Category: Uncategorized

The Korean economy has dropped to the 12th in the world when measured by GDP and may fall even further if current economic trends continue:

Korea has been overtaken by Brazil to settle in 12th place worldwide in terms of GDP. After ceding 10th place to India in 2004, Korea has again slipped down the ranks. ¿Korea in the World as Seen through Statistics¿, an annual report published by the National Statistical Office on Monday, says Korea raked 12th with GDP rising 15.7 percent from the previous year to US$787.5 billion in 2005. Brazil, which ranked 15th in 2004, saw its GDP jump 31.8 percent to come in 11th place with a GDP of $796.1 billion. While Brazil improved its economic status by four notches since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in early 2003, Korea took two steps down after the Roh Moo-hyun administration came to power.

The country will find it hard to cling to 12th place too. Mexico in 13th with $768.4 billion is stagnating, but Russia in 14th with $763.6 billion and Australia in 15th with $708.1 billion are coming on strong. Russia lagged behind Korea by as much as $201.4 billion in 2002, but the gap narrowed to $23.9 billion last year.

Global GDP Rankings

Let’s see the economy is dropping by GDP measurements, economic growth is not meeting expectations, household debts in Korea are at all time highs, and the Korean tax payer is about to under take the burden of a huge tax increase of nearly $500 per person due to the war time control transfer.  What does this all mean?  It means sell the Hyundai stock quickly.

Before anybody gets up in arms over this lawmaker’s attempt to go after low quality English teachers, read the article first:

The gist of the contemplated bill, initiated by Rep. Lee Joo-ho of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), is the “three-out system¿¿ under which English teachers who fail to meet the average score for annual English training three times in five years would be transferred to other jobs.

“Teachers¿ capabilities are a prerequisite for the success of English education,¿¿ Lee, a member of the Assembly¿s Education Committee, said during a debate on English language education in the country at the Assembly last week. “Simply speaking, how are you going to expect students to speak English fluently if their teachers cannot speak English well?¿¿

Lee, however, said those having excellent results would get incentives such as opportunities to study in a foreign nation for a year under the bill, modeled after a teacher¿s licensing system in Japan.

I agree with what the lawmaker is trying to do, instead of complaining about the bad foreign English teachers he is trying to improve the quality of ethnic Korean English teachers.  As expected the Korean

However, many education experts agreed in principle to Lee¿s idea but question the effectiveness of the “three-out system.¿¿

“I think the so-called three-out system is progressive enough to provoke teachers¿ opposition,¿¿ Lee Hye-joo, vice schoolmaster of the Sungkwang Elementary School in South Chungchong Province, said during the debate. Lee also heads an association of English teachers in the provinces.

He said the measure has a problem in terms of fairness if such strict rules apply only to English teachers, adding that it also could significantly hurt English teachers¿ pride and honor.

Ah yes, improving the quality of English education given to students in Korea is not as important as a Korean teachers “honor”.  Anyway it sounds like a good idea, it’s a better plan than declaring a jihad against foreign English teachers.

UPDATE: The Korea Times now has an article up about the current controversy surrounding the memorial and of course they do their best to keep the mythology around the incident alive:

The focal points of the yearlong investigation into the shooting were whether U.S. troops fired on Koreans who were not moving toward U.S. lines and whether North Korean troops disguised as civilians hid themselves in the refugee group.

An estimated 100 to 300 Korean civilians were killed in late July 1950 under a bridge near the town of No Gun Ri, North Chungchong Province, by U.S. troops who believed that communist North Korean troops had infiltrated and blended in with refugees streaming south.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning story was initially reported by the Associated Press in 1999 and later expanded into the book, “The Bridge at No Gun Ri: A Hidden Nightmare from the Korean War.”

First of all it is proven through forensics and witnesses who were there that there were enemy weapons fired from the bridge.  It is unclear if they were North Korean soldiers or not, I believe it is more likely they were South Korean communist guerrillas.  Secondly it has been proven that 100-300 civilians could not have died at No gun-ri for a variety of reasons.  The biggest reason is where did all those bodies go?  Thirdly no mention in the article about how the Pulitzer Prize winning story was based on falsified testimony and evidence from people who were not even at the scene.  To make matters even worse the writer of the article knew before hand that the key witness in his article was probably unreliable, but went ahead and published the story anyway.  There were Pulitzer Prizes to think about, who cares about the facts.

