It looks like the final decision on the “Pinks and Greens” will be coming soon:
Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey stands with soldier models wearing the proposed Pink & Green daily service uniform at the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia, Pa., December 9, 2017.The U.S. Army will soon make a final decision on whether to switch back to its classic World War II-era dress uniform.
The U.S. Army will make a final decision in a matter of months on whether to switch back to its classic World War II-era “pink and green” dress uniform as part of an effort to more closely link troops to the service’s history, the Army said.
The uniform would replace the current Army Service Uniform — introduced in 2008 — which would be used as a more formal dress uniform.
The proposed change has the support of the Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey, who donned a prototype at the Army-Navy game in December.
“That (World War II) was a point in history where soldiers were highly respected and there was a sense of nationalism in the country. When you looked at them you said that is an American soldier,” Dailey recently said. (……)
A switch, however, appears inevitable. The Army has showcased the uniform at prominent events, such as the Association of the U.S. Army convention in October and the Army-Navy football game. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but just like replacing the Army Combat Uniform (ACU) with the current Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP) was the right answer despite the ACU’s short life cycle, I think replacing the ASU with the “Pinks and Greens” is the right answer as well.
Visitors cross a suspension bridge over Mount Sogeum in the city of Wonju, northeast of Seoul, on Jan. 11, 2018, in this photo released by the Wonju municipality. The 200-meter-long Mount Sogeum Suspension Bridge opened on that day and is the longest bridge in South Korea’s mountains, leading to a 100-meter-high rock mountaintop. (Yonhap)
There has likely been some back channel communications with the Kim regime, but I would be very surprised if President Trump was in direct contact with Kim Jong-un like he appears to be suggesting:
President Donald Trump suggested in an interview Thursday that he has developed a positive relationship with the North Korean leader, but declined to say whether they have spoken.
No sitting U.S. president is known to have spoken with a North Korean leader. The two nations have remained in a state of war and without diplomatic relations since the Korean War ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.
“I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal. “I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised.”
Asked if he had spoken with Kim, Trump was evasive: “I’m not saying I have or haven’t. I just don’t want to comment.” [Associated Press]
An academic from Russia, Alexander Vorontsovtraveled to North Korea and what he has come back with looks like yet another information operation to drive a wedge between the United States and South Korea:
In my conversations in Pyongyang, senior North Korean Foreign Ministry officials did not conceal their surprise that Seoul failed to see the huge gap in threat perceptions between American and South Korean societies. The North Koreans see growing signs, reflecting President Donald Trump’s “America First” principle, that the United States is prepared to accept the terrible loss of lives that would result from a large-scale military conflict with North Korea. In contrast, South Korean public opinion continues to believe that president Trump would never start a war in Korea—and that the tension, crisis-like atmosphere, and belligerent rhetoric are all posturing.
North Korean diplomats expressed surprise that a substantial part of the South Korean elite have missed many indications, reflected in polling data,[1] that a majority of Americans now believe that the US cannot allow North Korea to acquire a missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to the US mainland and that Pyongyang would order such a strike as soon as it had this capability. North Korean diplomats stressed that this is a misperception. As one opined, “it would be suicidal to attack the USA first and especially with nuclear weapons. We understand that it would be the last day of our country.” These officials were truly baffled that a majority of the South Korean population does not seem to have grasped the reality that the Trump administration, despite the risks, is inching ever closer to a preventive strike on North Korea. Pyongyang, they maintained, is under no such illusions.
North Korean experts reiterated that they are striving to reach some kind “nuclear parity” with the US, but not in order to use it in an unprovoked first strike against the American mainland. [The National Interest]
None of these attacks led to a retaliatory strike because of their conventional capabilities were an effective deterrent. So clearly there is more to why they want to develop nuclear weapons so aggressively. The theory that makes the most sense is that the true intention of their nuclear program is to separate the US from South Korea and then seek a confederation on North Korean terms.
This sounds like one of these only in Korea stories:
KB Kookmin Bank has come under fire for holding a grueling 100 kilometer march for its recruits and reportedly giving out oral contraceptive pills to its new female employees — a large portion of which are under 30 — during the training period.
