From Yonhap:
The Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said Thursday he will work again to mediate in the dispute between North Korea and other nations over the communist state’s nuclear arms ambitions, South Korean officials said.
Gaddafi made the remark in a meeting here with visiting South Korean Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook, her officials said.
“The Libyan leader also said he has made efforts to mediate in the dispute over the North Korea nuclear issue, but without a tangible result,” Han’s chief spokesman Kim Seok-hwan told reporters.
Libya ended decades of international isolation and sanctions after it denounced terrorism and agreed to dismantle its nuclear program in 2003. The United States normalized ties with the North African country three years later. Many experts agree Libya serves as a model for the policies North Korea should adopt.
I’m sure if Gaddafi agreed to give Kim Jong-il $186 million dollars he could sponsor a North-South summit and win a Nobel Peace Prize too. Then again the $186 million price is in year 2000 dollars so with inflation the actual going price for the Nobel Peace Prize may be more than $200 million now.
Don’t laugh terrorist Yassir Arafat won a Nobel Peace Prize too.
The Thailand military has just overthrown their Prime Minister:
Thailand’s army commander ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a military coup Tuesday night while he was in New York, circling his offices with tanks, declaring martial law and revoking the constitution. A military spokesman said army Commander-in-Chief Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin would be acting prime minister.
Sondhi, a Muslim in this Buddhist-dominated country, is known to be close to Thailand’s revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
An announcement on national television signed by army Sondhi Boonyaratkalin ordered all troops to report to their duty stations.
A senior army general, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said the armed forces chiefs were meeting with the king to discuss forming an interim government, suggesting it would probably be led by civilians.
Hopefully, the US government will come out and condemn this coup. No matter how bad or corrupt the Prime Minister is, removing a leader should be handled by following the processes in the Thai constitution. If the US doesn’t condemn this coup it may give ideas to the militaries of other US allies, such as South Korea who also currently have a deeply unpopular leader with a 14% approval rating, that maybe a coup isn’t a bad idea. In Korea’s case this would be devastating for US interests in the ROK because the leftists would instantly blame the US for orchestrating a coup in order to stop the war time control hand over. This would make a martyr of President Roh which is the last thing Washington wants. The US should make it clear that any coup in Korea would lead to the instant withdrawal of US forces from the country.
Once again doing my part to help the Korean government:
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I have been out of the loop for the last ten days due to my increasingly busy day job. When blogging about Korea missing ten days causes one to fall way behind on events because as those who follow Korea know, a lot of crap can happen in ten days in Korea, and the past ten days has been no different.First of all Robert Neff has an interesting article in the Korea Herald which was cross posted on the Marmot’s Hole about the disinterment of foreign graves in Seoul:
The Latin expression ?requiescat in pace? or ?rest in peace? is a prayer for the repose of the dead, but for many of those buried at the Foreigners? Cemetery in Mapo-gu, their continued peaceful rest is uncertain.
There is mounting concern among members of the foreign community about the future sanctity and security of certain graves at the Yangwhajin Foreigners? Cemetery. Those not classified as missionaries face the possibility of being disinterred, or possibly even worse, having the grave markers removed and the ground put to other use.
At the center of the controversy is the 100th Anniversary Church (HAC), which claims to be the caretaker of the almost 550 graves containing the remains of missionaries, diplomats, soldiers, businesspeople and expats from 16 nations.
This is pretty sickening but really not surprising when one considers the rate of development in Seoul that proceeds at all costs, even it means building over the bodies of some foreigners. There are more than 67 American soldiers, State Department and contractors and their families buried in this cemetery and one of the mentioned targets of possible removal were American soldiers and their families. Hopefully the attention brought to the issue by Mr. Neff will cause the US Embassy to get involved in this issue.
Another recent issue was the latest US soldier shenanigans in Uijongbu. The video of the incident doesn’t look good, but there wasn’t much context in the video of what happened. Since this will most likely go to a Korean court the soldiers will be found guilty no matter what the circumstances are because in Korea GI’s are guilty until proven guilty. Anyway, the soldiers involved will not have much money to buy anymore alcohol once they have to make their “blood money” payments to the bus driver and passengers. It will be most interesting to see if the soldiers receive jail time for this incident. From personal experience I do have to say from riding the buses in Uijongbu quite frequently that I have never had any problems with the bus drivers and found them quite nice unlike their taxi cab counterparts in Uijongbu. So I tend to think that bus driver did no do anything to instigate an incident, which the Uijongbu taxi cab drivers are well known for. As a general rule that I advise GI’s in Korea with, is that being drunk and public transportation don’t go together. These guys are about to find that out the hard way.
