Category: Uncategorized

The Hines Ward phenomenom continues his rock star like tour in Korea. The latest site he and his mom visited was the Korean Folk Village in Yongin. He doesn’t look to bad in the hanbok either.

I wonder what Hines Ward thinks of all the yellow dust? I wonder if he got a sinus infection yesterday from this dust, like one well known fishermen did? To bad for him that the NFL season is on going during the best months to see Korea which is autumn. Spring isn’t to bad either except when the yellow dust comes flying in like it is now.

The Metropolitician has some interesting commentary himself about the Hines Ward craze and provides this telling political cartoon below. I think this cartoon sums it up pretty well.

The Korean government is experts at blaming things on black helicopter CIA conspiracy theories and now they are bringing their paranoia to the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement talks:

Beware of the dragonfly: it may be a bugging robot disguised as a harmless insect. No, the advice does not come from a mental patient convinced the government is spying on his laundry bills: it was one of the security tips issued during last week?s two-day workshop for 120 Korean delegates in the nation?s impending free-trade negotiations with the U.S. The workshop was designed to help delegates guard their negotiation strategies from prying ears when the talks start in June.
Security authorities at the workshop revealed the extraordinary inventiveness of U.S.?s intelligence surveillance power, which indeed stretches to a dragonfly robot that records conversation with the microphones concealed in its trunk as it sluggishly drones about the room.

One government official set delegates on edge when he warned, ?There is no telling what lengths the U.S. with its technological might will go to if it decides to eavesdrop.? Sure enough, the CIA also has other members of the insect kingdom at its disposal, besides using a coin-sized camera that can take 11 pictures.

Only those dastardly Americans would stoop to such lengths to spy on an ally. We all know that Korea would never spy on anyone.

The Joong Ang Ilbo’s Niels Footman, has his latest article up covering the Korean blogosphere. In the article he covers the variety of opinions within the K-blog community over the Hines Ward mania and even quotes my site in his article:

For the host of “GI Korea,” much may hinge on Mr. Ward himself.
“If he stays active in the problem then maybe things will change. If not, then a month after he leaves all will be forgotten until the next famous mixed-race person comes around.” But, he continues, “President Roh and Koreans in general should have been addressing this problem long before Hines Ward showed up.”

Yes, they should have. Yet changing attitudes in a country that has for so long adhered to half-baked notions of racial homogeneity is bound to take time, and any help is surely welcome.

I actually think less is riding on Hines Ward now and more on his mom who has been speaking her mind on this trip and she may ultimately become the person that can change perceptions in Korea with her blunt talk about the status of mixed race families in Korea.

Mr. Footman also goes on to talk about the anti-US protests during the RSOI training where US Marines assaulted by anti-US hate group members:

This week, the fuse was lit by pictures of Korean protesters manhandling U.S. marines at a joint U.S.-Korean military exercise. Joshua at “The Korea Liberator” speaks for many when he says:
“The authorities had no excuse for failing to prepare for it. The response was also characteristically slow.”
Certainly, it beggars belief that just two policemen were posted on the beach, and as “GI in Korea” points out, one can only imagine the furor had one of the marines retaliated against any of the protesters.
Also doing the rounds in the blogosphere is a video montage of anti-American protests from the last year.

Don’t forget the Korean government has vowed to get tough on the anti-US protesters after the assaults on the US Marines. I guess the crackdown on the US protesters doesn’t carry over to protecting the young draftees who serve in Korea’s riot police that had the crap beaten out of them during last week’s Camp Humphreys protest. If the Korean government wants to do something to stop these violent protests, then put these people in jail and fine the hell out them. I’m all for free speech and descent. If these people want to stand outside Camp Humphreys and yell “Yankee Go Home!” all day and light candles fine, but these hate groups don’t have the right to bash the police with metal pipes, destroy vehicles, set fires, kidnap and beat US soldiers and force them to make statements on national TV, among a host of other crimes that no one is severely punished for, which only encourages this activity. The Camp Humphreys relocation issue to going to be the single issue that will define the US-ROK alliance for years to come and it could go either way because the government still hasn’t come out strongly against the hate groups thus enocouraging them to continue their activities. It will none the less be interesting to see what happens.

USFK has come up with a plan to clean up the alleged environmental damage on US camps vacated and to be handed over to the Korean authorities. From the Stars and Stripes:

U.S. Forces Korea has presented an environmental cleanup plan to South Korea that the Americans say goes ?above and beyond? previous agreements about the almost 60 bases going from U.S. to South Korean control, a USFK spokesman said.

South Korean officials still must accept the plan, USFK spokesman David Oten said Friday. USFK declined to release any estimate of the cost, which the United States will pay, before a joint U.S.-South Korean public statement was prepared.

The government has been authorized to spend what is needed to follow the U.S.-written plan, Oten said.

