It looks like some our international allies that took part in the Korean War may get some cushy jobs in Yongsan courtesy of the US Congress: The U.S. Congress has asked the Department of Defense and the State Department to report on chances of reviving UN Command in Korea, a body nominally still made up of countries that took part on the South¿s side in the Korean War. The move comes in the midst of plans to dissolve Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, return wartime operational control of forces to Korea and other signs of a lesser role for the U.S. forces in the country. (…) One of the conditions of the armistice that halted the Korean War was that the UNC has to approve any freight or equipment that crosses through the DMZ — a question that would become pertinent if the reconnected inter-Korean railways ever start operating. UNC members the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand have signaled they would increase the number of staff officers in Korea in response to a recent UNC request. U.S. Forces Commander Burwell Bell earlier told a congressional hearing he planned to revive the international alliance by increasing international staff at the UNC, which is now effectively in sole U.S. control, writing up emergency and operational plans, and training observation. So what exactly would these additional international staff do all day with no actual army to over see?
One of my favorite Korean actresses is going to be on Letterman this month:
The Korean actress Kim Yun-jin, who thanks to the ABC hit series “Lost” now has considerable star appeal in the U.S., will appear on the long-running “Late Show with David Letterman,” an honor last accorded a Korean when the teenage golfer Michelle Wie made an appearance last year. Being a guest on the show will give Kim a sense of having finally arrived.
I just can’t pass this up because there goes the Korean media claiming non-Korean citizens as one of their own. Since when was Michelle Wie Korean? I have covered this before, but the Korean media continues to label her as Korean. I could live with Korean-American Michelle Wie, but at least put American in there somewhere.
Check out Nomad for more on this.
Just wishing all Americans out there a Happy Independence Day.
Of course Oh My News made sure to publish an article explaining why the 4th July is a evil holiday, America is evil, George Washington, Jefferson, and the rest of the founding fathers were even eviler, President Bush is the current evil equivalent of George Washington, democracy is just a tool of these evil people to stay in power, and so on. Read it for yourself if you want to read leftist nonsense about the evils of America past and present and what a bad country we are and how great Europe and France is. I could go line by line and dispute the author’s unsupported claims, but I don’t feel like wasting my or your time, but if you want to read accurate historical accounts of George Washington and the founding fathers I highly recommend the books His Excellency and 1776 as great summer holiday reading material to learn more about the founding of our great country.
I point out regulary the knuclehead anti-Americans in Korea, but keep in mind I still haven’t seen greater anti-Americanism than in America itself. The American left is far worse than anything I have seen in Korea and this article is just another example of that. However, I’m not letting these idiots get me down, and they shouldn’t get you down either; enjoy the holiday, and God Bless America.
The first Koreans are scheduled to be put into outer space in two years. The Korean government is paying the Russian government to put the first Koreans into space on a Soyuz capsule in April 2008 and the Korean government is sponsoring a competition open to everyone in Koera above the age of 19 to become the first Koreans in space. This is the quesion I pose; should whoever gets selected really be considered astronauts as the government claims or Korea’s first space tourists?
For those Coming Anarchy fans out there, Robert Kaplan was just sighted at the Korean DMZ by the News21 team:
(…) a man walked out of a different office and introduced himself as Bob Kaplan. I recognized that his name sounded vaguely familiar but was too tired to process why, so I shook his hand and introduced myself. Katie, on the other hand, asked him if by Bob, he meant Robert, and if by “Robert Kaplan,” he meant Robert Kaplan, contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and author of Imperial Grunts (…)
Katie and I started to ask him about his general experiences with the military and his observations about what’s happening. One of his main points is that one of the ways the military is restructuring itself is to reorganize itself in ways that resemble what’s happening in corporations–in particular, trying to pass responsibility down the command chain, so that individuals can take action without having to wait to get approval from above.
At some point he commented on how he thought that blogging makes people worse writers.
Kaplan point about the US military trying to empower lower level leaders is very true because in todays environment decisions have to made quickly by those on the ground without having to wait for approval from above. Now the comment about blogging making people worse writers I have to dispute. A lot of bad writers blog, but from my experience the longer you blog the better your writing becomes.
Anyway I wonder if Curzon is jealous of the News21 team?
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is visiting the US and American President George Bush had a special retirement party for the Prime Minister due to his impending retirement from Japanese politics:
Koizumi Junichiro (right), Japan¿s Prime Minister who is visiting the U.S. before his retirement in September, and U.S. President George W. Bush is thanking the Brian Setzer Orchestra which played Elvis Presley¿s songs at an official dinner in White House on June 29. President Bush gave Koizumi, an Elvis fan, a juke box as a farewell gift.
Any guesses if President Bush will be holding a retirement party for Korean President Roh Moo-hyun next year when he leaves office? If he did I wonder what going away gift he would give him?
How come I have a feeling this will explode into another one of those, “the yankees are trying to screw us” issues?:
South Korean and U.S. officials are expected to open negotiations later this year on Washington’s proposal to sell its war reserve stockpiles to Seoul, the U.S. command here said Friday.
The U.S. has stockpiled about 600,000 tons of ammunition in South Korea since the 1970s for use in the event of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
Last December, U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law a bill aimed at selling the war reserves to South Korea as part of a sweeping reshuffle of its overseas military installations.
So why do I think this may become an issue of contention? This is why:
A possible sticking point in the negotiations would be the selling price of the reserve stockpiles.
The U.S. side hopes the combat items would be sold at a “fair market value,” while South Korean officials want to obtain them for free or purchase only part of the total, arguing that about one third of the U.S. items are too old and in need of repair.
“Fair Market Value” and agreements with the South Korean government means nothing. The US had an agreement with South Korea over the Camp Humphreys expansion and that has been delayed due to the governments wavering on annexing the land which has in turn delayed the overall agreement of consolidating the USFK camps, most notably Yongsan Garrision in Seoul, all south of the Han River.
Then the latest issue causing contention is the agreement with the US that the South Koreans would take the vacated 2ID camps “as is”. So what the Korean government did to break this agreement was to send in the leftist environmental wackos; who of course claimed the camps are super polluted and uninhabitable even though US soldiers having been living on the camps for 50 years with no problems. So of course the Korean government is demanding money for the “clean up” even though they agreed beforehand to taking the camps “as is”.
So if anyone thinks selling the issue war stockpiles to the Koreans will be a smooth process are kidding themselves. If the Korean government doesn’t get the deal they want, expect to see the environmental wackos sent in.
US Army deserter Charles Jenkins’ book has now been published in Korean and I like the title of the book, “To Tell the Truth”. Telling the truth about North Korea and the Sunshine Policy of the current South Korean administration are not compatible. So it will be interesting to see how well the book sells in South Korea.
So how do the North Koreans plan to defeat the evil American and Japanese aggressors? By covering them with giant rupies of course! From the Asiapundit:
North Korean website By the Korean Nation Itself launches online game ¿catch those thieves¿, enjoy yourself. Instruction: move the red stones onto the you-know-who.