Once again promoting the mythology to slime Korean War veterans is more important than the actual facts.

Read my entire series on No Gun-ri based on facts and draw your own conclusions

 Original Posting: It looks like the money set aside by the US government to establish a memorial and compensate the victims of the No gun-ri tragedy will go unused:

A special U.S. budget to construct a monument commemorating South Korean refugees massacred by American forces during the Korean War will likely evaporate soon amid discord between victims’ groups and the U.S. government, Korean officials said Wednesday.

In 2001, the U.S. drew up a US$4 million budget to formulate a scholarship for South Koreans and build a monument in an apparent apology over the U.S. military’s mass-killing of South Koreans approaching their lines at Nogun-ri, a rural village in central South Korea, in the early weeks of the 1950-53 conflict.

I love the Yonhap’s articles wording of “massacred” and an “apparent” apology.  I don’t consider No Gun-ri a “massacre”, I consider it a tragedy because the soldiers at No Gun-ri did not maliciously decide to kill civilians.  There was a number of factors that led to this tragedy and using a term like a massacre only feeds into the anti-US mythology built around this issue.  The “apparent” apology Yonhap writes about was in fact a real apology that was given by President Bill Clinton himself in addition to the money to build the memorial and establish yearly scholarships for the offspring of victims from not only the No gun-ri tragedy, but all civilian victims of the Korean War.

Like many issues in Korea, it is all about the Benjamins.  The No gun-ri families originally demanded the absurd amount of $400 million dollars in compensation for the incident.  The US government designated $1 million for a memorial and $500,000 per year for scholarships.  Since they didn’t get the amount of money they wanted, they claim the apology from President Clinton wasn’t sincere enough and the compensation money not sufficient though the compensation money would be enough to put all their kids through college.  I guess getting hard cash for you to buy a new Hyundai and a vacation to Guam is more sincere of an apology than agreeing to put your kids through college?

By the way where is the apology and cash settlements from the many more South Korean civilians killed by the North Korean and Chinese armies during the war?

If the US government agreed to a massive payout of hard cash than that would set a precedent of many more claims, some real, some imagined from people looking for a pay day.  The apology, memorial, and scholarship fund open to anyone who can prove they lost a civilian family member during the war in my opinion is a sufficient amount of compensation.  However, I am sure many will continue to demand compensation for what happened an Nogun-ri.  My response to this is that the loss of 32,000+ American lives during the Korean War and 55 years of peace, stability, and remarkable economic growth made possible through the ROK-US alliance is more than enough compensation to South Korea.  There is nothing more valuable to a country than their youth, and America gave the lives of 32,000 of their youths plus the ten of thousands of more wounded to give a country no one even heard of before a chance at a better life free from communism.

What bothers me so much about the Nogun-ri criticism in particular, by the Korean media is the effort to down play the significance of the US military in the Korean War because some people feel the US did not have noble intentions in defending Korea during the war and should not feel a debt of gratitude to the US for saving Korea. Creating a stereotype of these veterans as war criminals is just another way to slowly degrade the Korean public’s image of America.

What is further troubling is that many of these veterans from the war are passing away and cannot defend themselves as this new revisionist history is being created about them. It is a shame and no one seems to be speaking out against it. That is why I found it so important to educate people about Nogun-ri and hopefully restore some honor to the Korean War veterans that have been tarnished by this tragedy by both the US and Korean media.  I just hope that fair minded people will give Korean War veterans a chance to restore the honor they have lost by the unfair reporting, sensationalism, and politicization of this tragedy.

 Note: I highly recommend that everyone not familar with the No Gun-ri tragedy to read my series of postings on the incident to really understand what happened on that day in July 1950.  My postings rely on facts and not the mythology put out by the media and charlatans involved in this incident.  Read the facts and draw your own conclusions.

