Category: Uncategorized

A Japanese court has forced the Japanese government to pay individual compensation claims to Japanese war orphans from World War II:

A court Friday ordered the government to pay millions of dollars in compensation to dozens of Japanese who, as children, were stranded in China at the close of World War II.

The 65 plaintiffs claimed the government was responsible for their delayed return to Japan and upon their return, had failed to provide adequate support to help them reintegrate into Japanese society. They were each seeking $285,000 in compensation.

The plaintiffs were the children of Japanese military officials, bureaucrats and private businessmen who were sent to settle in China’s remote northeast. They were left behind by their fleeing parents as Soviet troops closed in at the end of the war in 1945.

About 6,300 people came back after ties between the two states was normalized in 1972, including 2,500 who were under age 12 when they were abandoned in China, according to Health Ministry official Hayato Igarashi.

Raised by Chinese who adopted them, most of them were too young to remember their Japanese names or those of their natural parents. Only some have been able to reconnect with their families.

This ruling makes me wonder if a Japanese court could make the Japanese government at least apologize for their “comfort women” policies of World War II? It just seems like a way to settle at least one thorny issue between Japan and it’s neighbors.

It is about time:

The government and ruling Uri Party agreed Thursday to withdraw all South Korean troops from Iraq by the end of next year, government officials said.

The agreement was made during a meeting of party lawmakers at the National Assembly. Earlier, the party called on the government to set a specific timetable for the withdrawal of troops from the Middle Eastern nation in the first half of next year.

I have long felt that if the ROK Army was going to be allowed to do anything in Iraq than they shouldn’t be there. The ROK Army is great organization and it is a shame that they have been reduced to being global plumbers.

I’m not the only one who believe this way either, as at least one ROK Army officer agrees with me:

The original purpose of sending Korean troops there was to rebuild Iraq. But we went there and spent most of our time in maintaining our own living facilities. We are too withdrawn and I think it’s problematic. The people high up in the ranks are so concerned about our safety. For them, a safe return is more important than accomplishing anything.

I don’t know how South Korea’s sending troops has contributed to the national interest. I get the feeling that we didn’t offer something really useful for Iraqis. We did so for the sake of our national image in the outside world. American soldiers in Korea enjoyed a good reputation in the past because they gave chewing gum and chocolates to the locals. Perhaps my government is thinking about something similar. Personally, I believe that if we had sent actual combat troops to Iraq, we would have gotten a lot better deal from the United States.

I agree with the major that if the goal was reconstruction than the deployment was an absolute failure. The Zaytun unit couldn’t defend a USAID team providing direct reconstruction assistance to Iraqis, they couldn’t protect multiple South Korean aid convoys filled with expensive aid including computers that were meant for Iraqis that ended up being hijacked by criminal gangs, plus one car bombing in Irbil and 4 mortar shells kept the soldiers locked down on their camp for months doing nothing. How you do reconstruction when you can’t leave your camp is beyond me.

In fact the Mongolians have done more dangerous work in Iraq than the Koreans.

As I advocated before, the Korean government is going to simultaneously withdraw troops from Iraq and deploy troops to Lebanon:

The two sides also agreed to dispatch a battalion of 350 soldiers to Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission, as well as to extend the presence of medical and engineering units in Afghanistan for another year.

Don’t expect them to do anything in Lebanon though. The Korean government really doesn’t want to send troops there, but they have to since Ban Ki-moon is going to be the UN Secretary General and they want to save face for him. So look for them to find a nice peaceful area, preferably one with great internet access for Starcraft gaming, just like in Kurdistan, where they can base some troops who will do nothing, but it will appear that the Koreans are doing something; much like all the other UN troops in Lebanon.

So the only thing left for the Korean government to figure out now, is what kind of toilet seats are needed in Lebanon.

I want to emphasise that I have nothing against the ROK Army because I think they are a fine organization, I am just against the policy that makes them nothing more than a window dressing army. The ROK Army deserve better than that.

