So what does chopsticks and Korea’s bid to host the 2014 Olympic Games have in common?  Well, go read Brian’s latest update about Gangwon provinces attempt to host the games. 

Here is a picture from the 2ID Indianhead Newspaper showing the new cold weather gear being tested up in 2ID land:

Judging from the picture, this cold weather gear looks exactly like the old cold weather gear except a different color to match the new Army Combat Uniforms (ACUs).  Anyway I guarantee this cold weather gear is better than ROK Army cold weather gear:

I sure hope this isn’t true:

South Korea will reclaim wartime operational control of its forces from the United States as of April 17, 2012, the two countries announced Thursday.

The South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) will consequently be disbanded as of the same day, according to a joint press statement issued by South Korean Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

The agreement resolves one of the most controversial bilateral issues as Seoul and Washington continue to redefine a military alliance that dates back to the 1950-1953 Korean War, when American soldiers fought with South Korea against North Korea’s invasion.

I have been hoping the wartime control would be resolved by January, 2010 to coincide with the Camp Humphreys relocation.  If this is true the Pentagon has once again given in to Korean governmental delay tactics.  How likely is it that the wartime control handover is going to happen in 2012?  The Pentagon sure doesn’t sound to confident:

The U.S. will accept Korea’s request to hand over wartime operational control of Korean troops to Seoul only in 2012, not 2009 as Washington had hoped. In return, Washington is asking Seoul to guarantee it will not change its mind again no matter who wins the presidential election here in December. That would put paid to hopes in Korea that a new president could postpone the handover.

A government source on Thursday said Korea and the U.S. will highly likely agree on the exact timing of the handover in bilateral defense ministerial talks on Friday. The U.S. is asking Korea for “tangible measures” to earn its trust, citing Korea’s earlier failure to immediately implement a bilateral agreement when the situation changed.

Well they shouldn’t feel to confident because the Koreans are masters at delay tactics.  The failure to implement a bilateral agreement that the article is referring to is when the Korean government made prior deals to fund USFK and the Camp Humphreys relocation.  However, once Secretary Rumsfeld was dumped the Korean government jumped on this opportunity to end the deal and play more delay games.  Even worse was the fact that the South Korean government decided to send more money to fund North Korea than they are willing to provide for the up keep of USFK. 

Now if this delay yet again does happen remember these words from Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, not even a year ago:

President Roh Moo-hyun on Wednesday said Korea is capable of exercising sole wartime operational control of its troops “even if we get it back now.” In an interview with the Yonhap news agency, the president said, “The South Korean military’s capability is sufficient and it can get U.S. military support."

You can read more over at Lost Nomad and One Free Korea.

This is great news for all the soldiers living on Camp Casey:

Getting to Seoul became a lot easier in the past few months for many Area I soldiers.

Unable to drive their own vehicles, soldiers at Dongducheon bases were once reliant on buses to Yongsan Garrison or had to transfer from trains or buses to Uijeongbu before finding the subway.

And farther south at Camp Red Cloud, servicemembers no longer have to take an expensive taxi ride or long bus trip through downtown Uijeongbu traffic to get to the station.

The Seoul Metro system’s Number One line extension opened in December and now allows servicemembers to get to popular destinations like Itaewon for as little as 1,100 won, or about $1.20, each way.

In the past soldiers at Camp Casey had to take a train from usually Dongan Station outside Gate 2 that left once an hour to reach Uijongbu.  The train cost about $2 to get to Uijongbu on.  At Uijongbu Station you had to transfer over to the subway and buy another ticket to get to Itaewon which cost about $1.50.  With the completion of the subway line to Dongducheon soldiers will save time and money whenever they travel to Seoul which I think is great. 

The subway expansion has actually been under construction for about the past 10 years.  Every time I came back to Korea I always found it interesting to watch first hand the slow, but steady progress of the subway expansion between Uijongbu and Dongducheon.  What was additionally interesting was the fact that large portions of Dongducheon including parts of the ville in front of Camp Casey, had to be knocked down to make way for the subway.  This map should give you an idea of how many buildings were impacted by the subway expansion:

You can see the subway line runs right through the center of the city.  This picture should give you an idea of how densely populated Dongducheon is:

During the whole time homes and businesses were being knocked down to make way for the subway expansion not once did I see or hear of any civic groups protesting the forced relocation of these homes and businesses.  However, when less people are forced to move due to the Camp Humphreys expansion in Pyeongtaek suddenly all these civic groups appear demanding that the government stop the forced relocation of the farmers in the Daechu-ri village who don’t want to move. 

