Officials at the Korean National Red Cross in Seoul check a database on inter-Korean families separated during the 1950-53 Korean War on June 5, 2017, when the speaker and ruling and opposition floor leaders agreed to seek their reunion on the Aug. 15 Independence Day. (Yonhap)
U-2 spy planes, fighter jets and other aircraft have been deployed off the peninsula as the Air Force temporarily halts flights from Osan Air Base while it begins rebuilding a Korean War-era runway.
The disruption comes amid rising tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs, but officials stressed missions would continue to be conducted from other air bases in South Korea and Japan.
Four U-2 planes were moved to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa last week along with some 180 personnel from the 5th Reconnaissance Squadron usually stationed on Osan.
“While at Kadena the 5th RS will continue to fulfill their intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission and provide continued support to U.S. allies and partners” in the region, Pacific Air Forces said in a statement. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but other aircraft have been moved to Alaska and Kunsan AB during the June 5th – July 5th construction period.
Via a reader tip comes this example of the absurdity that sometimes occur with South Korea’s defamation laws:
Korea’s Constitutional Court has ruled that saying “You are f—ing crazy” in English may be derogatory but not defamatory.
The ruling came after two men from an apartment building in Gyeonggi Province argued in May last year over the watering of flowers at a nearby garden. Lee, 62, and his neighbor, 43, sued each other for physical violence and false accusation.
The pair clashed again days later, after the neighbor failed to address Lee respectfully ― a social norm in Korea when there is a large age difference.
But when an apartment warden approached, the neighbor changed his tone and used honorifics to address Lee. The neighbor’s sudden change frustrated Lee and he said to himself: “You are f—ing crazy.”
The neighbor heard it and sued Lee for defamation. But prosecutors rejected the filing because, while admitting Lee’s criminality, it was hard to indict him based on the circumstances.
The issue was then referred to the Constitutional Court.
The court ruled unanimously, saying:
“‘F–ing’ elaborates ‘crazy,’ like ‘very,’ while ‘crazy’ has many meanings like ‘unnatural,’ ‘absurd’ or ‘passionate.’ [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but it is amazing that this went all the way to the Constitutional Court for a final ruling.
It's Memorial Day in Korea. The day is to commemorate the men and women who died while in military service during the Korean War. pic.twitter.com/yyEP4DCon2
— VisitKorea London (@CoolstuffKorea) June 6, 2017
An employee at KEB-Hana Bank in Seoul checks the U.S. greenback supply on June 15, 2016, when the Bank of Korea announced that the country’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high of $378.46 billion in May, up $1.89 billion from the previous month. (Yonhap)
Here is the latest update on the Yongsan Garrison oil contamination issue:
Land being used by the U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan will be returned to Korea by the end of the year and turned into a public park. Many cases of oil contamination on the base have been exposed since the early 2000s./Yonhap
The Seoul Metropolitan Government is organizing a forum on oil contamination in the soil of U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) Yongsan in central Seoul, Thursday, in an effort to pressure the U.S. to clean the site before its relocation is completed.
The city said the forum has enormous backing from citizens.
“We’re organizing this knowing there’s support coming from the public,” a city official said.
In May, the city conducted a survey of 3,040 Seoul residents, and 65 percent responded that the U.S. military should be held responsible for cleaning up any oil contamination and must do it before the land is returned ― the United States Forces Korea(USFK) headquarters and Eighth Army headquarters are currently relocating to Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, which is expected to be finished by the end of the year.
The city’s move comes after a court ordered the Ministry of Environment to reveal the results of two inspections of the U.S. military base ― it conducted three inspections but only released the results of the first one to the public.
The forum is also intended to pressure the central government ― the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ― to put pressure on the USFK to share data on past contamination records and to clean the site. “To solve this problem, action from the central government is critical,” the official said.
One motivation for the city is money. So far, the local government has paid 7 billion won for cleanup operations outside the base’s perimeter. After the U.S. military moves out, the city will turn the area into a public park. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation estimates the onsite cleanup would cost 103 billion won. Environmental groups’ estimates are more than 1 trillion won.
Green Korea, an NGO advocating for a cleanup paid for by the U.S., welcomed Seoul’s move.
“It’s time for Seoul to act when the central government isn’t doing anything,” said Yoon Sangg-hoon, an activist from Green Korea. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but Green Korea has been pushing this issue since former President Park’s ouster. Green Korea has long been an anti-US organization using the environment as justification for their activities. In regards to the Yongsan oil leaks it has never been proven that the oil is coming from Yongsan Garrison. Additionally of the 90+ leaks reported only 7 were major. It seems Green Korea is inflating the leak number just like in the past the USFK crime rate in Korea was inflated by activist groups by including parking tickets.
