Category: Uncategorized

It looks like Korea may now have war on two fronts:

South Korea’s Coast Guard seized two Chinese fishing boats Thursday on suspicion of violating the country’s western territorial waters, maritime police officers said.

The Incheon Coast Guard said it was bringing the two 30-ton vessels caught 48 miles southwest of Socheong Island in the West Sea to Incheon Harbor. It said the seizure occurred around 2:05 a.m.

The crews of the boats are to be investigated by the police for allegedly fishing in the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) without permission.

South Korean authorities have routinely seized Chinese boats for illegally fishing in South Korea’s waters.

Let’s see how much balls Roh has to bad mouth China.  I bet that won’t happen.

I’m being sarcastic of course but how often have the anti-US groups blamed prostitution in Korea on USFK?  Well read this in depth post from the Marmot’s Hole about the current state of prostitution in Korea.  It is quite amazing the lengths the prostitution industry in Korea is willing to go to stay in business and no where in the article was USFK even mentioned.

Americans aren’t the only ones feeling the effects of high oil prices.  Korea is feeling the pain too:

Already, some people have turned to stealing gasoline, and increasing numbers of cars at apartment complexes have stayed parked for several weeks. More and more truck drivers are locking their oil tanks to keep thieves from stealing their gasoline. Agricultural and fishing villages are suffering, too. Farmers with greenhouses are finding them difficult to heat. They have access to tax-free fuel, but even that is getting more expensive as crude prices skyrocket. Tax-free oil was priced at W79,240 (US $79) a 200¿ drum in January last year. It surpassed the W100,000 mark last October and is expected to be priced at W104,260 this May.

High fuel prices are a big issue in America right now, but I can’t help but think how much more expensive oil is in other countries like Korea where they are paying approximately $2 more a gallon than people in the US.  In a large country similar in size to the US, Australia they pay about $4.50 a gallon there.  So the next time you fill up in the US, just keep in mind it could be worse.

South Korea has released details of their planned military downsizing:

South Korea will shrink its military by 26.5 percent by 2020, from 680,000 troops to 500,000, according to the Korean Ministry of Defense.

The downsizing will be supplemented with high-tech weapons systems concentrated mainly in South Korea’s navy and air force, according to the ministry.

South Korea’s ground forces will shrink from 548,000 to 370,000, a 32.5 percent drop. North Korea’s ground troops are estimated at more than 1 million. South Korea remains confident that its military capabilities will continue to deter any attacks from the North, the ministry stated.

It will be interesting to see if the reduction of ROK Army forces will be done in conjunction with the elimination of the mandatory service requirement by 2020 as well.  I don’t think the current mandatory service requirement is sustainable in the long term as many younger South Korean men are constantly looking for ways to avoid military service.  I think in the future a Korean presidential candidate may be able to run a strong campaign based on eliminating the draft. As they say we will have to wait and see.

I’m willing to bet that their won’t be any permanently stationed US ground combat troops in Korea by 2020 as well.

It looks like the current USFK Commander, General Bell is beginning to feel the same frustration that I’m sure the former USFK Commander, General LaPorte felt when he was in command:

U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. B.B. Bell has directed the military community to review safe-driving procedures and re-emphasize safety lessons following two recent fatal traffic accidents.

These accidents concern me greatly and we all must make every reasonable effort to prevent similar tragedies, Bell wrote in an April 20 safety alert message. Bell also serves as commander of the United Nations Command and of the Combined Forces Command.

While both accidents are under investigation, Bell wrote, it’s important to review safe driving procedures now and reemphasize safety lessons learned from similar tragedies in the past.

On April 14, a U.S. contractor struck and killed a South Korean man in a traffic accident, officials said. And on April 19, a U.S. Army captain driving to work hit and killed a South Korean man sitting in the middle of a street near Yongsan Garrison, according to 8th Army officials.

USFK will never be able to stop all traffic accidents from happening especially with the current locations of the US military facilities.  If and that is a big if right now due to the current Camp Humphreys drama; when Yongsan moves south, that should drastically reduce traffic accidents since USFK would be out of the congested metropolis of Seoul.

Out of everything General Bell spoke about, speed is the main thing people need to be aware of when driving in Korea.  People walk all over the roads here and side walks are limited in many areas not to mention other hazards such as many people not obeying traffic laws and crazy moped drivers.  Speed alone does not prevent accidents totally as well because military vehicles that have mandated 15 and 25 mph speed limits in the Second Infantry Division area also get into to accidents.  These accidents primarily occur because passengers and drivers did not keep good situational awareness while driving slow.  Passengers in a vehicle need to stay aware and not zone out when riding in a vehicle and look for the old woman or kids that may run into the road.

Like General Bell, said these accidents all have strategic consequences on the Korean peninsula.

Why am I not surprised that talk about the delay of the Camp Humphreys expansion is finally starting  to materialize:

The disclosure that rice planting has gone forward heightens tensions in the ongoing standoff between the resisters and South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense.

Mun said the planting of a rice crop is significant because of a South Korean court ruling in an unrelated case, which, if applied to Daechu-ri and depending on how it might be interpreted, could block the government from disturbing the crops once the stalks grow past a few centimeters.

That’s why MND is in a hurry to destroy the rice fields, because they are afraid to see the rice bud, Mun said………….

So it is very, very sensitive, very, very delicate, Hyun said. If the government [uses] force, then probably more people might have more sympathy on the farmers, because they are weaker.

On the other hand, said Hyun, if the government cannot control them, then probably the whole timetable will be delayed. We are targeting that 2008 is the year that the U.S. military will move to that area so this year could be quite crucial.