Having watched people in forced to move due to a subway expansion I have always considered the protesters outside Camp Humphreys total hypocrites.  People in Korea aren’t just forced to move to make way for subways either.  I have seen people forced to relocated due to highways and new shopping centers as well and not once did I see or hear of these civic groups outside of Camp Humphreys protesting them.  The truth is that the Camp Humphreys protester don’t care about the fact that people are forced to move due to imminent domain because if they did there are a whole lot of bigger imminent cases out there than Camp Humphreys.  Their whole motivation is pushing their anti-US agenda and the farmers of Daechu-ri are just pawns in their game to bash USFK. 

So don’t expect any protesters for the opening of this subway line, but don’t expect them to go away outside Camp Humphreys. 

You can read more over at Lost Nomad.

Perspective you will never get from the main stream media:

The total military dead in the Iraq war between 2003 and this month stands at about 3,133. This is tragic, as are all deaths due to war, and we are facing a cowardly enemy unlike any other in our past that hides behind innocent citizens. Each death is blazoned in the headlines of newspapers and Internet sites. What is never compared is the number of military deaths during the Clinton administration: 1,245 in 1993; 1,109 in 1994; 1,055 in 1995; 1,008 in 1996. That’s 4,417 deaths in peacetime but, of course, who’s counting?

You can view an entire break down of total US military casualties since 1980 here.  Personally I don’t like playing the body count game, but the media and the left continues to hammer the body count to the public.  It sickens me when I watch the news and the current total deaths of US service members in Iraq is treated as some kind of basketball score.  However, to those of us in the military the number of this basketball score includes real people that we in military know, worked with, were friends with, and respected.  The way the media and the left plays the body count game is disrespectful to those soldiers and families who have died for their country. 

What the US is doing in Iraq shouldn’t be judged by casualty totals, but even if it was the US’s casualties in Iraq are comparable to a peacetime army and well lower than any other major US military conflict in our nation’s history.  As I discussed before, it is a good thing the United States didn’t give up on South Korea based on casualty statistics from the Korean War. 

The bottom line is that being in the military is dangerous whether it is peace time or war time.  Soldiers die in training and work related accidents.  I can remember major training events in Korea where soldiers died during river crossing training across the Imjim River as well as when a M113 rolled over into a rice paddy.  I can also remember soldiers dyeing from flash flooding in Korea as well.  Also just like civilians, soldiers die in automobile accidents, suicides, sickness, etc.  However, when these things happened before the Iraq War it wasn’t treated like a running basketball score on every news channel. 

Instead of casualty totals the media should be judging Iraq by political progress, by provinces handed over to the Iraqi government, the number of Iraqi Army battalions fielded, the number of schools opened, staffed hospitals, unemployment numbers, crime & murder rates, college graduates, etc.  Hammer the US public with those numbers every day instead of playing the morbid body count game.  However, the news media won’t do this because, though progress has been slow, there has been clear signs of progress, thus the need to keep playing the body count game. 

If "progress" in Iraq is judged by a body count than the US military can show "progress" real easily by keeping everyone on base all day, but would a lower body count really mean "progress".  No it would not.  The things I mentioned above is how the US military judges progress in Iraq, while at the same time doing everything possible to protect soldiers’ lives while still accomplishing the mission.  The fact that our military leadership has been able to make steady progress while keeping casualties low enough to compare to peace time casualty numbers is really a testament to the great work done by our military leaders and service members in Iraq. 

If you look at the complete statistics I linked to above something else that is really interesting is the suicide numbers.  The peace time military of the Clinton years has a significantly higher suicide percentage than the war time military of today.  Yet what headlines do you hear about in the media today about military suicides?  They blast you with headlines that US military suicides have increased due to deployments, which the Reuters journalist had to conveniently manipulate statistics to show.  However, as I showed in this posting, the US military suicide rates have in fact stayed stable on average throughout the war in Iraq and are lower than when compared to civilian rates.  Young men and women today actually are more likely to commit suicide going to college than they are if they joined the military.  Even more telling is that a young man or woman joining the war time military today is less likely to commit suicide compared to the peace time military during the Clinton years. 

Statistics don’t lie, demagogues do and unfortunately more and more of our media is filled with demagogues. 

