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Here is a story in the Stars and Stripes that is another example of the good things that USFK soldiers do every day in Korea that they don’t get any credit for:

Three 718th Ordinance Company soldiers traveling to Seoul provided first aid to a South Korean man whose van overturned on Highway 1 last week.

“It seems like they’re really making a big deal about it,” Wells said Tuesday about the response from military officials. “We just stopped to give assistance. We just helped out. That’s what we were there for.”

Nomad shares his thoughts on this as well.

This is just plain weird:

The Supreme Court has declared zero tolerance for the pinching of a child’s penis in jest during class time by his elementary school teacher.

The court fined Lee a total of W5 million (US$5,000), reasoning that even if his actions stemmed from an intention to educate, the method was inappropriate.

$5000 dollars for sexually assaulting a student four times!? Could you imagine if a expat English teacher would have done this what the outcry would be? This guy should go to jail if the court wants to send a message that this type of activity will not be condoned.

UPDATE #2: This week I am reposting last week’s Korea Finder with an additional hint since no one could figure it out. The larger island to the left of the smaller island once housed a large POW camp during the Korean War. This hint should help name the small island located to the lower right of the picture.

UPDATE #1: Since this Korea Finder seems to have people stumped I am going to offer a key hint. The name of the island is inspired by a famous North Korean mountain.

Who can name the small island at the far right of the picture?

The Party Pooper has discovered the solution to violent protesters from Korea: Cane them Singapore style:

Singapore says they are ready to cane World Bank/IMF protestors who commit violent crimes during the annual meetings to be held there. (you can find a little more information here)

I don’t know about you, but I’d pay good money to see a real country with real laws lay down the spank on Korean protestors who think living in a democracy means having the right to attack police and destroy property every time something doesn’t go your way. It’s unbelievable what protestors here do to Korean riot police (mostly just kids in their early 20’s doing their mandatory military service, by the way) and it’s incomprehensible why the Korean government lets them get away with it time after time.

Parade magazine has a Top 10 List of the World’s Worst Dictators. I wonder if the Blue House is going to condemn Kim Jong Il’s ranking as the world’s 2nd worst dictator as being an impediment to the six way talks?:

2) Kim Jong-il, North Korea. Age 63. In power since 1994. Last year’s rank: 2

While the outside world focuses on Kim Jong-il’s nuclear weapons program, domestically he runs the world’s most tightly controlled society. North Korea continues to rank last in the index of press freedom compiled by Reporters Without Borders, and for the 34th straight year it earned the worst possible score on political rights and civil liberties from Freedom House. An estimated 250,000 people are confined in “reeducation camps.” Malnourishment is widespread: According to the United Nations World Food Program, the average 7-year-old boy in North Korea is almost 8 inches shorter than a South Korean boy the same age and more than 20 pounds lighter.

Here is a complete list of the World’s Worst Dictators:

1) Omar al-Bashir, Sudan. Age 62. In power since 1989. Last year’s rank: 1

10) Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea. Age 63. In power since 1979. Last year’s rank: 10

Interesting that Hu Jintao is number six on the list. Just goes to show that economic success doesn’t always lead to political and individual freedom.

Hat Tip: Asiapundit

South Gyeongsang Province farmers are to receive another subsidy from the Korean government, subsidized marriage:

South Gyeongsang Province has resolved to provide W6 million (US$6,000) to any over 35 single male farmer, in the event that they marry a foreign woman.

South Gyeongsang Province has also decided to initiate “adjustment education” to teach Korean, traditional Korean culture and etiquette to over 1,000 foreign women who are married to local men. The adjustment education runs for three months in five major regions by district and covers transportation fees and lunch.

Today the top commander of all US forces in Japan, Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright spoke out against the killing of a Japanese woman by a naval serviceman:

Japanese authorities say William Oliver Reese, 21, fatally beat and robbed a Japanese woman of about $130 near a U.S. Navy base southwest of Tokyo on Jan. 3. He has been turned over to Japanese custody.

Learning from experience, U.S. officials have been quick to express their regrets. Wright even attended the wake for the slain woman.

