Category: Uncategorized

This really isn’t surprising:

Japanese teenagers are more familiar with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il than his South Korean counterpart President Roh Moo-hyun, a survey says. Kengo Ozu, a member of Japan’s History Institute of Teachers, announced the results of his survey on the image of South Korea among middle and high school and college students in Japan at an annual seminar on history textbooks about South Korea and Japan. He asked a total of 236 — 91 third-year middle school students in Chiba Prefecture, 76 first year high school students in Kanagawa Prefecture and 69 students at universities in Tokyo what they know about South Korea.

When asked who the president of South Korea is, four middle school students (4 percent), 12 high school students (16 percent) and 42 college students (61 percent) gave the correct answer. But among middle school students, five answered Kim Jong-il, one more than had the right answer. Asked, ¿Who is the current leader of North Korea?¿ however, 95 percent hit the jackpot. Ozu said this was because the issue of Japanese abduction victims and other negative reports about the North deeply imprinted the image of ¿Kim Jong-il, the tyrant¿ in the minds of Japanese people.

Considering the threat Kim Jong-il poses to Japan and the attention he is given because of it, this really isn’t surprising.  I’m willing to bet more American students would know who Kim Jong-il is compared to the President of Mexico.  Actually who is the President of Mexico this week?  Is there still three of them?

Anyway this is something I found interesting from the survey:

he survey also revealed that respondents believed Korea to be ¿stubborn and graceless¿ in dealing with Japanese territorial claims to the Dokdo islets and felt Japan ¿made a mistake by invading the nation, but I can¿t understand why it educates its children to hate Japan. They also felt nationalist movements in Korea are pretty similar to those of Japan¿s past.

Korea is never going to budge on the Dokdo issue and I really can’t blame Koreans for being “stubborn and graceless” on this issue though there is a difference between “subborn and graceless” and just plain silly like many Koreans and the government appears to be at times with some of their antics over the Dokdo issue.  However, it is good to see that many students realize Japan made a mistake invading Korean though I wonder what exactly they think the mistake of invading Korea was?

It looks like the Korean government is backtracking again on the base clean up issue:

Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said Monday South Korea would not take over three U.S. bases waiting to be transferred unless the bases are cleaned of environmental damage.

Earlier this month, South Korea took over 15 U.S. bases that went through proper environmental restoration. However, the United States also handed over three other bases reportedly with polluted underground water.

“We will thoroughly scrutinize the environmental clean-up progress at the three bases in accordance with the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA),¿¿ Yoon said at a press briefing.

“It¿s true that we¿re now in charge of the security of the three bases, but there have been no official documents exchanged between the two countries over the transfer process,¿¿ he added.

I’m curious if USFK can just sell the land to a Korean business instead of giving the land for free to the government?  That would end this controversy real quick.

Well, not really, but we do plan on bombing it!:

UNITED States bombers will pound a test range in the Northern Territory this week, practising the pinpoint strikes they would use on targets such as nuclear weapons sites, missiles or terrorist bases.

The bombers will fly non-stop from their base on Guam and back, and be refuelled in the air by American planes operating out of the RAAF base in Darwin.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said it was important for Australia to work more effectively with its major ally to meet new threats, including those from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

This has triggered speculation that the planes, which can carry nuclear weapons, could be practising for targets in so-called rogue states, such as North Korea or Iran.

Is this a prelude to where Osan AFB planes will one day be conducting bombing practice at, instead of Korea?

The ruling Uri Party in Korea never misses a chance to blame the Japanese and Americans for whatever the topic of the day is in order to distract attention away from their own incompetence as a ruling government.  Well now that attention is focusing once again on the Americans after USFK handed over 15 vacated camps back to the Korean government:

The governing Uri Party plans to conduct an Assembly investigation into negotiations between Seoul and Washington over the sharing of environmental cleanup costs for U.S. bases to be returned to South Korea, party officials said Friday.

The decision came as South Korea last week accepted 15 U.S. military facilities where the U.S. military had pulled out underground fuel storage tanks and removed groundwater fuel contamination after 18 months of disagreements about the base return process.

Under the land swap pact struck in 2004, the United States Forces Korea is required to hand over 59 bases to the South Korean government.

