Category: Uncategorized

How can someone complain about being hounded by the paparazzi and wanting to be left alone and then pose nude on the cover of magazine?

I commend the Donga-Ilbo for actually covering the anniversary of the West Sea Naval Battle, but you would think that in the article they would at least mention who killed the sailor?

Yeah right, whatever:

Bahk Byong-won, the chief negotiator for inter-Korean economic cooperation, said on Tuesday that economic aid to the North was not free and that Seoul had clearly sent that message in previous meetings between the two Koreas.
Speaking at a forum sponsored by the JoongAng Ilbo and the Hyundai Research Institute, Mr. Bahk, vice minister of finance, said, “Until now, aid to the North was done considering the inability of the North’s economy to pay back.”
After economic talks on Jeju Island, both Koreas agreed Seoul would provide $80 million worth of materials to manufacture much-needed garments, shoes and soaps to the North in exchange for 2.4 billion won ($2.4 million) worth of zinc and magnesite as an immediate 3 percent return for the donated materials. The rest is will be paid back over 10 years, after a 5-year grace period, at a low annual interest rate of 1 percent.

So what does USFK do to the local community that has been highly supportive of the Camp Humphreys expansion and helped keep the anti-US protesters at bay?  Well piss them off of course:

About 300 South Korean merchants gathered outside Camp Humphreys¿ gates Monday to demand Col. Michael J. Taliento¿s resignation following his decision to place two local bars off-limits to soldiers.

In a phone interview early Monday evening, Taliento told Stripes he placed Duffy¿s Club and the Bay Watch Club off-limits for serving alcohol to underage soldiers.

U.S. Forces Korea raised the legal drinking age for its personnel to 21 on Nov. 1, 2004. South Korea¿s drinking age is 20. If off-base bars sell alcohol to underage USFK personnel, the command can place those bars off-limits.

If this all sounds familiar, it should because this is a near repeat of what happened last August when the Camp Humphreys ville was put off limits for under drinking then as well.  Here is the sign they put up when that crisis occurred:

This is what the bar owners had to say after last August’s stand off ended:

Club owners outside Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek will fire bar workers who engage in prostitution as well as any of the ¿entertainment¿ agencies that provide female bar employees who might later take part in the sex traffic, the head of a local merchants group said Friday.

The merchants also will fire any worker selling alcohol to underage U.S. servicemembers, said Kim Ki-ho, merchants association president in Anjung-ri, the Pyeongtaek City district in which Camp Humphreys is located.

This is what I had to say once that stand off ended:

This dispute ended pretty much how they always do, the club owners vow to change their ways then wait a while and go back to the old ways after some time passes and there has been a personnel change over. They continue their old ways until someone calls them on it again. The bar owners face no legal consequences for human trafficking, prostitution, and selling alcohol to minors from the Korean law enforcement, so they will always continue to play this Off Limits game with the Army. The Army needs to police itself instead of relying on the clubs to do the policing for them.

So here we go again with an exactly identical situation.  When is the command going to learn to police themselves?  Bar owners are going to keep playing this silly off limits game with USFK as long as the command demands them to enforce laws that are legal in Korea.

If you want to stop underage drinking then don’t let soldiers 20 years old or younger go into the ville past 1900 when all the shopping stores close and the bars open.  You can card at the Humphreys gate and have the Courtesy Patrols do random carding in the ville.  If someone is caught breaking the policy slam them.  Or if you want to let the underage soldiers in the ville anyway at night than you need to card everyone at the gate and have a bunch of breathalyzers ready.

The current policy is only pissing off the biggest pro-American supporters in the area and greatly destroying soldier morale on Camp Humphreys.  The soldiers at the Hump are routinely locked down on camp because of the camp expansion protests and now when they aren’t locked down they can’t even go to anywhere in the local ville.

Make sure you check out Lost Nomad as well for some great pictures and more coverage of the latest only in Korea, USFK Soap Opera.

