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The Korean government has begun to respond to USFK commander General Bell’s criticism of the South Korean foot dragging over the USFK relocation to Camp Humphreys:

Seoul is determined to seek a quick relocation of U.S. military installations, Foreign Minister Song Min-soon assured reporters yesterday. He was speaking a day after the senior U.S. military commander here warned that he would fight any delay in the relocation regardless of the reason for the delay.
Asked at a regular press briefing, whether there had been any change in the scheduled relocation date, originally agreed to be in 2008, the foreign minister said that during his visit to Washington last week he had told U.S. officials that Seoul had a strong desire to see the relocation proceed as quickly as possible.
But he ducked a direct answer about whether the target date of 2008 was still possible.

If Seoul is so committed to a quick relocation how does Minister Song explain the delays in removing the protesters at Camp Humphreys?  How does he explain the attempt to stop the hand over of closed out USFK bases with the fraudulent pollution issue?  How does he explain the cutting of the agreed amount of relocation money from this year’s budget.  When South Korea signs an agreement promising $886 million to fund USFK next year and unilaterally decides to only deliver $772 million, how can Minister Song go on record saying the Korean government remains committed to a "quick" relocation of USFK. 

The charade continues:

Last month, defense officials said the project could be held up until 2011 or even later because of delays in acquiring the land necessary for the new U.S. base.
"The issue of the timing of the relocation is not one that is being negotiated between South Korea and the United States," Mr. Song said yesterday, "but a matter that will be determined by the technical realities."
He said there was no friction between the United States and Korea over the issue. "This is a matter in which one side cannot say the other side is responsible. The defense ministries from both sides will consult on the timing of the relocation," he concluded.

Like the technical reality of not moving the protesters out in a timely manner or providing the agreed amount of funding?  Then to say the Korean government is not responsible for the delay is utterly ridiculous when the Korean government’s foot dragging has been utterly predictable and totally obvious to all of us that have been following this issue.  The Korean government for all their talk about wanting self reliance and the Yongsan move to happen are becoming increasingly exposed as the frauds and demagogues that they are. 

It is clear that General Bell’s criticism has had little effect in the decision making process in Seoul yet.  He may need to up the ante at some point.  Is it to late to bring General Trexler out of retirement yet?

UPDATE: One Free Korea has great posting that provides further background information concerning the South Korean governmental policy of total indifference to the kidnapping and forced inprisonment of their own citizens in North Korea.  I have to agree with OFK that this man married very well that his wife after 31 years never forgot about him and did all she did to bring him home while her own government just wished he didn’t exist.

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When I read stories like this it just makes me wonder how many more South Korean citizens are stuck inside of North Korea just waiting for their chance to get out while their own government ignores them:

A crewmember of the squid trawler Cheonwangho abducted by North Korea while fishing in the East Sea in August 1975 has escaped the communist state after 31 years. Choi Wook-il (67) is waiting for help from Seoul while hiding at an undisclosed location in China, but the government here is dragging its feet. Choi told the Chosun Ilbo he left Kimchaek City in North Hamgyeong Province on Dec. 22, arrived at Hyesan on Dec. 24 and crossed the Yalu River the next day. On the arduous trip, he sustained a cut to his forehead after a car accident on the way to Yanbian in China. He was finally reunited with his wife Yang Jeong-ja (66) there.

Read the whole thing because it is just amazing that this guy’s wife he hadn’t seen in 31 years did more to free him from going back to North Korea and it’s gulags than the South Korean government.  It is situations like this that I wish the US government could do more to help these people who were abducted.  It could be through funding more NGOs to help North Korean defectors escape North Korea through China possibly.  This would be a way of shaming the South Korean government into taking actions to protect their own citizens. 

If President Roh is so determined to have a 2nd Inter-Korean summit the first item on the agenda should be the demand that all South Korean citizens abducted by North Korea be returned to South Korea.  It would be a disgrace for the South Korean president to be toasting Kim Jong-il during Inter-Korean summit while his own citizens are trapped in slavery in North Korea.

From the BBC, the violent murder rate in Columbia last year:

Police chief Gen Jorge Daniel Castro said that a total of 17,206 people suffered violent deaths in 2006, 517 fewer than in 2005.  Kidnappings also fell from 329 in 2005 to 200 in 2006, he said.

Colombia continues to have one of the highest murder rates in the world, but observers say security has been gradually improving in recent years.

Now compare that to Iraq’s violent murder rate, from the AP:

Iraq reported Tuesday that about 12,000 civilians were killed last year – the third full year since the U.S.-led invasion – with a dramatic rise in the last three months, when 5,000 died. Only about half as many Iraqi soldiers died in 2006 as American troops.

But the number of Iraqi security forces killed jumps to 1,543, nearly double the American death count of 823 for the year, when the deaths of police, who conduct paramilitary operations, are added to the number of slain Iraqi soldiers.

