Category: Uncategorized

Since North Korea isn’t making as much money anymore from counterfeiting due to the recent US sanctions, so I guess they got to make ends meet some how:

Iran is reportedly stepping up development of long-range missiles. According to an intelligence report given to Reuters by a non-U.S. diplomat, Tehran is pursuing a program code-named Project 111, whose aim is to arm Iran’s Shahab-3 missiles, which experts believe have a maximum range of 2,000 kilometers, with nuclear warheads. The Shahab is based on North Korea’s Rodong missile technology. The report could not be independently confirmed, and an Iranian official who asked not to be named denied the charge.

Reuters also said a German diplomat, citing his country’s intelligence data, confirmed that Iran had purchased from North Korea 18 disassembled BM-25 mobile missiles with a range of 2,500 km, which would render them capable of reaching Israel and Turkey from Iran. Quoting Alireza Jafarzadeh, an Iranian exile in Washington, Reuters said Tehran sharply increased production of the Shahab-3 missiles from less than 20 to around 90 a year.

Have the field grades finally gotten to Mark?

What am I going to do without Mark’s posting about his simcenter wars?

North Korea says it will not return to nuclear talks:

North Korea reiterated its pledge not to return to nuclear disarmament talks after a meeting with U.S. officials about the communist regime’s alleged illicit financial activity, a top North Korean diplomat was quoted as saying Wednesday.

At Tuesday’s meeting in New York, the Americans emphasized that moves against a Macau bank where Pyongyang held accounts were part of regulatory moves “to protect the U.S. financial system from abuse, and not a sanction on North Korea,” according to a U.S. Treasury Department statement.

“Our position is consistent that (North Korea) cannot return to the talks in the midst of the continued pressure (from the United States),” Ri Gun, director-general of North Korean Foreign Ministry’s American affairs bureau, said after the talks Tuesday, the Yonhap news agency reported.

How come I find myself caring about this as much as I cared about my prior posting on Korean eating habits?

Where were the hate groups? Are they losing influence in Korea society because I expected a bigger fight?:

South Korean riot police and protesters clashed Monday over contested farmland outside the U.S. Army’s Camp Humphreys, according to South Korean officials.

About 1,100 Korean riot police were on hand early in the morning as about 60 officials served a mandatory eviction notice to people living on land purchased by the South Korean government. The government took control of about 2,000 acres of farmland outside Camp Humphreys in 2005 so the U.S. military eventually can transform the post into its main installation in South Korea. Under an agreement between the United States and South Korea, the camp will triple in size by 2008; its population is projected to grow from more than 11,000 to about 45,000.

About 250 residents gathered at the Daechu-ri elementary school, site of many protest rallies, on Monday morning to protest the planned eviction, according to the Ministry of National Defense. Police officers moved in to forcibly evict the residents after they were warned three times to disperse but refused.

Pyeongtaek police said they had removed about 20 people who were guarding the school’s gate. They also cut the chains off of seven or eight protesters who’d chained themselves together to act as a human shield.

Police officials, contacted late Monday, said the violence was ongoing and they were unable to comment on the number of arrests or injuries among protesters or police.

From the Chosun:

A 23-year-old man hopes to blaze a trail for gay rights by becoming Korea’s first serving conscript to refuse to remain in the armed forces because of his sexual orientation. Yoo Jung Min-Seok announced his decision to the press on Monday.

“My identity, the duty my country demands and my rights as a citizen are in conflict in a world where it is regarded as compulsory for men to be masculine,” Yoo Jung Min-seok told reporters in Jongno’s Zelkova Tree Cafe, in Anguk-dong, Seoul. “I reject the harm done by the macho barracks culture and an army that produces aggressive, belligerent men.”

I don’t know about the belligerent part, but I would hope the ROK army is producing aggressive soldiers. Also as I have seen a few times in the US Army, soldiers pretended to be gay in order to get chaptered out of the Army because they just don’t like it. Who knows with this guy, but a difference I see between the two militaries is that a homosexual in the US Army can still get discharged honorably while the soldier in this article claims that he is getting an dishonorable discharge. Just makes me wonder if there is more to this story then he is letting on.

I’m beginning to wonder if there are any other units stationed in Korea because the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade is always in the newspaper and it usually isn’t for anything good. Except this time this article is about a program they started to keep their guys who are always in trouble, out of trouble:

The Army’s Patriot missile brigade in South Korea has moved to curb accidents and misconduct through a program that rewards incident-free units with a plaque and a day off for soldiers.

The 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, headquartered at Osan Air Base, maintains 14 batteries in South Korea, some of which fire Patriot missiles.

Under the brigade’s “Good Order, Discipline and Safety” program, batteries must go for 90 consecutive days without blemishes in any of three categories: accidents, alcohol/drugs and serious reportable incidents.

I guess these guys aren’t getting a day off any time soon.