USFK should clean up environmental damage, but the claims by the activist groups should be put into context with the surrounding communities. Take a look at the land surroundings these vacated camps, it is not exactly the Garden of Eden up in 2ID where these camps are located. Much of the land surrounding these camps is polluted even worse by the locals than the alleged polluting by USFK. The military will clean these lands to be absorbed by the surrounding communities who I am willing to be will just pollute them again.

If USFK thinks this will stop the activists claims they will find that they are mistaken. They will just keep finding things to bring up because none of this is about the environment. It is about making USFK look like the big bad bogey man. These people could care less about the environment, it is just a convenient topic that has gained traction in South Korean society to hammer USFK with.

Anyone remember the Great 2000 Water Dumping Scandal? USFK was accused of polluting the Han River when a civilian base worker drained some chemicals down a sink in Yongsan. The activists jumped all over USFK for the actions of the civilian worker while they could care less about the massive amounts of dumping going on in plain sight by Korean nationals. I have literally seen a Korean tanker truck dump raw sewage into a stream that runs into the Han River before. Take a Han River cruise to see the garbage floating in the river yourself. This “scandal” was exploited not for environmental reasons, but to slime USFK. If these people really cared about cleaning the Han River they would be out campaigning to stop all polluting of the river, not just USFK.

It will be the same thing with the alleged polluting of the vacated camps. They got to spread their anti-USFK message and will move on to the next topic they can smear the US military with.

Click here for more additional information about the anti-US hate groups’ manipulation of environmental issues in Korea.

It looks like Naver is looking to crackdown on all the trolls out there in the blogosphere:

Korea¿s largest portal site, Naver, announced Friday that it has revised its news page rules so that the number of replies members write can not exceed 10 per day. The company explained that the measure was to prevent Internet users from writing slanderous comments about others and reduce the excessive number of spam-like replies. According to an internal analysis, some 5 percent of the site’s members post more than 10 replies a day.
It will also now be possible to read all replies posted by a member by clicking on their user ID, which will help detect those who habitually write mean-spirited comments. However, if a user deletes their previous replies, they can post a new reply for every one that they erase.

I like the idea of being able to trackback comments to detect the trollers but limiting people to 10 posts per day will cut down on some good discussions that happen from time to time on some websites.  What would the Marmot’s Hole be like with people only being able to post 10 comments per day?

Dumb asses:

South Korean police are investigating two U.S. soldiers in connection with the theft of money from a tip jar in an off-base bar.

Yongsan police station detective Jung Hyun-soo said the soldiers, both 23, were apprehended about 12:30 a.m. Sunday at Gecko¿s Terrace Bar in Itaewon.

During the initial questioning, Jung alleged, the soldiers admitted to taking about $200 in won and dollars from the jar for fun.

Well at least they were stealing real money.

Protesters against the Camp Humphreys expansion have once again violently clashed against the riot police after government hired construction workers moved in to close the irrigation canals that direct water towards the rice paddies.  The Donga Ilbo has particularly good coverage of the chaos:

On the day of the confrontation, the area around the Camp Humphreys relocation site resembled a virtual battleground. Four hundred local farmers adamantly refused to leave and cried out that the land belongs to them. The Defense Ministry, too, stood firm and said that illegal farming in those areas will further push back the date of the U.S. military base relocation.

Faced with such fierce resistance, the Defense Ministry decided to cut off three waterways going into the contested farmland in Shindae-ri, Hamjeong-ri and Dodu-ri. Without the water from Anseong Stream provided by the three canals, farming is literally impossible in the 2.85 million-pyeong lands.

Here is a picture of the chaos from the Korea Times:

The protest is on the left and on the right are girls visiting a US military installation on the same day.

This is one of the popular claims of why the protesters are refusing to leave:

The holdout residents complainingly point out, ¿The compensation from the government is about 140,000 won per pyeong. But land price in neighboring areas, which do not belong to the relocation plan, is 200,000 to 300,000 won per pyeong. We don¿t want to leave the place where we have lived generation after generation.¿

The Defense Ministry, however, responds with, ¿The ministry has offered a variety of options, but it¿s the local residents who reject them. It is the `anti-American military presence¿ outsiders who cause a stir among the locals most of the time.¿

The 200,000 to 300,000 won per pyeong price the anti-US hate groups keep quoting is the price of the land after the relocation was announced.  With more soldiers and investment dollars moving into the Camp Humphreys area; of course land value is going to rise.  The government is offering them what the price of their land was worth before the relocation was announced.  These hate groups are using the farmers to promote their anti-US agenda while the farmers are using the hate groups in order to advance their claims to more compensation money.  It is right now a marriage of convenience between the farmers and the hate groups, but it could crumble if the Korean government offers more money to the farmers.  However, if they do that than it could start a bad precedence for the Korean government because every time the government needs to move someone they will also react violently in order to gain more money.
The Joong Ang Ilbo has come out strongly against the protesters:

