Michael Totten continues his great work from Iraq with his latest posting from Iraqi Kurdistan.  In his posting he has this picture of a Kurdish female Peshmerga soldier playing basketball:

It looks like the Zaytun unit has done more than introduce modern plumbing in Kurdistan, they have expanded the Red Devil fan base as well.  Highly recommend reading the whole article.  How a segment of the American population wants to abandon these people like the girl pictured above is beyond me. 

UPDATE #5: The Washington Post has a good article up about the Virginia Tech shooting. From reading that and just watching the news today this guy was clearly nuts or mentally ill, but clearly being Korean had little to do with it. He had some serious issues that many teachers had noticed before the shooting happened. The drum beat of possible reprisals against Koreans is continuing:

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday the government hoped the Virginia Tech shootings, allegedly carried out by a 23-year-old South Korean native, would not “stir up racial prejudice or confrontation.” (…)

The diplomat said there was no known motive for the shootings, and added that South Korea hoped that the tragedy would not “stir up racial prejudice or confrontation.”

Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Korean born UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also offered apologies and condolescences for the shootings. I seriously doubt there will be any “racial prejudice or confrontation” and it kind of makes apologies (which aren’t necessary) and condolescences seem hollow if that is what the reason is that they are offering such statements.

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UPDATE #4: The Joong Ang Ilbo has an interview posted with the wounded Korean student:

Among Cho’s victims in the deadliest shooting in American history was a Korean graduate student who was shot three times. His injuries were not considered life-threatening.
“Shortly after the lecture began, he came in,” said Park Chang-min, 27, a master’s degree candidate in civil engineering. “He shot the professor first and then started shooting the classmates. Blood was all over the place quickly and it was chaos. “I could tell that he was an Asian, but because of his mask and hat, it was hard to see his face,” Park said. “There were about 15 students in our classroom. The shooting took place in a split second, and I had no time to
hide. He then moved on to the next classroom.”
Park said he got as low as possible instinctively and he did not even realize he’d been shot in the arm.
“Police came into our classroom after time passed and things were all quiet,” Park said. “We were told to raise our hands if were are okay, and only three, including myself, stood up.”
Park was sent to the Montgomery Regional Hospital for treatment.
The South Korean Embassy in Washington dispatched Consul Choi Seung-hyeon to the scene.
“Except for Park, there were no other Korean victims in the shooting,” Choi said, at the time.

There are also concerns from Korean students that they may be targeted for reprisals:

After news reports about the killer’s possible identity, concerns grew among Korean students about discrimination.
Located 390 kilometers (240 miles) southwest of Washington D.C., Virginia Tech has 26,000 students.
The school has 1,600 Asian students, including 763 Korean undergraduate and graduate students.
“I am worried that the Americans will treat all Asian students, including Koreans, as criminals,” said Lee Seung-wook, head of Virginia Tech’s Korean student association, before the gunman was identified as a Korean.

I for one would be very surprised if any serious reprisals take place. If anyone wants to talk about racially motivated reprisals how about the aftermath of the 2002 armored vehicle accident in Korea where GIs and foreigners were attacked on the street including kidnapped and paraded on TV. Or the signs put up in windows denying admittance to Americans or foreigners in general. Some how I doubt anything like that is going to happen after this tragic incident. Like past shootings these maniacs come in all shapes and colors.

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UPDATE #3: It appears Cho may have targeted the engineering department because he had failing grades and had to transfer over to an English degree:

On a chat room of (mostly Asian) engineers that I’m on, someone posited that the killer was probably a “real major” (i.e., engineer, scientist, etc.) who played too many video games, “got horrible grades and had to transfer to english.” This hypothesis was put forth by someone who didn’t know about the killers’s anti-engineer department ramblings, so I’d say it’s a pretty decent speculation that he wanted (and failed) to be an engineering major. It would explain the note.

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UPDATE #2: The Chosun Ilbo has a report up on the shooting. They have identified one Korean student as being injured in the attack:

The shootings have horrified the U.S. The death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured are in critical condition. Korean student Park Chang-min, who is in the civil engineering doctorate program, was slightly injured in the hand and waist, head of the university’s Korean student association Lee Seung-woo said. Park is not in serious condition. Some 450 Korean students study at Virginia Tech – 150 in the master and doctorate program and 300 in the undergraduate school.

Here is more from the Korea Times.

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UPDATE #1: South Korean media was already exploiting the tragedy by drawing not so funny cartoons before they realized it was a Korean shooter.