In all, the Iraqi ministries of Health, Defense and Interior reported a total of 13,896 Iraqi civilians, police and soldiers died last year, 162 more than the tally kept by The Associated Press.

So how come the media is not talking about troop surges in Columbia?  Actually better how come they aren’t talking about Columbia at all?  There are US soldiers there on the ground and Columbia is the third largest recipient of US foreign aid.  Plus I think a very strong argument could be mad that drugs coming from Columbia are more dangerous to the US than Al Qaida terrorists.  Think about it, Al Qaida may be able to kill more US citizens in one strike like they did during 9/11, but compare that to the loss of life from drug overdoses and the violent crime related to drug abuse.  I was able to find this statistic on total drug overdoses from 2000, which put the number at 17,000 that year,  while this statistic from the US Department of Justice, said that 14,860 homicides occurred in 2005 that were drug related.  Both numbers are higher than the total number of violent deaths in Iraq.  Drugs have effected the lives of more Americans than any terrorist ever has and yet it is back burner issue not considered news worthy. 

I’m not saying Iraq isn’t a news worthy event but very little perspective is given by the media on what is going on there compared to other similar situations around the world.  Take for example the media glee over the 3,000th US military death happened recently.  Yes the death is tragic, but just like the media glee over the civilian deaths in Iraq, no perspective is given that US military deaths are down from last year and that the total number is no where near the casualties the US military took during World War II, the Korean War, or Vietnam.  Yet the media will come out and tell you that the Iraq War has gone on longer than World War II.  Comparing the Iraq War to World War II is utterly ridiculous but this is the perspective the media is giving the American people.

The Iraq War is almost treated as a reality TV show by the media.  If you ever watch interviews from Survivor contestants after they finish competing on the show they always say that the footage from the island is always manipulated to create better storylines when it is edited for TV.  Talk to an Iraq veteran and most will tell you the same thing about the US media. 

If the US can turn Iraq into a Middle Eastern version of Columbia that should be considered a success, but will the media ever give the American people that kind of perspective?  I seriously doubt it.

HT: Milblogs

So not only can the taxi driver watch TV while driving, but now the passengers can as well:

Taxis equipped with video screens showing local news features and advertisements made their debut ithis week — after the screens were adjusted to allow passengers to turn them off.

Five hundred taxis, each with a liquid crystal display screen in the back of the headrest on the front passenger seat, have begun service in Seoul and the surrounding area, company officials said.

The screens automatically turn on when a customer gets into the back seat and initially could not be turned off, although the sound volume could be reduced or muted.

So with the passengers watching TV now as well who will tell the driver to watch out for that red light while he is busy watching his TV? 

I really wish someone would make a final decision on this:

Mandatory anthrax vaccinations for some troops are expected to resume in late January, said Defense Department spokesman Maj. Stewart Upton on Friday.

Meanwhile, an attorney representing six Defense Department employees who refuse to take the vaccine has vowed that he will try to stop the mandatory vaccination program.

In October, the Defense Department announced it was making anthrax vaccinations mandatory for U.S. troops on the Korean peninsula and in the U.S. Central Command area of operations.

(…)

But Mark Zaid, a Washington, D.C., attorney who filed a class-action lawsuit against the DOD over the program, has vowed to try to block mandatory shots in court.

“We are well-prepared to challenge the Defense Department each time it exercises poor judgment involving AVIP (Anthrax Vaccine and Immunization Program), and will file a Temporary Restraining Order in January to attempt to prevent any unlawful inoculations,” Zaid said in a Friday e-mail to Stripes.

Here is how the anthrax injection schedule works:

I started taking anthrax injections in 2000 when I went to Korea and I received up to four out of the six required shots before the DOD ran out of vaccine. Then I went back to the states and there the program restarted again.  My division deployed to Kuwait to fight in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and I had to restart from shot number one again due to the time in between my first injections in Korea. Once again I made it up to four shots when the court ruling came out that the DOD could not give anthrax shots anymore. So now I am hoping my unit doesn’t have to take anthrax shots until the court decision is made.  I would hate to have to take more anthrax shots without having to.  If they do uphold the ruling for people to take anthrax shots, let me complete the cycle so I don’t have to keep taking unnecessary anthrax shots.  I have had eight anthrax injections total and will have to take 6 more again if the court allows anthrax shots again.   That would mean that by the time I get done with the next cycle of anthrax shots, I would have taken 14 anthrax shots in 4 years. 

Maybe that explains my receding hair line?

Does it concern anyone when first President Roh downsizes the Korean military by nearly 200,000 soldiers, than reduces mandatory military service by 6 months, while also removing landmines from the DMZ and taking down key defensive obstacles along the roads, combined with creating great distrust and possible withdrawal of Korea’s key ally the United States?  Than to top it off he sends over a billion dollars in "aid" to North Korea to help them feed and equip their military.

