#Philippines: Chris Brown asked to secure clearance before leaving Manila amid fraud allegations #ChrisBrown pic.twitter.com/40SUJMjeqv
— Asian Correspondent (@AsCorrespondent) July 22, 2015
A newly-wed couple clad in traditional Korean wedding attire distribute Korean rice cake during a Korea festival event at the Canadian Embassy in Seoul on July 18, 2015, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the embassy’s opening, in this photo provided by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry on July 20. (Yonhap)
It looks like South Korea’s F-16s are about to get some further upgrade work done:
The U.S. State Department has approved a possible $2.5 billion sale in F-16 upgrades to South Korea as part of Seoul’s effort to revamp its aging fighter fleet.
The sale, announced this week, would contribute to the security of both the U.S. and South Korea, which faces an ever-present threat of hostilities from North Korea, said the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
“This upgrade allows (South Korea) to protect and maintain critical airspace and provide a powerful defensive and offensive capability to preserve the security of the Korean peninsula and its vital national assets. (South Korea) will have no difficulty absorbing this additional equipment and support into its armed forces,” said a statement from the agency, which notified Congress of the possible sale on Tuesday.
The upgrades would include modular mission computers, radars, navigation systems and other equipment and logistical support, according to DSCA. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link.
The Stars & Stripes has a report stating that troops still feel like they are being retaliated against for reporting sexual assaults:
Too little progress has been made in countering perceptions of retaliation felt by those who report a sexual assault, and all the services must take measures to protect victims and others who report wrongdoing from reprisals, especially from peers, Pentagon officials concluded from an annual report on sexual assault in the military.
About two thirds of female troops who are sexually assaulted and report those attacks believe they experience retaliation afterward, according to the report.
“We’re not making enough progress on countering retaliation,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said at a news conference when the report was released Friday. “Too many servicemembers, the data shows, feel that when they report or try to stop these crimes, they’re being retaliated against in some way.”
The retaliation numbers, which are unchanged from 2012, come from a survey done late last year, and were first released in December. At the time, then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced new training and an additional study designed in part to prevent retaliation. [Stars & Stripes]
I think to really understand this issue you have to define what retaliation is? Is retaliation the command going after you with UCMJ and other measures or is it simply people in the unit not talking to you? With an issue like sexual assault people may be uncomfortable talking to someone who made a report and that could be interpreted by someone as being retaliation.
In a interview in the Diplomat, writer Robert Kaplan seems pretty sure that it is only a matter of time before the collapse of the Kim Jong-un regime happens:
Right. That’s the opportunity, the moment of surprise. Another element and not even a surprise is the moment the North Korean regime collapses. When Kim Jong-un is assassinated by somebody in his inner circle or something. That would be like a wreck; like implosion and chaos. That’s not a surprise but a Chinese nightmare for years already. They have almost resigned to have in such moment two million or so refugees on the North Korean border. I think North Korea, ethnic unrest, continued unexpected turbulence in their own economy, and Japan or Vietnam actually starting a conflict which I don’t think they will do. Because when you start a conflict with China you have to know how you are going to finish it. Or you have to at least have a plan. If you start a conflict with China, it gets really messy how it’s going to end. [The Diplomat]
Regime collapse is always possible with the North Koreans, but you have to figure that conditions in the country right now are no where near as bad as the famine years of the mid-90s and the then Kim Jong-il regime was able to survive that. That is why I am not considering the collapse of the Kim Jong-un regime in the near term inevitable, but over the long term I don’t see it lasting. I think if anything causes it to collapse would be an outside event not an internal event. Possibly the economic collapse of China or internal conflict with in China years from now that spreads to North Korea. Or North Korea gets caught in a war between China and the rest of Asia. Considering Kim Jong-un’s young age I don’t see him living out his elderly years as the ruler of North Korea with all the change that could possibly happen in the coming decades in Asia that will undoubtedly affect North Korea as well. .
Just when you thought reality TV could not get any worse:
K-pop group Girls’ Generation is set to show “a side of them never before shown on TV” in the pilot episode of their new reality program later Tuesday.
“Channel Girls’ Generation” — to be aired on South Korean cable channel OnStyle at 9 p.m. on Tuesday — isn’t the band’s first attempt at reality TV by any means.
Previously, some members have appeared as guests or had permanent roles in shows like “The Taetiseo,” which chronicled the lives of Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyeon on the same channel last year.
“Channel Girls’ Generation” is the first to feature all eight current members after the exit of Jessica last year, with each of them directing her own segment, or “channel” in the program’s vernacular. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link.
People enjoy riding a 350-meter-long waterslide on a street in Seoul’s Seodamun Ward on July 19, 2015. The ward office operated the waterslide, the longest one in South Korea, in a festival aimed at helping people cool down in the summer heat. (Yonhap)
As long as the US military keeps a robust air and naval presence in and around Korea I think this should stop North Korea from miscalculating. However, it doesn’t change the fact that cutting down to 420,000 soldiers for the US Army will be devastating:
United States Army Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno has warned that reductions in U.S. forces could lead to a misjudgment by North Korea.
Odierno, who is retiring next month, said on Friday in a meeting with reporters that if the United States sends a wrong signal to its potential enemies, it could lead to their misjudgment.
He expressed concern that reductions in U.S. troops would spread the perception that Washington’s response capabilities will weaken.
Odierno said that he considers Russia as the biggest threat to the United States, saying that what Russia says and acts shows the Cold War did not end in the right direction. [KBS World Radio]
As I was browsing through the Stars & Stripes archives I found this interesting nugget that the first German to gain Korean citizenship, Fritz Hohmann did so in 1967 in Yeosu of all places:
December 2, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes
I wonder if Mr. Hohmann decided to stay in Korea or not over the long term? Considering that he received citizenship and changed his name to Yongbu Homan it seems he was committed to living his life out in South Korea. I hope everything worked out for the best for him.
One of the criticism often claimed by anti-USFK activists is that US soldiers commit crimes and not be tried in Korean courts. This is of course ridiculous, but it was a claim often made by Koreans especially during the 2002 anti-US movement period. This claim had no truth to it stretching all the way back to 1967. It was in 1967 that a US-ROK Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) was reached that allowed US troops to be tried in Korean courts. Before then crimes committed by US troops were handled by US military court martials. When the SOFA was agreed upon back in 1967 it was only a matter of time before someone became the first US servicemember tried in a Korean court. That person would end up being US Air Force Staff Sergeant Billy Cox:
Billy Cox was arrested for crimes that are amazingly similar to stupid crimes committed by US servicemembers to this day. SSgt Cox on the night of February 20, 1967 was accused of setting fire to the home of his Korean girlfriend named Kyung-soon Eum who lived in Osan. He was alleged to have set the fire because he found out Eum had been cheating on him with another man. After setting the fire he was then accused of assaulting a cab driver. Considering all the incidents with cab drivers in recent years, it is only fitting that the first servicemember case handled by Koreans courts was a taxi cab related incident. Here is how the March 10, 1967 Stars & Stripes described the incident:
As the case went to trial the Korean prosecutors asked the Seoul court to sentence SSgt Cox to three years in a Korean jail. Here is how the June 7, 1967 Stars & Stripes described the trial:
The trial ended with SSgt Cox being acquitted on the arson charge, but convicted of assaulting the cab driver. He was given a 50,000 won fine by the court which was about $185 back in 1967. So if there was ever a trivia question asking what crime the first US servicemember tried in a Korean court was convicted of, it would be for assaulting a cab driver all the way back in 1967. Good luck though getting an anti-US activist in Korea to ever believe it.
Note: You can read more GI Flashbacks articles by clicking on the below link:
