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From the Stars and Stripes:

During a court-martial Thursday, Sgt. Luke S. Davis, Company A, 527th Military Intelligence Battalion, was sentenced on one count of maiming to eight months of confinement, partial forfeiture of his pay during that time and reduction to the military’s lowest rank.

Meanwhile, Pvt. Robert Kim of the same company and unit is anticipating more reconstructive surgery. He suffered second-degree burns over 15 percent of his body during a July confrontation with Davis, according to testimony and court proceedings.

Kim, who is Asian, has been counseled by his chain of command since the July 4 incident for his choice of words, according to court proceedings. Davis, who is white, said it was Kim’s racially charged story — which Kim testified was meant as a joke — that prompted him to lunge for Kim as he stood near a stove with a pan of hot water.

Read the rest of the article for the full story, but the whole incident was so stupid. By all accounts the SGT Davis was a good NCO, but let me tell you where he went wrong. First of all he was overly intoxicated which is never good and then secondly he was overly intoxicated and hanging out with lower enlisted soldiers. If you are an NCO you are putting yourself in a situation where nothing good can come from if you are overly intoxicated and hanging out with subordinates. Unfortunately for this NCO he has

It feels like 2000 all over again, when then Korean President Kim Dae-jung bribed his way to receiving a Nobel Peace Prize.  Now accusations are being made that the current Korean government is trying to bribe their way to winning the UN Secretary General position:

 India’s Shashi Tharoor’s bid for UN secretary-generalship may stand a chance with a report claiming that South Korea was spending millions of dollars in aid and offering other incentives to Security Council members to get support for its candidate Ban Ki Moon.

In its aggressive campaign on behalf of Ban, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the front-runner to succeed Kofi Annan, Seoul has been offering “inducements ranging from tens of millions of pounds of extra funding for African countries to lucrative trade agreements in Europe- and even the gift of a grand piano to
Peru,” The Times has reported.

Ban Ki-moon would actually be a perfect person to take the UN job because he is well trained obviously in corruption, overlooking human rights abuses, appeasing dictators, and bashing to US, which are all prerequisite skills for any UN Secretary General.   More on this over at TKL.

Former Mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung-bak promised a greener Seoul while he was mayor and delivered by constructing the Cheongyecheon stream in the middle of Seoul.  However, this public art work project recently completed in Seoul has got to be the worst idea of all his time as mayor: 

For South Park Fans out there, this thing looks like Mr. Hanky the Chrismas Poo with some food coloring:

 

Yes shit happens and this thing is definitely crap. This thing is so bad that the artist who made it would not even take credit for it:

With the erection of a 20-meter-high bright blue and red snail-like object called “Spring’’ over the stream,
Oldenburg appeared yesterday at the Chonggyechon to look over the work and to say it wasn’t really his idea. In an interview as he sat in a car by the side of the stream, Oldenburg gave credit instead to his wife and long-time artistic collaborator, Coosje van Bruggen of the
Netherlands.`‘We work on large-scale projects together and get a double billing, but it was Bruggen’s idea to use the shell form and Korean color scheme,’’ Oldenburg said. “She mixed the colors herself.’’

 So any other words, this ugly monstrosity is all her fault.  It is also so bad that the artist would not even come to
Seoul to see his creation:

Oldenburg and his wife visited Seoul only once in 1996 and said they had seen the Chonggyechon restoration only through television news and a videotape sent by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, an umbrella organization of the Seoul government.

He was more than happy to take the money though:

Oldenburg and van Bruggen were chosen for the $4 million sculpture last year by the former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak with advice from the state-run Seoul Museum of Art. The artists were paid $600,000, and $3.4 million was spent on production, with the entire cost paid for by telecommunication conglomerate KT.

More on this at the Marmot’s Hole

The worst kept secret of the US-ROK alliance is out:

 The Eighth U.S. Army command, which is in charge of U.S. ground troops stationed in South Korea including the core Second Infantry Division, is highly likely to be disbanded, it emerged Friday. Asked about the chances that the Eighth will be dismantled, USFK Commander Gen. Burwell Bell did not deny the possibility and indicated it will undergo a transformation. He said its role has completely changed to RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration) and is “radically different” than it was in the Korean War, when it served as fighting headquarters. Bell said no matter what decisions are made about the army’s future, they have nothing to do with conducting wartime operations on the Korean
Peninsula.

On top of this development if Korea wants to keep any presence at all the Pentagon is saying they better start paying their fair share:

 If Korea maintains its share in the upkeep of the U.S. Forces Korea at the current level, it will be unable to keep the number of USFK troops it wants stationed here,
U.S. defense department official Richard Lawless warned Wednesday. The Pentagon’s under secretary for Asia and Pacific affairs made the remarks at a hearing of the House International Relations Committee on Thursday, saying
Korea’s financial contribution is 10 percent short of what is required now. Lawless said the USFK was now being bled white despite already having shed excessive flab and some essential flesh. Korea and the U.S. annually renegotiate their share in the
U.S. forces upkeep and every year find it harder to narrow their differences.

 So the ball is really in the Korean’s court now because their amount of cost sharing is what is going to really determine how much of a US presence remains in Korea.   The Air Force will be staying though I think the recent compromise on the bombing range will be an issue again in the future.  Than as far as an presence General Bell made it clear that the only remaining combat troops on the peninsula the 2nd Infantry Division will be removed.  General Bell also made it clear that the mission of the US Army personnel that would be left in Korea would be for assisting the ROK in intelligence gathering and Reception, Staging, Onward Movement, & Integration (RSOI) or in otherwords support personnel responsible for maintaining the logistics chain of bases on the peninsula that would aid any US deployment of troops to Korea.  To train these logistics units left on the peninsula I see the military probably deploying Stryker Brigades and Marines to Korea on annual exercises to not only train the US support personnel, but also to maintain close contacts and training with the ROK Army.  Despite the political relationship between the US & Korea the military relationship has always remained strong and it is in the US’s interest to keep it that way.The current plan appears to be a solid one that would allow the US to free up more combat troops for world wide deployments while still keeping enough of a force presence on the peninsula to deter a North Korean attack.  Plus the remaining troops would be consolidated further south on Camp Humphreys and away from the DMZ and out of Seoul.  This moves all US troops outside of North Korean artillery range and out of the highly populated capitol city of Seoul. 

This plan will ensure continued US influence on the peninsula to ensure the stability of Northeast Asia overall.  There hasn’t been a war in Northeast Asia for the past 55 years because of one reason, the US military.  It appears Washington wants to keep it that way.  However, there is one wild card out there, the South Korean government.  Remember we may not have seen the last of the bombing range issue and the Camp Humphreys expansion hasn’t been completed yet either.  These are still issues that can flare up again that will require South Korean governmental leadership, and one thing that is in short supply in the current South Korean government is leadership. You can read more on this over at Nomad’s. 

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.