Category: Uncategorized

The popularity of suicide pacts in Japan makes me wonder if it will make the cultural transfer to Korea:

Internet suicide pacts have occurred since at least the late 1990s and have been reported everywhere from Guam to the Netherlands. But in Japan, where the suicide rate is among the industrialized world’s highest, officials are worried about a recent spate of such deaths.

A record 91 people died in 34 Internet-linked suicide cases in Japan in 2005, up from 55 people in 19 cases in 2004, the National Police Agency reported last month. The number of Internet suicide pacts has almost tripled from 2003, when the agency began keeping records.

Earlier this week, a man and two women in their 20s and 30s were found dead in Aomori, 360 miles northeast of Tokyo. The three also died by inhaling charcoal fumes in a car, and police suspected suicide.

“Depressed, young people and the Internet — it’s a very dangerous mix,” said Mafumi Usui, a psychology professor at Niigata Seiryo University.

The number of desertions from the military since 9/11 has dropped significantly:

Desertion numbers have dropped since 9/11. The Army, Navy and Air Force reported 7,978 desertions in 2001, compared with 3,456 in 2005. The Marine Corps showed 1,603 Marines in desertion status in 2001. That had declined by 148 in 2005.

Opposition to the war prompts a small fraction of desertions, says Army spokeswoman Maj. Elizabeth Robbins. “People always desert, and most do it because they don’t adapt well to the military,” she says. The vast majority of desertions happen inside the USA, Robbins says. There is only one known case of desertion in Iraq.

This is good news right? So how does the USA Today newspaper headline this story:

8,000 desert during Iraq war

As far as people deserting or going AWOL the two cases that I have seen happen since 9/11 were both because the soldiers were scared to deploy to a war zone, but both came back after a little while and one got chaptered the other deployed. So even the number of 8,000 deserters during the Iraq War is not factual because of that 8,000 many of them came back and ended up deploying any way.

With media like this is it any wonder the mission in Iraq has lost pubic support.

From Reuters:

Stewardesses on South Korea’s bullet trains shout slogans after they occupied the Korea Railroad Corp’s Seoul office building March 9, 2006. About 350 attendants of South Korea’s bullet train KTX occupied the office building on Thursday in a protest about job security, back wages and better working conditions, local media reported.

Could be anymore obvious that there is a big disconnect somewhere between the US and Korea?:

Gen. Bell testified that the United Nations Command, meaning control over the UN forces that nominally remain engaged in the Korean War, will be developed into a “standing multi-national alliance.” Korea, by contrast, had been under the impression that the UNC would be either scrapped or seriously curtailed once the armistice that still officially prevails on the peninsula is being replaced with a peace treaty. “Since he is concurrently the UNC commander, Gen. Bell seems to have been talking about his personal ideas,” Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said. “I will ask him about the details when he comes back.” There can be no clearer indication that nothing about the UNC’s future was discussed while Bell was here.

Then there was the question of a dock for nuclear-propelled aircraft carriers. Bell testified that a Korean Navy base to be completed in June includes such a dock, but Yoon rushed to point out that it had “not been built with the U.S. in mind.”

Fallon also expressed hope for “a substantial increase in tripartite military cooperation among the U.S., Japan and South Korea” after citing changes in the security environment including China’s military modernization. That could be another headache for Seoul, which has made it clear it will not join the U.S. and Japan in encircling China.

In short, two U.S. Forces commanders testify before the U.S. Senate, and the Korean defense minister either disowns any knowledge of what they are talking about or denies it. That gives us the measure of the state the alliance has got into.

I think it is becoming more and more obvious that General Bell was brought to Korea for a reason and it is not to go around saying “geotshi kapshida”.

Prior Posting: Jimmy Carter’s Interference in US Presidential Policy

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In addition to developing nuclear weapons the North Koreans were in the process of a slow but steady build up of forces on the Demilitarized Zone over the past decade. In 1994 the North Koreans had 65% of their military positioned on the DMZ compared to just 45% a decade earlier. The build up included massive amounts of artillery to include 2,400 multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and 8,400 artillery pieces. These weapons could pound the South Korean metropolis of Seoul with 5,000 rounds of artillery every 12 hours. This is why the North Korean referred to turning Seoul into a “Sea of Fire” during this nuclear crisis.

They had been building up to the moment for years and the time had come to push the international envelope. With the end of the Soviet Union and communism in China, North Korea was not getting the free aid and good trade deals that they were used to getting from the former communist block countries. With little economic might to fall back on, playing the nuclear card seemed like a good way to get international aid and North Korea was ready to play it.

Washington began a diplomatic approach to solve the crisis but was simultaneously preparing the military option. Apache attack helicopters and PATRIOT missiles were moved into Korea for the first time along with additional Abrams and Bradley tanks. Even with these reinforcements, 52,000 US casualties and 490,000 ROK Army casualties were expected in just the first 90 days if war broke out. The economic damage would total more than one trillion US dollars. The stakes were very high and any mis-step could lead to war.

Next Posting: Carter Enters the Nuclear Crisis

Here are some interesting comments that new USFK commander General B.B. Bell made during a recent US Senate hearing concerning the status of USFK:

Noting that Seoul is seeking to regain wartime control of its military forces, the U.S. general forecast that if that happened, U.S. forces here would play what he called a “supporting role” in defending South Korea. He said he believed the South Korean military was capable of taking on an independent combat command and said, “In the future, to support the Republic of Korea where our ally is exercising independent combat command, I envision U.S. military contributions to the alliance to be air- and naval-centric.”