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The Marmot’s Hole has a whole lot on the announcement that the shooter responsible for killing 33 people yesterday at Virginia Tech is in fact a Korean student. The shooter’s name is Cho Seung-hui and is 23 years old and first came to the United States in 1992 with his parents. His parents run a shockingly a dry cleaning business in Centerville, Virgina and his sister attended Princeton University.

The Washington Post has good blog updates going on as well on this that is worth checking out. They say the students in Cho classes knew him as the question mark kid:

Classmates said that on the first day of an introduction to British literature class last year, the 30 or so English students went around and introduced themselves. When it was Cho’s turn, he didn’t speak.

The professor looked at the sign-in sheet and, where everyone else had written their names, Cho had written a question mark. “Is your name, `Question mark?”‘ classmate Julie Poole recalled the professor asking. The young man offered little response.

Cho spent much of that class sitting in the back of the room, wearing a hat and seldom participating. In a small department, Cho distinguished himself for being anonymous. “He didn’t real out to anyone. He never talked,” Poole said.

“We just really knew him as the question mark kid,” Poole said.

I’m watching the news right now and they are saying this guy is a V.T. student and had a reputation as a loner and a problem student. He is suspected of making prior bomb threats on the school and even starting fire before this incident. Supposedly he was using the bomb threats and the fire as experiments into testing the response time of the police and firefighters. They are also reporting that he bought the gun five weeks go, indicating that he has had this planned for quite some time.

Cho left a note at the scene of the first crime where he murdered two students in their dorm room with one of them suspected of possibly being his ex-girlfriedn. In the note he wrote about “rich kids” and “deceitful charlatans”. His body found at the scene of the second crime had the words “Ismail Ax” written in red ink on one of his arms. BoingBoing was able to find this out about what “Ismail Ax” means:

-Ismail is an Islamic prophet.
-AX may also stand for the Alpha Chi Omega women’s fraternity, which I found does have a chapter at Virginia Tech.

This is how the New York Post broke it down:

The reference may be to the Islamic account of the Biblical sacrifice of Abraham, where God commands the patriarch to sacrifice his own son. Abraham begins to comply, but God intervenes at the last moment to save the boy … Abraham uses a knife in most versions of the story, but some accounts have him wielding an ax.

A more obscure reference may be to a passage in the Koran referring to Abraham’s destruction of pagan idols; in some accounts, he uses an ax to do so.

One of BoingBoing’s commenters left this link to a Flickr page with a picture of Cho sayinig he went by the name Ismail because his Korean name was hard to pronounce:

Michael over at the Metropolitician also has a very good post up explaining his thoughts on the shooting. Here is a sample:

There is going to be serious national shame, expressed through the shock of this “representative of the culture” – even if the kid had been living in the States most of his life. There will be Korean media pointing at the parents, expressions of shock that “a Korean could do such a thing” (despite the fact that violence in the schools and against women are actually rampant in Korean society), and the glee that many people here in South Korea have at pointing out “American” character traits whenever horrible things happen in the US will be inevitably tempered.

Because the flip side of the logic now applies, like a mofo.

So how will this play out in South Korea? I think it will play out much like how Michael suggested:

I wouldn’t even be surprised if this is used as more ammo to show just how much America can “corrupt” good Korean youth. Just like Western porn is responsible for Korean boys (and girls!) conspiring to rape and sexually extort the victims that have made the news in a couple of pretty scandalous cases over the last few months.

Michael also offers some very insightful commentary about how he has been asked in the past by college professors why Korean students in the US are most likely to be problem students. He also shares this fact that the world wide record for the worst shooting rampage in history is held by a Korean man named Woo Bom-gon who killed 57 people in South Korea in 1982 after an arguement with his girlfriend. Sound familiar? Lot’s more good stuff, go and read the rest.

Overall as others have suggested we shouldn’t jump to conclusions and blame the entire Korean race for the actions of one lone crazy man, unlike the Korean media which loves the paint the entire US military due to the action of a very small few that commit crimes in South Korea. So far at least in the US media I don’t see anyone blaming Koreans in general and most of the debate is now centered around gun control and not the stereotypical angry Asian man pissed off because someone stole his girlfriend.

For more good postings on this make sure to check out DPRK Studies posting on what to do about mass shootings and One Free Korea who has a good posting going on as well about crazy Cho.

The Ilshimhoe spy group that has been responsible for helping ferment anti-US sentiment in South Korea and transferring state secrets to North Korea which included members of a leading political party, have been convicted:

A Seoul court convicted five people, including a Korean-American businessman, of spying for North Korea, but acquitted them of charges of forming a spying ring, saying the group was too loosely organized to be called a formal organization.
Jang Min-ho, 45, also known as Michael Jang, received a nine-year prison term from the Seoul Central District Court and a 19 million won ($20,391) fine.
He took orders from a North Korean agent in China, and provided confidential information about South Korea. Jang was also convicted of possessing anti-state propaganda materials.
Four others were also convicted of cooperating with Jang and spying for North Korea.