Using environmental groups to attack USFK is something that has long been used by the Korean left. The most outrageous example has to be the ridiculous 2000 Yongsan Water Dumping Incident. These environmental groups have primarily focused on stopping the relocation of US bases from the 2nd Infantry Division area and Seoul. Of interest is that the 2006 Il Shim Hue spy scandal uncovered that North Korean operatives were infiltrating the ROK environmental movement to inspire more anti-US sentiment.
When I first read this article I was wondering if it was a Duffel Blog entry, but the person who leaked Top Secret information really is named Reality Winner:
Accused NSA leaker Reality Winner.
The alleged leaker accused of feeding a classified report to an online news site has a colorful history on social media that lays bare her political leanings as an environmentalist who wanted to “resist” President Trump.
Reality Winner, 25, is a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation assigned to a federal facility in Georgia, where she allegedly leaked a classified intelligence report containing “Top Secret Level” information. The report, according to the Department of Justice, contained classified defense information from an intelligence community agency.
While the DOJ did not say which site published the information, the charges were announced just as The Intercept published details of a National Security Agency report on Russian hacking efforts during the 2016 presidential election.
According to the Justice Department, Winner admitted to printing a classified intelligence document despite not having a “need to know,” and with knowledge the report was classified. Winner further admitted removing the report from her office space and mailing it to the news outlet, according to the criminal complaint. [Fox News]
You can read more at the link, but it appears she was motivated by politics because of her anti-Trump Facebook postings. What is clear though is that she needs to receive the maximum sentence possible for leaking Top Secret information to the media because this leak is absolutely ridiculous.
What makes this even more pathetic is that this information was already known to the media. CNN reported back in October 2016 that federal officials told them that Russia may have compromised the personal information of Florida, Illinois, and Arizona voters. This leaked document is just the source for the information that federal officials already briefed the media. So Reality Winner has likely thrown her life away for providing information the media already knows and did not change one vote during last year’s election.
This was actually clever what the Korean Defense Ministry did to comply with ROK environmental laws that would have delayed the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system for up to year:
THAAD site on former South Korean golf course outside of Seongju.
A fact-finding mission into the deployment of a U.S. antimissile system in Korea in April raised a new suspicion that the Ministry of National Defense tried to sidestep an environmental study required by the law, the Blue House said Monday.
Following the discovery, President Moon Jae-in ordered a proper environmental study, effectively stalling the deployment schedule to be completed by the end of this year.
The probe also found that Lt. Gen. Wee Seung-ho, deputy defense minister of policy, has ordered his team to delete crucial pieces of information from a report to Moon’s security team, Yoon Young-chan, senior secretary for public relations, said in a press briefing.
Moon ordered last week an investigation into the ministry’s failure to fully brief his team about the U.S. military’s delivery of four additional launchers for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) antimissile system.
The probe identified Wee as responsible for the omission and revealed that the ministry tried to avoid the environmental impact study. The conclusion was reported to Moon at the senior secretariat meeting on Monday.
Despite protests by Beijing and Moscow, Seoul and Washington agreed on the deployment of a Thaad battery in July 2016.
Key components of a Thaad battery, including a radar system and two missile launchers, were installed on a former golf course in Seongju, North Gyeongsang, on April 26 – less than two weeks before the May 9 election that brought Moon to power.
A Thaad battery typically consists of six launchers, 48 interceptors, a fire control and communication unit and radar. The military authorities of Korea and the United States planned to complete the deployment before the end of this year.
According to Yoon, the ministry created a plan on Nov. 25, 2016 that it will offer the Seongju site to the U.S. military in two separate transfers. Of the 700,000 square-meter (173-acre) site, a 328,779 square-meter piece was transferred in the first phase and another piece, about 370,000 square meters, was planned to be offered later in the second phase.
“By designating the first phase site to be smaller than 330,000 square meters, the ministry planned that only a summary environmental impact study was needed,” Yoon said. The law requires a full-scale environmental study when the site is larger than 330,000 square meters.
Yoon then said the first phase site is an odd-looking inverse U-shaped piece of land. “The shape was abnormally designed in order to exclude the land that is supposed to be inside the U shape,” he said. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but General Wee claims that he ordered the deletion in the report about the four launchers because the US military asked him to. My guess would be that the US military wanted to keep the location of the launchers secret for operational security reasons. We will see how this plays out, but my assessment is that the Moon administration will use this to maximum political advantage to appease his base without actually changing the deployment decision.
