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The Lost Nomad points out this mass shooting just up the road from me in Yeoncheon, by a disgruntled ROK Army soldier.

A South Korean soldier threw a grenade at his commander and then opened fire on his fellow soldiers Sunday near the border with communist North Korea, killing eight and injuring two others, the Defense Ministry said.

Kim Dong-min, 22, told military investigators he threw the grenade in an army barracks packed with sleeping soldiers out of anger when he saw a senior soldier who had often yelled at him, according to Army spokesman Chang Suk-gyu.

Five soldiers died in the explosion. Another three were killed when Kim then took a rifle from a fellow soldier and opened fire, the spokesman said. Kim fired some 40 shots, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

Suicides have been on a sharp increase, then there was the human feces scandal, then the continuing draft dodging, and corruption scandals.

What is going on with the ROK Army? I have posted my thoughts about this before, but these increasing incidents are a reflection of the changing attitudes of Korea’s youths toward mandatory military service. I have seen it myself in how much the attitudes of Korea’s KATUSA soldiers have changed over the years.

Military service in Korea used to be looked at as the last challenge to over come before becoming a real man. Now it is just something to be avoided at all costs. With USFK slowing decreasing forces and a shake up of the ROK-US alliance a possibility Korea will have to depend even more heavily on conscripted soldiers. It is difficult to turn volunteer youths into combat ready soldiers, I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for the ROK Army to make their conscripts combat ready soldiers when the majority of Korea’s younger generation think of Kim Jong Il as a quirky uncle with no hostile intentions towards South Korea, instead of the agressive tyrant that he is.

To ensure strict obedience from the conscripts the ROK Army uses heavy handed tactics which causes increasing disent and suicides among the ranks. Once the USFK forces complete their reduction these same protestors bashing the American Army will then turn their attention towards the ROK Army and begin bashing them because they don’t want to do their mandatory service.

If the ROK Army goes to an all volunteer force the government would have to greatly increase the defense budget. To recruit soldiers the Army would have to offer good pay, housing, above average health care, and college education benefits. All this takes a lot of money which Korea doesn’t have right now. The arguement over the money needed for the Yongsan Garrison move will seem like small change compared to this. Soon Korea will not be able to rely on the US’s defensive umbrella and have to defend for themselves. Once this reality sinks in will Korea be willing to spend the money to be truly independent of the US military?

This is why I have always felt it is foolish for the Korean government to continue to prop up Kim Jong Il because the South Korean youth are slowly losing the will power to defend this country. If South Korea was able to reunify sooner rather than later than they can avoid the upcoming crisis in regards to filling the ranks of the ROK Army.

President Roh always said he wanted a more equal relationship with the US, well it appears he might be on his way to getting it along with all the problems that come with it.

TIME magazine is reporting that another massive famine is approaching North Korea once again:

Now, partly because of the diplomatic gridlock, a new crisis is looming. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) recently warned that North Korea, a country where U.N. agencies estimate that more than a third of young children are chronically malnourished, could be on the brink of another deadly food shortage. Food aid has propped up the North since the mid-1990s, when famine killed between 1 million and 3 million people. But major contributors, including the U.S. and Japan, are reluctant to keep feeding North Korea while Kim refuses to relinquish his nuclear arsenal. The WFP is trying to provide for 6.5 million people in the country, says Richard Ragan, head of the WFP’s relief operation in North Korea. But donations from governments have withered by more than half since 2002, and the agency will be forced to halt food supplies to nearly 3.6 million people this month, Ragan tells TIME by phone from Pyongyang. “We are inching back toward the precipice,” he says.

Now the big decision for the US is to decide if it should stop or increase food aid to deal with the upcoming famine:

Washington insists it won’t use humanitarian aid as a stick to prod Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. “The President has always made clear that food shouldn’t be used as a diplomatic weapon,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan last week. The U.S. sent more than 500,000 tons of food aid in 1999, but last year it pledged just 50,000 tons, and has yet to promise any new food aid this year. (U.S. officials complain that Pyongyang still isn’t allowing adequate international monitoring to ensure food goes to the needy.)

That last sentence is what I find to be a key statement. I don’t think we should send any food aid to the North if it isn’t properly monitored. Ideally I would prefer to have a US agency monitoring the distribution of food aid, plus every bag or can of food given to the needy should have a US flag on it to show where it came from. It is very unlikely that a US agency would be allowed to monitor food aid so it would probably have to be the UN’s World Food Program. However, I wouldn’t send any aid until US monitors are allowed to go with the UN officials to distribute aid.

I don’t see the point of sending food aid under the current distribution system if it all just goes to Pyongyang and the North Korean Army anyway. Those are the people we want to have starve. When the elites go hungry that is when change will happen and as long as the food aid is not properly monitored the ruling elite will horde the food for themselves while the people who need it in the countryside starve. It appears even South Korea is getting sick of sending food to the elites:

Meanwhile, South Korea, too, has been stingier with the North of late. Seoul shipped 1.2 million tons of rice to Pyongyang over the last three years, plus another 300,000 tons of corn through the WFP. This year, it hasn’t sent anything.