Washington and Seoul recently reached an agreement on “strategic flexibility” of U.S. forces stationed on the Korean peninsula – envisioning their use elsewhere in the region – and the comments could suggest further cuts in U.S. Army forces here, with Korea’s ground forces carrying the burden of land combat.

In other words US ground forces are needed else where and cutting troops in Korea lessens the US footprint on the peninsula while simultaneously freeing up troops for the Global War on Terror.

Asked by a senator whether any thought had been given to shifting more responsibility to the international community in defending South Korea, General Bell said that in addition to the bilateral U.S.-Korea security treaty, the United Nations Command here could be a basis for a larger role for other nations. In theory, he said, the UN Command’s purpose was to prepare the 15 nations represented in the command to recommit their troops if necessary.

“While I can’t speak for all those nations, certainly in terms of what they might or might not commit, what I can inform you of is that the framework to discuss a potential broader commitment is resonant, and that could certainly be undertaken,” he said.

This is something I always find interesting about Korea. You have elements of Korean society and the media eager to condemn the US and USFK and then tout praises for countries like France. Yet when push comes to shove on the Korean peninsula and North Korea provokes a second Korean War does anyone think that countries like France, Germany, Belgium, etc. will lift a finger to defend South Korea?

No matter how estranged relations are between the US and South Korea, the US will defend South Korea in some capacity if attacked. Who else can Korea count on to help defend them if attacked? If a second Korean War broke out possibly England and Australia would commit troops and ironically maybe even Korea’s region rival Japan would assist in some capacity. Europe on the hand, can not even be counted on to conduct peacekeeping operations in Africa, why would anyone expect them to help defend Korea?

You can read more here and here.

I would love to see these hackers try and hit Korea:

The National Police Agency’s cyber terror department said yesterday it had received a tip that Islamic hackers would launch attacks on Korean Web sites on or near March 20, the third anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.

“Six Islamic hacker groups have attacked about 1,800 Web sites around the world since the Iraq War started in 2003. We are especially cautious of a group named Q8Crackers, which reportedly consists of Kuwaiti hackers,” a police statement said. Police added that Q8Crackers was anti-U.S. and had broken into at least 10 Internet sites last year.
The police said the hackers may also work through Korean network systems ¯ as Korea has a stable high-speed Internet network ¯ to attack other foreign sites. They added they would monitor local and international Web sites and open a reporting hotline.

Could you imagine the cyber attacks Korean hackers could inflict back on Kuwait if they ever tried to hit Korea?

This is really no surprise but Moscow has come out and defended North Korea against US sanctions:

Russia opposes any kind of sanctions against what the United States calls rogue states such as Iran and North Korea, Glev Ivashentsov, Moscow’s top diplomat to Seoul, said on Tuesday.
His remarks came as U.S. and North Korean officials were to hold a meeting in New York later in the day amid Washington’s financial sanctions against Pyongyang for the communist state’s alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars.

“In principle, we are against any economic sanctions because they do not work,” Ivashentsov told The Korea Times after a forum hosted by the Korea News Editors’ Association in Seoul.

“There should be dialogue, there should be consultation, but sanctions do not work neither against North Korea, nor against Iran, nor against any other country,” he said.

Sanctions don’t work? Sanctions and the threat of armed force worked well with Libya didn’t it?

Russia is just eager to keep selling nuclear technology to Iran and they have to defend North Korea against sanctions to protect their investment in Iran which could face similar sanctions due to their illicit nuclear activities.

Apparently barber shops in Korea are having a hard time making ends meet:

According to the status report on the Public Sanitary Business released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of beauty salons and barbershops are drastically decreasing. Last year alone, the number of barber shops operating was 26,904, and the number of beauty salons was 81,663. The number of barbershops and beauty salons which shut down last year has reached 5,300 and 2,100 respectively since 2000.

There are a series of barbershop closures because middle aged men have started to haircuts at beauty salons, and barbershops have been affected by depression. The number of barbershops is less than that of beauty salons while the sharp reduction in barbershops is much larger.

Here is the reasons why:

“Massage parlors and resting-tels for men are attracting customers with neon signs,” an official of the association said and argued, “For this reason, the image of neon signs is damaged. So many customers are reluctant to visit barbershops which are a good model.”

“Neon signs are the international symbols which represent barbershops. In this regard, the government should impose legal controls on the reckless use of neon signs,” he said.

Neon signs are the international symbol which represents barbershops? I think this man is referring to a barber pole because often in Korea barber poles are used to represent a business that offers “extra” services to go along with the haircut.

In America we have the song, It is Hard Out Here Being a Pimp, in Korea I guess they are singing, It is Hard Out Here Being a “Barber”.

Here is another Korean poll for you:

Bigwig’s mouths water for mudfish soup (Chueotang) while lower-ranking employees could do without the dish. A recent survey conducted by the office catering business Samsung Everland that studied 5,071 workers between their teens and 50s on their favorite dishes at the canteen proves that might just be true.

According to the poll, mudfish soup made the top ten list with a score of 74.5 out of 100 among deputy managing directors and managing directors, but only managed a score of 55.6 among lower-ranking employees. Grilled flatfish and ox-blood soup were also picked as favorite dishes among directors while they were far from popular among rank-and-file employees. By contrast, kimchi stew with tuna and grilled ham were tops among the staff while they were not enjoyed among company execs.

One question, who cares?