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The military leadership in Yokosuka Japan are now implementing their own USFK style restrictions in response to serious acts of indiscipline that has occurred recently in Japan:

All Yokosuka-based Navy personnel, civilians and dependents were cut off from late-night drinking in Yokosuka on Thursday by a general order signed by Rear Adm. James Kelly, Commander Naval Forces Japan.

According to the order Kelly signed Thursday, drinking in establishments on Yokosuka Naval Base must cease at midnight Sunday through Thursday and at 2 a.m. on weekends and holidays. Off-base rules are stricter for area bars, restaurants and public places, where the ban kicks in at 11 p.m. during the week and 1 a.m. on weekends and holidays.

Here is what set all of this off:

In ordering the drinking restrictions, Kelly cited the recent spate of alcohol-related crime as the reason for his action.

“Alcohol abuse in particular continues to be a root cause of nearly all incidents of inappropriate conduct,” Kelly said in a news release. “We must change this fact.”

The new policy is pretty much the same one in place in Korea. Will this policy work to reduce incidents? I think there is ample evidence to suggest that it does, because USFK has not had a GI murder a Korean national in 5 years. The policy did not stop the one drunk driving, man slaughter case in 2003 where a Korean woman was killed by a drunk Osan soldier. Despite this incident the overall crime rate for USFK soldiers in down. However, even if this policy does reduce incidents overall it doesn’t matter because the incidents that still do happen get so closely scrutinized in the media that it appears to the general public that GI behavior has not improved when statistics say otherwise.

Here is a good example of how an alert blogger was able to help authorities arrest a would be terrorist inside the US trying to organize a terrorist cell. Get this he was an illegal Jordanian immigrant using library computers to try and organize a cell to conduct a terrorist attack in the US.

Without the Patriot Act, authorities would not have been able to monitor his actions on the library computer. Does anyone doubt that the terrorists out there are hoping for the end of the Patriot Act?

The South Korean Ministry of Information is now urging users of Windows 98 to change operating systems to Linux:

During the meeting, the Ministry of Information and Communication urged the other agencies replace Windows 98 with the open-source software Linux, the sources said.

According to industry data, Windows 98 runs on around 13 percent of the total 27 million personal computers in South Korea, most of which are being used at government agencies.

Why don’t the users just upgrade to Window NT instead of using the old buggy Windows 98? I wonder if the move to change to the Linux system is in response to the anti-trust case being waged against Microsoft in Korea? Maybe this is a way to put added pressure on Microsoft to settle the case as they are currently appealing the latest ruling against them.

US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon have reached a compromise agreement over the the USFK “strategic flexibility” issue:

South Korea has agreed to allow the United States to use troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula as a rapid deployment force to deal with possible conflicts around Northeast Asia.
The agreement, coming after three years of tough negotiations, is part of Washington’s global plan to give its forces greater “strategic flexibility.”

There is one catch however:

Reflecting Seoul’s concerns of over the changing role of the USFK, the statement also read: “In the implementation of strategic flexibility, the United States respects the ROK position that it shall not be involved in a regional conflict in Northeast Asia against the will of the Korean people.”

South Korean officials said they intentionally left the agreement at a “broad” level without setting rules or guidelines.

“We will be discussing details as situations arise,” said Kim Sook, director-general of North American bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

He said the agreement should not be a source of concern, considering the agreed principle that South Korea will not get involved in a regional conflict against its will. The chances of the USFK having to use its “strategic flexibility” are slim, Kim added.

What the South Koreans are concerned about is the possibility that USFK troops would be deployed to defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack. The South Korean government does not want to become involved in a war with China. I find this a little ironic since the situation the Taiwanese government faces is so similar to the situation on the Korean peninsula. The Taiwanese have been able to achieve amazing economic success while simultaneously living every day with an aggressive communist nation threatening to attack them just like South Korea. You would think the Koreans and Taiwanese would be more readily acceptable to defending each other, but it just goes to show how successful Beijing has been at politically isolating Taiwan over the past 20 years by offering nations like South Korea economic access to the Chinese markets in exchange for isolating the Taiwanese politically.

With that said I don’t think the USFK strategic flexibility has anything to do with deploying troops in defense of Taiwan. I think it has more to do with redeploying soldiers out of Korea in a face saving manner to reduce the US footprint in the country. The scenario would be that troops are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and then they don’t come back to Korea, they just redeploy stateside.

Force reductions are going to be a reality in the future and this “strategic flexibility” allows the US to withdraw troops in a face saving manner to where it doesn’t look like soldiers are being removed from Korea due to anti-Americanism. IMHO this process will happen sooner rather than later depending on the Camp Humphreys land deal that is still be delayed due to protests over land aquisition to expand the base.

The USFK footprint needs to be reduced due to the population growth and demographic changes in Korean society towards the US. “Strategic flexibility” is a road map to do this with.

Oranckay is reporting this interesting piece of news:

It’ll probably be in the English press by morning but president Roh Moo Hyun has got his own blog.

