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Gate Hours for Camp Humphreys, South Korea

For people moving to or visiting Camp Humphreys here are the gates and the hours they are open:

Pedestrian Gate: 24-Hours for Pedestrians, Escorts, and Bicycles.

Anjeong-ri Gate: 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. entry is limited to one lane. Exiting the installation is all lanes for privately owned vehicles, contract vehicles, bicycles and motor bikes. (CLOSED on Weekends and Holidays)

CPX Gate — CLOSED

Dongchang‐ri 020 Gate: 24-Hours for privately owned vehicles, pedestrians, buses, contract type utility vehicles, motor bikes and bicycles. 

Hamjeong‐ri 021 Gate: 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday (CLOSED on Weekends and Holidays) for privately owned vehicles, pedestrians, contract type utility vehicles, buses, small commercial vehicles, motor bikes, bicycles, and pedestrians.

Dodu-ri Gate: 24-Hours for privately owned vehicles, pedestrians, contract type utility vehicles, buses, military vehicles, commercial vehicles, motor bikes, bicycles, and escorts. 

Army.mil

ROK Drop Open Thread – January 26, 2019

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

Tweet of the Day: Final Victory

Picture of the Day: President Moon Meets with Leftist Union Leaders

Moon meets umbrella union leaders
Moon meets umbrella union leadersPresident Moon Jae-in (C) poses with Kim Joo-young (L), head of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and Kim Myoung-hwan, head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, prior to their talks at the presidential office in Seoul on Jan. 25, 2019. (Yonhap) 

Moon Says Trump Has Never Made Specific Price Demand for US-ROK Cost Sharing Deal

I think President Moon is telling the truth here because President Trump is likely letting his surrogates negotiate the ultimate price for him. Trump though must have given his surrogates guidance on the lowest cost he is willing to accept:

 South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday dismissed recent reports that U.S. President Donald Trump has named a specific price for keeping U.S. troops in South Korea, saying the leaders simply do not speak in such a manner.
“Not just President Trump but no leader of any country in the world speaks in such a manner,” the president was quoted as saying.
“Such reports can be an insult to President Trump,” he added, according to his spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.
Moon’s remarks follow news reports that claimed the U.S. president may have asked South Korea to pay US$1.2 billion as part of costs to maintain U.S. Forces in Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Did Japanese Aircraft “Buzz” ROK Navy Ship?

This is like Pearl Harbor all over again!:

South Korea’s military on Thursday released five photos captured from two videos of a Japanese warplane’s “threatening” low-altitude flyby close to its destroyer a day earlier.
The disclosure came as Tokyo rejected Seoul’s claim that its P-3 maritime patrol plane buzzed by South Korea’s 4,500-ton destroyer Daejoyeong at an altitude of 60 to 70 meters and just 540 meters away in international waters south of the peninsula on Wednesday.
The Korean Navy filmed what it called Japan’s “provocative” flight with an infrared camera and handheld camcorder on the destroyer during the incident that sharply heightened tensions between the neighbors.
Seoul initially mulled releasing the videos but decided later to disclose just still photos, apparently in line with its stance to “act with restraint.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but notice how the ROK uses the term “buzzed”. I don’t think they quite understand that when the term is used in English people generally think of an aircraft flying right over the observer. In this case the Japanese plane was over half a kilometer away from the ship.

Traffic Congestion A Major Problem as Camp Humphreys Population Grows

You would think someone would have studied how to best handle vehicle access into Camp Humphreys during rush hour periods. It appears that was not the case:

Cars line up in the morning to enter Camp Humphreys in the rural area of Pyeongtaek, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. Traffic jams are posing a major headache for the growing population on the recently expanded Army garrison.

Traffic jams are posing a major headache for the growing population on Camp Humphreys, the U.S. military’s new headquarters in South Korea, with many complaining about a dearth of access gates and guards to man them.
Lines of cars are frequently backed up for several blocks on the roads outside and inside the Army’s largest overseas base as drivers wait to file through sometimes a single lane during rush hours. Scanners used by the guards to check IDs often don’t work promptly, causing even more frustration.
One man was injured when the grab barriers deployed as he was driving through one of the access points in November.
“It is out of control,” said Elyse Hendriksen-Bannon, who must battle traffic twice in the morning to get on post – first when she takes her husband to work and later to take her 13-year-old son to the middle school.

Stars & Stripes

You can read the rest at the link.

Tweet of the Day: South Korea Violated Sanctions with Petroleum Exports to North Korea

Picture of the Day: Korean Left Wants to Lower Voting Age

Call for lowering voting age
Call for lowering voting ageYoun So-ha (3rd from L, front), floor leader of the minor opposition Justice Party, other lawmakers and a group of youths rally in front of the National Assembly in Seoul on Jan. 22, 2019, to call for having the nation’s minimum voting age lowered by one year to 18. (Yonhap)

Yokota Based Coast Guard Personnel Not Getting Paid Due to Partial Government Shutdown

This is pretty jacked up that Coast Guard personnel serving in Japan have to get food from a pantry. Regardless it is good to see servicemembers helping other servicemembers in need:

Information Systems Technician 1 Joseph Bruce takes donated items from the food pantry at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019.

Servicemembers working without pay due to the government shutdown picked up donated groceries from a food pantry Thursday at the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo.
Twenty-two Coast Guardsmen, including 15 at Yokota and seven in Singapore, aren’t being paid during the shutdown, which started more than a month ago. The impasse stems from House Democrats’ refusal to provide President Donald Trump with the billions he demands to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.
Other military branches have continued to receive paychecks, but the Coast Guard, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, not the Defense Department, has gone unfunded.
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz on Wednesday publicly criticized the lack of pay.
“Ultimately, I find it unacceptable that Coast Guard men and women have to rely on food pantries and donations to get through day-to-day life as servicemembers,” he said in a video posted to his Twitter account.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.