The real reason that such clashes occurred was the intervention of anti-American organizations that are trying to force out the U.S. forces that are stationed on the peninsula. These groups are turning a blind eye to our security situation. They don’t care that two huge armies are perched in a face-off on the inter-Korean border. Nor does it help to point out Korea’s tense geopolitical location – being stuck between China and Japan – which could erupt into an open conflict at any time. Like parrots, they repeat what the North preaches: Namely, that peace will come only after the withdrawal of U.S. forces or that the country’s reunification is being prevented by the United States.
Some of them changed their place of residence to Pyeongtaek after the area was chosen to house the relocated military installations, in order to more easily stir up trouble in the town. Villages are being plastered with anti-American slogans and pictures. They have brainwashed citizens with ridiculous arguments that the relocation of the military installations is part of a plan to foster a war, which will obliterate Pyeongtaek when it happens. As a result, many citizens, especially old people, are being turned against the relocation, defense ministry officials say.

The anti-US hate groups are experts at manipulating people just like their idols in North Korea are masters at manipulating South Korean politicians.  You would think the government would be tired of these small scale riots all the time and just lock these people up and seal the place off once and for all to complete the project.  The Camp Humphreys expansion is really turning into a true test to see what the South Korean governments commitment to the US-ROK alliance really is.  If the Camp Humphreys expansion fails, it will signal the end of the US-ROK alliance.

If you are new to Korea and have wondered why Korean people especially women ask you what your blood type is well there is a reason for that.  Below is a graphic I graciously ripped off from the Japundit that lists what each person’s blood type means:

The worst blood type you can have is a type B. Type B people are supposed to make poor marriage choices due to their aledgedly unpredictable personalities.  This notion of blood type influencing personalities has even been made into a popular Korean movie, My Boyfriend is Type B. So the next time you are out on the town and someone asks for your blood type they are not sizing you up for an organ transplant, but as a compatible partner instead.  However, you might not want to tell them you are a Type B if you are.  Just give them your zodiac instead.

Koreans really love their kids which explains the tendency to spoil and go to great lengths to educate children in Korea, however something went terribly wrong with this man from LA’s Koreatown:

Authorities said that Yun told his wife on Sunday that he was taking Ashley, 11, and Alexander, 10, to a movie and would return a few hours later. Around 4:40 p.m., he drove his Toyota Sequoia into a deserted alley near his former business, they said.

Los Angeles Police Department detectives believe he splashed fuel around the interior of the vehicle.

Witnesses told police they saw him arguing with Ashley outside the car before forcing her into the back seat. They said they watched in horror as Yun climbed into the front passenger seat and the SUV erupted into flames.

Seconds later, he rolled out onto the ground, his legs engulfed in flames. Firefighters arriving at the scene found that the vehicle had burned to its frame and the children had died. Yun was under guard and listed in critical condition at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center with burns to his hands, face and legs. He is expected to survive, police said.

“We see horrific crimes, but this is a particularly sad one and very hard to understand,” said Lt. Don Hartwell.

Mr. Yun was once a successful garment manufacturer in Koreatown and reportedly began having marriage difficulties including beating his wife in 2004 due to his business suddenly failing due to the IRS forcing him to pay $100,000 in back taxes. His wife filed for divorce last week and apparently this guy just snapped and burned his children to death in the car. This guy will probably try and use the insanity defense but how a parent could burn their children to death is beyond me. If you want to go burn yourself so be it, but leave the kids out of it.

(Hat Tip: June Cho)

The new 2ID move to print counterfeit money did not get off to a good start; from the Marmot’s Hole:

Apparently the North Koreans aren¿t the only ones on the peninsula trading in funny money. Up in Uijeongbu (of course!), a 21-year old U.S. Army private (of course!) is under investigation after he paid a taxi driver (of course!) with three counterfeit 10,000-won bills.
Police have asked USFK to turn the private over so that the source of the counterfeit bills can be determined.

This incident reminds of a prior incident a few years back also in the 2nd Infantry Division.  A soldier was caught passing counterfeit won bills to an ajumma selling chicken (rat) on a stick at a vending booth in the ville.  The ajumma walked over to the MP shack next door and handed the MPs the counterfeit bill and they promptly brought the GI’s in for questioning.  The GI who passed the bill said he didn’t know they were counterfeit but was detained anyway.  The other soldiers said they didn’t know anything about it.  The MPs let the other guys go and one of those guys had his hands in his pocket and pulled them out to open the door and walk out.  After he pulled out his hands from his pockets a counterfeit bill fell out and he was detained as well.

Both guys ended up admitting to digitally scanning the bills and printing them.  The ROK government turned the case over to the military and they received military punishment and were ultimately chaptered from the Army.  This case just like yesterdays case are definitely what I call a Great Moment in Stupidity.

For those not in the military, 2ID rigorously tracks alcohol related incidents and actually awards streamers and days off to units that maintain no alcohol related incidents for 6 months and one year.  With the amount of taxi cab related incidents maybe 2ID can track these too and give out streamers for no taxi cab related incidents as well?