Some have said one of Roh’s biggest problems is that he’s got his head buried in the internet. You know, instead of just governing without constantly trying to be best buddies with The Netizens all the time. I wonder if he is going to be able to sleep at night without wondering what kind of comments he’s been getting. (He’s been known to leave a few himself here and there.)

Looking at Roh’s Blog it doesn’t appear very original. How original is the title, Cheongwadae Blog? Interesting that the leader from the world’s most wired country has such a low tech blog. I wonder if he will get more hits per day than Marmot’s site?

Here is an interesting LA Times article via Japundit about the ideology training in North Korea:

Some of the highlights.

– Watching foreign movies clouds the mental and ideological health of the people.
– Foreign hairstyles and clothing are signs of the “utterly rotten bourgeois lifestyle.”
– Shaking hands should be avoided in favor of bowing, as it is more hygienic and a part of the national culture.
– The spread of “unusual lifestyles” could render people “incapable of following revolutionary thoughts and sacrificing their lives” for Kim
– “The bastards’ (U.S.) indecent methods are clouding the mental and ideological health of the people,” warns one lecture. “If we cannot stop them in time, we will be in the same position as the Iraqis.”
– “The enemies use these videos and specially made materials to beautify the world of imperialism … and to [spread] a fantasy of the free world.”
– North Koreans are urged to steel themselves against such corrupting influences by eating traditional foods, wearing traditional clothing and keeping their hair tidy.
– One, titled “How to Crush the Schemes of the Enemies Who Disseminate Unusual Lifestyles,” tells citizens that “we must eradicate the erroneous way of thinking that eating foreign foods enhances your living standards.”

Amazing, they didn’t mention anything about the Korean superiority with chopsticks. This must just be a South Korean phenomenom.

It looks like Toby Dawson may become Hines Ward-lite after all:

South Korea discovered a new Olympic pin-up boy on Friday and it turns out he is American.

Pictures of South Korea-born Toby Dawson, who took bronze in the men’s freestyle skiing moguls, were in almost all South Korean newspapers on Friday, while scant mention was made of the two people who finished ahead of Dawson in the event.

Even though he competes for the red, white and blue of the United States, Dawson shot to celebrity status half a world away because of his birth in South Korea, where his biological Korean parents abandoned him on a doorstep.

Dawson was adopted at the age of three by a pair of ski instructors in Colorado, where he quickly shared his adopted parents’ passion for the snow-covered hills.

Papers and TV broadcasts in South Korea prominently showed two images of Dawson: the first was of his triumph in Italy and the second was a mug-shot photo of him as a toddler used by an adoption agency.

At least their hasn’t been any stories yet about bringing “Glory to Korea” or the “Motherland”. Could you imagine the media lovefest if Hines Ward and Toby Dawson took a trip to Korea together? Edit this Post | Delete this Post

The next leg of Kim Jong Il’s secretive China trip appears to be Beijing:

Kim reportedly boarded his special armored train and left Shenzen, Guangzhou’s sister city in Guangdong Province, at around 10 p.m. on Sunday. His exact trajectory was unknown, but Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing Takungpao and Wenweipo dailies reported he was heading toward Beijing. The fastest train route from Guangzhou to Beijing is by way of the Jing-Guang railway, which takes around 22 hours to cover a distance of 2,324 km. Add another two hours from Shenzen to Guangzhou, and the reclusive leader’s train should arrive in Beijing around 10 p.m. on Monday.

But some observers say the trip is unlikely to be that swift even if Kim heads straight for Beijing all engines blazing, since his train is armored with steel plates and thus only makes around 80 km/h. Meanwhile, rumors that the North Korean leader is on his way to Shanghai now look improbable since it takes 12 hours from Shenzen to Shanghai by train but there were no signs of Kim as of late Monday afternoon.

Korean police have busted a gang of organ brokers led by none other than a minister:

One of the arrested brokers, a minister identified by his family name Koh, ran an internet site for arranging organ transplant tours to China by which he collected several million won per person from patients desperate for the transplants, the police said. Five others who collaborated with Koh were booked without detention.

Among those patients who received transplant operations in China, six died during or after the operations, a policeman said. These terminally ill patients with liver cancer have chosen to go to China for organ transplants due to the scarcity of viable liver donors in Korea, but the problem is that they end up suffering from complications caused by the ill-equipped medical facilities in China, he added.

It is sickening to me that someone in a position of trust such as a minister would use their position to manipulate others in order to make money for themselves. Hopefully this guy spends a long time in jail.

How come I have a hard time believing that this will be a reality by 2010?:

By the 2010s, Korea is expecting to see robots assisting police and the military, patrolling the neighborhoods and going on recon missions on the battlefield.
The Center for Intelligent Robots on Monday said the state-backed agency plans to check the feasibility of security robots by convening a 40-member planning committee late this week.

The government also seeks to build combat robots. They will take the shape of a dog or a horse, with six or eight legs or wheels.

I wonder if they will just roll around all day with their lights flashing like the current police force?