This is like something out of a low budget Korean crime flick:

A 26-year-old male IT employee known as Lee, enjoyed working alongside a 32-year-old woman identified as Park, and the pair began dating back in 2004. They were on again off again for a while, but in July of this year, Park confessed to being three months pregnant. Lee was in shock, as for the past two months he’d been seeing another woman secretly and had even promised to marry her. Lee asked Park to get an abortion, but she refused, leaving him in a deep hole. It was then that he decided having Park murdered was his best option and took up the search to find a willing hit-man on the Internet in October. Lee found the required serviceman and wrote him an email explaining that he should “Kidnap her and bury her in secret.” If the job was carried out successfully, the agreed price was W11million (US$1=W930). Lee borrowed W12 million from his new girlfriend telling her that he had his reasons.

However the hit man had a heart, and instead of executing the plan, he called Park and told her the whole story. The two put their heads together and came up with a plan of their own that would trick Lee into believing Park had indeed been killed. Park returned home and poured red dye on newspapers to resemble horrific blood shed, took a photo with her cell phone and sent it to the hired killer. With picture in hand the hit-man showed Lee that business had been taken care of and received his money as per their agreement. After getting an abortion, Park reported the incident to the police. Bangbae Police Station, Seoul, issued an arrest warrant for Lee Thursday and is in pursuit of the hired killer, who is still on the run.

This hitman sounds more like a clever conman.

I’ll have to see this to ever believe it. From the Chosun:

U.S. President George W. Bush told his South Korean counterpart he is willing to sign a document declaring the end of the Korean War with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il if Pyongyang dismantles its nuclear program. A diplomatic source in Seoul on Wednesday said Bush made the offer during a meeting with President Roh Moo-hyun in Hanoi, Vietnam on Nov. 18. “President Bush made remarks while talking about building a permanent peace framework on the peninsula,” the source said. “As far as I know, he made remarks to effect that he is willing to sign an agreement with the two Koreas.” That means Bush could meet with Kim, the source added.

I believe President Bush would be willing to sign a peace agreement with North Korea in exchange for dismantling their nuclear program, but I have a hard time believing he would actually sit down with Kim Jong-il and sign anything with him much less a peace treaty considering how much he despises the Kim regime. This is probably either sensationalism by the media or a product of mistranslation.

None of this matters anyway because Kim Jong-il has no intentions of ever giving up his nuclear weapons. Kim figured North Korea would get hit by increased sanctions, but China would keep the oil flowing and the South Koreans would keep the food and fertilizer coming in because neither country wants to deal with a collapse of North Korea. China doesn’t want a possible war or a humanitarian crisis to threaten their hosting of the 2008 Olympics and the South Koreans do not want to pay both the financial and social costs that reunifying with North Korea would cost plus the possibility of war would devestate the peninsula.

Plus Kim also figured correctly that he would be allowed to keep bringing in hard currency through North Korean weapons sales, counterfeiting, and other illicit activities without a naval blockade, which means that the Kim Jong-il regime will survive with more time to develop and perfect their nuclear weapons, while our political leaders aided by the irresponsible US media continue to play politics and blame each other for the crisis, which is just what Kim Jong-il counted on. He will keep playing the diplomatic game as long as possible to make it appear he is considering giving up his nuclear weapons, but he won’t because it is not in his interest to do so.

By keeping his nuclear weapons he ensures his regime’s survival, further consolidates power within North Korea by winning the domestic praise of his military for becoming a nuclear power, while simultaneously making the foreign aid coming into North Korea from neighboring countries appear to be tribute rather than the voluntary assistance that is keeping the country afloat. Kim Jong-il is playing his hand brilliantly. Anyone out there still think Kim Jong-il is stupid?

Just when you thought Bae Yong-joon’s hair couldn’t get any worse it does:

This picture pretty much sums up his fan base:

Can anyone spot one hot woman in that whole mob?

