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This is actually quite surpising considering the South Korean government’s past policies of being North Korean apologists:

Seoul has for the first time decided to support a UN resolution on North Korea’s human rights abuses when it comes up for the vote in the UN General Assembly. The government has been absent or abstained from votes on resolutions condemning the rights situation in the Stalinist country, three times in the UN Commission on Human Rights between 2003 and 2005 and once in the General Assembly. “We expect that the decision will contribute to promoting human rights as a universal value in North Korea,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday but added, “We will maintain the principle of reconciliation and cooperation toward the North and make continuous efforts to bring about real improvements in the human rights situation there including food issues.”

Don’t read too much into this because this vote was only to save face for newly elected South Korean born UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. I don’t expect anything of any substance from the South Korean government to materialize that would actually promote human rights in North Korea. Like One Free Korea I remain very skeptical about these UN Human Rights resolutions when these international diplomats show more outrage about false accusations by terrorists of Korans being flushed down the toilet at Gitmo than about the slow, starvation, and murder of hundreds of thousands of North Koreans.

More over at the Marmot’s Hole as well.

As you can tell there has been light posting here due to being out of the loop for the past two weeks but regular blogging will resume once again. A lot has actually happened the past two weeks.

I’m glad I had no access to TV or the internet the past two weeks so I didn’t have to listen to the congressional election nonsense. Hopefully sanity will return to the US media now that the election is over and the Democrats won. The results may actually be a good thing if the Democrats don’t turn the next two years into nothing but revenge politics. Now that they are in control of Congress they now have to play a constructive role on issues such as Iraq instead of doing everything possible to criticize and undermine.

I for one seriously doubt the Democrats will force a withdrawal of troops from Iraq like many of them and their opponents claimed during the election run up. A US troop withdrawal followed by the evacuation of the Green Zone that brings back images of the fall of Saigon would be political suicide for the Democrats. Americans don’t want to lose the war in Iraq they just don’t like the status quo where it appears the US is losing. So look for a bunch of talk to happen about changing strategies but I really don’t expect any grand change in strategy besides what the US is already doing, which is training Iraqis and handing over areas of responsibility when ready. If the politicians really want to help they need to get the Iraqi government to allow the US military to go after Sadr and his thugs.

A great thing that happened just this past week was that Secretary Rumsfeld was removed. It was about time. Rumsfeld actually did some good things shaking up the Pentagon and as Robert mentioned his USFK policies were very sound, but he has out lived his usefulness because he has pretty much alienated himself from the military leadership at the Pentagon. I think President Bush actually kept him around this long just because he didn’t want to be seen as caving into Democratic demands, but he definitely needed to go and the election results gave the President the cover he needed to get rid of him.

Also as Nomad pointed out, this blog was mentioned in the Korea Times in a rather badly edited article but thanks none the less to the author for mentioning this exactive duty soldier who operates the GI in Korea site.

Then:

1955 marketplace

Now:

Modern day marketplace

Then:

Now:

I don’t know about everyone else out there but I don’t like the new CAC system:

The new IDs feature a hard-to-copy blue background instead of white and have an additional watermark-type print to thwart would-be forgers.

In addition, Dixon said, the chips embedded in the cards will contain digital photographs, digital fingerprint scans and other identifying information to help officials make sure the person carrying the card is actually its lawful holder.

Plans for which employees or servicemembers will see the first new sets have not been announced, but eventually everyone will get a new card when their old one expires. But, Dixon said, no one will have to turn in their old cards before they expire.

The reason I don’t like the CAC system is that to access your computer at work or even your Army AKO E-mail account from home you need to have a CAC reader to put your card into. What happens is that at work people forget their ID card in the reader and then go off post for lunch and can’t get back on post because their ID card is sitting in the CAC reader. I can’t remember how many times people called me to go and get them signed in on post because they forgot their ID cards in the reader. Maybe it is just me.

The media loves to manufacture scandals and here is the latest scandal courtesy of the Washington Post, that the US is planning pre-emptive war against North Korea:

In light of North Korea’s nuclear test, the United States and South Korea have agreed to develop a new contingency plan to take military action against North Korea in scenarios short of North Korea attack or in response to a catastrophic “collapse” in the North.

The new revised plan – CONPLAN 5029 -focuses on preemptive action to thwart North Korean moves involving potential export of weapons of mass destruction.

Pentagon sources confirm that the new plan will be the first joint U.S.-South Korean plan to take action against North Korea even if the North does not invade or attack the South first.

The article is implying that the US is planning some kind of pre-emptive war on North Korea. However, it is a CONPLAN not an OPLAN. A CONPLAN is a non-detailed plan for possible US military contingency missions. If the Pentagon wasn’t drafting a CONPLAN for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea they should be considered derelict of their duties. They probably have people drafting up CONPLANs to invade Iceland much less North Korea.

