Via the Marmot’s Hole comes this Andrei Lankov article that discusses what North Koreans really think about the South Korean dramas and movies that has infiltrated their country:
The picture of the South within North Korea is a bit more complex, though. While admiring the almost unbelievable prosperity of the South, viewers are also exposed to many of the negative aspects of South Korean society.
I just came across an interesting aspect to this trend. My North Korean friend, a smart woman in her 30s, once said to me: “there are some violent gangs in North Korea, but there are much fewer gangs than there are here (i.e. South Korea).” I was taken aback by this statement, since South Korea is, actually, a very peaceful place with remarkably low level of violent crime. However, it soon became clear that my friend’s knowledge of Seoul’s “gang life” was based almost exclusively on South Korean action movies and TV dramas that she had watched (and that frequently depict street violence).
Indeed, a number of North Korean viewers have come to the conclusion that South Korea must be a very violent place where police shoot suspected criminals more or less at random, and where massive fights between rival gangs are almost as common as traffic jams in rush hours. [NK News]
You can read the rest at the link, but this same phenomenon is not limited to just North Koreans. I have seen this same thought process happen with South Koreans that have traveled to the US for the first time. Certain urban areas of the US does have a serious crime problem, but in the vast majority of the country you are not going to see gang violence, shoot outs, and explosions like what are depicted in Hollywood movies.
South Korea and the United States have agreed to make the Combined Forces Command (CFC) exempt from their plan to relocate U.S. troops until Seoul retakes wartime command of its forces from Washington, sources here said Thursday.
Seoul and Washington had been at odds over whether to move the CFC headquarters and its affiliated forces to Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of the capital, in accordance with their 2004 agreement to move the Yongsan Garrison, the sprawling U.S. military headquarters in central Seoul, and the 2nd Infantry Division stationed north of Seoul to the southern town by the end of 2016.
“The two sides have agreed to maintain the CFC in Yongsan, where it is currently located, until we regain the operational control (OPCON) from the U.S.,” a senior Seoul government source said, requesting anonymity.
The CFC, which has the command over South Korean and U.S. troops stationed here, was to be disbanded upon Seoul’s OPCON transfer in December 2015, but a bilateral agreement to delay the transfer has led the CFC to remain intact.
“Albeit temporarily, we, in fact, accepted the U.S. request to stay them in Seoul. The U.S. has proposed the CFC be an exception for the relocation plan, citing smooth policy coordination between the allies,” the source said.
“Though the U.S. wants to have most of its forces under the CFC stay in Yongsan, we have conveyed our position that it would not be possible. Discussions are under way about the size of the remaining forces,” he added. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the ROK Defense Ministry are denying the report. If true it will be interesting to see how large of a footprint will remain on Yongsan and will the commissary, PX, and other facilities remain open as well?
The Chinese have been complaining about the deployment of THAAD to Korea and it looks like the Korean government is going to try and alleviate their concerns:
The government is moving to ease China’s concerns about the possible deployment of U.S. missile interceptors on Korean soil.
National Security Office (NSC) chief Kim Kwan-jin is expected to undertake this hard mission on a visit to Beijing to meet with State Councilor Yang Jiechi in October.
Government officials have recently dropped hints that they would not object to the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) plan to bring in a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.
The advanced missile-defense system that has a range of up to lometers is regarded as an indispensable element of the U.S. missile defense system.
“The NSC chief will try and acquire China’s understanding on THAAD,” a government official said. The resumption of six-party talks aimed at stopping North Korea’s nuclear programs would also be on the agenda, he said. [Korea Times]
Employees of the country’s rail operator, KORAIL, see off passengers in a train heading to their hometowns from Seoul Station in downtown Seoul on Sept. 5, 2014, for the five-day Chuseok holiday that begins the following day. (Yonhap)
For ROK Heads living in Korea that are heading out of town for Chuseok be safe while traveling.
