Category: Uncategorized

I’ll be out in the field for the next two weeks. More bloggin when I get back.

According to the Joong Ang Ilbo the ROK Army may begin a withdrawal of forces later this year from Iraq:

South Korean military leaders in Iraq have recommended that Seoul consider gradually reducing its forces in the north of the country, starting late this summer, sources in the government and Uri Party said yesterday. The Korean military has concluded that Iraqis will be capable of assuming a larger security role as early as August.

The sources said the Roh administration has seized on the suggestion as a way to express dissatisfaction over what it views as U.S. favoritism for Japan.

What I find interesting about this is that the ROK Army isn’t providing any security in Iraq. In fact in the relatively safe Northern Iraqi Kurdistan, the Kurdish Peshmerga are providing security for the ROK Army. That is why there has been no deaths of any ROK Army personnel during the deployment. In fact the greatest accomplishment for the ROK Army was the introduction of modern bathroom culture and toilet paper. Korea is able to do so much more in Iraq but chooses not to. Many nations with smaller populations than Korea’s fought in the Korean War and gave up their lives for Korea. Here is a listing of deaths from foreign countries during the Korean War:

US – 33,629
UK – 1,078
Turkey – 717
Canada – 310
Australia – 339
France – 290
Greece – 169
Columbia – 140
Ethiopia – 120
Neth. – 111
Thailand – 114
Belgium – 100
Phillipines – 92

It’s a good thing for Korea that a country like Ethiopia did more for freedom in this country than what Korea is willing to do in Iraq.

I’m not saying the ROK Army should even take any casualties in Iraq. I’m just advocating that Korea should do more than give people toilets. Build a highway, bridge, governmental buildings, or even a dam. These are all things Koreans excel at building.

Here are some statements from the Uri party I found interesting:

“The United States has chosen Japan as its proxy to control the growing Chinese influence in the region,” a top Uri Party official said. “The United States has given full support to Japan, including Tokyo’s bid to become a UN Security Council member. That is the background of why Tokyo is pushing its territorial claims over Dokdo against Seoul, and why Washington is silent about it.” Uri representative Woo Won-shik said, “We have nothing to gain by deploying the troops in Iraq for a long time. I support the reduction.”

“To show that South Korea-U.S. relations are not unilateral, we should withdraw, or at least reduce the forces,” Uri Representative Im Jong-in said.

I’m confused, it sounds like Representative Woo wants Korea to be the US’s proxy in Asia and not Japan? Then to say that the US supports Japan’s claim on Dokto because the government chooses to keep quiet about it is absurd. Has it ever occurred to this guy maybe the US government doesn’t care about Dokto? Just like more and more Americans are beginning to care less about Korea?

It pains me to say this because I really like Korea, but why shouldn’t the US show more support for Japan in the region instead of Korea? The Japanese government has been a steadfast ally of the US compared to the constant bickering with the South Korean government over everything from the 2ID redeployment, the Yongsan garrison move, North Korea, missile defense, and now the ROK Army deployment. So if the ROK Army begins withdrawing from Iraq then so be it. I guess the Iraqis will just have to learn to use toilet paper on their own.

Here is a really funny North Korean propaganda video. Via the Japundit.

The “Great Dokto Crisis of March 2005” continues to be blown way out of proportion. The Dokto issue has now been featured in the NY Times. The NY Times overall takes the Korean side of this issue by bringing up Japan’s past war time atrocities and relating those to the current Japanese government.

For older South Koreans, like Mr. Heo, the bitterness of the past resurfaced. His father had told him of working in a stable where he watched Japanese soldiers eat.

The dispute comes as Japan, urged on by the United States, has been building up its military and taking a hard line against China and North Korea. A nationalism not previously seen in postwar Japan has emerged, with Mr. Koizumi unapologetically praying at Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 Class A war criminals are enshrined, and with teachers in Tokyo being punished for not forcing their students to stand and sing the national anthem during graduation ceremonies. It was also disclosed recently that senior members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party pressed the public broadcaster, NHK, to soften a 2001 documentary on Japan’s wartime sex slaves.

The NY Times seems to also think that the “Great Dokto Crisis” will cause Korea to unite with North Korea and China to oppose Japan:

“Japan should understand that its actions regarding Tokdo have regional repercussions,” said Park Cheol Hee, a specialist on Japanese politics and diplomacy at Seoul National University, in an interview on Monday. “If South Korean-Japan relations become twisted, the result will be that South Korea and North Korea will become united against Japan. And as China and Korea share the same historical perspective toward Japan, the unintended consequence will bring China and the Korean peninsula against Japan.”

