North Korea’s top leader Kim Jong-un (C) visits the Sinhung Machine Plant in South Hamkyong Province, north of Pyongyang, in this photo provided by the country’s ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun on April 1, 2016. The daily said Kim emphasized the plant’s role in building the country’s economic power through knowledge-based economy. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
This was something I was surprised to read about over the weekend. Usually former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is pretty measured with his words, but he had some pretty strong things to say about President Obama:
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he felt President Obama “double-crossed” him during his tenure over budget cuts to the Pentagon.
In a Fox News report Friday that explored the president’s approach to the military, Gates said Obama had promised him that there wouldn’t be any “significant changes” in the defense budget for a while.
When asked by Fox whether Obama kept to his word, Gates replied, “Well I think that began to fray. ‘Fray’ may be too gentle a word.”
According to the report, Gates was told to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from the defense budget after already having slashed it.
“I guess I’d have to say I felt double-crossed,” Gates said. “After all those years in Washington, I was naïve.”
The former defense secretary added that he advised Obama to slow the cuts to the military because it would endanger U.S. troops.
“I think he acknowledged that what I was pitching at a minimum was, ‘The world doesn’t seem to be getting better. Before you head down a path of deep cuts in defense, why don’t you take it kind of slow,’ ” he said. “You know it was one of those things where I lost the argument.” [The Hill]
South Korea is far from being the first country to naturalize foreign born athletes to bolster their Olympic teams:
From left, Eric Regan, Matt Dalton, Anna Frolina and Alexander Starodubets
Naturalized citizens will represent Korea at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.
Two Canadian-born ice hockey players, Matt Dalton and Eric Regan, and two Russian-born biathletes, Alexander Starodubets and Anna Frolina, have acquired Korean citizenship, the Justice Ministry said on Thursday.
The Korean nationality law allows people with special talents in specific areas such as science, culture and sports to be fast-tracked to citizenship.
Dalton, 30, and Regan, 28, who play for Korean ice hockey club Anyang Halla, previously made names for themselves playing in Europe. Their addition to the team means there are now six naturalized players on the national ice hockey squad.
Starodubets and Frolina will be the first naturalized Koreans to represent the country in the biathlon. Starodubets, who was a member of the Russian junior national team, chose to represent Korea because it would give him more opportunities to compete. [Chosun Ilbo]
Environmental activists wearing Pinocchio masks demonstrate in Seoul against Volkswagen AG on April 1, 2016, demanding the German automaker pay due compensation for its faked emissions test results. (Yonhap)
It makes me wonder if there is any legal mechanism that can be used to address something like this considering how important GPS has become in today’s modern society? Would the ROK be justified to launch a military strike to destroy GPS jammers if North Korea is properly warned and still does not stop? What would the US do if someone in Mexico just started jamming GPS in southern California and the Mexican government did nothing to stop it?
North Korea on Thursday tried to disrupt South Korean global positioning satellite signals as the leaders of the South, the U.S. and Japan met in Washington to discuss the North’s nuclear program.
The disruptions could cause mobile communication devices to malfunction and affect airplanes and ships that depend on GPS.
The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said it issued warnings in Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi Province and Gangwon Province as North Korea discharged a large amounts of radio waves to jam GPS signals.
Once the jamming waves were detected at around 7:30 p.m., government officials met to assess the impact. The signals were traced to Haeju and Mt. Kumgang in North Korea.
“No damage of involving mobile communications and ships has been detected,” a ministry official said. “Two airplanes experienced disruptions in signals, but their flight operations were not affected.”
A government official said the North has been sending test waves since last month. [Chosun Ilbo]
The North Korean shooting down an airliner with an anti-aircraft missile has always been something I have been concerned about. Could you imagine what that would do to air traffic to Incheon International Airport? It would basically shut off all air travel to Incheon for who knows how long which would have huge economic impacts for South Korea. This is why I have never been a huge fan of where the international airport was constructed. However, shooting down an airliner would be a huge provocation that could trigger a military response in retaliation, so I think the Kim regime would try and shoot down a military aircraft before trying something like this. Shooting down a military aircraft is something they have done before and in recent years have deployed their SA-5s along the DMZ to threaten ROK aircraft. The North Koreans just test fired an anti-aircraft missile which makes me wonder if they are trying to signal something to South Korea that they best watch their aircraft?:
SA-5 anti-aircraft missile.
North Korea on Friday launched a surface-to-air missile into waters off its east coast, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, a move seen as a show of defiance against mounting pressure to give up its nuclear program.
The North fired off the anti-aircraft missile at around 12:45 p.m. from South Hamgyong Province in the country’s northeastern area. The missile was fired toward the East Sea, according to the JCS.
It said that the military is on high alert amid heighten cross-border tensions following the North’s nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in February.
Seoul, earlier thought the North fired a ballistic missile, but on close examination of the trajectory picked up by its radar said it was a surface-to-air missile. The missile flew some 100 kilometers.
The North’s provocation came as President Park Geun-hye held a three-way summit with her counterparts from the United States and Japan on Thursday in Washington to discuss how to deal with the North’s nuclear weapons program.
Park warned of additional tougher sanctions against North Korea if the communist country carries out another provocation.
Also on Friday, South Korea’s defense ministry said that the North is continuing to jam GPS signals in South Korea in an attempt to raise tensions on the peninsula. [Yonhap]
The UK’s Guardian has an article published that describes what life is like for ROK Army soldiers tasked with patrolling the DMZ:
Because the border is supposed to be a “demilitarised zone”, it takes some creative accounting to allow the soldiers to be posted there.
“All of the rangers are given a chest patch that says ‘DMZ police’ and an armband that says ‘military police,’” Shin said. “As as long as we wear the armband before entering the DMZ, no matter how armed we are, we are nothing but the ‘armed police’ not the armed ‘military’ force.”
It’s a posting that comes with many hazards, not just North Korean ones. Instead of four seasons there are just three at the DMZ: “the steaming summer, cold winter and the ice age when everything freezes,” he said.
Shin and his fellow soldiers had to endure temperatures that dropped below -19C (-2.2F), with endless, biting winds blowing in from the North.
“The wind was so strong it could literally blow you around,” said Shin. “Most general outposts are on the top of the mountain, directly facing the wind.” [The Guardian]