Now this latest pre-emptive strike “scandal” even caused USFK commander General B.B. Bell to have a press conference to put an end to the speculation that the US is planning to invade North Korea:

The general, who took command of the 29,500 USFK servicemembers in February, said the U.S. military here is under no orders to implement a specific nuclear strategy or pre-emptive strike plans in response to North Korea’s nuclear test last month, Bell said, disputing local news reports to the contrary.

Instead, both the U.S. and South Korean military continue to position weaponry and manpower as deterrents against any invasion and to prepare in case provoked by the North, Bell said.

“We’re in the business of deterring through strength, and should deterrence fail and North Korea attack, to quickly and decisively defeat the aggressor, which we will do and, trust me, we’re quite capable of doing,” Bell said.

This is what the Washington Post columnist had to say in response to General Bell’s press conference:

Groundless. No intention. Our business. Preemptive strike. Is Gen. Bell merely parsing words to calm the political water in Seoul? He may say that Combined Forces Command has neither plan nor intention and in this he is probably covered by fact. But the general ignores what he knows to be the web of preemptive plans and options developed not only in Pacific Command’s CONPLAN 5029, in unilateral U.S. plans (including parts of 5029) developed elsewhere, in other preemption possibilities falling under programs like the Proliferation Security Initiative and even in actual unilateral preemption plans of other commands, such as U.S. Strategic Command.

It is silliness like this from the media that is partly to blame in my opinion for the crappy post-war planning in Iraq. Here is what I think happened. Before the Iraq War the Pentagon couldn’t go into in-depth post-war planning because then it would have looked like that the administration had made up it’s mind to go to war. The media would have gotten wind of this because of all the Pentagon leaks. So post-war planning was put on the back burner because the US government was still trying to convince the international community that the US was exploring all options to avoid war and OPLANs for a post-war Iraq would have signaled that the US was fully committed to war.

So it is with a sense of irony that the same media that has been bashing the military over not doing enough prior planning before the Iraq are now criticizing the military over prior planning to deal with possible North Korean war scenarios. But really the media is just being the media by causing controversy and inflating threats to sell papers. The real problem here are the leakers in the Pentagon who gave the Washington Post the information that they were working on CONPLAN-5029 to begin with. No leakers would mean no controversy, which would mean Generals like B.B Bell would have less headaches dealing with this stupid stuff.

Yet with all the leakers in the Pentagon, who is the Pentagon going after and trying to shut up? Milbloggers. Go figure.

Joong Ang Ilbo is reporting that the leader of the spy ring once served in the US Army:

The Seoul Central District Public Prosecutors Office and the National Intelligence Service said Mr. Jang had joined the U.S. military in 1989 when he was a permanent resident of the United States and served at Yongsan Garrison, the headquarters base of U.S. Forces Korea, for four years. He obtained U.S. citizenship in 1993. They accused him of having paid his first visit to North Korea in 1989, just before joining the U.S. Army. He allegedly traveled there again in 1993, joining the North Korean Workers Party that year.

Mr. Jang is suspected of having operated as an undercover agent for Pyongyang since then, the prosecution and intelligence service sources said. In 1997, he was said to have organized a group of former student activists targeted at gathering information from members of political parties and civic groups.

It will be interesting to see what legal action the US government would be able to take against this guy in regards to he had to have lied about his North Korean ties in order to enlist into the Army not to mention whatever espionage activity he may have been part of at Yongsan. If President Roh tries to stop the investigation it will interesting to see if the US pursues it instead.

HT: One Free Korea

North Korea continues to be full of surprises as the six party talks are back on:

The U.S. and Chinese governments announced Tuesday that North Korea agreed to rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, a surprise diplomatic breakthrough that comes only three weeks after the communist regime conducted its first known atomic test.

The agreement was struck in a day of unpublicized discussions between the senior envoys from the United States, China and North Korea at a government guesthouse in Beijing. The U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said the six-nation negotiations could resume as early as November or December.

“We took a step today toward getting this process back on track. This process has suffered a lot in recent weeks by the actions the DPRK has made,” Hill told reporters afterward. DPRK stands for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.

The agreement is one of the first signs of easing tensions since North Korea conducted the underground detonation on Oct. 9, defying warnings from both the United States and Japan and its staunchest ally, China.

With the six party talks back on, North Korea now has less cards to play as they have already conducted missile and nuclear tests.  They are playing with a much weaker hand but I don’t think they really have any intention of cutting a deal.  This seems more like a face saving measure for China.

