Category: USFK

 U.S. military leaders have been unusually outspoken about the need to address institutional racism amid a growing wave of civil unrest over the latest killing of a black man in police custody.

Many black service members speaking Sunday at a forum organized by U.S. Forces Korea welcomed the outrage but called for words to be translated into deeds.

Sgt. Dasha Long, 35, thanked U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Robert Abrams for tackling the long taboo topic, saying the discussion was an important first step.

“This isn’t new, right? But it feels like it took too long for us to hear something about it,” Long said, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “I Can’t Breathe,” which was uttered by George Floyd before he died as a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes on May 25.

“I feel safer outside the country that I serve than I do in it, so I want to know aside from words what actions are going to take place because I’m tired,” she said.

Anger over Floyd’s death, which was captured on video, has sparked massive protests calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality in the United States. It also has led to soul searching in the military, which has long prided itself as promoting diversity.

Nearly 19% of active-duty enlisted service members are black, but that number falls sharply to just under 9% when it comes to officers, according to a 2018 Defense Department demographics report. Many also complain that they are unfairly targeted by the military justice system and receive unfair sentences compared to their white counterparts.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I am willing to bet that if the Stars and Stripes took a poll most white soldiers stationed in South Korea would also agree that they feel safer there than back in the U.S. So this is not an exclusively a black soldier issue.

As far as the 9% officer issue, this is caused by societal issues larger than the Army. To become an officer you need to have a four year college degree and either commission through ROTC or OCS. If the number of African-Americans graduating from four year universities increases, the number of officers will also increase.

USFK continues to identify newly arriving personnel with the coronavirus:

Two newly assigned American soldiers tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving in South Korea on a government-chartered flight from the United States, the military said Saturday.

The confirmation raised to 30 the number of coronavirus cases linked to U.S. Forces Korea, including six active-duty service members, but the command said all other patients have recovered.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The fact that this was not leaked to the activist groups to and block the convoy means that the Moon administration sees no need to play the anti-US card yet:

New interceptor missiles were brought onto a U.S. THAAD missile defense base in South Korea on Friday as replacements, the defense ministry said, in a surprise overnight operation aimed at minimizing friction with local residents opposed to the base.

Also brought onto the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) base in the central town of Seongju were power generation equipment and other items to be used to improve the living conditions of troops stationed there, according to the ministry.

The ground transport operation, which began around 10 p.m. Thursday, ended around 6 a.m., officials said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest dustup between the Moon administration and the American led United Nations Command:

A feud between the government and the United Nations Command (UNC) seems to be intensifying as the former has complained of a series of recent decisions by the command regarding inter-Korean issues.

Some critics, including senior government officials, say the U.S.-led UNC, which administers the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), has overstepped its authority regarding the Moon Jae-in administration’s peace initiatives on the Korean Peninsula as part of efforts to maintain its presence here. 

The latest friction occurred, Tuesday, after the UNC concluded that both South and North Korea violated the Armistice Agreement when they gunfire was exchanged inside the DMZ, May 3, adding that it was unable to determine whether North Korean soldiers fired intentionally or by mistake. 

The findings are in stark contrast to the Ministry of National Defense’s conclusion that the shots fired by North Korean troops across the border were accidental, a stance later echoed by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. As a result, the ministry expressed regret over the UNC’s findings immediately after its announcement, saying in a press statement that the command reached its conclusion without a practical investigation of the gunfire from the North. 

Korea Times

If there was no evidence to support that it was an accidental firing than that is what the UNC should report. The UNC was doing its job while the Moon administration would rather they support the political position they took on shooting incident.

Of course here come the usual suspects to include North Korea’s favorite bag man Im Jong-seok to condemn the UNC:

Former presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok said in a recent interview with a local magazine that the UNC was trying to exceed its authority.

“The command has to do only what it has to do over entry into and exits from the DMZ and passage over the MDL, but it is acting like it has special rights. This needs to be fixed as soon as possible,” he said.

Moon Chung-in, the special security adviser to President Moon, also said in a media interview, last September, that the UNC was the “biggest barrier” to improving inter-Korean relations.

“The UNC blocks North-South Korean transactions across the DMZ. According to the Armistice Agreement, it only has to administer the DMZ and the MDL. Should it continue doing so, South Korean people may have antipathy toward the command,” he said.