I wonder what would happen if we instead of bombing North Korean nuclear facilities we instead bombed them with MRE’s (military rations) much like we did for the people in Afghanistan? How would the average North Korean citizen react to their government trying to shoot down planes delivering food aid to them while they are starving? North Korea also wouldn’t have any support from China if they wanted to start a war over an MRE bombing campaign. Plus the country couldn’t mobilize it’s citizens for a people’s war if all the people are starving and then the government decides to go to war over MRE’s. Sometimes I find it better to think outside the box because the current box everyone else is thinking in hasn’t solved anything.

The Japundit points out how Korea always criticizes Japan for their educational system. Well this site shows what the Koreans have been teaching their kids. From my perspective, at least their not drawing hate pictures of America, which not to long ago was a common thing to see here.

Just Another Day Of Quality Learning In The Korean Educational System

Why wouldn’t my elementary teachers let me draw things like this about the old Soviet Union? Art class would of been so much funner that way. Obviously the Korean kids are having fun and have become much better drawers than I could ever be.

Army deserter Charles Jenkins is in the US visiting his ederly mother. Judging by this picture his mom doesn’t seem to enthused about all the media attention given to her son. His wife Hitomi Soga on the right of Jenkins, also doesn’t seem to be enjoying the spotlight as well. Jenkins in the picture looks as old as his mom though she is 25 years older than him. I guess that is what living in North Korea for 40 years will do to you.

I’ve been book tagged by the Lost Nomad. I actually had to do a lot of thinking to compile this list because I read so much and have such a wide range of interests. However, here is what I came up with:

How Many Books Have I Owned:

I estimate probably a thousand or more. I got one book shelf here at home plus another in my office plus two more bookcases worth of books in storage back in the states just waiting for me to come home.

The Last Book I Bought:

I recently bought Flags of Our Fathers which is a book about the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. I was inspired to buy the book after reading and seeing the pictures about Iwo Jima on Gardener in Korea’s site. Looking at Mark’s pictures of the terrain those Marines landed on really gave me a renewed appreciation of what those guys had done that month of February 1945. Just think, 110,000 soldiers were involved in the landing operation on an island that was 7.5 square kilometers. That is only 40,000 less soldiers than what we have in all of Iraq which is the size of California. Then 6,800 Americans died to take that island along with 21,000 dead Japanese soldiers. We have lost 1,700 soldiers in just over 2 years of fighting in Iraq. It really puts thing is perspective what these guys had to go through and accomplished for our country in February 1945. So I’m really looking forward to getting started on this book.

The Last Book I Read:

I am currently reading Rogue Regime by Jasper Becker. So far the book has been interesting and definitely has an anti-Kim Jong Il tone to it. Reading the stories in here about Kim Jong Il from defectors and other people who have been to North Korea just causes me to shake my head why some people think Kim Jong Il isn’t so bad. So if you haven’t read much about the North Korean problem this book is a good place to start because it is easy reading mixed with well researched opinions about the North Korean problem.

Five Books That Meant A Lot To Me:

I love to read just about any Ernest Hemingway book. My two favorite Hemingway books are The Old Man and the Sea and A Farewell To Arms. The Old Man and the Sea is a fish tale that should be right up Nomdad’s alley. The book focuses on the battle between an old fisherman and a huge marlin he has caught. It is a life and death struggle between both fish and man that ends with no one winning except the nearby sharks. Hemingway draws many parrallels between one’s own struggles through life and even parrallels of Jesus’s struggles through this book. The theme of life being a constant struggle that you can’t always win, but you still need to keep your head up and wake up every morning and keep fishing is something many people can appreciate.

A Farewell to Arms is inspired by Hemingway’s own World War I experience. During the Great War Hemingway was excited to see war but was made an ambulance driver due to his poor eye sight. Hemingway ended up being the first American wounded in World War I. Likewise the hero of this book, Lt. Henry is also an ambulance driver and he to was initially excited about fighting a war. He ended up finding out the reality of war and love at the same time which is the true tradgedy of this novel.

Hemingway’s books tended to be loosely based off of events in his own life. He was a decorated war hero, loved hunting, fishing, boating, and he probably liked women more than anything else as he was married numerous times. He also served as a newspaper correspondent during World War II and is rumored to have fought side by side with the US soldiers he was covering. His books also weren’t known for happy endings which also unfortunately parralleled his own life once again as he committed suicide after battling mental illness for many years. But the legacy of his life lives on through his books.

Another author I really like is Jack London. The first book I read from Jack London was Call of the Wild. This book chronicles the life of a dog named Buck living the easy life with his master when one day he is dognapped to be sold as a sled dog during the Alaskan Gold Rush. Buck goes through much brutality and many changes in owners and environments before finally meeting the right owner that could bring out his inner wolf. People are the same way, put people in the right environment with the right leadership and great things will happen.