Hat tip to Hunjang for providing this link to color pictures taken by a US servicemen during the Korean War.  It is amazing what a difference color pictures make compared to black white.  Looking at this 1952 picture of Seoul it really doesn’t seem like it was all that long ago compared to viewing the same picture in black and white.

The above picture is taken near Seoul Station and you can actually see the old Namdaemun Gate in the background. A really good indication of what a difference color can make is by watching the DVD the Korean War in Color.  You will get a whole new appreciation for the Korean War after watching this DVD.

We talk a lot in the K-blogosphere about the strong sense of nationalism that runs through Korea and northeast Asia in general, but according to this survey by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, America is in fact the most nationalistic country in world:

People rated how proud they were of their countries in 10 areas: political influence, social security, the way their democracy works, economic success, science and technology, sports, arts and literature, military, history, and fair treatment of all groups in society.

In the U.S., “the two things we rank high on are what we think of as the political or power dimension,” said Tom W. Smith, a researcher at the university. “Given that we’re the one world superpower, it’s not that surprising.”

Patriotism is mostly a New World concept, the researchers said. Former colonies and newer nations were more likely to rank high on the list, while Western European, East Asian and former socialist countries usually ranked near the middle or bottom.

The U.S. ranked highest overall and in five categories: pride in its democracy, political influence, economy, science and military. Venezuela ranked highest in four categories: sports, arts and literature, history, and fair treatment of all groups in society.

So where was Korea you may wonder in this survey of 34 countries?  Well towards the bottom believe it or not:

Cultural differences might explain the lower rankings for the three Asian countries on the list ¿ Japan (18th), Taiwan (29th), and Korea (31), Smith said.

“It is both bad luck and poor manners to be boastful about things there,” Smith said.

Bad luck and poor manners to be boastful?  Mr. Smith obviously hasn’t read as many kimchi stories as I have or experienced a Red Devil World Cup run.  Actually the findings are probably pretty accurate.  As nationalistic as Koreans can be if you look at the criteria the researchers used I can see why Korea rated so low.  Corruptions scandals and the current President Roh Moo-hyun’s incompetence have ruined any pride in the government, then in science the Hwang fiasco pretty much ruined any national pride in science, then many Koreans perpetually think the economy is bad even when it isn’t, and then because of the “shrimp among whales” philosophy that Koreans are indoctrinated into, which will cause Korea to score lower in national power even though they have stronger political, economic, and military power than most of the countries ranked ahead of them.

This survey just goes to show that nationalism comes in many forms and in Korea we just tend to see the loud form of nationalism that comes from Korean soccer fans and their ilk which is actually based on little substance when you dig deeper according to this survey.

Oh My News has actually published a decent article about the North Korean missile test issue.  A decent article in Oh My News is a rare occurence so I thought I would share it with everyone.  Here is an excerpt from the article I found interesting:

The current speculations on the missile programs of the North are quite similar to the rumors on its testing nuclear weapons in terms of the reporting practice of the media. Namely, whether it is correct or not, the media reports rumors first. It seems that the media do not care if their reports did present the truth. Indeed, they describe simple possibilities as if they could become the truth.

What I found interesting about this comment is that Oh My News are the kings of publishing rumors and inuendo as fact.  Need I remind everyone of this recent classic Oh My News article about the Top Secret “Spy” Program on Camp Humphreys.  So for Oh My News to now come out and publish an article condeming the publishing of rumors I find quite interesting.

Anyway here is the meat of the article I had to agree with:

When the Bush administration exaggerated the risks of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in 2003 in order to go to war, the mainstream media in the U.S. presented the risks without self-screening by simply following the positions of the government. But, among the media, some, such as the New York Times, apologized and changed their positions later. However, there is no such reflection from the media concerning their reporting practices on North Korean issues.

Besides the fact that the reporting ethics may have been violated, there is another interesting point. The global media’s one-sided, biased reporting seems to be intended by the Kim Jong-il regime of North Korea.

Dr. Kim Myung-cheol at the Korea-America Peace Center based in Japan is a member of the second generation of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, and known as an “unofficial spokesman” of Kim Jong-il.

