Category: Uncategorized

The above quote is from this Donga article:

Some 30 tanks belonging to a mechanized unit of the army suddenly stopped all at once on September 4 while moving toward an antitank artillery firing range in Gangwon Province. It was because some 50 local residents blocked the road with their cars, tractors and cultivators in protest against causing damage with accidental firing and noise.

Officers of the armed unit repeatedly tried to convince the local demonstrators, it was no avail. The troops could finally manage to get into their drill field after much ado with the help of the police.

An army unit even had to go back to their camp in mid-June in the middle of shooting exercise from an artillery drill field in Gyeonggi Province due to a fierce demonstration from local residents.

No this is not a US Army unit being hindered by angry locals; it’s the ROK Army:

The air-to-ground firing range of the U.S. Air Force in Korea is recently drawing great public attention due to an ultimatum-like remark from Lieutenant General Gary R. Trexler, commander of US 7th Air Force Air. However, the Korean public is showing no interest at all in their own military’s difficulties in securing training areas.

“Although the government decided to spend 300 billion won ($300 million) out of its budget to solve the problem of the U.S. air force’s firing range, training conditions of our military are becoming worse due to shortage of the budget and opposition from local governments and residents,” an official of the military said. “Some residents take very extreme or dangerous measures during a protest. Some just lie down in front of a tank heading towards a firing range or try to enter a range without permission.”

With the US presence down sizing and possibly leaving the peninsula all together, expect locals with an axe to grind and the North Korean sponsored NGOs to turn their attention next on the ROK Army. The problem the ROK Army has, is that they can’t make ultimatums to take their forces and go home like the US Air Force had to do to get a piece of training land because they are already home.

When the Korean government allows groups to show no respect for the US military in Korea by storming camps, attacking soldiers, tresspassing on training lands, delaying training, etc.; it shouldn’t be a surprise that groups begin to show the same disrespect for the ROK Army as well.

The beer war between OB and Hite beers is about to enter a new area of competition, Light Beer:

South Korea’s second largest brewer Oriental Brewery Co. has launched a lower-alcohol beer in an attempt to increase its market share in the lucrative Korean beer market.

According to local reports, Oriental’s new product will hit the shelves at 4.2% abv, well below the alcohol level of 4.5% that is the norm for beer in the country.

Currently, Oriental Brewery Co has 40% of the market, while its big competitor Hite has the remaining 60%, and Oriental sees its new product as offering an unusual point of difference. But the country’s market leader seems unlikely to follow the lower-alcohol route.

“Lowering the [alcohol] level is meaningless,” said an official at Hite. “We do not plan to develop a new product with a low alcohol content.”

I have to agree with Hite that I really don’t think less alcohol in beer will encourage more Koreans to drink your beer.  People in Korea drink to get smashed and light beer doesn’t help in that endeavor.  Though “Hite Lite” does have a ring to it.

I hope this goes better than last year’s Hwang fiasco:

South Korea is battling the effects of an ageing population, plans to spend more than 20 million dollars over the next 10 years to discover the secrets of eternal youth.

The investment is aimed at keeping older people economically active for a longer period to compensate for the country’s rock-bottom birth rate.

By 2016, the Ministry of Science and Technology plans to inject 19.8 billion won (20.6 million dollars) to fund local scientists developing age-defying technologies.

“The money — 2.2 billion won every year — is not enough to stop a declining population but useful to make our society healthy,” said Cho Seong-Chan, a director of the ministry’s technology department.

“This will also help South Korea become a superpower in the biotech industry, which is regarded as our future source to earn foreign currency,” he said.

I have a better idea, how about coming up with ideas that encourage families to have children such as a cash incentive per child and reducing the costs of education in Korea as well?