Nomad has linked to a Stars and Stripes article where the bus company manager didn’t seem to troubled by the incident after receiving a USFK compensation payment for the damages:
The manager said he couldn?t understand why the case had garnered so much media attention. ?Drunk Korean male passengers are generally making a far bigger commotion and violence on the bus, twice a month on average,? he said. ?The last time I saw U.S. soldiers disrupting this bus company was two years ago. ? It is a very rare case for the U.S. soldiers to be involved in this turmoil.? The soldiers were singing loudly when they boarded the bus, before they began breaking the door, the manager said. No one was hurt and the soldiers have formally apologized to the company, the manager said.
I wonder if that quote ever got printed in a Korean language newspaper?
Then in further news Dokdo II is happening this time with China, Kim Dae-jung is officially unhinged, while another Uri Party lawmaker shows his true colors. Then who can blame the world’s worst kidnappers for kidnapping her, the Camp Humphreys expansion is actually beginning with no violence so far, and more prostitution “crackdowns” from Korea’s keystone cops. Same old, same old news from Korea.
A little known hike that may be of interest to some is up Godaesan Mountain in northern Gyeongi-do province. The views from the summit of this mountain provides a bird’s eye view of the entire Chorwon Valley. This valley during the Korean War was known as the “Iron Triangle“. By hiking up Godaesan mountain you can get a great view of the Iron Triangle yourself not to mention a look into North Korea if it is clear out.
Click Here to read the complete entry and see photo album.
For those who thought that the change in the Marine Corps drinking age from 21 to 20 for Marines stationed on Okinawa would be a prelude to change for soldiers stationed in Korea as well, will be sadly disappointed:
U.S. Forces Korea officials said Thursday that the drinking age for its personnel is 21 ¿ and it¿s going to stay that way.
¿USFK is not considering a revision of the current policy,¿ spokesman Dave Oten replied via e-mail when asked whether the command planned to mirror a new U.S. Marine Corps policy announced Thursday for Okinawa and Japan.
Lt. Gen. Joseph F. Weber, commander of Marine Corps Bases Japan, lowered the drinking age for his troops from 21 to 20 effective this coming Monday. Marine officials said the change ensures the Corps¿ policy is consistent with Japanese law and that the Marines will be treated like other U.S. servicemembers and the Japanese public.
Here is the common complaint from US soldiers about the drinking age policy:
Pfc. Cristin Baughman, 21, was 19 when she first arrived in South Korea.
¿It¿s all about personal responsibility,¿ said Baughman, of Area I headquarters company. ¿There are plenty of people over 21 who can¿t handle their alcohol, just like people under 21 ¿ is a year really going to make that much of a difference?¿
Yes, it does make a difference. Despite all the hoopla over taxi cab related incidents, USFK servicemembers statistically have been much better behaved overall since the drinking policy was raised to 21 years of age. It is the same reason why E6’s and below will not be given back their driving privileges as well, because by percentage DUI’s dropped dramatically in USFK. It is a fact of life that certain demographics cause more incidents than others. This is not your daddy’s 1980 Korea anymore; today in Korea these incidents have strategic consequences for the alliance overall due to the increased media attention and public demagoging of these incidents by opportunistic South Korean NGO’s and politicians.
So to answer the young soldier’s question, yes that one year does matter.
This is actually a good precedent, which more US allies should take advantage of:
For the first time, an entire South Korean military unit is being sent to the United States for a training exercise, Ministry of National Defense officials confirmed Thursday.
South Korea’s 24th Forces Chemical Battalion is headed to Maryland to train with the U.S. Army on eliminating weapons of mass destruction, MND spokesman Maj. Joo Myoung-soo confirmed Thursday.
Joo discounted local media reports claiming the training was connected to heightened tensions with North Korea following recent missile tests.
He said this type of training has been conducted several times, though it¿s the first time an entire unit is headed to the States. The goal is to exchange education and training programs between the allies, he said.
The US has great training facilities and US allies should take advantage of every opportunity to train with US forces that they can get. Imagine going to the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, CA for example and your unit having to do link up and integration with a US allied military into your units war plan. That is great training in itself much less the world class tactical training that training centers like the NTC specialize in.