Im Jong-seok makes it seem that the UNC should just be gate guards that allow free passage of anything the Moon administration wants to do to include violating sanctions.

I have been saying that after the April elections that if the Moon administration did not feel like that their was momentum in their inter-Korean strategy that they would eventually play the anti-US card. This may be their first trial balloon towards playing the anti-US card.

This article claims the Patriot batteries removed from Saudi Arabia are heading to “Northeast Asia” which likely would mean South Korea:

On May 5, a report by imagery experts at Jane’s Intelligence Review and the Center for Strategic and International Studies confirmed in the unclassified space the existence of a near-completed missile assembly and storage facility large enough to accommodate all known North Korean ballistic missiles and launchers. It is an almost braggadocious representation of the missile modernization program North Korea has pursued over the past decade while simultaneously feigning sincerity about curbing its nuclear pursuits.

As such, the removal of Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia should not be a surprise. They will once again be moved to Northeast Asia to guard against the more imminent threat from an unpredictable Kim Jong-un.

The National Interest

You can read more at the link, but the Patriot batteries in Saudi Arabia were deployed there from units based in the U.S. They are just not going to pick up and move to Korea. Their redeployment means they are going back to the United States. Sending them to South Korea would be a large troop build up and after the THAAD fiasco does anyone think the Moon administration is ready for more U.S. troops and missile defenses to be sent to South Korea?

What is likely going on is that returning the Patriots to the U.S. would give U.S. military planners flexibility to deploy them to augment missile defenses in Korea if a crisis was to occur. The batteries being deployed to Saudi Arabia reduces this flexibility. Additionally it is arguable that providing the missile defenses to Saudis also take the onus off of them to buy and equip their own missile defense to defend themselves.

Good news for USFK servicemembers:

The U.S. military said Monday it will lower its health risk level to moderate and lift most anti-coronavirus restrictions for bases except those in the Seoul area beginning Wednesday, citing “favorable” conditions in South Korea.

However, U.S. Forces Korea said bars, clubs and other adults-only establishments will remain off-limits on the peninsula following a recent outbreak in the popular Itaewon district.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It is a good thing USFK is testing all the new arrivals to Korea because they caught another service member infected with the virus:

An American service member tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving from the United States on a U.S.-government chartered flight for a new assignment in South Korea, the military said Tuesday.

He was the second service member found to have the virus upon arrival via the so-called Patriot Express in less than a week. That raised the total number of confirmed cases affiliated with U.S. Forces Korea to 28, including four active-duty troops.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The Stars & Stripes has an article about the military police patrolling outside of Camp Humphreys trying to enforce USFK’s COVID restrictions:

Routine U.S. military police patrols into the entertainment district outside Camp Humphreys took on new meaning when coronavirus cases, seemingly curbed in South Korea, resurfaced with the loosening of social-distancing measures.

Just a week ago, new cases were being reported in the single digits. Now, that number has grown nearly eight-fold following an outbreak in Seoul’s popular nightlife district in Itaewon. Anyone who visited clubs and bars in the area between April 30 and May 6 is likely to have been exposed to the virus, according to the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

Courtesy patrols by military police have been standard practice for years. Police routinely visit drinking establishments outside the gates of nearly every U.S. military installation in the country to ensure service members are behaving.

Now, because of the declaration of a public health emergency by U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Robert Abrams, military police are also peering inside restaurants and barbershops to ensure U.S. personnel are complying with health protection condition restrictions.

USFK personnel must avoid gatherings of more than 15 people. Off-base activities such as dining at restaurants and visiting barbershops, bars, movie theaters and amusement parks remain prohibited.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but every time I hear of courtesy patrols in South Korea I can’t help, but think of the Osan Shakedown Scandal.

I am not sure what else anyone would expect him to say, if you don’t train together for an extended amount of time of course it will impact readiness:

Scaling down combined military exercises between South Korea and the United States does have an impact on readiness, a former commander of U.S. Forces Korea said Tuesday.

Ret. Gen. Walter Sharp was referring to the major allied exercises that have been reduced in scope to facilitate denuclearization negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea.

“I think that scaling down, and doing exercises in other ways, does have an effect on readiness,” he said during a virtual seminar hosted by the Korea Economic Institute of America.

He said he would encourage the continuation of the Combined Forces Command exercise program as a deterrent and as a readiness issue.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.