The Joong Ang Ilbo has a good article comparing the sizes and capabilities of both the ROK Army and the North Korean’s People’s Army.  So can the ROK Army defend South Korea without help from the US?  Yes, but there is a catch:

 “Their experience and the sheer numbers alone make up for what they lack in quality,” Mr. Kwon said. “For instance, there is probably less automation, but an artillery unit operated by experienced soldiers is still deadly and they have many of them.” He cites examples in Germany, saying that after reunification in 1989, West Germany inspected former East German troops who were to be integrated into West Germany’s forces. Although the East was no economic match for the West, the Westerners were surprised to see that their former adversaries’ equipment, although old, was well-maintained and fully operational.
Mr. Kwon said that another balancing factor is the long mandatory military service requirement in North Korea, whose troops typically serve five to ten years in uniform, and even longer for the North’s special forces. The term of mandatory military duty in the South is two years. That, he said, made the average North Korean soldier the equal of a non-commissioned officer here in terms of experience. Currently, the North fields 1.1 million troops against South Korea’s 680,000. Seoul has a 3-million-strong reserve force, while North Korea’s reserves number 7.7 million.
Mr. Kwon estimated that based solely on conventional arms, South Korea has about 85 percent of the combat ability of the North; he says the republic’s Air Force is at a par, the Navy stands at 90 percent and the Army 80 percent of the North’s capabilities. He was using, he said, a formula in which weapons and units are assigned a point value based on their perceived combat effectiveness.
That, Mr. Kwon continued, would be adequate for South Korea to defend itself effectively.

According to this expert the ROK Army can independently defend South Korea.  However, here is the catch, geography:

 “If you trade space for time to gather your strength while exhausting North Korean forces as they move deeper into South Korean territory, and plan to deliver a knockout punch later once sufficient force levels have been built up, what we have now is enough,” he said.
But that’s probably not acceptable, he noted, because of an inconvenient point of geography. Seoul, the nation’s capital and with its environs home to almost a quarter of the country’s population, sits only about 30 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone. Trading Seoul for time would be a psychological as well as economic blow, and a more active defense strategy would be needed. Then, he said, the South would need a combat power superiority of at least 50 or 100 percent over the North.

This is where the loss of US military is going to be felt in South Korea.  Yes South Korea probably could win a war against North Korea, but at what cost?  The country would be completely devestated after any second Korean War that to say that South Korea won the war would be ridiculous when the whole country and society are in ruins.   The winner could be China who may see an opportunity to come in and pick up the pieces after a second Korean War.

South Korea doesn’t have the overwhelming combat power to completely deter a war with North Korea which makes a war more likely.  The loss of USFK on the Korean peninsula will greatly effect the national security on the peninsula despite what the Roh Administration claims.  Nothing is going to stop the transfer of wartime control or the possible reduction of USFK troops yet the Korean government acts like it is nothing to worry about.  They can’t even settle the bombing range issue yet much less build the ROK Army to the point of overwhelming combat power to completely deter any possible North Korean attack and protect the country from an unnecessary level of destruction after any war.  Hopefully the next elected President of Korea will take national defense more seriously because as Nomad pointed out this train has already left the station.

It is not what you think.

HT: Japundit 

I didn’t know making toilets was considered being at war:

Anti-war groups said they planned to gather about 1,000 protesters for a march through downtown Seoul Saturday to press their demand for the withdrawal of all Korean troops from Iraq.

The protesters will also oppose any plan by their government to contribute to U.N. peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, because doing so would be tantamount to tacit support for Washington’s Middle East policy, the organizers said.

They will also oppose the planned relocation of most of the 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea to an expanded base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, by 2008.

I love this quote from a protester in a seperate Yonhap article:

“It is time that they come home. They’ve completed the stated mission of securing order in Irbil. It was only wishful thinking on the government’s part that the deployment will help solve pending issues between Seoul and Washington, including how to deal with North Korea’s nuclear weapons program,” Kong Sun-gyung, chief of the peace establishment center at the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, said Thursday.

“Securing order in Irbil?” There was never a problem of keeping order in Irbil to begin with. Plus you have to leave the base in order to restore order anyway which for the most part the Zaytun unit does not do. Having personally been to Kurdistan, the area is by far the safest area in Iraq. This is the area where the US military has R&R facilities set up and troops traveling through the area do not need to wear body armor or helmets. I absolutely loved Kurdistan and it’s people while I was there.

