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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.

Then:

Kyongbukgung Pavilion in Seoul, 1971

Now:

Kyongbukgung Pavilion in Seoul Today

Richardson from the The Korea Liberator has a good article posted over at the Asia Times, titled South Korea Must Choose Sides.  He is right about that, but I don’t see South Korea doing it any time soon as long President Roh is in power.

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.

With the 5th anniversary of 9/11 coming up are there any kooks who still think Bush, the CIA, or the Jews committed 9/11 after Bin Laden himself has released a video tape with him meeting with some of the 9/11 hijackers prior to the attacks:

For the first time, a video has been released showing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden meeting with suspected terrorist Ramzi Binalshibh, purportedly as they prepare for the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to Al-Jazeera, which aired the tape Thursday.

Binalshibh is a Yemeni who allegedly admitted a role in planning the attacks. He was among 14 al Qaeda operatives that President Bush on Wednesday said had been transferred to the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (…)

The video aired four days before the fifth anniversary of the attacks that killed almost 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

CNN was unable to independently verify whether the video, made by al Qaeda’s production company, Al Sahab, was made in 2001. But two of the men seen on it — Hamza Alghamdi and Wail Alshehri — were hijackers who died in the suicide missions.

Alghamdi was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center; Alshehri was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the North Tower.

Al Qaeda military commander Mohammed Atef, also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri, also is on the tape. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2001 in a U.S. missile strike.

Many of the faces in the video are pixelated to hide the men’s identities.

Let me guess the excuse will be that the CIA digitally created the tapes in a conspiracy with Hollywood to blame Bin Laden for the attacks.  Anyway the conspiracy theories are getting old and I wonder if people are still going to take the ridiculous Loose Change theory seriously after Bin Laden has released this tape taking credit for the attack with footage with him with the hijackers.  I can picture Bin Laden in his cave pissed off that the American leftists have been so successful in blaming Bush for ordering 9/11 when in fact he did it thus ordering the release of a tape with pictures of him with the hijackers to counter the leftists.  However, the American left is so unhinged that even this won’t change their minds from the belief that Bush ordered 9/11.

Is there any doubt the hand over will be 2009?:

The commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, Gen. Burwell Bell, said Thursday that South Korea will be able to exercise independent wartime operational control of its forces by 2009.

¿If a decision by our governments is made to proceed now, it is my military assessment that such a transition can be achieved, with assured continued deterrence and war-fighting readiness, over a three-year period of focused organizational activity, training and exercising,” Bell told a forum at a Seoul hotel. “This could result in executing the transition to [Korean] independent command in the year 2009.”

But in reiterating the Pentagon target of 2009 just one week ahead of the Korea-U.S. summit in Washington on Sept. 14, they augur tough sailing for Korea’s bid to take sole troop control only in 2012.

General Bell is making it pretty clear I think that the hand over will be 2009 and South Korea better start now trying to figure out how they are going to get ready for it:

Bell again stressed issues he raised in a talk to the National Assembly on July 13: the need for concrete decisions on the scope of U.S. military support after the transfer, U.S. contributions to ground operations, changes in the Korean government’s wartime goals and command relationships and the UN Command’s role.

Bell said the answers to these questions must be worked out before the change in the command relationship, adding that because it would be impossible to exercise military power in an effective way if these issues are left unclear, it is critical that solutions are drafted early to avoid chaos.

The general’s message appears to be that Seoul must be clear in advance whether its objective in the event of an invasion by the North would be to restore the present borders or advance to Pyongyang and overthrow the North Korean regime. Currently, under Operational Plan 5027 of Combined Forces Command, the goal would be to push back the line north of Pyongyang, crush the North Korean regime, and institute a military administration there.

It will be interesting to see if the South Korean government will be willing to make public proclamations that they would invade and occupy the north if attacked.  I know it is pathetic, but that is the state of the current South Korean government, they don’t even know if they would be willing to invade and occupy North Korea if attacked.  2009 will be here before they know it, they better make up their mind real quick.

I like Chinese food as much as the next guy, but this is ridiculous:

Fighting tooth and nail: Members of civic groups tear the Chinese flag in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, Thursday to protest China¿s claims that ancient Korea originated from China. Beijing recently claimed Mt. Paekdu, the highest mountain on the Korean peninsula, as its own as it lighted sacred fires for the 6th Winter Asian Games on Wednesday.

More on the flag biters exploits here and here.

The last Korea Finder people had some difficulting answering so this week here is one that should be easy to answer.  Who can name this building?