Allegedly and I stress allegedly, some undercover US news people may be out in Seoul this weekend trying to get film of US soldiers with prostitutes. Just be extra careful this weekend and watch your battle buddies. We all know these media vampires will ignore the 99% of soldiers doing the right thing this weekend and look for that 1% of knuckleheads.
Are the Norks about to put on an encore fireworks extravaganza for the US?:
South Korean and the U.S. intelligence authorities have detected suspicious vehicle movements in and out of North Korea’s major missile test site, a government source here said Sunday.
“Military intelligence officials have spotted movements by several large vehicles in the North’s Gitdaeryeong area,” the source spoke on condition of anonymity. “They don’t rule out the possibility that it is part of preparations for additional missile tests.”
North Korea test-launched six short-and medium-range missiles from the Gitdaeryeong site in its eastern coastal area, on July 5, along with a long-range Taepodong-2 missile from separate facilities.
If you haven’t already, check out this interview at The Korea Liberator with Chuck Downs who is a Senior Fellow at the National Institute for Public Policy. He seems to confirm much of the speculation in the K-blogosphere about recent developments in Korea. Mr. Downs is also taking questions on TKL, so if you have a burning question you would like answered by somenbody dealing with Korea in Washington, here’s your chance.
This is good news for the United States National Missile Defense Program:
The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency said it had successfully completed an important exercise involving the launch of an improved ground-based interceptor missile designed to protect the United States against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack.
The results will help improve the performance of a multibillion-dollar shield against an attack that could target a U.S. city with a weapon of mass destruction, the agency said in a statement.
Officially, the $85 million test was designed to collect large amounts of data rather than shoot down the target. But in a news release sent 24 minutes after the intercept, Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, the Pentagon’s missile-defense chief declared it a success, apparently even before the data could be analyzed.
Look for the US media to down play the results from the test because that has been the constant chorus by the US press that the system is to costly and a failure, not to mention President Bush has been pushing the system which only encourages the media to down play the NMD program that much more.
However, if this system is continued to be developed and tested this really decreases Kim Jong-il’s blackmail power against the US. Especially if USFK is withdrawn from South Korea. Without US troops in Korea, if Kim Jong-il decides to threaten South Korea with a nuclear strike, this threat would have no impact on the US. The South Korean government would have to solely pay the consequences of nuclear blackmail from North Korea. The South Korean government wants independent defense let them have it and enjoy it.
Kim Jong-il may not currently have the ability to strike the US which as evident by his failed missile test, but that doesn’t mean he won’t in the future, so a system to counter these limited missile attacks I feel is definitely in the US’s national interest.
First you have a Korean defense official saying the Korean government plans on reducing their yearly contributions to USFK and now the Chosun is reporting a Korean politician saying that the Korean government actually gives to USFK more than is reported:
The U.S. is refusing to acknowledge some US$300-400 million the Korean government gives to the U.S. Forces Korea every year, Democratic Labor Party lawmaker Roh Hoe-chan said Wednesday. The minor opposition party lawmaker came up with the figure by comparing materials from Korea’s Defense Ministry and the U.S. Department of Defense, concluding that Seoul in 2002 gave the U.S. Forces Korea US$1.19 billion which the U.S. recorded as $843 million. That is a difference of US$349 million. For the year 2000, the gap between the two calculations stood at 388.12 million and for 2001 at 316.57 million. “The Korean government counted the funds provided to maintain the Korean Augmentation To the United States Army (KATUSA) program, but the U.S. didn¿t, and there were discrepancies on real estate rental fees as well,¿ Roh said.
Roh also said the amount Seoul pays for USFK upkeep should decrease if the wartime military control is returned to Korea since the USFK¿s role will diminish as well. Ahead of negotiations on the handover of sole wartime operational control, the U.S. is instead asking for an ¿equitable¿ divvying up of the upkeep. Roh commented it would be ¿ridiculous¿ for Korea to pay more once it has sole control of its troops.
First of all KATUSA soldiers are ROK ARMY SOLDIERS, let me repeat, ROK ARMY SOLDIERS not US soldiers. That is why USFK doesn’t count what little the Korean government pays these soldiers, which is about $40 bucks a month, as contributions to the alliance.
The Korean government for some reason seems intent on keeping the Zaytun unit in Iraq for whatever reason:
The Korean military¿s Zaytun Unit stationed in the Northern Iraqi town of Irbil has decreased by 890 troops since its original deployment, the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Wednesday. Additional cuts of about 100 will bring their number down to 2,300. With their mission also to end in December, the Defense Ministry is looking into submitting a bill to the National Assembly to extend their peace-building mandate there.