According to the news report from a local daily, the commercial bank gave the pills to the employees to control their menstrual cycles before they go on a 100-kilometer overnight march. The bank has traditionally carried out the marching event every year to boost the morale of the rookies, the report said.
The bank explained that it provided the pill for the health of female employees who are on their period, as they could feel relatively more exhausted than their male co-workers during the harsh schedule. The employees were not forced to take the pill, the bank added.
The act, however, caused a public backlash after it was revealed on Monday. [Korea Herald]
You can read more at the link, but the bank did not mandate the use of the pills, it was optional if the female employees needed it. As far as marching 100 kilometers if the new employees knew this was something they would have to complete for initial training and were being paid I don’t see what the big deal is?
Kevin Martin (R), vice president for mobile and global access policy at Facebook, arrives at the government complex in Gwacheon, south of Seoul, on Jan. 10, 2018, to meet with Korea Communications Commission chief Lee Hyo-seong. (Yonhap)
ROK Drop favorite B.R. Myers has been one of the strong advocates of the viewpoint that the overall goal of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is to force the withdrawal of US troops and create a confederation of the Korean peninsula under North Korean terms. This viewpoint has apparently led to a lot of criticism by people who think the nuclear weapons are just to keep the US from trying to militarily remove the Kim Regime and that the North Koreans are not stupid enough to think they can actually unify the peninsula on their terms:
Oddly enough, the most furious people are on the softline or apologetic part of the Pyongyang-watching spectrum. They never get this worked up when North Korea is called a gangster state, a drug-running operation or a giant gulag. Nor do they express such fervent opposition to (say) imperialist proposals for the US and China to get together and decide the fate and political character of the peninsula on their own.
No, it seems that the craziest, most reprehensible thing one can possibly say about North Korea is that it wants to unify the peninsula with as little bloodshed as possible. And apparently the worst thing one can say about the South Koreans — “INSANE” “psychobabble” even – is that the North might have reason to believe they wouldn’t fight to the death against such an effort. (Needless to say, I never said South Koreans are ready to “give away” their republic, as “T.K.” is no doubt well aware.)
I repeat: it is self-styled progressives and liberals who find these ideas so scandalous. True, I have often clashed at conferences with South Korean conservatives who bristle at my emphasis on the North’s nationalism. Being nationalists themselves, albeit of a more moderate sort, they think it makes the regime look too respectable, dignified, legitimate. I am told to chalk up the unification drive to a communizing urge — “it sounds scarier that way,” I was helpfully advised — or to the regime’s evil desire to cause as much suffering as possible. But the other side of the spectrum now seems far more upset.
Particularly striking is the general tendency to identify the idea as my personal thing. “T.K.” has not yet questioned the sanity of South Korea’s Minister of Unification, though he too is alarmed by increasing signals that Pyongyang wants to use its nukes to take over the peninsula. And many quite moderate analysts in South Korea have been saying much the same stuff since the 1990s. But for the Westerners now raging on Twitter, this is my trademarked idea. (As it becomes harder and harder to refute, the tendency will no doubt go in the opposite direction.) [B.R. Myers]
You can read much more at the link, but B.R. Myers is not the only person who has been advocating this viewpoint. It makes me wonder if the criticism he is receiving is caused more by the fact that his viewpoint is gaining traction with people inside the Trump administration?
Here is what the US Army Secretary Dr. Mark Esper had to say to say recently during a visit to Camp Humphreys:
Secretary of the Army Mark Esper takes part in a town-hall meeting at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018. MARCUS FICHTL/STARS AND STRIPES
Soldiers won’t have to move as often, spouses will find it easier to get jobs and there will be access to cheaper produce if the new Army secretary has his way.
Secretary of the Army Mark Esper addressed these issues with soldiers, civilians and family members during a town hall meeting this week at the 8th Army’s new headquarters south of Seoul.
Esper — a Gulf War veteran and former Raytheon lobbyist who took the Army’s top job in November — said he hopes to give troops the choice of staying longer at duty stations. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but one of the ideas being looked in regards to lower produce costs on post is to have local Korean farmers open up their own food stalls on Camp Humphreys.