He argued in his interview with the KBS Radio 1, a public TV channel in Korea, on June 19 that it is not important whether Pyongyang really possesses nuclear weapons.

“Wars are, in fact, psychological warfare. We should understand the nuclear weapons of my country (North Korea) in this context. It is not important whether North Korea possesses nuclear weapons or not. A more important point is whether the U.S. says it does or not. If the U.S. thinks that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea’s official name) has become a nuclear power, it would be more influential than the real possession of nuclear weapons,” he said.

His points are rather simple and clear. A more important matter is whether the U.S. believes that the North has nuclear weapons. It means that North Korea could enhance its negotiating power if the U.S. considers it as a nuclear power.

That is exactly why I have been advocating letting Kim Jong-il fire his stupid missile and calling his bluff.  Let’s see him show his hand and see if his missile really does work or is it all talk?

By the way the cheap shot comment about President Bush I also found interesting because the author is saying that intelligence agencies are over-estimating North Korea’s WMD capabilities because North Korea wants them to in order to increase their bargaining power during negotiations, yet when these same intelligence agencies over-estimated Iraq’s WMD capabilities than it is the typical Bush lied or exagerrated the threat comments.  Has it occurred to anyone that Saddam Hussein was also eager to inflate to perceptions of his WMD capabilities to also increase his bargaining power and deterent capabilities just like Kim Jong-Il?

Just after I get done complimenting Oh My News for actually writing a decent article which is posted below, I click on the next story and read this:

President George W. Bush is regarded by many as a quasi-fascist dictator. This is thanks to both his domestic policy, in which the state assumes it has to right to spy on all citizens for whatever reason, and to his foreign policy, encapsulated in his infamous “war on terror” campaign.

For those with some interest in history, his quick stopover in Hungary last week further enhanced this image, as his visit to Budapest seemed to mimic that of Hitler to Paris 65 years ago. Not only were both visits very short, but the locals were also kept well away. In essence, the streets were completely deserted; it was like a visit to a ghost town.

People this is why Oh My News is garbage.  How in the world can anyone compare President Bush to Hitler?  I didn’t care much for the Democratic party but I would never compare them to Fidel Castro or other leftist dictators.  As those who read this blog regularly know, that I don’t really care for the Korean President Roh Moo-hyun either, but despite differences in opinion in how to handle North Korea, I would never compare him to Kim Jong-il.  Plus the domestic “spy” program is not for spying on all citizens for whatever reason as claimed.  The program is only for phone calls entering and exiting the US from suspect phone numbers.  The government is not listening to someone from California talking to Aunt May in Oklahoma.  For example if a military unit in Iraq finds a sattelite telephone number after a raid in a terrorist’s address book, that number will be logged by the NSA who will then listen to any calls from that number entering into the US.

Articles like this one are absolute garbage.  I didn’t even bother reading the rest of the article because reading these first two paragraphs tells me that whatever else the author is writing is probably also exaggerated and untrue.

Well at least someone likes Kim Jong Il these days.  I have to agree with the Chosun, I don’t think they plan on talking about a kimchi export agreement:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of the United States, said Saturday he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Observers speculate that ideas for cooperation between the two countries could include an oil-for-missiles deal.

Chavez, who has mentioned plans to visit North Korea several times, told reporters the trip would be about bilateral agreements in technology and science. He did not specify a date.

Oil for missiles.  I wonder if the Democrats will come out and say we need to bomb Caracas as well?

Of course Marmot has more as well.

The US Air Force has a new toy to play with in Osan:

The U.S. Air Force has deployed an updated version of its U-2 spy plane in South Korea, but a military official said on Monday the move was previously planned and not related to a possible North Korean missile launch.

In recent days, U.S. officials have said evidence such as photographs from spy satellites indicated that North Korea might be preparing to test launch a long-range missile.  Washington and others have warned Pyongyang that such a launch would pose a grave danger to regional security.

A USAF statement said that an improved U-2S Dragon Lady had arrived at Osan Air Base in South Korea on June 14.