What’s next, a Kim Il-sung statue in the new Gwanghwamun Plaza?

The Korean government is taking a harsher stance against anyone who assaults taxi cab drivers:

Physically assault a South Korea taxi or bus driver and you’ll face a minimum three-year jail term or a $20,000 fine, officials said Wednesday.

A Ministry of Construction and Transportation official confirmed Wednesday that a revised bill addressing the assault of public transportation drivers recently passed South Korea’s National Assembly and is to go into effect in February.

Several U.S. military community personnel found themselves entangled in the South Korean legal system after tangling with taxi drivers in the last year.

“The law was designed to boost people’s safety,” an unnamed ministry official told The Korea Times.

“We will sternly punish those using violence against public transportation drivers that threatens the safety of drivers, passengers and pedestrians.”

Killing a driver will bring a sentence of five years to life in prison, the official said.

I am all for punishing idiots who assault taxi cab drivers, but I do have to wonder if this law is solely meant for USFK personnel or will it be enforced on the general Korean population as well because I have personally seen many times cab drivers getting into confrontations with other Koreans.  With the selective nature of enforcing laws in Korea, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is solely a law focused on punishing USFK personnel.  I would also love to see increased penalties as well for taxi cab drivers who break the law by overcharging and even sometimes assaulting customers who will not pay them the overcharged price. 

The Chosun has an interesting interview with a North Korean defector who has been constantly harrassed for the past 10 years by both the Korean government and the North Korean fifth column allowed to operate freely in South Korea:

Next month, Hwang marks 10 years since he risked his life coming to the South and left his family behind. He is not a man whose resolution is easily shaken by threats from North Korea or its fifth column. But what must be unbearable is the persecution he has been subjected to by the South Korean government, in the very country he came to in search of freedom. For most of the 10 years he has lived in the South, he has lived the life of a virtual person non grata, unable to meet people he wanted to see and say what he wanted to say. He published a newspaper for North Korean refugees that criticized the government’s North Korea policy, only to be stopped by the National Intelligence Service. How bitterly disappointed he must have been to find that somehow Constitutional rights did not apply to him.

When he visited the U.S. in 2003, agency minders shadowed his every step to check whom he met and what they talked about. There were even scuffles when staffers of an American congressman attempted to push them out of an office where the legislator was meeting with Hwang.

While the Pentagon has remained silent about the announcement from the Korean government that they plan on delaying the USFK relocation until 2013, the Korean government has gone ahead and cut funding from next year’s budget for the project:

The government’s request for 158 trillion won in general accounts was reduced by 1.46 trillion won, while 110 billion won was added to its original request for 6.7 trillion won in special accounts.

Some of the significant cuts came from requested funds for inter-Korean cooperation and social employment, which were each cut by 150 billion won from original requests.

The Assembly also cut by 198 billion won the fund allocated for the relocation of U.S. troops stationed here.

So basically since the Pentagon hasn’t come out and vigorously defended the agreed upon the timeline the Korean government has been able to go ahead and cut funding which means that if the USFK relocation is to happen on time by 2009 the US government will have to fund the move itself. 

USFK said last week the move was going to happen on time, but I don’t see how that can happen when the farmers haven’t even been given a deadline to move off the annexed land and now there is no money available to fund the move.  I’m beginning to wonder if the Pentagon is getting ready to approve some money for a move, not to Camp Humphreys, but to CONUS.

HT: Nomad

According to the South Korean government the US nuclear negotiators have offered the North Koreans a deal:

The United States offered to remove North Korea from Washington’s list of states sponsoring terrorism if the communist regime dismantles its atomic weapons program South Korea’s main nuclear envoy said Tuesday. 

The proposal was just one of the incentives the U.S. spelled out last week at six-nation nuclear disarmament talks with the North, along with offers of security guarantees, a peace treaty and normalization of relations, Chun Yung-woo said.

"The point of the proposal is that everything is possible if North Korea denuclearizes and nothing is possible if it refuses," Chun told news cable channel YTN.

It appears that the South Korean government is making a big deal out of this as some kind of sign of "progress" on the North Korean nuclear issue.  I have said it once and I will say it again, North Korea has no intention of giving up it’s nukes and the US negotiators probably understand that, thus they make proposals for grand deals that they know will never happen just to show that the US government is doing everything possible to denuclearize North Korea. 

While these negotiations go on and on the South Korean government can continue to claim that "progress" is being made while the status quo continues on.  Keeping the status quo is what is important to both Koreas and the Chinese.  The Chinese don’t want any instability in North Korea that could lead to a collapse and refugee crisis, the South Koreans do not want a expensive reunification that would destroy their economy, and the North Koreans just want to continue to have time to further develop their nuclear program and missile systems in order to secure their own regime’s security against a US attack to over throw a regime.  So expect these talks to continue to drag off and on just like they have these past few years and the South Korean government claiming "progress".