All of this talk in Japan is very similar to the debate that has happened here in Korea before in regards to GI crimes. In Korea it is assumed by a section of the Korean public that GI’s commit an inordinate amount of crimes in Korea which is flatly not true. USFK crime is actually much less on average when compared to the local Korean civilian crime rate. However, this fact is not publicized enough in the Korean media to do away with the GI criminal stereotype. Especially, when the few incidents that do happen are so well publicized in the media.

Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how the Japanese public reacts to this case. I don’t foresee mass candlelight vigils or US flag burnings like we have seen here before in Korea, but the Japanese public cannot be to happy with this brutal murder by this thug for $130.

Korean car companies just like their American counterparts are about to discover an area of the automobile market that the Japanese dominate and customers want:

Japanese car makers are planning to market hybrid cars in South Korea, a wake-up call for domestic competitors who are in the early stage of commercializing their environmentally friendly models.

“As a leading hybrid vehicle producer worldwide, we decided to become the first player here,” the official reportedly said.

I think this is great news, just like I think it is great that the Japanese are flooding the US market with their hybrids. People are buying these cars and the Japanese companies are making huge profits off of them. This in turn is forcing US auto companies to make and sell hybrids as well, which means in the long run we will all be using less oil. Less oil means less money in the hands of idiot dictators such as the rulers in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.

I think that this is definitely a part of the automobile market that Korea needs to hurry up and exploit. There are profits just waiting to be made. I think people are willing to pay a little extra for a hybrid because in the long run it will save them gas money, especially if they are getting the same performance from the vehicle as they would with a strictly gasoline powered vehicle.

Japan’s newest missile system that was designed to protect the country from the North Korean ballistic missile threat. However, now key data about the system has been leaked to a North Korean front group the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon). Chongryon is a pro-North Korean group in Japan notorious for providing gambling revenue, drug money, and spying for Pyongyang:

The leaked dossier contains data on a research simulation outlining the defense capability of the SAM-3 mid-range guided missile system deployed since 2003. Compiled by the Mitsubishi Research Institute on April 20, 1995, it contains information on missile system operations, interception altitude and distance and the missile’s performance against fighter-bombers.

The missiles were developed by the research and development headquarters of the Self-Defense Agency between 1994 and 1995 in collaboration with private firms including Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Toshiba. “The data may not apply to the actual missile systems, but it may help North Korea to estimate the performance of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force’s ballistic missiles,” the paper speculated. “The data will help North Korea if it seeks to build matching systems to beat Japanese ballistic missiles.” Japan is developing weapons to use against North Korea’s Rodong and other ballistic missiles.

Korean environmental authorities are trying to force USFK to pay to “cleanup” the camps that were closed out and awaiting turn over to the Korean government:

According to a statement by the environment and defense ministries Monday, the government has now conducted environmental inspections at 29 USFK bases that are to be returned to Korea and found 22 of them contaminated beyond safety standards. They therefore decided to ask the U.S. to handle the cleanup.

However, citing a U.S. Defense Department standard limiting any cleanup to “known, imminent and substantial endangerment,” the USFK says it is under no obligation to clean up a single base. However, under pressure from Korea, Washington is understood to have agreed to clean up eight bases. The confrontation is likely to be protracted since the cost of the cleanup is estimated at W500 billion (around US$500 million).

The environmental officials make it sound like that soldiers were just dumping oil and fuel into the soil of the camps which is totally untrue. If the soil is not safe on these installations as they claim, how come all the soldiers that lived on these bases all these years did not become sick? Plus in all the US motor pools there are fuel water separators plus the motor pools are made of concrete so if there is an oil spill it can be quickly cleaned with dry sweep and put into barrels that are picked up and disposed of by Korean contractors. Also fuel trucks have plastic spillage containers beneath them to prevent fuel spills. These are just a few examples of the US military’s hazardous material prevention techniques.

Having dealt with environmental inspectors before, IMHO they have to justify their existence thus it is in their interest to find something wrong with these camps thus creating a need for an expensive cleanup which I’m sure Korean contractors are all for. I am willing to bet that these camps have less “pollution” then nearby ROK Army bases or even communities across the street from the camps. Go to Uijongbu or Dongducheon and look at the rivers that flow through those cities and see what is floating in them and how bad they smell. How come no one is charging these areas $500 million for a cleanup as well?