is just something people like to throw out there because they hear it over and over again and just assume it to be a fact. If you know of any of these inequalities in the US-ROK alliance please feel free to comment.

The merger between Hite and Jinro is now complete:

South Korea’s anti-trust body has approved a controversial mulit-billion-dollar takeover deal between the country’s two leading liquor firms, Hite Brewery and Jinro.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission said a plenary session decided late Wednesday to give conditional approval for a bid by Hite, the country’s largest brewer, to take over Jinro, the country’s biggest soju liquor maker.

I wonder how many bribes it took to make this happen? So who likes Hite better than OB? I like OB better.

Former South Korean National Soccer Team Coach Guus Hiddink, dropped a big time bombshell yesterday:

Coach Guus Hiddink, the man behind Korea’s semifinal run in the 2002 World Cup, dropped a bombshell Wednesday when he revealed he would love to coach the Teaguk Warriors again but had to cast around for other work when nobody asked him. Hiddink made the remarks in an interview with the Sports Chosun, a subsidiary of the Chosun Ilbo, before a PSV Eindhoven training session when asked about reports that he could lead the Australian national team.

That is unbelievable that as much as the general Korean public loves Coach Hiddink that the Korean soccer authorities did not ask him to continue coaching the team. The fact that he dropped such a big dime on the Korean soccer authorities shows that he is pretty bitter about it. Possibly he didn’t get along with people operating the Korean national soccer team. Who knows, but I’m sure we will hear more about this.

Also I’m not a soccer expert but it appears to me as a casual observer of Korean soccer that their team is still playing pretty well with their new coach Jo Bonfrere. In opinions on this?

The Marmot has provided a link to this video of 2ID Assistance Division Commander General Joseph Martz meeting with Uijongbu City Mayor Mr. Kim Mun-won. I tend to agree with the Marmot that the whole video seemed kind of goofy and a translator with some PR skills could of helped but it did provide a look at the taxi cab and the driver. The cab driver pointed to how the soldier jumped up and ran across his taxi and then showed the marks he had on his body due to the altercation. He had some bruises on his shoulder.

I think the video backs up my prior opinion that the soldier should pay for whatever the damage to the taxi was and offer a big apology to the taxi driver. Isn’t his how it would be handled in a Korean on Korean incident? The taxi driver was not seriously harmed so to throw the soldier in jail for this would be ridiculous. Yes he is an idiot but should all idiots go to jail? I guess we will see.

Checkpoint set up to look for the criminals

A ROK Army patrol in Donghae was assaulted by a group of unknown thugs. The only people that can be ruled out now for committing the assault are 2nd Infantry Division soldiers since the attackers spoke with South Korean accents and did not involve a taxi cab:

A group of men in their 20s ambushed a patrol near a coastal guard post on the East Sea coast in Gangwon Province on Wednesday night, taking one K1 and two K2 assault rifles and 30 rounds of live ammunition.
The guard post commander, a first lieutenant identified by his family name of Gwon, and his signalman, a corporal identified as Lee, were overpowered at 10:10 p.m. by men in a black Hyundai Grandeur who stripped them of guns, two magazines of 15 rounds each, a P-96K walkie-talkie and a mobile phone.

The Army provisionally concluded the assailants are not North Korean spies since they spoke South Korean accents, and the ambush did not suggest professional training. The assailants fled without killing the soldiers and there was no damage to fences near the guard post, it said.

The police and Army suspect the assailants were common bandits who intended to use the guns in robberies or similar crimes. Investigators are trying to trace the vehicle.

How come their is nothing in here about Korean criminals “running amuk” in Donghae? I guess the Korean media can only use that phrase if after the assault and theft the criminals jumped on top of a taxi before fleeing the scene.