If you haven’t had enough of Cindy Sheehan, the Marmot has linked to this Z-magazine article from Sheehan concerning her visit to South Korea. The article is very badly written and I have to wonder who was the editor that let this thing pass, but anyway the article rambles on about nonsense in other parts of the globe, but I will keep my analysis on the Korean related content.

Prepare your stomach because here we go:

Miles before our bus reached the village on the evening of November
20th, we were stopped by approximately 200 South Korean riot-police who were decked out in their full riot regalia with bullet proof shields. We were traveling with Father Moon, an elderly Buddhist priest who has been an advocate for the villagers for a few years now. Father Moon got out of the bus and negotiated with the police captain for what seemed hours in the near freezing cold, but was only about 20 minutes. Finally, in what the villagers said was an unprecedented move, they allowed us entry into the village (after we passed another heavily guarded checkpoint). Villagers must present ID to get into their own village and visitors are rarely allowed to go in. Why? Because the village of Daechuri is under-siege in a criminal collaboration between the governments of South Korea and the United States of America and the governments don’t want the world to see what their crimes are doing to yet more innocent civilians.

First all, Ms. Sheehan those guards wearing Darth Vader suits aren’t doing so just because you showed up at Daechu-ri; they are wearing that equipment because your so called friends regularly attack them with sharpened bamboo poles, metal pipes, and rocks like this:

Or how about this:

Better yet maybe Sheehan should watch this video of her friends in action.

Then the fact that Sheehan thinks Father Moon is a Buddhist when in fact he is a Catholic Priest just goes to show how clueless she is about her so called friends in Korea. Sheehan then fails to realize the reason ID is shown to get into the village is because the North Korean sponsored anti-US groups had been squatting in the village for weeks before they were expelled by the South Korean police but only after they put up a violent clash and injured 117 policemen with their sharpened bamboo spears, metal bars, and rocks. Not to mention the fact her new Korean friends have links to North Korean spies.

Sheehan continues:

The village of Daechuri has the unmitigated gall to be located next to a US military base, Camp Humphreys, which is slated for an eleven-billion dollar expansion that would include a golf course for the use of
soldiers stationed there. The only problem is (not for the governments)
that the village of Daechuri and their thousands of acres of farmland,
mostly rice paddies, are in the way of the juggernaut of US military
expansion. The people of Daechuri have been cut-off from their farmlands by razor wire, guard towers, and armed foot patrols. Over two-thirds of the residents have the small village, but that leaves about one-third of them there to stand against the mightiest Army and the greediest government in world history.

First of all USFK is not expanding it is downsizing from 41 camps to 10 and reducing soldiers from 37,500 to 25,000 and I wouldn’t be surprised if the number goes even lower. Plus the Korean government is gaining the land from the closed US camps including some of the most valuable real estate in the whole country, Yongsan Garrison. The Camp Humphreys expansion is needed to make room for the soldiers being consolidated on the camp. As Sheehan even noted herself, the vast majority of the villagers voluntarily took the compensation payment and left. Plus the vast majority of Koreans support the Camp Humphreys expansion. 8 in 10 Korean are against the methods her friends are using to protest at Camp Humphreys while 7 in 10 Koreans support the base expansion.

More from Sheehan:

We heard stories of May 4th, when 20,000 Korean olice descended on the village with heavy-hands and strong arm tactics hat allowed the barbed wire fences to be constructed, thereby effectively cutting the farmers off from tens of thousands of dollars worth of un-harvested rice. We heard stories from village elders who lived through Japanese imperialism and occupation to the US Korean police action that killed 2.5 million Koreans, and are now having their lands and ways of life robbed of them by “Pax Americana.” My heart broke for the people of Daechuri and was filled with disgust for whom the people of Korea call “Georgie Bushie” and whom I call “BushCo.”