But some lawmakers and civic groups denounced the agreement by which South Korea has to cover most of the costs for decontaminating soil estimated at $420 billion.

Let me get this right.  These guys are going to investigate the decision they made as the ruling government to take back the land from USFK just last week?  Is there any doubt what these guys will “uncover” in their investigation?  They are sure to “find” that the US has bullied Korea once again in order to drum up anti-Americanism and Korean nationalism in order to bolster their own abhorent polling numbers.  It makes me wonder if they already had the “investigation” completed before the even decided to agree to the hand over last week.

The big question in all of this is if the Korean public is listening to the bozos in the ruling party anymore.  If the polling numbers are any indication they are not.

This won’t make the Blue House happy:

An American activist group on North Korean human rights plans to build a settlement facility for North Korean defectors to the United States, a revamped version of one in South Korea, a U.S. broadcaster reported Saturday.

“‘Hanawon’ is not exactly the best resettlement program out there. So…we’re going to set up a version of that here in the United States to help facilitate these North Koreans to resettle here in the U.S.,” Adrian Hong, head of LiNK (Liberty in North Korea), said in an interview with Washington-based Radio Free Asia.

Hopefully LINK can continue to expand the aiding of North Korean refugees with or without help from Seoul.

Speaking of North Korean defecters, they may being coming to a CD near you sometime soon:

Although their debut album has not been released yet, the Dallae Music Band is already upbeat, hoping to hit it big. The five-woman band, all North Korean defectors, has made a string of media appearances at home and abroad and signed with Seoul’s leading entertainment firm.

While anything related to North Korea sounds off-key to the highly commercialized South Korean entertainment world, the young women believe they have their own specialty to show — North Korea-style music and dance.

It is official, PATRIOT missile units are going to be deployed to Okinawa:

Patriot interceptor missiles will be deployed to Kadena Air Base, Japanese and U.S. Forces Japan officials confirmed Thursday.

Japanese defense official Iwao Kitahara went to Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine¿s office to announce the move, which had been expected. But after making the announcement, the Defense Facilities Administration Agency director ¿ caught between Japanese reporters with cameras inside the office and angry, loudspeaker-wielding peace activists outside ¿ struggled to exit the building.

The announcement ends weeks of speculation about which Japanese base would house the system. The 24 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles, which local residents and leaders strongly oppose, will be relocated from Fort Bliss, Texas, said Master Sgt. Terence Peck, USFJ spokesman.

Hopefully the PATRIOT guys won’t send soldiers like these guys, this guy, this guy, etc. to Japan with them.  I don’t think the Okinawans will be willing to take too much crap from them.

Sounds like someone is trying to make a buck:

Temporary measures to prevent the flooding that damaged Camp Casey and local businesses on July 12 now are in place until a permanent solution is found, Area I commander Col. Rick Newton said Friday.

Newton also disputed an earlier Area I damage assessment blaming the flooding primarily on the design of a dam built on the base in 2005.

He said it was too early to tell exactly what steps should be taken to shore up a water system that was overwhelmed by 8 inches of rain in 10 hours.

¿The dam was built to provide us with 50 percent of our water supply ¿ it does what it is supposed to do,¿ Newton said. ¿That¿s the same water supply we use to fight fires and that in the past the city has drawn to fight fires.¿

The dam was simply overrun by too much water, Newton said. As water rose several feet beyond the limits of Casey Creek, which runs for about 3.5 miles through the base, it poured over the top and sides of the wall.

After the flood, base workers dug trenches along the culverts that drain waters coming from the mountains behind the base, Newton said, and built a temporary mesh wall that adds 3 to 5 feet to the dam wall.

Dongducheon officials Thursday in part blamed the flooding of 69 businesses on the base¿s not opening the flood gates until that afternoon. Newton said the gates were opened by 11 a.m., the same time the water pumps began operating.

The city also plans to ask the Army for compensation for damages, Kang Hong, city director of current issues for U.S. Forces counter plan division, said on Thursday.

The term dam is actually misleading because it is not really what one would consider a dam.  It is a small structure built on what is commonly known as doo-doo creek on Camp Casey and COL Newton is correct that the water on the camp has been used to help local farmers and the city during droughts.  The claims being made now sound dubious at best.