A US Army Major on Camp Walker has unfortunately passed away after doing PT:

About 200 people gathered in the Camp Walker Chapel on Friday afternoon to bid farewell to a fallen comrade, according to a news release.

Maj. Timothy Patrick Auvil, a 42-year-old transportation officer with the 19th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), died Monday after attending a physical fitness event at Camp Carroll.

“We have all lost a comrade this week but I believe it is our soldiers who have suffered the greatest loss,” said Capt. Byron Kemp, company commander, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 20th Area Support Group. “For them, he was a friend, a mentor, a father figure and a refuge from the storm.”

This unfortunately is not a rare occurrence. Every year I read about soldiers dieing after PT. I don’t know the particulars of the Camp Walker case, but the cases I have read about happen generally when someone who has maybe been on leave or reserve soldiers getting called up and in both cases are older soldiers and they take a PT test. Or the soldier is put on too challenging of an exercise for their fitness level; the soldier pushes themselves to much and ends up having a heart attack or over heating.

That is why it is important during PT to have ability groups to let soldiers work they way up in fitness. At Camp Stanley I once saw an NCO almost die after he had been with the unit one week and was on leave for 30 days and he was put on a 6 mile run that week and completed it but over heated and nearly died afterwords. Daily PT is another dangerous aspect of being a soldier that risk management needs to be used before executing to ensure everyone is doing PT to their ability level.

Korea has beaten Japan in a dramatic win in the World Baseball Classic:

Lee Seung-yeop, South Korea’s leading slugger and a professional in the Japanese baseball league, didn’t miss an opportunity every Korean fan wanted but few expected. Lee, 30, belted a two-run home run in the eighth inning to lift Korea to a 3-2 win over the Asian powerhouse Japan in Group A competition at the World Baseball Classic in Tokyo, Sunday.

“I was just trying to stay focused,” said Lee. “Japan is a very strong team and hopefully we’ll be able beat them again in the United States.”

Major League pitcher Park Chan-ho sealed the come-from-behind victory, also South Korea’s top spot in Group A competition, by retiring the final three Japanese batters for his second save in the inaugural tournament. The San Diego Padres hurler finished the Japanese team by retiring Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle mariners with a pop-up to the shortstop.

South Korea and Japan will move to Anaheim, Calif., for the quarterfinals, which will start on Sunday. The Asian representatives will vie for the two berths to the semifinals with the qualifiers from Group B, where the United States, Mexico, Canada and South Africa compete.

Lee Seung-yeop is proving to be on clutch hitter. He was also clutch last year in the Japanese League where he helped his team the Chiba Lotte Marines win the Japanese championship. Park Chan-ho also appears to have found a new niche for him by being a reliever. I wonder if the Padres will consider using him as a reliever now as well? Both teams move on to the quarterfinals but I would love to see a Japan vs. Korea final.

The US military is giving props to the ROK Army contingent in Iraq:

The U.S. military in Iraq plans to model its reconstruction efforts on the humanitarian and rehabilitation work being undertaken by South Korean troops in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, South Korea’s top commander said on Sunday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld last week directed his generals in Iraq to seek ways to conduct a “Zaytun-like operation,” particularly the Korean troops’ vocational training program for local residents, Maj. Gen. Jung Seung-jo, commander of the Zaytun Division, said during a meeting with reporters.

“The U.S. military now has a keen interest in our civic affairs operations focusing on `leading a horse to water,’ not `making it drink’,” Gen. Jung said.

“U.S. military leaders agree that kind of mission concept is what they need to take in the future,” he said.

I would like to see General Jung try his theory of leading a horse to water and not making it drink, in hot spots such as Anbar province where people seen getting the vocational training would be beheaded or killed. The Zaytun unit is in the peaceful Kurdish region of Iraq where the ROK Army has no security responsibilities and can focus exclusively on medical and vocational programs.

This is not the case for the US military. In the article the US military said they would establish the vocational programs beginning in Mosul and Kirkuk. I suspect because those two cities have large Kurdish populations that help keep the cities now more peaceful than other areas of Iraq these programs may be successful. I seriously doubt the ROK Army’s program would be very successful if it was tried in a city like Ramadi. However, as the ROK Army has proven it is a good program to implement once the security situation in a city has improved.

This is interesting, an American soldier down in Daegu has been selected to star in a reality TV show documenting his every day life with his Korean wife:

Not an uncommon tale of love and marriage but theirs will be one a lot of people will soon become intimate with. From Monday through Thursday, South Korean TV station KBS2 will chronicle their married life in its regularly scheduled program “In Gan Geuk Jang,” starting at 8:50 p.m.

The woman asked Yu-sung to e-mail her the same day with her and her husband’s photos and a summary of how they met. A day later, a Daegu-based video crew on contract to KBS2 all but moved in with the Largents and filmed their mealtimes and housework, their shopping trips, visits to her parents, time at work. They spent about 18 days, 16 of them in actual filming.

Nomad has more on this as well.