Rarely do I agree with anything from the Korea Times, but this editorial about the need to return Korean troops from Iraq is actually quite accurate and supports what I have been saying since the troops deployed:

First of all, there is not much for the Korean soldiers to do in Irbil, the Kurdish autonomous state. Contrary to some media stories, the local police, not Korean soldiers, are maintaining public security. The engineering corps of the Korean unit, called Zaytun, is bent on either maintaining Korean compounds or supervising construction works done by local firms. Its medical team has only dealt with the minor complaints of residents, according to soldiers and civilians familiar with the local situation.

We are not belittling the struggle of the Korean troops who are trying to contribute to a bilateral friendship and improve the nation’s image there. In sum, however, the Korean troops seem mostly to be killing time. The government’s keyword is safety, meaning Seoul wants to maximize the Korean troops’ stay and have minimum casualty. And their latest excuses for cementing Korea-U.S. ties are the ongoing negotiations to take over the wartime operational control and bargaining for the free trade agreement.

The Korea Times though just couldn’t help themselves and made sure in the last paragraph they took a cheap shot at the US:

After all, this has been an unjustifiable war from the start, as most U.S. analysts now point out. The time has long past for Korea to pull out from the war triggered by the U.S. invasion based on its own strategic interests. The only thing left is to make the process as smooth as possible.

Most people back in the 50’s thought the Korean War was not a justifiable war too ending Truman’s presidency and Eisenhauer being elected president because he promised to end the war, which he did with the ceasefire in 1953.  Plus who are “most US analysts”?  The ones leaking to the New York Times?

The Camp Casey 2nd Lieutenant charged with sexual assault has been convicted and sentenced:

An Army second lieutenant was sentenced at a court-martial on Tuesday to one year in jail for sexually assaulting a private and making a false official statement afterward.

Second Lt. Phuong Quach of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 302nd Brigade Support Battalion also will forfeit his pay and be dismissed from the Army after serving his sentence, military judge Col. Gregory Gross said.

One year in jail may seem a bit light, but the lieutenant is going to have a federal conviction on his record and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.  In actuality he will be paying for his crime the rest of his life.

Folks living off post will need to purchase AFN satellite service in order to watch NFL games this year:

Military members who live off base must buy AFN satellite service if they want to watch NFL action this year, officials announced during an Area II radio town hall meeting Monday.National Football League games will not be broadcast on American Forces Network’s Prime Pacific-Korea because about 50 South Korean cable companies intercept the signal and offer it as part of their paid service, according to Lt. Col. Michael T. Lawhorn, commander of American Forces Network-Korea.Lawhorn, in a phone interview later Tuesday, explained that the problem boils down to broadcast rights and referred to a statement from American Forces Radio and Television Service headquarters in Riverside, Calif.“Scheduling sports on AFN Prime Pacific continues to be problematic because many events are restricted from over-the-air broadcast in
Korea by the distributors,” according to the statement. “In addition, there are currently more than 50 local Korean cable companies that are illegally pirating our programming from the over-the-air broadcasts of AFN Prime. Adding more sports to that channel jeopardizes our already delicate broadcast rights negotiations.”

Here is another option for those who live off post and are die hard NFL fans like myself.  You can sign up for a whole season of NFL games over at Yahoo Sports with the NFL Game Pass for $250.  This service is worth every penny if you are a true NFL fan.  You can either watch the games live or watch them later like I usually do because the NFL games air so early morning or during working hours in the Korean time zone.  With this service you will never miss a game.   

UPDATE:  The Chosun has an article today about US Assistant Secretary of State Christoperh Hill saying that President Roh briefed President Bush that Korea would send troops to
Lebanon:

President Roh Moo-hyun told U.S. President George W. Bush that Korea is willing to take part in multilateral peacekeeping operations in Lebanon, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Wednesday, prompting hot denials from
Cheong Wa Dae. In a speech on the second day of “Korea and the United States 2006,” a security conference jointly sponsored by the Chosun Ilbo and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, Hill said Roh agreed in the bilateral summit on Sept. 14 to pitch in, adding Korea will dispatch a fact-finding team to the battered nation. Roh told Bush Korea would first dispatch observers to investigate the situation on the ground, and the U.S. president welcomed the idea, according to Hill.