Here is reason given for why the group didn’t receive a stiffer penalty by being considered a formally organized group:

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From the Chosun Ilbo:

Moreover, the Abe regime has been reneging on the promises and apologies of previous administrations in the way it deals with the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, history texts and former sex slaves, in addition to its pursuit of amending its pacifist constitution. Under these circumstances, Japan’s push to become what it thinks is a “normal” nation is simply a marriage of economic might and military capabilities with a very weak sense of ethics and historical hindsight. A country with such attributes should be called “abnormal.” The problem now facing Korea is how to view and deal with such an abnormal nation.

If the Chosun Ilbo writers wants to talk about countries being “abnormal” let’s discuss it. First of all, isn’t unilaterally declaring that the Camp Humphreys relocation is going to be delayed by 5 years from the agreed upon date between the US and Korean governments and then the USFK commander first finding out about this by reading the newspaper just a bit “abnormal”? Isn’t unilaterally cutting agreed upon money for the upkeep of the US-ROK alliance only weeks after making the agreement “abnormal”? Isn’t giving over a billion dollars this year to North Korea while denying USFK the agreed upon money for the upkeep of the US-ROK alliance “abnormal”?

Isn’t the current mass sexual slavery of North Korean women going on in China today without a word of outrage from the South Korean government “abnormal”? Isn’t the fact that the South Korean government would rather have North Korean defectors return to certain death in a gulag then be allowed to enter South Korea “abnormal”? Isn’t the fact that the South Korean government abandons their own citizens kidnapped by the North Koreans to the point that a lone ajumma had to free here husband from North Korea herself just a bit “abnormal”? Then the South Korean government sends Kim Jong-il a suitcase filled with $400,000 dollars in cash also “abnormal”. Isn’t the fact that South Korean teachers have been caught with North Korean propaganda with intent to distribute while constantly spreading anti-US rhetoric in the classrooms also just a bit “abnormal”?

I could go on and on and don’t even get me started on China, but if the Japanese are “abnormal” they have plenty of company.

Just south of Uijongbu on the opposite side of Dobongsan Mountain and just as accessible to any potential visitors is the lesser known Suraksan Mountain. Suraksan is not as picturesque as it’s western neighbor Dobongsan or as high, but does have its own type of charm and offers spectacular views of northern Seoul and the surrounding countryside. Much like Dobongsan, Suraksan has various trials to explore the mountain from, but I highly recommend tackling the 637 meter summit from the trail beginning near the Seoul Subway Line 7, Jang-am Station entrance I have highlighted below:

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A South Korean human rights group protests in front of the Laos Embassy in Seoul to draw awareness to three North Korean defectors captured in Laos that the Laos government plans to return to North Korea where they will either face life in the gulag or execution. 

What has the South Korean government doing about this you may ask?  Well absolutely nothing:

The South Korean Embassy in Laos allegedly ignored pleas for help from three young North Koreans held by Lao authorities who could be deported to their Stalinist home country. Hiroshi Kato, the head of Japanese activist group Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, on Thursday revealed the identity of the young defectors and is working for their release. According to Kato, Choi Hyang, Choi Hyuk and Choi Hyang-mi are being held in a detention center near the capital Vientiane.

This is about par for the course for the South Korean government to ignore the plight of desperate refugees.  Does anyone else find it ironic that a Japanese activist group is the one fighting for the release of these refugees while the South Korean government does nothing?  They must be to preoccupied with more pressing matters like demanding apologies from Japan for the 15th time about the Korean "comfort women" of 60 years ago while ignoring the plight of these Korean women now. 

I think this is a perfect opportunity for the US or Japanese governments to step in and offer asylum to these defectors if the South Korean government does nothing.  Some government needs to show some moral courage here and save these defectors from the gulag that awaits them in North Korea. 

One pillar of the anti-US hate groups has collapsed:

Seoul and Washington yesterday finalized the return of 14 U.S. military bases to Korea but the agreement finds Seoul agreeing to shoulder as much as 40 billion won ($42 million) for the necessary environmental clean-up of the military installations.
A total of 18 bases, including four that already have been returned, are now back in Seoul’s hands while negotiations for the return of the remaining 41 bases continues.
Under an agreement with Washington called the Land Partnership Plan, the United States will return 59 bases to South Korea by 2011. Until now, Seoul and Washington have been at odds over how to split the cost related to the environmental cleaning process.

