Category: Uncategorized

We have yet to hear anything from the Pentagon yet on the South Korean government power play to delay the Camp Humphreys expansion to 2013, but a USFK spokesman says things are going to continue as planned:

Workers will proceed as scheduled in getting land ready for the expansion of Camp Humphreys despite reports of a possible five-year delay in the move of U.S. forces there, the U.S. military said Friday.

(…)

Nevertheless, work will start soon on the first section of a 2,328-acre tract outside Humphreys onto which the post will expand its boundaries, said Lawrence M. Monaco, deputy director of the Project Integration Office at U.S. Forces Korea (Advance Element) headquarters on the camp.

The first section, or Parcel 1, occupies about 200 acres. Workers are to cover it with an estimated 3 million cubic yards of landfill and put in roads and a drainage system.

“There’s absolutely no delay in progress on Parcel 1,” Monaco said, noting that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $29.7 million contract to Seohee Construction Co. Ltd. of Seoul in November.

“The contractor has been selected, the contract’s awarded, the notice to proceed was given in November,” Monaco said. “We don’t yet have the contractor’s full work schedule, but we know that by mid-January he will be establishing his office on Parcel 1 and will be mobilizing equipment and personnel to begin work.

“In short…” Monaco said, “it’s working as advertised.”

What USFK says it is going to do doesn’t really matter.  What is going to matter is what the Pentagon says about this and apparently as the Korean government probably expected, the Pentagon appears to be more concerned with transition between the outgoing and incoming Defense Secretaries followed by the Christmas holidays to respond to the South Korean announcement.  It looks like this will probably drag on past the holidays before the Pentagon responds.

Don’t you just love how the Korean media finds anyone with any connection to Korea to glorify their Korean mother or in this case, this astronaut’s Korean grandmother.

Korea’s first Playboy model, Lee Sabi has new nude pictures coming to a mobile phone near you. Only in Korea is this national news.

Japan Probe has an interesting posting about a letter sent by a Japanese General on Iwo Jima to President Roosevelt. This General’s views about WWII are almost word for word what is taught at Yasukuni.

What you won’t see on the front page of your newspaper. US Military meets recruiting goals yet again. US Army leads the way with a 105% recruiting total.

UPDATE: Nomad is absolutely “shocked” by the Camp Humphreys delay announcement.

_____________________________________________________________________

Will this be the straw that broke the camel’s back of the US-ROK Alliance? From the Marmot’s Hole:

A government source told Yonhap that it looks like transfer of the U.S. garrison at Yongsan to Pyeongtaek, originally scheduled to take place in 2007, would be delayed by five years to late 2013.

A source from one of the related government ministries said the possibility of completing the transfer by 2008 as scheduled was currently low, and that Korean government ministries handling the move were actively discussing a plan to delay the transfer from Yongsan and the competition of new base facilities in Pyeongtaek to 2013.

The government will reportedly announce this plan sometime next week.

The source said the change in schedule was necessary due to delays in discussions between authorities connected to the move and setbacks caused by protests from residents and civic groups.

I agree with Robert’s analysis that the Korean government is trying to stop the relocation since Secretary Rumsfeld has been removed from the Pentagon. They are testing the new Defense Secretary Robert Gates who is scheduled to be sworn in on December 18th.

Those of us who have served in Korea for awhile knew the 2008 timeline wasn’t going to happen, but 2013 give me a break? The Korean government has never wanted to allow the USFK relocation to Camp Humphreys just like they have never really wanted to take operational control from USFK either. Both the Yongsan and the operational control issues have long served as great cannonfodder by South Korean politicians looking to demagoge the issue to their own political advantage. Plus the Koreans have never wanted to fully fund the move despite all the prime real estate they are gaining from the closed out USFK facilities. Heck they won’t even properly fund the US-ROK Alliance while giving over a billion dollars to North Korea a year!
You also have the Fifth Column in South Korea, organized by North Korean agents that want to stop the move because North Korea wants to keep 2ID and USFK locked into their current locations that are well within artillery range of North Korea which would mean their easy destruction during war time. Additionally the locations of the bases, particularly Yongsan have been completely surrounded by urban cities which has led to accidents and incidents with the Korean public that gets demagoged by the North Korean sponsored anti-US activists groups in order to draw a wedge between USFK and the general Korean public. The consolidation of US forces would remove all US forces out of North Korean artillery range and additionally under the ballistic missile protection of US Army PATRIOT missile batteries. This would create better force protection for USFK forces along with giving USFK commanders more flexibility during war time.