First of all watch the video I mentioned before to see why the Korean police had to forcibly remove the squatters that had taken over Daechu-ri. Plus the rice she mentions was illegally planted on the farmland by the squatters.

This paragraph here is the ultimate example of how incompetent and clueless this woman is about Korean affairs:

Not only is the expansion of Camp Humphreys hurting the people of
Daechuri, but it will have the effect of further de-stabilizing a region
already on pins and needles due parially to US intervention. You can bet your turkey left-overs that North Korea is watching these developments very closely and only the people of Korea and this region will pay for US infiltrations in South Korea. I know I don’t feel any safer by the raping and pillaging of Daechuri…in fact the expansion of Camp Humphreys will only do what Georgie Bushie is becoming infamous for: making America and the world less safe and secure. As an aside: I took a straw poll of about 400 South Koreans and 100% of them said that Georgie Bushie is far more frightening than Kim Jong-Il and they want the US out of Korea so they can put their divided country back together again.

Is this Cindy Sheehan’s attempt to be the next South Korean anti-Unification Minister? This paragraph is about as clueless as something coming out of Lee Jong-seok’s mouth. “US infiltrations in South Korea”? WTF is she talking about? Would she prefer that US soldiers remain within North Korean artillery range instead of a consolidated camp outside of NK artillery range and under the protection of PATRIOT missiles from ballistic missile attack?

By the way if you are still reading this without stomach pains congratulations, anyway here is more from Sheehan:

What can we do stateside to help these people? We can lobby our
congressional reps to hold hearings into the tragedy of Daechuri. We can donate money to help the villagers get fuel for heating their homes during the bitter Korean winter and to obtain food, since they can’t access their fields for harvest.

Now Sheehan is saying the villagers are can’t get food because they can’t access the fields they illegally planted. This is ridiculous and her final paragraphs are even more ridiculous:

I hope when Americans play golf on the golf course that will be
constructed over the rice fields that sustained and gave sustenance to the villagers for generations, they stop and reflect for even a brief
moment that an entire village was destroyed and hundreds of people were displaced for their recreation.

Golf! A village was obliterated for golf. If this is the “American way”
then we obviously need a new way, as speedily as possible.

The village was not “obliterated for golf”. The village was “obliterated” for the various reasons I mentioned above.
I feel bad for the residents of Daechu-ri who don’t want to move but this isn’t the first time imminent domain has been used in Korea for the national good and it won’t be the last. Sheehan and her friends would have a lot more creditbility with me if they went out and protested every imminent domain case in Korea every time a highway is built, KTX tracks constructed, or new shopping centers and apartments put up. Yet they won’t because none of that involves the US military.

Sheehan is a master propagandist and she demagoges issues in order to hit emotional cords in people. Her article is written to influence people emotionally while being very loose on facts, substance, and context. It just shows she cares more about leftist causes and promoting herself than she does understanding and making educated opinions about Korea, which has ultimately made her a useful idiot of the North Korean sponsored anti-US groups she calls her friends.

Maybe the Korean government was hoping the command transfer issue would be forgotten with the ouster of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld? They thought wrong:

The four-star army general stressed the need for a firm date for the transfer of operational control. He said that without a fixed date, the two militaries would not be able to draw up new joint war plans or secure military funding and equipment that would correspond to the changing military structure.

“It’s like rolling out new products. In about six months, that (fixed date) will give everybody a lot of confidence with regard to the ability of the alliance between the two countries,’’ said Bell, who concurrently serves as chief of Combined Forces Command (CFC) and United Nations Command (UNC).

He reaffirmed that the U.S. military would provide intelligence “bridging capabilities’’ centered on surveillance and reconnaissance assets to the South Korean military if needed even after Seoul exercises independent wartime control of its armed forces.

This is really reaching a point of absurdity that the Korean government has yet to agree on a date for the hand over considering President Roh said the ROK Army could take operational control now if needed. As I have speculated before, President Roh is trying to drag out the handover to where it is implemented well after he has left office and any economic and political reprecussions he will have successfully avoided.

