A sign is installed at Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul on Sept. 9, 2018, asking visitors to contact staff if they are suspected to have been infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Health authorities said the previous day a 61-year-old man was confirmed to be infected with the lethal virus after returning from a business trip to Kuwait via Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. It marked the first case of the disease here since 2015. (Yonhap)
Col. Kerry Proulx oversaw the 51st Mission Support Group since July 2016. (Air Force)
A colonel at Osan Air Base in South Korea was relieved of command earlier this year after investigators found she strongly and repeatedly leaned on base officials to build a dog park at her quarters.
Col. Kerry Proulx, former commander of the 51st Mission Support Group, also improperly allowed subordinates and one subordinate’s wife to pay for her meals, and did not always repay them, according to a commander-directed investigation report obtained by Air Force Times through the Freedom of Information Act.
Proulx was relieved April 13 by Col. William Betts, commander of the 51st Fighter Wing. At the time, the base said she was removed due to a “loss of confidence in her ability to effectively lead,” but did not elaborate further. Proulx is now chief of the personnel division at Air Education and Training Command at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Texas. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment submitted to AETC.
The report, dated Feb. 5, detailed a sustained and improper effort by Proulx to get a dog park built directly adjacent to her senior officer quarters, which began immediately after she took command in July 2016. It concluded she “wrongfully direct[ed] the use of government property to construct a dog park for her own personal use.” [Air Force Times]
You can read much more at the link, but this is just another example of how a senior officer some how became so full of their own self importance to risk their career over something as insignificant as a dog park. Even more incredible was that the former 7th Air Force Commander, Lieutenant General Bergeson and other senior officers had to walk through this dog park each day and no one apparently called Col. Proulx to ask her why a dog park was being built over a major public access way:
Its construction also removed a public access way, requiring building residents and the commander and vice commander of the 7th Air Force at Osan — Lt. Gen. Thomas Bergeson and Brig. Gen. Lansing Pilch — to open a gate and walk through the dog park to get to the building’s stairs.
The investigator called Proulx’s explanation for why the dog park needed to be located there “illogical.”
“If the dog park was truly for all residents in the area, it would at least have the gate placed separate from the public stair top, it could have been made smaller and not block the public walkway, or it could have been built between” two buildings.
The next time I am on Osan AB I am going to have to walk over and visit this infamous dog park if it hasn’t already been relocated.
This is all part of the effort to get the Trump administration to believe that Kim Jong-un is serious about denuclearization by not displaying his ballistic missiles especially ones capable of reaching the US:
This photo provided by the Associated Press shows a military parade underway at Kim Il-sung Square in central Pyongyang on Sept. 9, 2018, staged to celebrate the 70th anniversary of North Korea’s founding. (Yonhap)
North Korea did not showcase intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the United States during a military parade staged Sunday to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its founding, media reports showed.
North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un presided over the event at Kim Il-sung Square in central Pyongyang but did not give an address, according to the reports.
The North appeared to tone down the parade, which was previously used to show its latest military might, amid stalled nuclear talks with the United States.
“The largest missiles shown in the parade were short-range battlefield devices,” the AFP reported from Pyongyang. [Yonhap]
It is pretty clear that President Moon and Kim Jong-un are going to be putting a full court press on President Trump to declare an end to the Korean War this year:
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said his goal is to make “irreversible progress by the end of the year” toward denuclearization and a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula in an interview on Friday.
A tangible step in that direction would be a formal declaration to end the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice agreement, not a peace treaty, Moon told Indonesia’s Kompas newspaper in a written interview published two days after his special envoy returned from a trip to Pyongyang and met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The interview came ahead of Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s three-day state visit to Seoul kicking off Monday. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I expect a lot of flattery and pretend denuclearization concessions from the North Koreans to get him to agree to end the Korean War. Kim is probably hoping that Trump will go along with the pretend denuclearization strategy as way to boost poll numbers prior to the mid-term elections in the US. We should see over the next couple of months if pretend denuclearization will be what Trump decides to do.
So why are President Moon and Kim Jong-un so intent on end the Korean War? That is because once the war is officially ended this then challenges the legitimacy of the US-ROK alliance. If there is no longer hostilities between the two Koreas then why does the US military need to be there?
I believe that President Moon is too smart to advocate against keeping USFK in Korea post-peace treaty because that will mobilize the conservative opposition against him. However, Moon can use his surrogates to make life difficult for USFK to where the Trump administration could decide to withdraw on its own. This gets Moon and his left wing base in South Korea what they ultimately want, USFK withdrawal without getting blamed for it.
Remember the happy news the S. Korean NSA brought us a mere two days ago, that Kim Jong Un purportedly did not object to the presence of USFK. So, does this mean KCNA = independent media? Or that Kim, perish the thought, was lying? https://t.co/VPnriRKVqB
Lt. Gen. Jun Jin-goo, commander of South Korea’s Marine Corps, is conferred the U.S. Legion of Merit by his American counterpart Robert B. Neller in Washington on Sept. 6, 2018, in this photo from Jun’s office. The Legion of Merit is the highest medal the U.S. armed forces awards to foreign military officials to recognize their contributions to strengthening the alliance with the U.S. (Yonhap)
Kim Jong-un and President Trump are continuing their pen pal relationship:
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he expects to receive a “positive letter” from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said that he knows a personal letter from Kim is going to be delivered to him, adding that it was handed over at the border the day before.
This border Trump refers to is suspected to be the inter-Korean border, but a detailed route of the letter’s delivery was not provided.
Trump said the letter will likely be delivered to him by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and added that “It’s an elegant way, the way it used to be many years ago before we had all of the new contraptions that we all use.”
Trump also said he thinks it’s going to be a positive letter. [KBS World Radio]
I have to wonder what flattery and empty denuclearization promise will be in the letter that Kim is going to try and use to sway President Trump to make a major concession? My guess would be the major concession Kim will ask for is a treaty to end the Korean War.
President Moon needs to have his third Inter-Korean Summit hurry up and happen this month so he can get some more smiling pictures with Kim Jong-un to improve his rapidly dropping approval rating. It dropped another six points this week because of economic woes:
A new survey finds President Moon Jae-in’s job approval rating has slipped below 50 percent for the first time.
Gallup Korea surveyed one-thousand adults nationwide, out of which 49 percent of respondents said the president is doing a good job. That’s down four percentage points from last week when the figure posted a new low.
It marked the first time for the president’s approval rating surveyed by Gallup Korea to stand in the 40 percent range.
Among those who had positive opinions about Moon’s performance, 16 percent picked improved relations with North Korea as the reason for giving a positive evaluation. Some eleven percent cited Moon’s North Korea and security policies while ten percent said they think the president gives his best and works hard.
Meanwhile, 41 percent of those who had a negative view about the president’s job cited lack of progress in addressing economic and livelihood issues as the reason for their evaluation. Some eight percent pointed at inter-Korean ties and seven percent at the minimum wage hike. [KBS World Radio]