It will be interesting to see the Pentagon’s reaction if this 2013 timeline is true. I tend to think that the Pentagon would accept a 2009 relocation time line that would coincide with a 2009 handover of operational control. A 2013 timeline is just an effort to further push this issue down the road and hope the Pentagon gives up on it just like what the Korean government is doing with the operational control issue.
I think it may be close to ultimatum time. Is it too late to bring General Trexler out of retirement?

Nomad has the latest on a survey taken about the attitudes of Pyeongtaek residents on the USFK relocation to Camp Humphreys:

 Out of 1,000 people surveyed in the Pyeongtaek area by the Gyeonggi Research Institute, 41.9 percent said they had a positive perception of the planned Camp Humphreys expansion, 38.3 percent said they disliked or strongly disliked the addition of more troops, and 19.8 percent didn’t care one way or the other.  When asked how they feel about the proposed relocation of 2ID to their area, one in four people said they strongly disliked the move – mainly because unlike Yongsan, 2ID is made up of mostly single personnel.

First of all let me say I am always skeptical of polls taken in Korea, but the results on this one sound about right.  Basically you have over 60% of the population who either support or don’t care one way or the other about the relocation of USFK to Camp Humphreys.  I actually find these numbers encouraging because for the last year the USFK relocation to Camp Humphreys has been hit with constant anti-US demonstrations organized by North Korean agents and the issue has been demagoged continuously by Korean activists and politicians to advance their own agendas.  Heck the demagoging of the Camp Humphreys issue was even picked up by American leftist Cindy Sheehan.  Despite all of this the leftists and spies still couldn’t sway the majority of public opinion in Pyeongtaek against the relocation.  It is an encouraging sign that the South Korean love affair with leftism and anti-Americanism is slowly waning.

Slightly interesting article in the Korea Times about Bruce Cumings’ wife, a professor at the University of Michigan, being featured on ABC’s Prime Time Live. Here are some of her views regarding the Korean peninsula:

Woo expresses her passion for Korean studies in her praise of Korea’s potential.

“The country has excellent human capital with people so energetic and intelligent,’’ said the professor. “Korea had many geopolitical conditions starting in 1945 that had to be resolved before becoming a truly developed country.’’

“North Korea is undoubtedly an important country,’’ she said. “It can choose to be a country of peace and stability or go the other way and become a tremendous problem to East Asia and the world.’’

On the matter of the North’s nuclear detonation in October, Woo said, “It was unexpected because North Korea is always in a guessing game, but after the test took place, the anticipated thing was done.’’

I agree with her about South Korea, but she is kidding herself if she thinks North Korea as long as Kim Jong-il is alive, will ever be interested in “peace and stability”. Kim Jong-il brings in all the international aid money by being a threat. Plus he has to keep the US and South Korea as the boogeymen of the North Korean state in order to validate his juche ideology. So it isn’t in his interest to suddenly want peace. So that is why I say plan around them being a threat to the region for some time.

I can’t tell from the few above comments and I’m not saying she does, but I do wonder if she shares any of the views of her North Korea apologizer husband?

Taxi Cab Related Incident at Camp Humphreys, but it doesn’t involve GI’s this time.

From CNN:

What James Kim, 35, encountered searchers would later describe as rugged, steep, snowy terrain with sodden branches, slick rocks, downed trees and poison oak nestled between sheer cliffs.

Despite those conditions, authorities said, he covered an estimated eight miles before rescuers on Wednesday found his body in a ravine.

“It seems superhuman to me that he was able to cover that amount of distance given what he had and also that he had nine days in the car” before setting out, Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson said.

“I’m amazed,” searcher Robert Graham told reporters. “We spent hours down there and made very little distance. … The conditions were very rough. It’s been cold, the terrain is so rugged, just spending one day out here is very exhausting.”

Keep the Kim family in your prayers today.  More over at the Marmot’s Hole.