This photo, provided by the Marine Corps on July 6, 2016, shows South Korea’s K-1 tanks conducting a live-fire drill in Pohang on the southeast coast the previous day as part of a South Korea-U.S. joint marine infiltration and attack exercise, which kicked off on June 27 for an 18-day run with 800 South Korean and 500 U.S. marine forces participating. (Yonhap)
Korea will be under the influence of powerful typhoon Nepartak from Sunday, said the state weather agency on Thursday.
“The super typhoon is forecast to influence all parts of Korea while passing the west coast of the peninsula,” the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said Thursday.
Nepartak, which was 510 kilometers southeast of Taipei as of 9 a.m. Thursday, is moving west-northwest and expected to strike Shanghai on Saturday.
The typhoon will then keep advancing north, reaching the Korean Peninsula at the weekend.
“We forecast that heavy rain will start in Korea under the influence of Nepartak on Sunday,” the agency said. “But there is a possibility that the typhoon could be downgraded to a tropical storm when it hits China.” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but everyone in the ROK stay safe this weekend.
After what has seemed like never-ending negotiations the US and the ROK have agreed to finally deploy a THAAD missile defense system to South Korea:
Deputy Minister for National Defense Policy Ryu Je-seung, right, shakes hands with Eighth U.S. Army commander Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal after a joint press conference at the defense ministry building in southern Seoul, Friday. The two agreed to deploy a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here. / Yonhap
South Korea and the United States agreed to deploy a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here, the two allies announced Friday, drawing protests from China and throwing the Korean Peninsula into geopolitical turmoil.
“The Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States made an alliance decision to deploy THAAD to U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) as a defensive measure to ensure the security of the ROK and its people,” the Ministry of Defense and the USFK said in a joint statement.
It said the deployment of the advanced U.S. missile defense system is to protect alliance military forces from North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile threats.
The two are “working closely to ensure the swift deployment of THAAD” and will develop specific operational procedures, it said.
Several hours after the announcement, China denounced both Seoul and Washington, with its foreign ministry expressing “strong discontent and firm opposition” against the two countries’ agreement. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but according to the article the locations being considered for hosting the THAAD site are Pyeongtaek, Wonju, Waegwan and Eumseong County in North Chungcheong Province. It will be interesting to see if the Korean left will try and demagogue and launch Camp Humphreys expansion style protests against the building of the THAAD site.
It will also be interesting to see if the Chinese try to retaliate against the ROK in some way? Considering how the Chinese continue to funnel cash and goods to the Kim regime despite sanctions, they have no creditability to oppose this deployment.
What an embarrassment for the Park administration if they did in fact plagiarize the new national slogan. Even if they did not plagiarize it they still should have been aware that a major country like France was already using the slogan:
Rep. Sohn Hye-won says during the Minjoo Party’s interim leadership meeting on Wednesday that the government’s “Creative Korea” slogan and its logo design plagiarized the “Creative France” campaign of Business France. [NEWSIS]The Park Geun-hye administration’s newly created national slogan celebrating Korean creativity was plagiarized from a French campaign, an opposition lawmaker and renowned designer said Wednesday.
Rep. Sohn Hye-won of the Minjoo Party of Korea said during the interim leadership meeting in the morning that the government’s “Creative Korea” slogan and its logo design plagiarized the “Creative France” campaign of Business France, a French national agency promoting international investment in the country.
“Using the word ‘creative’ in front of the name of the country in the slogan, and using the red and blue colors in the logo design, are blatant acts of plagiarism,” Sohn said. “It is especially embarrassing that the plagiarized slogan is celebrating creativity.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but it is pretty ironic that a slogan pushing creativity was possibly plagiarized.
United States Forces Korea (USFK) commander Gen. Vincent Brooks (L) shakes hands with Maj. Gen. David Puster, the outgoing deputy commander of USFK’s Eighth Army, in a change of command ceremony held at the USFK headquarters in Yongsan, central Seoul, on July 7, 2016. Brig. Gen. Tammy Smith replaces Maj. Gen. Puster. (Yonhap)
This story has been sweeping the Internet because it appears to show the extreme double standard between Hillary Clinton and everyone else that is not politically connected:
Maj. Jason Brezler, seen here during a deployment to Afghanistan spanning 2009 and 2010, is locked in a legal battle with the Marine Corps. (Courtesy of Kevin Carroll)
A Marine Corps officer who has been locked in a legal battle with his service after self-reporting that he improperly disseminated classified information will use Hillary Clinton’s email case to fight his involuntary separation from the service, his lawyer said.