The NY Times article concludes with this:

“I strongly urge the Japanese foreign office and Japanese government to take a much more independent and much more positive policy toward Asia,” Makoto Taniguchi, a former Japanese ambassador to the United Nations who now teaches at universities in Japan and China, told reporters in Tokyo last week. “Otherwise, there is no future for Japan. Japan will be totally neglected in Asia, and, in the future, if Japan’s position and economic power go down, what is its use to the U.S.?”

Some how I don’t think the “Great Dokto Crisis” will cause Japan to lose political, cultural, or economic influence over the long run. I think if Japan is smart about this, which is debatable since they caused this crisis to begin with; that they should just keep their mouths shut and the Koreans will naturally forget about it and the special interest groups will move on to bashing English teachers or GI’s to get people pissed off again.

I do have to say that we, the army, have gone almost a year now since the “Great Shinchon Stabbing” and nobody talks about that any more. Unfortunately we are due for somebody to do something stupid again. It seems like every year around this time somebody does something stupid that gets people pissed off at the army over the summer and then everyone forgets about it come fall time. Hopefully this year we can break that trend. However, with 32,000 USFK forces on the peninsula going out more because of the warm weather, odds are somebody will do something stupid. I just hope Koreans don’t set themselves on fire or chop their fingers off over it.

For those who have been in Korea for a while and have spent time in a PC cafe the thing you will notice right away is how Koreans are fascinated and addicted to online games. Young Koreans will sit in dark and smoky internet cafes for hours playing their games and stopping only momentarily to order ramen noodles from the cafe clerk to eat or to take a drag from a cigarette. The one game they play the most in particular is Starcraft. Why this game is so popular continues to allude me because I have played the game before and it is a fun game but not fun enough to play for 24 hours at a time. There are many newer games that are much better real time strategy games (RTS) than Starcraft.

For whatever reason no other game seems to resound with Koreans quite like Starcraft. They even have professional Starcraft leagues here, with top players receiving salaries similar to baseball players. On my Korean cable TV service, I receive two 24 hour online games channels that features Starcraft games 70% of the time. Starcraft has become as much of a cultural trait of Korea as kimchi.

The Korea Times has an interesting take on the Starcraft phenomenom. The paper believes Starcraft may be so popular due to Korea’s capitalist culture:

A new book, “When Games Talks to You (Keimi Marul Kolool Ttae),” claims that no computer game has exerted such an impact on people as the online game, which mirrors aspects of contemporary culture.

The authors point out its speedy movement of units and relatively short game duration as major traits appealing to quick-tempered Koreans.

The idea of the capitalist culture causing people to play Starcraft never occurred to me. However, short games that are appealing to quick tempered Koreans I found interesting because that seems like such a stereotype being thrown out there about Koreans. But incidents like the outrage and protests over the latest “Great Dokto Crisis of March 2005” only serves to feed these stereotypes. I just don’t buy that Starcraft is so popular because of “quick tempered Koreans.” Does anyone else got any better theories why Koreans are so addicted to Starcraft?

According to the Asahi Shimbun the US will now actively stop North Korean counterfeit money and drug smuggling operations.

The Bush administration intends to squeeze North Korea on drug trafficking and counterfeit money operations, activities that are suspected of funding Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear ambitions and which often involve the reclusive state’s diplomats, says a high-ranking U.S. official.

Rice, who arrived in Tokyo Friday for a two-day visit, will ask the leaders of those countries for support in smashing North Korea’s illicit money-making ventures.

Drug smugglers and counterfeiters are usually low life criminals while in North Korea they tend to be the priviledged regime higher ups that are making a load of money selling drugs:

How much Pyongyang is actually earning from drug trafficking, counterfeit dollars and other illegal activities is not known, say U.S. officials.

In June last year, two diplomats with the North Korean Embassy in Cairo were caught trying to smuggle 150,000 tranquilizer tablets. By putting the squeeze on such illegal fund sources, Washington hopes to encourage Pyongyang to rejoin the six-nation framework.

I can’t help but have this picture in my mind of North Korean diplomats peddling drugs in the hallways of the UN. I have wondered at times what those suits at the UN were smoking. Now I know.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is reported to have a secret mistress and daughter living in Japan according to the Chosun.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has a mistress and a daughter named Mieko in Tokyo, the Monthly Chosun reports. The magazine said Mieko buys gifts for her father and visits North Korea on Kim’s birthday every year.
Quoting Korean and Japanese intelligence sources and a Japanese business partner of Kim’s son, Kim Jong-nam, the monthly made the revelation in its April edition published Friday.

