Category: Uncategorized

Thanks to the Party Pooper for providing this link to a web page reviewer. I inserted both my home page and my blog URL’s in to see how they rated. This is what I got for my home page:

“I just saw . The page contains 81 links, a highly usable amount.

(…)
Wonderful. What a great page! The HTML source is very structured. A masterpiece. There are 47,648 characters in the underlying source, which is a cool length for Google. It must have taken many years to craft the page. It makes sense to me put up a link to this page. The color scheme is impressive. Seeing GI Korea, I’m simply in awe. The URL has 22 characters. This length scores best in usability studies. If only my friend’s company would have a cool page like that. Naturally, I expected the creator to achieve only the best. I take off my hat.”
— Theodore Sutherland, How to Write for the Internet

“I’m Simply in Awe”, wow I feel like a web page Jedi now. Here is the review for my blog site:

“I just saw . What a great page! It must have taken many years to perfect the page. The URL has 34 characters. Just the perfect length. If only Microsoft would have a swell page like that.
Also good: put up a link to this page. Seeing GI Korea, I’m simply out of words. There are 60,428 characters in the underlying source, which is a high-quality length for Chinese users. A masterpiece. The page contains 141 links, a balanced amount. The color scheme is very balanced. The code is classy. Excellent. Well, I expected the creator to do this well.
(…)
With this page, a new genre of its own has been created.”
— Joe Henderson, Web Review Daily

“High Quality for Chinese users?” What the hell is that all about? Do I got a bunch of Chinese spies checking out my site or something? Then the part about taking many years to craft such a page was humorous since I’ve only been blogging since June. Not exactly an eternity there. Finally, I’ve create a whole new genre? I think blogging has been around a while. I don’t think it started with me, but if Joe Henderson says so it must be true!

The geo-political nuclear soap opera that only a diplomatic beurocrat could enjoy has a new twist. The Joong Ang is reporting

A transcript obtained by the JoongAng Ilbo of a Monday broadcast by a state-run North Korean radio station appears to contradict Pyeongyang’s claim last week that the regime has nuclear weapons. But its meaning was not entirely clear, and experts were divided over what significance it had, if any.

Chung Young-tae, a researcher with South Korea’s state-run Korea Institute for National Unification, said, “The discrepancy in the North Korean media demonstrates that our government should not read too much into the nuclear weapons possession statement itself, but [pay attention to] the underlying diplomatic strategy.”

The North is probably just trying to rally their people by saying that the US is trying pick on them for having WMD even though they don’t. I wouldn’t read to much into it. You can’t believe to much of anything the Norks say, so who knows if they actually have nuclear weapons or not.

The Chinese appear to be losing their patience with North Korea also according to this New York Times piece.

China on Sunday publicly called for the Korean peninsula to be free of nuclear weapons and urged North Korea to return to regional talks regarding its nuclear program. State-run Chinese media and censored Internet chat rooms were uncommonly critical of Pyongyang for having announced Thursday that it had manufactured nuclear weapons.

National television news on state-run CCTV gave heavy coverage on Saturday to international condemnation of North Korea and demands that it return to regional talks about its nuclear program. Little effort was made to explain North Korea’s position – that it needs a nuclear deterrent to prevent the United States from attacking someday.

Hopefully China will keep the pressure on the Norks because they are key to influencing them into giving up their nuclear ambitions.

Something really weird happened today. I was walking out the front gate of my camp and standing outside of the gate adjacent to the congested road in front of the camp was none other than Pinnochio himself. The Pinnochio of Walt Disney fame was in front of the camp waving at cars. Somebody was dressed in an authenic Pinnochio costume. It might as well have been something you would of seen at Walt Disney World.

I walked over to Pinnochio to see what was going on. It is not every day I get to meet somebody as famous as Pinnochio you know. As I approached him, Pinnochio would just look at me and wave. He wouldn’t speak at all. I wasn’t sure if Pinnochio was tresspassing or not because he was standing outside the camp and on the corner of the road.

The Korean National Policemen that sit in front of the camp bored all day just stood there and giggled watching the scene. So no help from them. So I walked back to the guard shack and informed the gate guards that we had a possible tresspasser by the name of Pinnochio outside. They just looked at me like I was nuts. So I led them out of the guard shack and pointed out Pinnochio to them. The Korean contracted guards went to talk to Pinnochio but all they received was the same wave I got. The soldiers inside the guard shack in turn got on the phone to contact the MP’s to see what to do. There is no SOP I have ever seen on how to deal with a Pinnochio sighting. So it was best we remain careful because we were breaking new ground here. We were creating doctrine that would be used for all future Pinnochio encounters.