Maj. Jason Brezler’s case has been tied up in federal court since he sued the service in December 2014. He became a cause celebre among some members of Congress, Marine generals and military veterans after he sent a classified message using an unclassified Yahoo email account to warn fellow Marines in southern Afghanistan about a potentially corrupt Afghan police chief. A servant of that police official killed three Marines and severely wounded a fourth 17 days later, on Aug. 10, 2012, opening fire with a Kalashnikov rifle in an insider attack. [Washington Post]
You can read more at the link, but it is important to realize that like Clinton, Maj. Brezler was not criminally charged. Instead he received a career ending report that led to involuntary separation proceedings by the Marine Corps. So the circumstances are different and not the best comparison in my opinion. I still think the David Petraeus situation is a better comparison considering he was criminally charged and punished for doing something in my opinion was a far less of a transgression than what Clinton did.
What that all said I don’t blame this Marine or anyone else in trouble fill spillage for citing the Clinton case as a way to avoid punishment.
There may be tensions between the countries in the Pacific region with China due to their territorial grab in the South China Sea, but those tensions are being put aside in order to work together during the 2016 RIMPAC exercise kicking off in Hawaii:
U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Scott Swift speaks to reporters Tuesday, July 5, 2016, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for the kickoff of the Rim of the Pacific exercise in Hawaii and California. WYATT OLSON/STARS AND STRIPES
The hot topic for the Rim of the Pacific remains unchanged from the last version of the maritime exercise in 2014: China.
This marks the second time China has been a full participant in RIMPAC, bringing five ships compared with two in 2014, and the country will play a much larger role.
During a Tuesday news conference kicking off the six-week exercise — the largest so far — Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Scott Swift was flanked by top commanders from many of the 26 participating nations. Beside him was Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, commander of the U.S. Third Fleet, who is heading the exercise’s combined task force.
Swift’s opening remarks didn’t mention China by name, but his first talking point echoed repeated calls by U.S. civilian and military officials to maintain the U.S.-led status quo in the Pacific region in response to ever-greater Chinese military might.
“[RIMPAC] brings together 26 nations from North and South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania,” Swift said. “This is what the international maritime community does in ensuring the norms, standards, rules and laws that have provided the great stability and security — the foundation for prosperity — that we’ve all enjoyed over the last 70 years.”
The biennial exercise is “a recurring answer to the divisive angst and tensions that put security and stability at risk in this region,” he said. [Stars & Stripes]
This is what the Chinese Navy will be training with the US on during RIMPAC:
As it did in 2014, China sent the hospital ship Peace Ark, along with the guided missile destroy Xian, guided-missile frigate Hengshui, fleet oiler Gaoyouhui and the submarine logistics vessel Changxingdao.
China will participate in a new submarine rescue scenario, among other drills.
“For any country that has submarines, submarine rescue is very important,” Tyson told reporters. “I think it’s great we’re bringing these submarine rescue capabilities together so that we understand what is available in case we have an emergency with a submarine. There is a global system that will respond if any of us were to have an emergency with a submarine.”
You can read more at the link, but something of interests is that all surface vessels during the exercise are required to “Go Green” and use biofuels to power their ships.
Just another example of how Okinawa has turned into South Korea during the Roh Moo-hyun administration years of the early 2000’s:
The United States and Japan announced new procedures Tuesday aimed at ending status of forces agreement protection for some civilian base workers, two months after an alleged homicide by a contractor touched off massive protests targeted at the American military on Okinawa.
The new procedures would place civilians into four categories and exclude workers from SOFA who already have Japanese residency visas, according to a joint statement issued Tuesday evening.
It remained unclear after a news conference Tuesday whether the new procedures under negotiation would mean fewer SOFA-sponsored jobs; however, the statement calls on the U.S. and Japanese governments to clarify SOFA’s scope by “evaluating categories of positions eligible for status as members of the civilian component.” [Stars & Stripes]
It looks like contractors are going to have to sit in on mandatory Powerpoint briefs now as well just like servicemembers.
Defense Department civilians and contractors in Japan are now expected to attend the same training events as their active-duty counterparts, Dolan said.
“For contractors and civilians under SOFA, I have added contract specifications that all workers will sign an acknowledgement of SOFA responsibilities, which can later be used, if needed, in any adjudication or incident review,” Dolan said in a prepared statement Tuesday.
Here is another example of the Japanese government putting unreasonable expectations on the US military in Japan:
Defense Minister Gen. Nakatani praised the U.S.-Japan security alliance but also called on the U.S. military Tuesday to “eradicate driving under the influence” of alcohol. Nakatani noted that an Air Force staff sergeant was arrested by Japanese police on DUI suspicion during curfew hours on Monday, despite recent restrictions on Okinawa.
Has Japan ended DUIs in their military? Of course not because when it comes to large populations there is always going to be crime committed. What is important is what is the trends of the number of crimes committed? For US Forces on Okinawa statistics have shown that per capita they commit crime at a much lower rate than the surrounding population.
