The Koreas
-  I wonder how long this is going to last?
-  Somebody pinch me because I actually agree with Hilary on something.
-  You can tell it is nearing election time because the sunshiners are sure getting desperate for this second inter-Korean summit.
-  NK slave labor in Czech Republic has finely come to an end.
-  Some advice on the best places in Seoul to take a nap.
-  I mentioned in my previous posting about my trip on the Incheon Airport train.  Well the train service is about to improve as the line is being extended all the way to Seoul Station.

Japan
-  Yes the Japanese have mastered the art of the convenience store.
-  Japanese media pushes the Tokyo government to create the city’s own Cheongyecheon.
-  Is the Imperial Japanese Feng Shui attack on Korea true?  Opposing viewpoints can be found here.
-  Burger King is back in Japan.

China
-  The Tiananmen Square mining disaster?  This is why when the Chinese complain about historical revisionism from the Japanese their complaints seem extremely hollow to me.
-  The Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo has been a source of controversy for years.  Well the controversy is about to get a whole lot bigger. 
-  First Koguryo, then Shilla and Paekche; now the Chinese want to try and steal taekwondo as well.

Milblogs
-  Michael Yon has as another great series of postings about his time embedded with the British in Iraq.  Read his first two dispatches in a four part series here and here.
-  The story of the civilian truck driving Rambo.
-  Liquid Armor?  Interesting.
-  What if D-day happened on June 6th, 2007?  Find out here.

I arrived in Korea earlier this week and as usual things ran smoothly at Incheon International Airport.  My wife and I made it through customs in no time and then we proceeded to try out the new subway train.  As we walked over to the area of the airport where the train runs from, the airport became suspiciously empty:

The new train terminal at the airport is quite nice and even had staff there that helped us load our bags on the train.  As we got on the train we noticed we were the only people on the entire train:

The airport must have lost some serious money running an entire train with just 2 people on it.  The train ride was quite smooth though and the chairs were comfortable.  It was nice to sit back and watch the country scenery as the train headed towards Seoul:

Then the train crossed over from Yeongjongdo Island where the airport is located and over Incheon’s famous tidal flats:

Can you just imagine what would have happened if the timing of General MacArthur’s fleet that invaded Incheon during the Korean War was off?  It would have been a slaughter with MacArthur’s boats all stuck in the mud.  Once on the otherside of the bridge the scenery quickly changed from rural Korea to industrial Korea just like that:

The train from the airport only goes as far as Gimpo Airport and takes just less than 30 minutes.  From Gimpo we had to transfer to the subway to get to Gwanghamun Station to meet our ride that was picking us up there.  Bringing our luggage on to the subway was definitely not a pleasant experience.  Carrying our luggage up the subway steps was additionally not pleasant either.  On the way back to the airport we are definitely taking the limousine bus. 

I always wondered how the juicy girls received their drugs and now I know how:

The wives of two U.S. soldiers told a panel of South Korean judges on Friday that they didn’t try to smuggle methamphetamine into the country by mail, though one of the women admitted to using the drug in South Korea.

According to court documents, Irine Melendy signed for a package that arrived from the Philippines at a friend’s house in Uijeongbu in March.

The court documents said the package contained fish, clothes and 15.1 grams of methamphetamine hidden in the bottom of some slippers.

Melendy, a 25-year-old who has been married to a U.S. soldier for nearly six years, said she didn’t know what was in the package and signed for it at a friend’s request.

“It was a big mistake,” she told Stars and Stripes.

That friend, Warren Alega, is in jail and on trial for drug smuggling charges along with Castro Aldwin, both of whom will testify when the women’s case reconvenes next week. The men live and work in South Korea and have no apparent connection to the U.S. military.

What is really jacked up about this is that one of the wives on trial is eight months pregnant and the Korean investigators took hair samples and found evidence that they both may have taken drugs.  It is bad enough to be possibly caught up in drug smuggling much less taking drugs while pregnant.  It will interesting to see how this turns out. 

More details are now emerging about what happened during last month’s policewoman rape case in Seoul involving to US soldiers:

One of two U.S. soldiers on trial for allegedly trying to rape an off-duty South Korean policewoman in April told a panel of judges Friday he was trying to catch a taxi when the incident occurred.