A crowd of soldiers began to build to watch the seen. Eventually Pinnochio must have gotten uncomfortable with the amount of people watching him. He then proceeded to walk down the sidewalk away from the gate and the camp. As he walked away into the sunset, Pinnochio continued to wave at his new found fan club until he got to a bus stop and got on a bus and left for good. God I wish I had my camera handy.

What was really strange about the whole scene was that the Koreans walking by just seemed to ignore what was going on while the soldiers that left the camp all had the look of what the heck is this, on their faces. I guess Pinnochio sightings must be something that doesn’t draw much attention in Korea.

Anyway later on that day I began to think about why Pinnochio would be in front of the camp waving at cars? Then it hit me. It was probably a protestor using the character of Pinnochio to say that the US Army is a bunch of liars. At least that is the best theory I can think of. Does anyone else have any better theories?

I got to hand it to the protestor for being creative and funny though. Most protestors are really lame and just chant slogans and beat on the KNP’s. I got a kick out of this one. Maybe this will start a new trend for protests. Maybe Alladin will show up tomorrow to represent us as a bunch of thieves. I’ll make sure I have my camera ready next time.

President Roh recently had some work done on his eyes according to the Korea Times.

President Roh Moo-hyun underwent surgery in which small parts of both of his upper eyelids were removed to give him better vision, Chong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Jong-min said Sunday.
Roh had been suffering from sagging eyelids, which often obstructed his sight, the spokesman said.

After the surgery, Roh acquired double-edged eyelids, the spokesman added.

According to CNN Kim Jong Il is currently trying to rally his people to support him as he ups his rhetoric in the latest nuclear crisis.

North Korea urged its impoverished people Satuday to rally around Stalinist leader Kim Jong Il, after Washington rejected Pyongyang’s demand that the sides hold direct one-on-one talks to curb nuclear tension.

“At a time like today, when the situation gets tense, no task is more important than to strengthen our single-minded unity,” the editorial said. Minju Joson, another state-run daily, said that “devotedly protecting the leader is our life and soul.”

If Pyongyang doesn’t get the bilateral negotiations that it wants from the US they will probably try to up the confrontration some more. The most obvious place to start a confrontation is by shooting at soldiers on the DMZ or getting in a naval confrontation in the Yellow Sea. It appears a naval confrontation may be the route they are going to try with this rhetoric:

At the same time, North Korea repeated warnings of military clashes on its loosely defined and tense western sea border with South Korea. It accused the South of infiltrating a warship into communist waters on Saturday following “a grave situation created due to the U.S. imperialist warhawks’ invariable hostile policy toward the (North).”

In a news released carried by KCNA, North Korea’s navy command said “such dangerous military provocations may entail a very serious disaster.” The accusations, repeated several times in recent weeks and denied by the South, coincided with the worsening nuclear standoff. The two Koreas fought bloody naval skirmishes in western waters in 1999 and 2002.

I just hope the Norks don’t get so desperate where they try something really provacative like a nuclear test or a missile test fire in the future. Hopefully the diplomats from not only the US but the region can work out a compromise before something like this happens. In the end I expect some agreement to be worked out.

The Norks are pushing the current crisis to put themselves in front of the line of international issues that have been led the last two years by the Iraq War. The North Korean issue has been ignored by just about everyone because of Iraq. The Norks now appear impatient waiting for the international aid they so desire in exchange for suspending their nuclear program. So they are doing whatever it takes to get the world to notice them again.

The way the international news has been reporting the current nuclear crisis over and over again I would say they have succeeded in the short term, but the story probably won’t have much legs in the long term unless Pyongyang tries something else to keep them in the international spotlight. So expect more rhetoric and possibly incidents until an agreement gets worked out.

It seems like everyone has got something to say about the current nuclear crisis here in Korea. The latest is the New York Times Op-ed from Nicholas Kristof.

North Korea is particularly awkward for Mr. Bush to discuss publicly because, as best we know, it didn’t make a single nuclear weapon during Bill Clinton’s eight years in office (although it did begin a separate, and secret, track to produce uranium weapons; it hasn’t produced any yet but may eventually). In contrast, the administration now acknowledges that North Korea extracted enough plutonium in the last two years for about half a dozen nuclear weapons.