Troops of the U.S.-led coalition will most likely remain in Iraq next year, and the Ministry of Defense is investigating how to keep the remaining Zaytun troops there until late 2007. A contingent of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force conducting reconstruction work over the last two-and-a-half years in the southern Iraqi city Samawah was completely withdrawn last month.
Send them home already, you can only install toilets for so long.
South Korea will provide free physical checkups for all its conscripts starting in 2008 as part of efforts to improve their welfare, government and ruling party officials said Thursday.
In their plan, the military and the private sector will establish a cooperative medical system, and a military medical center will be built to help research and education.
Shouldn’t the military being giving physicals to the soldiers to begin with? They act like they are doing these soldiers a favor for something they should have been doing in the first place.
Just for everyone’s info, I have updated the GI Korea albums, What I Like About Korea, What I Don’t Like About Korea, and Only in Korea. These albums continue to be popular with commenters, but just for the record just because I post something about things I don’t like about Korea that doesn’t mean I’m anti-Korean. There is a lot to like about Korea which I have also listed, but only a fool would say Korea is a perfect paradise on Earth with nothing wrong with it. I bring up things that I don’t like about Korea, not because I hate it but because I want to make it better than the great country it already is. If I was so anti-Korean why would I waste my time upkeeping this site? I spend the time upkeeping this site because I have a deep interest in Korea and try to provide a window into Korea from the perspective of a GI for people coming to Korea for the first time. I often receive emails from soldiers coming to Korea for the first time with questions and hopefully these albums and the archives of this blog helps others with their transition to Korea as well.
If you don’t agree with something in my lists feel free to comment and share your two cents, but at least try to keep it civil. You wouldn’t believe how many comments I have to delete because people go way over board with their language and slander of me, Koreans, Japanese, Americans, or whatever they have a grudge against. Enjoy.
Hat tip to Nomad for pointing out this dandy, Kim Kyu-hyun, a Defense Ministry official claimed on a radio program that the Korean government is going to try and reduce the amount they pay per year for the upkeep of USFK:
A senior National Defense Ministry official said Wednesday that Korea will try to reduce its share of expenses for keeping U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula in the upcoming negotiations with the United States.
Appearing on a KBS radio talk show, Kim Kyu-hyun, a Defense Ministry official in charge of international cooperation, attributed the move to the reduced size of the U.S. Forces Korea and increased burdens on Korea for financing the relocation of the U.S. Forces Korea headquarters.
Referring to reports that Washington wants to link Seoul¿s plan to regain wartime operational control with the defense cost-sharing negotiations, the official said that the Korean government has no intention of doing so.
This cost sharing issue may really end up being the straw that broke the camels back in regards to if USFK under goes a complete pull out from Korea. I find it totally hypocritical that a country that demands equality with the US won’t put their money where their mouth is. The Koreans are only paying 40% of the costs of USFK and want to pay less even though Donald Rumsfeld has already publicly said he intends for Seoul to pay an equal amount. The whole base relocation excuse for not paying an equal share is getting old because the South Korean government will make more than enough money to cover the relocation costs by selling the land from the vacated USFK bases being handed over to them. So much for being equal partners in peace.
If anyone thought the English teacher bashing in Korea recently was bad it is nothing compared to what is going in China. The Peking Duck reports about an internet man hunt currently under way in China to uncover the owner of this blog Sex in Shanghai who is an English teacher who had the audacity to blog about his sexual exploits with his students.
For months over at the China Blog List, I noticed that one blog always seemed to get good play, perhaps because of its curiosity-inducing name, Sex and Shanghai, and its subtitle, “Western scoundrel in Shanghai tells all.” I visted the site once, and that was more than enough. The last thing I need to do with my time is read an expat’s sex diary in which he describes in occasionally graphic detail his sexploitation of willing Chinese girls, many his former students. (The writing is excellent and the blogger offers some keen insights into the Chinese psyche, but all of that gets lost in the unending stream of pornographic reminiscences.)
China is still a conservative country, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that as this blog gained traction it would also gain controversy. So I read with great interest an account over at ESWN of how the Shanghai sex blog has been denounced by a Chinese blogger who’s also a psychology professor, leading to one of those famous Internet-generated “manhunts,” like the search for the deranged stiletto-heeled kitty killer.
Doesn’t this all sound familiar?
Anyway the translated portion of the said Chinese blog post announcing the man hunt can be read here. The site owner now being hunted down had this to say in response to the man hunt. What I found amusing in the comments sections in between all the comments wishing him death were the other comments bashing America and of course Korea. This guy is not even an American he is British and yet this has opened another forum to bash America. I’m sure this is only going to get more interesting.
Tags: china, english teacher