Pfc. Mark Feldmann, 21, testified that he told his friend, Sgt. Anthony Q. Basel, that he planned to smoke a cigarette outside the bar they were in and then catch a taxi home. The pair, based at Camp Stanley, were in Seoul on leave had spent the day drinking in at least two restaurants and two bars.

Feldmann said he tried to catch three taxis on a main street but none would stop, so he went through an alley to a side street. He said he was trying to catch a taxi there when Basel, who had just left a public bathroom, found him and told him they needed to leave.

South Korean police arrested both a short time later, saying they had tried to rape the police officer. Basel told the court that he did try to rape the woman, but remembered only being on top of her with his pants around his ankles because he had drunk at least 20 beers that day.

I’m surprised he could walk after drinking at least 20 beers.  What else I find interesting is that an NCO is hanging out and drinking with a private and the NCO is the one who appears to be drunk and out of control.  NCOs are not supposed to be hanging out with soldiers and especially drinking with them.  Usually the E5 sergeant rank is the worst violators of this and this case is a perfect example. 

The PFC will most likely be convicted of something because no US soldier ever gets acquitted in a Korean court, but if he does get acquitted I guess the command can bring him up on charges for abandoning his battle buddy.  If only he had the new battle buddy card maybe all of this could have been avoided.

In the prior posting you saw the May 2007 blotter report which shows a small rise in indiscipline problems in USFK. However, courtesy of the Second Infantry Division, the great answer we all have been waiting for to curb the recent spike in indiscipline around USFK has been found. Introducing, the Battle Buddy Card:

Yes, you read the card right that you can be prosecuted under UCMJ if you don’t keep your battle buddy out of trouble. How come someone didn’t think of this great and inovative solution sooner?

Make the soldiers responsible for keeping other soldiers out of trouble instead of leadership. So when soldiers get in trouble you can bring up on charges their battle buddy instead of holding leadership accountable for the discipline of their soldiers.

I also liked the fact they put an entire line on there to let soldiers know they cannot fight the local police. PFC Duprey I’m sure, feels proud that his battle buddy dedication has been immortalized on the Battle Buddy card. Plus there is even a whole line in there to write your battle buddies name down in case you forgot.

The back of the card even has the blood alcohol percentage chart to check and see if you will be brought up on charges before entering the gate for being over the limit as well. The powers that be have thought of everything with this card. Where does the Army find such creative thinkers?

I bet there is even someone right now working on the sexual assault card as I’m typing this.

USFK has posted the blotter report for the month of May.  It was a busy month for the USFK legal system.  You can read the whole report below the fold:

(more…)

After the latest ban on US beef imports into Korea was announced this week Senator Ben Nelson had some strong things to say about South Korea:

“Of course, shipments intended for domestic use shouldn’t have been sent to Korea, and there was a mess-up in the U.S. Department of Agriculture that contributed to this mistake,” said Nelson, D-Neb., on Wednesday.

But Nelson categorized the shipments as a procedural problem, not a safety concern.

“Instead of just dealing with the one thing … nope, they shut it all down,” Nelson said. “They take every opportunity to shut off our beef, then they want a free Korean trade agreement.”

“It’s clear that the reaction by the South Korean government was far out of line with the problem. It indicates to me that they were probably looking for an excuse to stop imports,” Nelson said.

You don’t say. 

The Korean government will just continue to play this game as long as there are no consequences for it.  Everyone remember the Great Kimchi Crisis of 2005 between Korea and China?  During the crisis the Korean government tried to stop Chinese kimchi imports because they supposedly were tainted with lead.  The Chinese quickly responded by denying certain Korean imports in kind and suddenly the Great Kimchi Crisis was solved. 

This is the same kind of action that needs to be taken in regards to US beef.  Senator Nelson appears to finally be getting the US government moving in that direction:

Nelson said he planned to send a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., asking him to withhold any committee action on a free trade agreement with South Korea until that country resumes American beef imports.

He also will be asking the U.S. trade representative to proceed against South Korea in the World Trade Organization for “their unfair treatment of U.S. beef.”

How about turning around the first ship full of Samsung Electronics products and see what happens?

Sometimes I wonder if Coach Verbeek hopes he does get fired:

South Korea’s soccer coach Pim Verbeek has put his job on the line ahead of July’s Asian Cup. After securing a 3-1 victory over the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the second qualifying round for the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Wednesday, Verbeek told reporters his expectation for the games in July.

