Jean Penicaut, head of France’s Lumiere Technology, refutes the Seoul prosecution’s recent conclusion on the authenticity of the late South Korean painter Chun Kyung-ja’s “Beautiful Woman” during a news conference at the Press Center in Seoul on Dec. 27, 2016. He said his art appraisal team found the work, currently housed by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, to be a fake, squarely refuting the prosecution’s conclusion, which ended a 25-years-long controversy over the work’s genuineness. (Yonhap)
If you want to open up a pizza shop, teaming up with Pizza Hut is the most expensive option. But when it comes to turnover, Domino’s is the way to go.
These were just a few of the pizza facts provided by the Korea Fair Trade Mediation Agency Monday when it released a study of pizza franchises in Korea.
The agency under the Fair Trade Commission has been releasing studies on food-related franchises this year. Past studies have dealt with coffee shops and chicken joints.
According to the study, there are 103 pizza brands with 6,015 franchise stores across the country. Some 264 are managed directly by the headquarters. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but my favorite chain pizza restaurant in Korea is Mr. Pizza. Anyone else want to share their favorite pizza restaurant in Korea?
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump appears to lack a plan on how to deal with North Korea even though his administration is set to take off in less than a month, a U.S. expert said Sunday.
Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), also said in an interview with CBS television that the Trump foreign policy team doesn’t seem to have a full strategy yet on China.
North Korea is “not an issue that Trump knows a lot about,” Glaser said, adding that the concern for the United States is that the North Koreans could pose an existential threat to the homeland if they can make a nuclear warhead that can potentially reach U.S. territory.
“Do we have a strategy that focuses on defense? Do we take a much more aggressive posture against North Korea?” Glaser said, wondering about Trump’s plan. “Some people are raising the possibility of a pre-emptive strike on a missile, if it’s on a launch pad, because we don’t know what’s atop that missile, whether it’s a satellite or a nuclear warhead.
“There may be some discussions about whether we really need to try to cut off trade and harm North Korea’s economy, go beyond sanctions that are really focused on depriving North Korea of weapons of mass destruction,” she said. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but North Korea is not an “existential threat to the homeland”. The Kim regime would need a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons along with the transport erector launchers (TELs) to launch them to be able to destroy a country the size of the United States. Plus the DPRK’s warhead technology would have to be advanced enough to defeat the US’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. The Kim regime’s nukes are at best a deterrent that puts a handful of US cities at possible risk if military action is taken to remove the Kim regime.
As far as sanctions they obviously are not working to stop the Kim regime’s WMD programs because of China. As North Korean diplomat turned defector Thae Yong-ho has already said, the Kim regime understands it can get away with nuclear development because the Chinese will do nothing to stop them.
It is pretty clear that the incoming Trump administration does have a plan, it is just that it is one that is going to focus on China instead of North Korea which Glaser has already pointed out:
“It looks to me like Trump is trying to keep China off balance, to try and signal that he’s not necessarily going to conduct business as usual in the same way that it has been conducted over the last eight years under Obama and that he thinks it can appear that he can gain some leverage by signaling a willingness to confront China,” Glaser said.
Between 1966-1970 soldiers stationed on the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) came in regular contact with North Korean infiltrators probing US military defenses in what became known as the “DMZ War”. Two examples of such incidents occurred the morning of August 10th, 1967 when North Korean infiltrators conducted two separate ambushes of 2nd and 7th Infantry Division soldiers:
The events that morning began when a 2nd Infantry Division military working dog by the name of “Blackie”, handled by Specialist Jack L. Tyrrell, were leading a squad sized patrol in the early morning hours. The patrol was sent out at dusk after a sentry during the night had heard a possible North Korean infiltrator near his post. As the patrol looked for the infiltrator Blackie smelled something suspicious and headed for a nearby tree. That is when a North Korean infiltrator sprung out from behind the tree and shot Blackie and SPC Tyrrell.