Being an avid outdoorsman I can really appreciate London’s use of animals and the frontier environment to tell a story.

Another book I like is Travels in the Orient which is a book about Marco Polo’s journey across the Middle East, through central Asia, and on to China. I have always been fascinated with the story of Marco Polo. It is amazing to think that a common Venician merchant was able to become a confidant of the great Mongol leader Kublai Khan who was then ruling most of the known world. The book also includes great photography along the modern day Silk Road and other areas that Marco Polo traveled through. I still like to thumb through the book and look at the pictures.

Also the book by Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness, is a book I will not soon forget. This book chronicles one man’s journey up an African river to find a man named Kurtz. The further up the river he goes the more tragic things become until he finally finds the mysterious Kurtz. If this tale sounds familiar it should because this book is what the movie, Apocalypse Now! is based on except the movie is set in Vietnam with Martin Sheen traveling up a river in Vietnam into Cambodia looking for a mysterious Colonel Kurtz played by Marlon Brando. After reading the book and seeing the movie you really get a renewed appreciation for both works.

Finally I cannot leave out the books by Carl Sagan. Most notably, Cosmos, Pale Blue Dot, and Billions and Billions. Sagan is probably still the world’s most famous scientist as his books and movies had a way of making science enjoyable and understandable for kids and common people.

Some other authors I enjoy are Michael Crichton, Clive Clussler, and Ralph Peters. I also enjoy reading classical Greek & Roman history plus books about Korea, China, and Japan, not to mention my collection of Star Wars books as well.

The Next Victims:

If they want to participate I tag Brian at Gangwon Notes and the Japundit next.

Three North Koreans have infiltrated the DMZ to seek asylum in South Korea.

Three apparent defectors from North Korea were found on Friday morning, two in the West Sea and one in Gangwon Province, a day after a show of inter-Korean unity marking the fifth anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration came to an end in Pyongyang. Police and military officials are investigating how the three crossed the DMZ and whether they intended to defect.

I wonder if this isn’t the beginning of new trend for defections. With the crackdown in China and South Korea doing everything possible to stop defections at foreign embassies the defectors may now be trying to go straight to South Korea. Once in South Korea the government cannot kick them out.

I’m also concerned about the security of the DMZ if people are getting through like this. In addition I’m kind of concerned what would happen if the ROK Army did see some defectors trying to penetrate the DMZ. Would they shoot them to prevent future defections? I hope not. What would they do if North Korean soldiers were shooting at defectors trying to cross? Would they fire back at the North Koreans or let the Norks cross and grab the defectors? If this is a building trend this could lead to some real potential border problems in the future.

The Second Infantry Division has further completed more steps towards it’s transformation into a UEX. The transformation is difficult to explain unless you are in the army, but the bottom line is that the 2nd Infantry Division is more deployable than before the transformation.

The ROK Army’s Zaytun Unit has finally found something to do in Iraq. It took a year to find something for them to do but at least 40 of the 3,200 soldiers will be guarding a UN office building in Irbil the Kurdish capital city.

U.S. and South Korean defense officials from Washington and Seoul said yesterday they expect Korean troops in Iraq to assume guard duties for a UN relief agency office in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil, starting in September.
The United Nations asked Korea’s Zaytun unit, which has been stationed in Irbil since last year, for a protection force.

The UN’s office is situated near the Zaytun base. Officials from Korea and the United States confirmed the UN request and expect Seoul to approve the step. “We believe the mission fits the troops’ peace and reconstruction activities,” said Yoon Kwang-ung, Korea’s defense minister. “We believe the operation is possible without any additional [troop] deployment.”

Mr. Yoon estimated up to 40 soldiers would be assigned to guard the relief agency’s office.
Lee Jong-seok, deputy head of the National Security Council, also informed the National Assembly on Tuesday that the Blue House was considering a plan to assign Korean soldiers to guard the UN mission in the Kurdish region. The UN has made numerous requests for protection for its new building and staff in Irbil where the international body opened a new office in April. However, the Korean government was hesitant to accept the request citing the potential for an increase in threats against Korean troops.

I have been critical of this deployment from the start due to my concerns that Korea isn’t doing enough for reconstruction and also that if Korea loses a few soldiers in Iraq the anti-American Hatefest will begin again here blaming the US for the attack just like the US was blamed by many for the Kim Sun Il beheading last June, when they should of having been going after the terrorists that did it.

However, this is at least a start and I’m confident the ROK Army will carry out the mission well. Now somebody just got to find something for the remaining 3,160 other soldiers to do.

Korea Sojourner has a great post about inaccuracies in the Korean media regarding USFK accidents. The Korea Sojourner is right on the money with everything he says. Definitely check it out.

Charles Jenkins is back in the US, to see his 91 year old mother in North Carolina. I have talked about it before that I have no respect for Jenkins for what he did, but he has been tried by military court and paid his debt to society so he should be allowed to visit his mother. I’m sure looking back he probably wishes he would of done that tour in Vietnam instead of defecting to North Korea.