After the decision to created a combined US & ROK division the two allies now have differing views on whether there will be a residual force left behind in Area 1:
South Korean defense officials said Friday the U.S. will not leave residual forces near the Demilitarized Zone after it shifts most of its troops on the peninsula to southern regional hubs, while American officials didn’t rule out the prospect of leaving some troops behind “temporarily.”
The two statements reflect the sensitivities north of Seoul, where cities already have plans for the land that will be handed over as American forces vacate bases there.
The Ministry of National Defense’s announcement that no residual forces would remain in Area I came one day after the two allies said they would form a combined division next year.
The division will initially be headquartered in Uijeongbu but will eventually move to Pyeongtaek as part of the relocation; and be led by an American commander with a South Korean deputy. Officials from both countries said the creation of the combined division would not affect the relocation.
U.S. Forces Korea, however, issued a statement Friday that said “no decision has been made to temporarily keep a U.S. residual north of Seoul. As with other issues involving Alliance agreements, a decision to keep a residual U.S. force will be managed in a collaborative manner.” [Stars & Stripes via reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see how USFK defines “temporary”.
I have always liked this idea of a combined division and it appears it will become a reality:
Headquarters of the 2nd Infantry Division in Uijongbu.
South Korea and the United States have agreed to establish a combined division of their troops next year that will be tasked with carrying out wartime operations, Seoul’s defense ministry said Thursday.
The unit, slated to be organized in the first half of next year, will be comprised of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division and a South Korean brigade-level unit, according to the ministry.
The 2nd Division commander plans to head the newly-made joint staff of the combined unit, with South Korea’s brigadier general-level officer to be its vice chief, the ministry said, adding that an equal number of dozens of service personnel from the two sides will form the leadership.
“While being operated in a separate fashion in peacetime, the 2nd Division and the Korean brigade will carry out joint exercises when necessary,” a ministry official said, asking not to be named.
In time of war, the two entities will get together to carry out diverse “strategic operations” such as eliminating weapons of mass destruction as well as civil missions against North Korea, he noted, without elaborating further. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the article says this will not impact the relocation of the 2ID to Camp Humphreys. However, I wonder how it is going to impact the residual combat power in Area 1 that has long been discussed.
Thank you everyone for your patience as I have been busy trying to resolve technical difficulties with the site this week. My webhost provider, Blogs-About who has been hosting the ROK Drop since 2007 I think has went out of business. I first began to use their service because they were recommended in the WordPress For Dummies book that I used to become knowledgeable on how to use the WordPress blogging software that powers the ROK Drop. In the past I have never had any issues with them providing needed technical support and the site has run fine for all these years. However, for this outage I tried to contact them with no success. For some reason they have not been responding to any of their contact emails or numbers and their support site shows the same error that the ROKdrop.com site is showing. I am left to conclude that they have gone out of business?
Whatever did happen has caused me to open up a new webhosting account with Bluehost.com which is the largest WordPress webhosting company. They have so far been great in helping me get the new ROKdrop.net site up running. Also since they are such a large webhosting company they should not just disappear overnight like Blogs-About has apparently done. However, they cannot transfer over my 10 years worth of data or my ROKdrop.com web address until it is released from the Blogs-About servers which I have had no success with contacting. Fortunately I do have an XML backup file of my archives that I download every month. I plan to eventually get the files uploaded on to ROKdrop.net if I continue to have no success with contacting my old webhosting company.
While I continue to work this issue I plan to continue regular blogging here at ROKdrop.net. You will see that the new site has the Buddypress social media feature that I have installed. By registering a username you can create your own social media like presence on the ROK Drop website and post in the Forums I have set up. I receive comments, emails, and Facebook messages with article links all the time that I do not always have time to get to. The Forums will allow people to post these links there so if I do not get around to publishing the article on the main page readers can still comment on the article in the Forums.
Thank you once again everyone for your patience and if anyone has any advice on how to deal with this frustrating situation feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.