Ambush Prevented
After the initial firing more concealed North Koreans opened fire on the American patrol. However, the warning provided by Blackie had given the other members of the US patrol time to take cover. This allowed the Americans the opportunity to immediately return fire at the ambushers. The North Koreans realizing that their ambush had been compromised withdrew back towards the DMZ. The ambush cost Blackie his life, but no other Americans were killed with SPC Tyrrell being the only person wounded.
Work Detail Ambush
However, the ambush that Blackie had prematurely triggered was not the only ambush the North Koreans had planned that morning. US 7th Infantry Division soldiers from B company 2-31 Infantry Regiment had conducted a woodcutting mission inside the South Korean side of the DMZ that morning before returning to their camp for lunch around 11:45 AM. The soldiers moved south in a two truck convoy up a small hill in a drizzling rain. Each truck carried a platoon of US soldiers in the back of it. As the convoy approached the crest of the hill approximately 3-4 North Koreans appeared on the side of the lead truck and lobbed grenades at it. One of the grenades landed on the hood of the truck and killed the Platoon Sergeant Philip Boudreaux.
After the initial grenade attack more North Koreans opened up on the lead truck with small arms fire. In the ensuing ambush two more US soldiers, PFC Donald Craplicki and PFC Jerry Skaggs would be killed. The fatalities could have been much worse if it wasn’t for the actions of Specialist David Richardson who stood up on the back of the truck and returned fire at the ambushers while the other soldiers jumped out over the side of the truck and into an adjacent ditch to take cover. SPC Richardson was wounded by grenade fragments and shot twice, but incredibly continued to return fire. The return of fire from Richardson allowed platoon leader 2nd Lieutenant David Colwell who rode in the second truck to organize a response to the ambush.
While soldiers in the second truck took cover Colwell crawled up the hill to the first truck to check on the status of the soldiers. After helping to get wounded soldiers in the ambush zone out of the truck and administering first aid he ran back down the hill to order a soldier to run to a nearby outpost to request reinforcements. Other soldiers in the second truck then pushed forward to return fire at the ambushers. The firefight lasted about 30 minutes before the North Koreans withdrew back across the DMZ. No North Korean bodies were found, but US soldiers reported seeing some of the ambushers shot and blood was later found at the scene.
The aftermath from the ambush left the US with 3 soldiers killed in action, 16 more wounded and one ROK Army Korean Augmentee to the US Army (KATUSA) also wounded. 2LT Colwell would later go on to be recognized with a Bronze Star for his actions that morning. I could find no record of Specialist Richardson being awarded any valor medals, but it seems like he would have been a great candidate as well.
November 25, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes newspaper announcing the Bronze Star awarded to 2nd Lieutenant David Colwell.
Ambush Aftermath
A few days after the ambush the United Nations Command officially protested the aggression during the 253rd meeting of the military armistice commission. During the meeting the UNC spokesman Major General Marvin Demler blasted the North Korean delegation for the deadly attacks. North Korean spokesman Major General Chung Kuk-pak had the audacity to claim that if any UN soldiers had been killed it was because they shot each other by mistake. Later in the meeting Maj. Gen. Demler responded to the North Korean subterfuge by saying, “My colleagues and I agree that the proper assessment of this situation is that every ass likes to hear himself bray.” Demler continued to say that the UNC would “hunt down and kill or capture all North Korean communist intruders.” Despite Demler’s tough talking the North Koreans would go on two weeks later to launch an even more deadly ambush on Camp Liberty Bell that left 4 soldiers dead and 26 wounded to further escalate the growing DMZ War.
August 18, 1967 edition of the Pacific Stars and Stripes newspaper.