Maybe it is time for the USFK commander to issue an ultimatum like General Garry “Give Me My Damn Bombing Range” Trexler did in order to get a command handover date. It is sad when threats and ultimatums appear to be the only way to get major issues settled between USFK and the Korean government.

Via Lost Nomad, Cindy Sheehan has resurfaced once again, now in Time Asia. You will need a strong stomach to read all this:

Why are you in South Korea?
I was invited by several peace groups and farmers from Daechu-ri to help them with their [campaign against] U.S. military-base expansion. I think a lot of areas would be more stable if the U.S. military presence wasn’t so overwhelming; we have 700 bases around the world. I think [U.S.] military expansion is out of control and rampant militarism is responsible for my son’s death, as it is for taking away the land from these people in this village.

What do you hope to accomplish in South Korea?
Most people here think George Bush is a greater threat to stability than Kim Jong Il. Our goal is to go back to America and be the voice of the people in South Korea. We also want the people here to know that not even the majority of Americans support George Bush.

Do you want the U.S. to get out of South Korea?
I think that’s what the majority of South Koreans want. Our government in the U.S. is demonizing North Korea. People in South Korea see the North as their brothers and sisters. [They] want reunification, but don’t believe that will happen while the U.S. is here.

Read here and here where I have already debunked her claims about US military expansion and militarism in South Korea. I do have to say I’m amazed she at least knows who Kim Jong-il is. I bet she would fail the advanced quiz if I asked her who Kim Il-sung is or what year the Korean War started.

Anyway her last comment just shows how incompetent she is about the situation on the Korean peninsula. I guess she believes her two days in Korea hanging out with North Korean sponsored leftists makes her an expert on South Korean affairs. The US is the one who wants unification more than the South Korean government and people do. South Koreans will always say they want unification but just not anytime soon if it means they cannot drive a Hyundai, buy a 12th story apartment, or take their vacations to Guam anymore because of the cost of rebuilding North Korea.

President Bush’s North Korea policies are designed to isolate and collapse the regime while the South Korean policies are designed to prop up and prevent the collapse of the regime. She also fails to realize that according to her North Korean sponsored leftist friends, they want the US to leave Korea so unification can happen on North Korean terms. If that happens I just hope Sheehan is there at the DMZ to welcome the North Korean troops. Sheehan is clearly a useful idiot.

Is President Roh on the verge of quitting? Let’s hope so:

President Roh Moo-hyun said Tuesday that he hopes he would not become the first head of state who resigns before his tenure expires and did not rule out the possibility of cutting ties with the governing Uri Party

The embittered president made the bombshell remark in a Cabinet meeting at Chong Wa Dae, apparently out of his deep frustration over offensives from both governing and opposition parties and the media.

He said he would be forced to quit the party he founded after winning in the 2002 election, if he has “no choice but to do so.” Roh’s five-year term ends in February 2008. He is banned from seeking reelection under the Constitution.

As much as I would love to see President Roh quit, I would be really surprised if he did it. I think Roh is trying to distance himself from the Uri Party which currently has a popularity rating 8.8% compared to the opposition GNP party rating of 44.3%. He may be thinking that his own low popularity rating of 11% is caused by his ties to the Uri Party. If he could cut ties with them than maybe his own popularity rating will increase. However, I think what he doesn’t realize is that his own unpopularity has more to do with own incompetence than ties with the Uri Party.

Read more over at Lost Nomad and the Marmot’s Hole.

I gripe about the Korean media quite a bit when it comes to GI crime stories and the wonders of kimchi but really the US media is much worse. Flopping Aces has the run down on the recent Civil War in Iraq^TM and the information being published about it from our worthless professional journalists from the MSM. The published articles might as well be coming from Hezbollahwood.

HT: LGF