In fairness, Mr. Bush is paralyzed only because the alternatives are dreadful. A military strike on North Korea’s nuclear sites might have been an option in the early 1990’s, but today we don’t know where the plutonium and the uranium are kept, so a military strike might accomplish little – but trigger a new Korean war. To fill the time, Mr. Bush has pursued six-party talks involving North Korea, but they have gotten nowhere.

Basically what I am getting from this is that Clinton appeasement is good and Bush hard line is bad. So what is Kristof’s idea to solve the nuclear crisis? Well here it is:

So what would work?

At least China and South Korea have a strategy to transform North Korea: encourage capitalism, markets and foreign investment. Chinese traders, cellphones and radios are already widespread in the border areas, and they are doing more to weaken the Dear Leader than anything Mr. Bush is doing.

Is he suggesting Bush fly to Pyongyang ala Richard Nixon’s 1973 visit to China? Some how I don’t see that happening. As far as engagement this is exactly what the North Korean Human Rights Act is promoting.

As far as South Korea and China wanting to weaken Kim Jong Il, that is ridiculous. China does not want North Korea to collapse due to the masses of refugees that would follow. So they need to keep Kim in power, they just don’t want Kim to develop nukes because they fear Japan doing the same in response. As far as North Korean human rights abusive and aggressive rhetoric, the Chinese could care less.

South Korea does not want Kim’s regime to collapse either because Seoul does not want to pick up the bill of rebuilding the entire country after reunification. Plus the current prospects of cheap labor from the North is appealing to South Korean companies. So obviously both countries just want to keep the status quo with North Korea but would prefer one without nukes.

I also love all the pundits and politicians such as Bill Richardson on TV saying President Bush should negotiate with Kim Jong Il bi-laterally. I just keep thinking that arent’ these the same people that were criticizing President Bush for has uni-lateral (though it wasn’t unilateral) approach in dealing with Iraq? With all the US media coverage you would think the people of Seoul are heading for the fallout bunkers. I am happy to report that I still see people in the streets shopping, driving cars, and going to parks.

Becareful what you blog about because employers are increasingly taking action and firing employees who complain about their jobs on their weblogs.

There are 8 million personal Web logs — or blogs — in the United States, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. People write blogs to talk about their day, family outings, dates gone awry and, of course, work. But what might feel like a very personal entry about a dismal workday can mean something quite different to a boss who needs only a search engine to read it.

And that is happening enough that there is even a word for it — getting “dooced.” Blogger Heather B. Armstrong coined the phrase in 2002, after she was fired from her Web design job for writing about work and colleagues on her blog, Dooce.com.

This story from the Stars and Stripes reminds me of the American KATUSA post I blogged a couple of weeks ago. The difference is that this US soldier actually served in the ROK Army before joining the US army.

I was wondering about the U.S. Army and the military system. When I was 34 years old, it was my last chance to join the Army,” he said.

“The ROK army is a duty. Most people in the ROK army are doing compulsory military service. For the U.S. Army, it is a job and there is a long history. In the ROK army there was no freedom and we worked until we slept. Here we have a lot of freedom after work,” he said.

Interesting reading the differences about the ROK Army compared to the US Army.

If you are surprised that this guy joined the Army at 34 you really shouldn’t be. I have seen many people join the Army in their 30’s especially since 9/11. I actually knew an NCO who was in the Air Force for 8 years got out and after 9/11 he enlisted again but this time in the Army with his 18 year old son to fight the war on terror. However, they would have to wait to fight terrorism because the dad got sent to Korea the son to Europe. However, as fate would have it, they both ended up getting deployed and are both currently serving in Iraq.

The North Koreans are demanding that the US conduct bi-lateral negotiations to end the nuclear crisis.

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea has demanded bilateral talks with the United States to defuse the tension created by its announcement that it is a nuclear power, the communist state’s U.N. envoy said in a South Korean newspaper interview published Friday.

“We will return to the six-nation talks when we see a reason to do so and the conditions are ripe,” Han told Seoul’s Hankyoreh newspaper in a Thursday interview in New York. “If the United States moves to have direct dialogue with us, we can take that as a signal that the United States is changing its hostile policy toward us.”

I really think the only time President Bush will conduct bi-lateral negotiations with Kim Jong Il is when he is bombing them. Where is the UN in all of this? They were quick to run to Iraq and stick their nose into everything. Where are they now?