The entire camp pollution issue is a total fraud and now the Korean government is paying for helping perpetuate the fraud. Of course the anti-US group Green Korea has now weighed in on the announcement from the Korean government:

Civic groups such as Green Korea United criticized the government yesterday for giving in to Washington on the issue.
“The U.S. soldiers have left and they left Korea a lot of waste. This should not serve as an example for other bases to be returned in the future. U.S. forces need to be asked clearly to take responsibility,” said the organization in a statement.

Here is the source of Green Korea’s concern about this issue:

In February, Green Korea and some media outlets said they acquired leaked Ministry of the Environment data that showed unsafe ground and water contamination levels at several sites. They included camps Page, Garry Owen, Greaves, Stanton, Edwards, Giant, Falling Water and Howze, the Kimpo post terminal, the Freedom Bridge and the Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and North Carolina firing ranges.

Can you believe that firing ranges have lead contamination? I tell you I am shocked! What is even more laughable about this is that the firing ranges are not used exclusively by USFK but by the ROK Army as well. Why isn’t the ROK Army being investigated for pollution? I found the inclusion of Freedom Bridge even funnier because USFK soldiers guarded that bridge. How the heck do soldiers pulling guard duty which also includes Koreans by the way, pollute a bridge to the point that these environmentalists say it is unsafe for the public? If this bridge is unsafe than every bridge in Korea needs to be shut down!

For those who have never served in Korea, the USFK camps are literally an oasis of green in the middle of dense urban cities. The camps after the Korean war were located on the outskirts of Korean cities but the camps have now been swallowed up by the growing cities which are a sign of Korea’s amazing development since the war. It is partly because of this development that USFK wants to relocate the camps to the sparsely populated Camp Humphreys area. If anything the USFK camps are the cleanest piece of land in the surrounding communities and some have been designated to become parks when handed over; yet the anti-US hate groups have successfully used this issue to further delay the USFK relocation.

That is why I say release the pollution findings with detailed data to check for errors because I wouldn’t be surprised if the findings were “Dr. Hwang-ed for political reasons especially when these so call environmental groups have been linked to North Korean spies.

If USFK really wanted to prove a point they should have environmental studies conducted by their own researchers on USFK bases compared to the surrounding communities. Does anyone think for example that Yongsan Garrison is more dangerous to the environment than Seoul? Case in point while Green Korea is busy complaining about these camps, Korean citizens in multiple cities are drinking water with high levels of uranium and Green Korea could care less.

But of course there is a catch:

After a 2005 visit to Pyongyang, former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg quoted North Korean officials as saying that they had no need to keep the ship if a top-level American official makes a trip to the communist country as a goodwill gesture towards normalizing relations between the two countries.

The latest North Korean gesture comes amid active international efforts to denuclearize North Korea. A Feb. 13 six-party agreement calls for improved ties between Pyongyang and Washington, aside from making the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free.

If the U.S. takes concrete steps to normalize relations with North Korea, the communist regime in Pyongyang may actually give back the ship, said the same source in Seoul.

First of all the USS Pueblo is not theirs to demand anything in return for.  Secondly now seems hardly the time to talk about normalizing relations when the North Koreans have already violated the Agreed Framework 2.0 agreement by not freezing their nuclear program at the agreed upon time. 

You can read a full account of the USS Pueblo Incident here.

Prominent K-blog commenter and lawyer Brendon Carr offers some outstanding advice in today’s Stars and Stripes newspaper. Brendon hits on a number of potential issues with soldiers who get in trouble in Korea. Here is probably the most telling statement from the article:

Beyond language difficulties is the prospect that South Koreans who give testimony might feel it culturally acceptable to lie, especially if it will increase their chances of winning bigger damages, Carr said.

This culture, Carr said, does not place the same value on truth or view the truth through the same prism that Americans do. There is very little social disapproval of making false official statements in order to achieve an objective for your friend or relative or for a tribemate.

Once it breaks down to ˜those Americans versus us Koreans, many, many Koreans will perceive it as their duty to make sure that the Korean is the winner of the dispute. So there’s a lot of lying when witnesses come forward, Carr said.

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The AP writers Charles Hanley and Martha Mendoza are literally making a career off of one topic, No Gun-ri. With no new claims to make about the incident they have now gone back to recycling old claims in order to make headlines. Their latest article to make the front page of Yahoo is about the Muccio Letter that was sent to the State Department from the US Ambassador in Korea, John Muccio during the Korean War. News of this letter came out a year ago and now Hanley and crew are bringing it up again as some kind of new news on the front page of Yahoo:

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