There is a good interview with USFK commander General Bell in today’s Stars and Stripes.  Here is what he had to say about the transfer of war time command:

The top U.S. military commander on the peninsula said U.S. and South Korean officials hope to have a ¿road map¿ toward independent military commands here completed by October.

U.S. Army Gen. B.B. Bell, who heads the Combined Forces, U.S. Forces Korea and United Nations commands, said he hopes to have a macro-level road map approved at an October security consultative meeting in Washington, D.C.

¿So we¿re conducting a range of meetings ¿ in hopes of laying out these road maps,¿ he said in an interview with Stars and Stripes last week. ¿I don¿t know if we¿ll make it ¿ but we¿re working on it.¿

Under current agreements, Bell directs U.S. and South Korean combat operations in time of war. In October 2005, South Korea said it wanted wartime operational command of its own forces, launching current studies.

The difficulty is neither drafting a plan nor saying that the nations have agreed to a deadline for setting up independent commands, Bell said. Rather, what¿s more difficult, he said, is enacting the plan and meeting the deadline.

The key sentence is enacting the plan and meeting the deadline which is being delayed because of the ROK government’s unwillingness to bare the cost of the independent command.  It is easy for the ROK politicians to demagogue this issue, but when pressed to actually implement it they begin dragging their feet.  However, it appears that General Bell is going to keep pushing the issue on them.

Here is what he had to say about possible withdrawal of land combat forces on the peninsula:

Asked whether the goal of restructuring implied fewer ground soldiers ¿ or additional Air Force or Navy assets on the peninsula ¿ Bell said, ¿Not at all. We¿re not anywhere near that kind of level of fidelity.¿

Maybe not now, but I’m sure it is not far from US policy makers minds though.

General Bell’s comment about the lack of US Air Force training range is especially pointed:

In the Security Forum speech, Bell also stressed the need for a modern air-to-ground training range. He said that lacking such a range in South Korea, he¿d ¿be forced to pursue other approaches¿ to train U.S. crews.

Asked whether ¿other approaches¿ meant moving Air Force crews out of South Korea either temporarily or permanently, Bell declined to provide specifics.

A range requires electronic devices to rate aircrews, Bell said. ¿You¿re not just looking for a splash of water or a big field of dirt somewhere. You¿re looking ¿ to score the capabilities of these aircrews.¿

Bell said officials believed they¿d have that type of range soon after South Korea closed the Kooni Range Complex in August 2005. He said he thought it appropriate to remind the National Assembly of this and to emphasize how important he considers it.

¿One thing is for sure,¿ Bell said. ¿We are not going to allow American aircrews to go into a war, or to propose that they can deter a war, unless they¿re trained and ready.¿

¿If I can¿t get access to an air-to-ground range, I¿m going to have to do something.¿

He is absolutely right about the Air Force needing a training range.  Would you send the Army into war without going to the rifle range and qualifying on your assigned weapon?  If the US Air Force goes then the US ground troops won’t be far behind them along with the US-ROK alliance.  All this over BS environmental and noise pollution at Kooni Range.  The South Koreans politicians are about to reap what they sowed and General Bell appears determined to make it happen.

Great link here from the Marmot’s Hole.  Anyone who has been stationed in Korea and particularly Yongsan should see this photograph of Yongsan in the 1940’s.  Pretty incredible how much things have changed in 60 years. Make sure you also check out the article by probably the top Korea scholar, Andrei Lankov which describes in detail the history of Yongsan.

The North Koreans are up to their usual tactics of divide and conquer:

Never one to forgive and forget, North Korea has kept South Koreans out of Kaesong since July 1, insisting that it will work with Lotte Tours instead of its long-time original partner Hyundai Asan on a Kaesong tourism project. The Unification Ministry said Friday the North has been asking the government to change its Kaesong tourism project partner from Hyundai Asan to Lotte Tours since May. Seoul demurred, saying it cannot be a party to contract violation, and Pyongyang has to deal directly with Hyundai Asan. On June 22, the North avenged itself with a letter to Unification Minister Lee Jeong-sook notifying him that South Koreans are now barred from the North Korean border city.