Hanging out on a compound making toilets in the same area where the US military goes for R&R leave is not what I consider going to war.

Here is another money quote from the anti-war crowd:

“The South Korean government has lost its cause for having troops there, and has failed to win practical gains in return for the deployment,” Kong said, noting that the U.S. has not acted in ways to benefit South Korea in its dealings with North Korea, while no economic benefits have materialized in Iraq.

Is that what the Zaytun mission is all about, what Korea get’s out of it? Not about helping rebuild an area that has been repressed by the Sunni Baathist Saddam Hussein regime for decades? What Korea get’s out of it, according to this guy, is more important and since they aren’t getting as much out of it as they thought, it is time to bring them back home.

I have been from the beginning skeptical of the Zaytun mission because I believed that if the politicians don’t have the stomach for casualties than don’t send soldiers to war zones because the US needs soldiers that can help restore security and rebuild Iraq, not political symbols. The Zaytun unit was originally going to be deployed to the city of Kirkuk and be given operational command of the zone, which would have been considered quite an honor to the ROK military because only Britain and Poland controlled zones outside of the US military’s control. This undoubtedly would have built closer US ties with Korea much like what Poland and the US now have from their involvement in Iraq.

However, since the Korean government had no political will to take casualties, which they most certainly would have if they accepted the Kirkuk mission, they instead opted for the friendly Kurdish area instead and kept their soldiers for the most part confined to the camp. This in turn made the Korean presence in Iraq irrelevant and any perceived political and financial gains from the US irrelevant as well. So maybe the protesters are right, maybe it is time to come home.

UPDATE: Here is a great link from Budaechigae about what a former Zaytun officer thinks of serving in Iraq:

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.

Let me make it clear I have no problem with the ROK Army because I think they could handle increased responsibilities in Iraq. However, as this officer describes, if they are not allowed to do anything because of the lack of political will, than bring them home.

Over at You Tube they have a bunch of great soju commercials and video clips that all fans of of Korean soju should feel compelled to check out.

First start with this classic 1959 soju commercial.  Could you imagine if this commercial aired today, there would be people out there complaining that soju was being promoted to kids.  Than compare the 1959 commercial to a modern day commercial.
Than check out the Disco Sojus, followed by the Soju Girls, then of course there is always the classic Soju Mama if you haven’t seen that yet.
HT: TKL

A topic of some debate in the media is how the coup in Thailand would effect the tourism industry that is so critical to Thailand’s economy.  Well we may have an answer, for the first time a coup has become a tourist attraction itself.

Here are a couple of Joint Security Area (JSA) links for you.  First of all here is a Stars and Stripes report on the monthly training of the US security battalion located at the JSA.  The second link are pictures from John McCrarey of his trip to the JSA.  He has some pretty good pics of the place for those who have never seen the place before.  By the way if you live in Korea and haven’t done a JSA tour yet, what are you waiting for?

It looks like the US bombing range issue is reaching a point of no return:

The U.S. Air Force stationed in Korea has threatened to withdraw if the dispute over a shooting range for U.S. jets isn’t resolved in one month.

Speaking at the Gyeonggi provincial government office Thursday, Air Force commander Lieutenant General Gary Trexler said the U.S. might have to deploy its forces outside the Korean Peninsula.

The deadline for the ultimatum is October 20th, which is the date when the bilateral Security Consultative Meeting opens.

The U.S. Forces Korea is known to have informed Seoul’s Defense Ministry that overseas training is inevitable if it’s not provided an in-country practice range.

The ministry’s plan to install an automatic shooting score converter at a shooting range on Jikdo Island off the west coast has faced strong local opposition.  

Just another issue along with the troop control handover that can ultimately lead to the end of the US-ROK alliance.  I can’t imagine that the US would leave ground troops in Korea without having air cover from the US Air Force.

HT: Nomad