 None the less the debate over what troops to send to
Lebanon continues:

Nonetheless, the government is said to be mulling whether to send an infantry or engineer battalion to join the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, and will determine the size of the contingent after the fact-finding team to be dispatched next month completes its work there. “The government thinks it is reasonable to send one infantry or engineer battalion to
Lebanon, and no more,” a government source said, depending on what the team reports back. If the government decides to send an infantry contingent, who could take part in actual fighting, it may ignite a debate about their safety much like the one that greeted Seoul’s decision to send troops to
Iraq.

I bring it up again, who is going to disarm Hezbollah exactly? 

Here is a chance for Korea to show their relevance in the world, but much like the United Nations itself that any Korean force would be part of, I suspect that the Korean government will much prefer irrelevance than actually displaying the moral courage to do the right thing for the people of Lebanon by sending combat troops to disarm Hezbollah.  If a government does not have the political will to take casualties than do not send your forces to a war zone.  

 What will be most interesting will be once a flair up happens again between Hezbollah and Israel, which it will if Hezbollah is not disarmed, these same countries sending token, face saving forces to Lebanon will be the first ones to condemn Israel for defending themselves. 

Original Posting: Like the Iraq mission for the ROK Army, if the Korean government is not willing to be a relevant force on the ground than don’t send your soldiers to a war zone:

 South Korea is planning to send a survey team to Lebanon next month before deciding whether to contribute troops to U.N. peacekeeping forces to be stationed there, a government official said Thursday.

“There was a U.N. request for us to dispatch troops to
Lebanon,” the official told Yonhap News Agency by telephone. “We basically abide by our principle of joining the United Nations peacekeeping operations.”
South Korea is currently discussing with Lebanon when to send the survey team, the official said, asking that he not be identified.

With everyone willing to contribute surveyors, logisticians, engineers, naval support, communications specialists, port operators, etc., it just makes me wonder who is going to disarm Hezbollah as the UN Resolution that ended the war between Hezbollah and
Israel stated?  Korean surveyors and Bangaladeshi fork lift drivers?  I don’t think so.   Once again the United Nations is showing itself to be irrelevant in stopping world conflicts.  Does anyone doubt that in the future Hezbollah will again spark violence against
Israel if they are not disarmed?  Hezbollah will continue to spark violence as long as Korean surveyors are sent to disarm them.

This is just wrong if true:

A second lieutenant plied a 19-year-old male private with drinks and then sexually assaulted him, the private testified at a court-martial Monday at Camp Casey.

Second Lt. Phuong Quach, of the 302nd Brigade Support Battalion’s headquarters company, pleaded not guilty to the following three charges:

• Failure to obey an order for his alleged role in serving the underage private a series of “Jell-O” shots made with soju and doused in Bacardi 151, a high-alcohol rum.
• Making a false official statement by denying assaulting the private to investigators.
• Conduct contrary to “good order and discipline” for sexually assaulting the private.

The guy is of course innocent until proven guilty, but considering the number of s

This headline in the Chosun today I find to be misleading:

Crisis Time US Troop Reinforcements Lack Readiness

The title is just preposterous to begin with because there is not a more highly trained and ready force in the world right now than the US Army with the amount of experienced hard combat veterans in the force now.  Secondly the article goes on to say that two of the four brigades from the US military that would respond to a crisis on the Korean peninsula do not have equipment because they left it all in Iraq:

The Times quoted division commander Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, as forecasting what might happen in a sudden call to combat, “I’m confident two of the four brigade combat teams would say, ‘O.K., let’s go,’ ” General Lynch said in an interview. “The Second and Fourth Brigades would say, ‘O.K., boss, but we’ve got no equipment. What are we going to use?’ So we’d have to figure out where we’re going to draw their equipment.”

Yes the two brigades do not have equipment, but that is why there are prepositioned stocks of equipment sitting in classified locations in Korea, so soldiers from the states can be quickly flown into Korea and use the prepositioned equipment to quickly become involved in combat operations in Korea.  If the soldiers in the US had to load their equipment on boats to respond to a crisis on the Korean peninsula; the war would be over before the boats ever arrived.

This is just another case of either sloppy reporting or sensationalism in the Korean media over the US troop control hand over issue.