I have been saying this for awhile that if the Camp Humphreys expansion does not happen the US-ROK alliance as we know it will be over.  The US will redeploy soldiers from Korea instead of keeping the current status quo because the current location of the US bases is unsuitable.  The current USFK facilities have been swallowed up by the bordering cities which has greatly degraded training of forces due to off limits roadways and training areas plus the fear of traffic accidents.  Yongsan Garrison is the most glaring example of this because it is located in the middle of the Korean capitol of Seoul.  The best way to describe the location of Yongsan is to picture an extremely large foreign military base in the middle of downtown Manhattan.  That is what Yongsan Garrison is to Seoul and the US government wants to change that because it is just unsuitable for today’s realities in Korea.

The anti-US hate groups in Korea are trying to use the Camp Humphreys relocation, the utterly false environmental contamination charges, and the cost sharing issues to drive a wedge between USFK and the Korean public.  So far it is not gaining much traction but as many people who have served in Korea in the past can tell you, it doesn’t take much to get people excited here, especially against the US.

As often is the case in Korea, politics and irrational nationalism rule the day and this could ultimately lead to a bitter divorce between the US and Korea.

The first ever Milblogging Conference in Washington, DC was a success with many prominent milbloggers highlighting the many positive aspects of the military blogging community:

Overregulation of military weblogs by the defense officials will not only demoralize troops but also silence many of the military’s strongest advocates, a panel of leading bloggers said Saturday.

There’s a growing gap between people who have no contact with the military and people who have contact every day,said Scott Koenig, better known as the blogger L.T. Smash. and one thing we can do (to counter that) is tell our story, and tell it effectively, and tell it intelligently.

However, milbloggers also have their critics who’s complaints are mostly OPSEC oriented:

But the blogging experts also warned that servicemembers and military families who use weblogs must be vigilant in what they post, because carelessness could easily enrage military leaders and possibly risk lives…………..
Last week, Pentagon officials announced the Defense Science Board, a 40-member body that advises the Pentagon on technical and other matters, will study a host of online tools, including blogs, to determine the challenges they present to military readiness and morale.

In addition, in the last year each of the four services has also issued its own directive on troops posting pictures and stories online.

The military has recently began mandatory OPSEC training for all unit leaders in order to educate military leaders on this new virtual battle ground in the War on Terror. Terrorists are monitoring websites run by US soldiers in order to track the effectiveness of their terrorist attacks, to learn US tactics, and to find out information in order to plot future terrorist attacks against US military targets. Here is a cartoon that highlights the danger very well:

I don’t think the terrorists are going to find any useful information off this site because everything I post is from public sources anyway. The people that cause problems are those who take pictures of the inside of military facilities or equipment for example. What concerns the military brass the most are those who post about tactics such as how the military counters IED’s in Iraq on their webpage which terrorists can in turn read and learn from in order to modify their own tactics.

This recent OPSEC training did give me the excuse I needed to change my banner on my site to include a disclaimer that the military now encourages bloggers to have on their site. Any comments on the new banner? Do any of you out there like this banner or should I go back to the old one? Or does anyone have a better suggestion for a banner?

By the way I did receive an online invite to participate in the conference this weekend but unfortunately I was to busy this weekend to participate but hopefully I can do so in the future. The conference does appear to have been a great success in promoting the milblogging community.

Uri Party advisor is bitching up a storm about getting denied a US visa:

Chyung Dai-chul, an advisor to the ruling Uri Party, had applied for a U.S. visa so he could take up a one-year position as an honorary researcher at Stanford University, but said his application was denied.

“I think there might be some reason for the U.S. to refuse me a visa,” Chyung told Yonhap News Agency.

He speculated that the “uncomfortable relationship” between South Korea and the U.S. prompted the embassy to deny his visa.

Ah, another CIA black helicopter conspiracy to explain why he did not get a US Visa.  I guess he figured this had nothing to do with it:

Chyung, who was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison on charges of bribery in 2004 related to a presidential election in 2002, was pardoned last year.

I’m happy the American government is keeping an ex-con out of the country and I would hope Korea is keeping criminals out their country as well.

I guess when you have 20 million soldiers in your standing army you can afford to be choosy:

China’s military is tightening its standards for recruiting potential officers as it adjusts to changing social trends, ordering drug and psychological tests, among other new requirements, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday, citing a military health official.

The People’s Liberation Army headquarters released the new recruitment rules Sunday, it said.

Recruits with fashionable tattoos will be barred from military schools, although traditional tattoos of ethnic minorities will be allowed if they are not too obvious when the recruit is wearing summer shorts, Li Chunming, the army health official, was cited as saying.

“Tattoos will tarnish the military’s image, even the scars of removed tattoos,” Li said.

Heavy snorers will also be banned, he said. The report did not say how the army would test for that problem.

Banning drugs I can undertand, but tatoos and snoring?  If the US Army banned tatoos and snoring half the army would be ineligible for service.

This study has concluded that Korea doesn’t size up very well against Japan in one critical area.  Korea can at least claim they have better sex lives than their Japanese counterparts:

Most Satisfied with Their Sex Lives

• Austria
• Spain
• Canada
• Belgium
• United States
• Australia
• Mexico
• Germany
• Sweden
• United Kingdom

Least Satisfied with Their Sex Lives

• Thailand
• China
• Indonesia
• Taiwan
• Japan

I guess this proves that size in fact doesn’t matter, in Asia at least.

(Hat Tip: Japundit)