Click the below link for more DMZ Flashpoints articles:
An egg wholesaler looks down at empty trays of egg at his storage facility in Seoul on Dec. 27, 2016. The nation has been suffering a severe egg supply shortage due to the worst-ever avian influenza that has forced poultry farmers to cull more than 26 million chickens and ducks since mid-November. (Yonhap)
The North Korean diplomat turned defector Thae Yong-ho wasn’t kidding when he said he would become an outspoken critic of the Kim Jong-un regime after defecting from the DPRK embassy in London:
Thae Yong-ho
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is determined to complete development of nuclear weapons by the end of 2017 and has no plans to give up the country’s nukes even if he is offered huge sums of money, a high-profile North Korean diplomat who recently defected to South Korea said Tuesday.
Kim is “racing ahead with nuclear development after setting up a plan to develop it (nuclear weapons) at all costs by the end of 2017,” Thae Yong-ho, formerly No. 2 at the North Korean Embassy in London, said in a press briefing. It was his first media appearance since he escaped his post in London in July to take refuge in South Korea with his wife and two sons.
“As long as Kim Jong-un is (in power), North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons … the North will not give them up even if the country is offered $1 trillion or $10 trillion in return,” Thae said at the press briefing. “It’s not a matter of (economic) incentives.”
For North Korea, the year 2017 is “an opportune time” when South Korea and the United States will have new presidents, he said. “Due to domestic political procedures, North Korea calculates that South Korea and the U.S. will not be able to take physical or military actions to deter North Korea’s nuclear development.”
In the meantime, Pyongyang will try to open dialogue with Seoul and Washington’s new administrations as a nuclear-possessing state, Thae said of the North’s strategy to secure nuclear power status.
Until then, North Korea will continue to launch military provocations and conduct nuclear tests in a bid to frustrate Seoul and Washington’s sanctions-concentrated policy towards Pyongyang, Thae said. “North Korea believes that relentless provocations must shift new (South Korean and U.S.) governments’ policy lines into more stability-focused ones.” [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but Thae is just confirming what many of us have been saying for years, North Korea has no intention of giving up their nuclear weapons. In the article Thae also confirms that the North Koreans can continue to get away with their nuclear and provocation strategies because they know that the Chinese will do nothing to stop them.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly replaced Christmas with celebrations honoring his deceased grandmother. While Christians remain a minority in North Korea, Kim has declared Dec. 25 a holiday to pay tribute to Kim Jong Suk, who died in 1949, according to media reports Sunday.
Kim’s grandmother was born on Christmas Eve in 1919. Known as the “Sacred Mother of the Revolution,” she was the wife of former North Korean leader Kim Il Sung and a Communist activist. To honor her birthday, many North Koreans visit her tomb on Dec. 25 each year.
North Korea has prevously banned Christmas trees and Kim has upheld his family’s anti-Christmas beliefs. In 2014, he threatened war against South Korea after it announced it would erect a Christmas tree along the border.
“The DPRK ostentatiously treats anyone of faith, but especially Christians, as hostile,” wrote Doug Bandow, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. “Believers place loyalty to God before that of the North Korean state. Churches allow people to act and organize outside of state entities. Christianity also has ties to a world seen as almost uniformly threatening by Pyongyang.” [International Business Times via a reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but considering how various Christian groups have been helping defectors escape from North Korea, it should be no surprise that Kim Jong-un has tried to eliminate Christmas.
Have you wondered how many illegal Korean immigrants there are in the United States? According to the Korea Times the number of Korean illegal immigrants has actually been declining in recent years and has dropped to 160,000 people:
Trump reaffirmed his plan to build a wall along the Mexican border.
“After the border is secure and after everything gets normalized, we’re going to make a determination on the people that you’re talking about who are terrific people, they’re terrific people, but we are going to make a determination on that,” he said.
Early this month, the Pew Research Center estimated that 160,000 Koreans were in the U.S illegally.
The center said the number of illegal Korean immigrants in the U.S. had risen steadily since 1990 to a peak of about 200,000 in 2010 before declining moderately to 190,000 in 2011 and 180,000 in 2012. [Korea Times]