Now in her late 20s and living in Tokyo, Mieko is “pretty and well-dressed, though not as beautiful as her mother, and looks affluent,” the magazine said quoting a Korean-Japanese businessman. He described her as amiable and said she got on well with her half-brother Kim Jong-nam. The two are said to be exchanging emails.

How many mistresses does this guy have?

I thought this article about a French photographer in Seoul was kind of interesting

Having devoted himself to taking aerial pictures for the last 10 years, he said, ?I am taking pictures that are not beautiful but ones that makes people think.? Among pictures displayed are eight photographs of Seoul also taken from the sky on February 18 and 19. About those pictures, he said, ?It was difficult to take pictures in Seoul due to dust and fog and there were also not many magnificent views to take.?

It seems like he could of found some nice shots around Pukhansan or the Korean palaces but then again he was taking pictures in February which is when I think Korea looks its ugliest because everything is gray and brown. The pollution however must be from all those USFK vehicle polluting the air again.

According to Dr. Andrei Lankov Christianity is spreading in North Korea and may influence eventual reunification with South Korea.

However, there are signs of a genuine Christian revival in North Korea. From the mid-1990s an increasing number of South Korean missionaries have been going to northeastern China, adjacent to the almost uncontrolled border with the DPRK. These missionaries are overwhelmingly Protestant, of various denominations. They preach among the refugees, and their mission is remarkably successful. This is understandable: Christian organizations are among the few organizations that take note of the refugees and work hard to help them – much to the annoyance of the North Korean authorities. Newly converted North Koreans often go back to their country, taking Bibles and religious literature there. The North Korean authorities take the problem very seriously. As mentioned above, defectors extradited from China and then interrogated by North Korean political police are always asked whether they have been in contact with Christian missionaries.

There are reports about the growing Christian underground. Alas, these reports cannot be verified. Still, it seems that some sort of catacomb church is fast developing in North Korea – a development that has nothing to do with the elaborate performances staged by the authorities in the officially approved churches.

Who would of thought that Bible toting ajummas could be used as a secret weapon against the Norks. Interesting reading worth checking out.

Apparently President Roh thinks that the US should not be in command of ROK Army forces if war should break out on the Korean peninsula.

Roh further appealed to a long-standing South Korean irritation, which is U.S. command of South Korean forces in combat. “Within 10 years,” he said, “we should be able to develop our military into one with full command of operations.” That would include, he said, “the capability for planning independent operations.”

The newspaper said Seoul and Washington had not agreed to revise the security treaty. The editorial concluded: “We thus ask Mr. Roh to study the issue in earnest and enhance mutual trust between the two countries rather than just mentioning it openly.” That was a polite way of saying maybe Roh should have kept quiet.

The US-ROK Alliance states that the USFK commander who currently is General LaPorte would be the single commander of all ROK and US forces if hostilities should break out on the peninsula. One could make a strong arguement that a ROK Army general should be in charge since initially the overwhelming majority of troops on the peninsula are ROK Army troops. The US has about 20,000 troops here now compared to the ROK Army’s 800,000 soldiers.

However, the problems of having a ROK Army general in charge is that a ROK Army general is not trained in the hi tech modern warfare that the US is able to employ on an enemy with cruise missiles, stealth bombers, electronic warfare, Patriot missiles, submarines, aircraft carriers, Aegis destroyers, etc. etc. A US general is needed to ensure all these elements of modern warfare are implemented and coordinated effectively without causing fratricide and maximum destruction to the enemy. The ROK Army is highly proficient in infantry and artillery skills and will lead the fight on the ground. I can’t imagine the USFK commander would intefer with the ROK Army war plans without close consultation with the ROK Army chain of command.

I guess the simple solution if President Roh really wants to have the ROK Army in charge is to withdraw all the American forces out of Korea. He apparently may already be thinking about this:

In a little noticed speech, President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea has once again disparaged his nation’s alliance with the United States and cast doubt on whether this partnership should continue. Roh told graduating cadets at the Korean Air Force Academy that South Korea was fully capable of defending itself against North Korea, thus undermining the reason for posting American combat forces in his country.

With the current down sizing of USFK forces going on now, President Bush may be in more of hurrry to remove US troops from Korea than President Roh is.