The North Korean spy scandal in South Korea continues to get interesting as the Korean National Intelligence Service Chief who resigned in the wake of the spy scandal is accusing the ruling Korean government of trying to influence the investigation of the North Korean spies:

National Intelligence Service chief Kim Seung-kyu said the case involves long-serving North Korean spies. “I suspect this case is about a North Korean spy ring,” he said. “It is shocking to see.” Kim, who resigned Thursday, said an intensive one-month investigation confirmed the charges raised against the five already arrested. “We are investigating additional suspects in the case”. Asked who will succeed him, Kim told the Chosun Ilbo it was “very important” who becomes the next NIS chief. “Some of the candidates are unsuitable due to concerns that they tend to do what [politicians] want them to do. Considering the presidential election next year and the operations of the NIS, the right candidate would be politically neutral and have a global view and knowledge,” he said.

The former NIS chief’s comments has drawn a strong reaction from President Roh Moo-hyun’s Uri Party:

Uri Party lawmakers who object to the investigation say the case tarnishes the entire generation of ex-student activists and say the probe is politically motivated. At Monday’s audit of the Justice Department, they laid into the NIS. Uri lawmaker Kim Dong-cheol raised suspicion that the NIS is intentionally leaking information about the case to the press. Rep. Lee Jong-kul alleged the investigation was planned for ulterior motives. “The suspects say that the case is a setup by the NIS, and a thorough investigation should determine whether that is true.” Im Jong-in, another Uri lawmaker, protested against Kim’s definition of the investigation as a “North Korean spy ring case,” “It’s inappropriate to define the case that way when the suspects just met a few North Koreans,” Im said.

Things are playing out as I suspected with the Uri Party trying to minimalize the damage from this spy scandal by blaming conservatives for framing them. The NIS chief did a great job with his comments, in making it politically difficult for President Roh to put one of his Uri Party stooges into the NIS chief position like he has with other sensitive governmental and national security positions in order to squash the spy scandal.

What is even more incredible is that the liberal party at the center of the party the DLP are making a trip to Pyongyang in the midst of this spy scandal:

The Unification Ministry ignored protests from the National Intelligence Service and the Justice Ministry in permitting members of the Democratic Labor Party, some of whose leaders are under arrest on spying charges, to visit North Korea on Monday, it has emerged. The NIS called the permission “inappropriate” when the ministry sought the agency’s views. A former and current DLP leader are being held in a spy ring case involving former student activists of the so-called 386 generation now close to the centers of power.

Justice Minister Kim Sung-ho told a parliamentary audit Monday his ministry advised the Unification Ministry not to give the green light to some applicants who had criminal records for violating the National Security Law and remain under police watch. Those who violated the National Security Law include DLP chairman Moon Sung-hyun and lawmaker Roh Hoe-chan.

A Unification Ministry official said the ministry gave the go-ahead nonetheless since it considered the visit an exchange between North and South Korean political parties and expects the DLP to act responsibly as a party registered in the National Assembly. An NIS source said it was “incomprehensible” that the ministry gave permission when former and incumbent party leaders are under arrest and the investigation continues.

This is absolutely incredible that officials in the ruling government are allowing DLP members to go to North Korea in the midst of this spy scandal investigation. What are they doing up there, getting their stories straight from their Nork handlers for when they are questioned by the NIS when they get back?

Courtesy of One Free Korea, DLP is saying they are going to North Korea to ask Kim Jong-il if he had anything to do with the spy scandal within their own party! I’m not making this stuff up:

The Democratic Labor said, “As for the suspicions of spying, we will speak directly to the North to verify or disprove them.” The Democratic Labor Party will ask about the ”386 spy scandal” when its leaders visit North Korea between October 30th and November 4th.

The DLP said, “Kim Jong Il already promised not to spy on us at the 2000 meeting with Kim Dae Jung. So they will check this and find out what the real story about this spy scandal is.”

I wonder if Kim Jong-il is going to be able to keep a straight face when these people ask him if he has been using them for spies? I agree with One Free Korea, I smell Chewbacca Defense all over this one.

The best way I can describe this, is if high ranking members of a political party in the US Congress were suspected of spying for let’s say Iran and then that party is allowed to send members to Iran to consult with the mullahs over there and ask them if they have been using their political party as spies, all with the approval of the President. This all sounds absurd right? Well, this is exactly what is going on in South Korea right now.

Yeah, really:

Tonight’s “John Ziegler Show” on KFI 640AM in Southern CA played a clip from Senator John F Kerry’s appearance at Pomona College with candidate Phil Angelides, Democrat for CA governor.

At the event, Kerry had this to say about our brave military volunteers:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Once again these are the same people who say they support the troops, not the war.