HT: Milblogs

Robert Neff from the Marmot’s Hole has posted an interesting article in the Korea Times about the 1982 defection of PFC Joseph White to North Korea.  PFC White would remain in North Korea for only three more years until he supposedly died while drowning in a river.  The reason for PFC White’s defection has been a matter of controversy for years.

Here is the theory from the article that I would put money on:

There is another theory. One American soldier claims that White fell in love with a North Korean agent in a club in the village of Bongilchon and that she disappeared on the same day White did. Allegedly she either guided him to the North Korean positions or she met him in the North.

PFC White was an introvert and when he enlisted in the military and was posted in Korea; he became a big fan of the ville culture.  PFC White probably never had such attention showered on from women before and enjoyed the attention from the Korean women in the ville so much that he even wrote letters home to his mom about it.  I don’t think it is too far fetched of an idea that a woman is the reason he defected.

I have seen soldiers do many stupid and criminal things due to juicy girls in the ville, so the possibility that PFC White defected due to juicy girl is definitely plausible to me.  Anyway interesting read and I encourage everyone to check it out.

Note: You can read more GI Flashbacks articles by clicking on the below link: 

Who can name this peak:

Here are this year’s current Korea Finder Leader’s Board:

Mark-4

Peekstr – 1

James – 1

Note that who ever totals the most points at the end of the year, I will purchase for them a Korea related book or DVD of their choice using the proceeds I have accumulated by people purchasing books from Amazon.com on my website.

It looks like some sectors of Korean society are getting desperate to support the Kumgang resort in North Korea:

Hana Bank is trying to fix up 20 of its employees between the ages of 29 and 33 with 20 single South Korean men selected by a top matchmaking agency in the country, an official said.

"This trip will offer them a chance to easily meet men," said Yang Jae-hyeok in charge of the bank’s division offering life services for employees.

"As our bank tries to help our employees balance their work and personal lives, we are putting more effort into improving their personal life," Yang said.

Hana Bank will pay half the fare for its employees for the two-day trip this weekend to a mountain resort in North Korea run by an affiliate of the South’s Hyundai Group, which more than a million South Koreans have already visited.

If anyone actually gets married due to this, they can tell their kids in the future how they met in North Korea by paying Kim Jong-il money to further subsidize his regime’s ability to develop nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and to wage war against South Korea all the while ensuring 250,000 people remain in concentration camps and that the people of North Korea remain in utter poverty.  Yes, a very romantic time indeed.  Who wouldn’t want to sign up for this?

HT: FM

This is a sad story:

Song will soon be able to get a divorce. The question is, will his wife ever find out?  Song is a 49-year-old defector from North Korea who left a wife and two children behind him, took up with a Russian mother of three and brought them to South Korea. But so impenetrable is the iron curtain between the two Koreas that there’s no way of communicating. There are no phone, mail or Internet connections.

This area of marital law is a legal minefield for South Korea which is likely to be cleared in March when a law is enacted permitting defectors to obtain a divorce from a South Korean court. But not all the mines will be defused.

Read the whole story on your own but basically this NK defector worked at as guest laborer at a lumber mill in Russia in 1998.  He was caught saying bad things about the NK government and was going to be arrested.  So he hid within Russia. While hiding in Russia he met an ethnic Mongolian Russian and she sold everything she had to flee with him and her kids to South Korea.  She has now given birth to their child, but is in South Korea on a tourist visa.  The defectors wants to get married so she doesn’t get deported, but first he must divorce his wife in North Korea.

According to the article 223 defectors have tried to get divorced in South Korea, but only one has ever been successful.  Hopefully for the sake of his new family he can get divorced and married before the authorities deport his wife and children.  

From the Washington Post:

Hyundai Motor Co., the world’s sixth-largest automaker, on Monday denied a British newspaper report that it is interested in acquiring Chrysler, the U.S. unit of German automaker DaimlerChrysler AG.

"We are not considering to buy Chrysler because our hands are full," Hyundai spokesman Jake Jang said, responding to a report in The Times that the South Korean automaker was among companies interested in bidding for the Chrysler Group.

The Times reported on its Web site that Hyundai was thought to be interested in joining possible bidders for the U.S. automaker, without citing specific sources. The paper said that Hyundai was believed to be interested in gaining access to Chrysler’s network of dealerships in the U.S.

Could you imagine 50 years ago if somebody said a South Korean company would be buying out a major US auto maker?  They would be laughed out of the building, so just the fact that Hyundai is contemplating buying a US auto maker is pretty amazing and another sign of how far Korea has come.