‘I am sure we can win (the Asian Cup)… I think we should at least make it into the semi-finals and if not, I will take a look at myself,’ Verbeek was quoted as saying in sports daily Sports Chosun.

‘If I find many mistakes in my decisions, I will tell the Korean Football Association to look for another leader,’ he added.

 

UPDATE #2:  The AFP actually has a much more detailed article up about the protest and they quote the Seoul police as saying 30,000 people attended the rally on Wednesday. 

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UPDATE #1: The Korean Media has picked up on the story today with the Chosun Ilbo deeming the rally only worthy of a picture with no detailed information:

The Joong Ang Ilbo has a similar picture but lists more of what the protest was about and that 25,000 people attended.  It is amazing that the anti-US loons can have a protest of just a few dozen people and make more headlines than 25,000 people in front of City Hall waving US and Korean flags. 

You can read more over at Lost Nomad.

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I traveled to Korea this week on leave with my wife.  This is my first time back to Korea since the fall of 2005.  So far it has been an interesting trip.  For example on Wednesday we decided to go take a walk down the Choengyecheon Stream and then walk over to Myeongdong via City Hall in order to get some lunch.  I will blog more about the Cheongyecheon in a future posting but it was a good walk with a lot of people out and about because Wednesday was the Korean Memorial Day.

Anyway while walking along the Cheongyecheon Stream we noticed a number of people that were carrying Korean and American flags which we thought was odd.  Once we reached the end of the stream we walked towards City Hall and we found out why:

In the above picture you can see a number of elderly citizens were lounging in the shade and they were handing out Korean and American flags to people walking by.   The wife and I spoke with them and they said they had just held a rally and that they were protesting the Korean government to recognize their contributions as a secret commando unit during the Korean War as well as protesting the government’s policy towards North Korea.  Some of these guys actually looked familar from protest pictures I have seen before in the Korean media of the veterans groups holding rallies. 

It was Memorial Day and I thanked these guys for their patriotism, service, and their support of the US-ROK Alliance and we then continued on our way.  As we approached City Hall the sidewalks were filled with people wearing blue shirts and holding Korean and American flags.  As we waded through the crowd we saw people in blue shirts handing out US and Korean flags to other people in blue shirts as well as people passing by:

As I looked towards City Hall I could see there was a huge rally going on:

One of the people in the blue shirt we questioned said that the rally was organized by Christian church groups in rememberance of Memorial Day as well as to show support for the US-ROK Alliance.  I was definitely surprised by the turn out because this rally filled the City Hall lawn as well as having people on the sidewalks across the street where I took the picture, not to mention the veterans rallied just down the street from City Hall.  I’m not good at estimating numbers but that should give you an idea of how big the rally was. 

This was personally the largest pro-US rally I have seen and was quite surprised.  What I was most surprised about was the number of young Koreans attending this rally along with families.  Usually pro-US rallies tend to dominated by older people who remember American sacrifices during the Korean War.  Not this one because younger people easily out numbered the older people which is really a good thing to see because younger people tend to be the most anti-American in Korea. 

Maybe the anti-US trend is starting to wear out in Korea?  I have to say just from being here this week I do feel less of an anti-US vibe than in the past from just walking around and talking to people.   Any other opinions on this are welcome. 

Anyway it was lunch time and we were hungry so we started walking towards Myeongdong to get lunch.  We got a really good laugh because the street was lined with US and Korean flags:

What made this funny was that we saw a banner on the front of the Lotte Hotel welcoming people attending some forum between China and Korea.  Right in front of the hotel and all along the road were Korean and US flags.  Probably not to welcome of a sight for the Chinese visitors to this forum. 

I checked the Korean media for any news of this rally and didn’t see anything but maybe they will post something tomorrow.  Anyway it was a welcome sight and hopefully the large turn out for this rally is a sign of positive things to come in the US-ROK relationship.

What happens when two elderly men, with one being a  former police commander and the other a retired Marine are called on to subdue to unrulely airline passengers?  Well you have to read this story to find out and make sure you read at the very end what the policeman’s wife had to say.  Absolutely hilarious. 

HT: Milblogs