Joong Ang Ilbo is reporting that the leader of the spy ring once served in the US Army:

The Seoul Central District Public Prosecutors Office and the National Intelligence Service said Mr. Jang had joined the U.S. military in 1989 when he was a permanent resident of the United States and served at Yongsan Garrison, the headquarters base of U.S. Forces Korea, for four years. He obtained U.S. citizenship in 1993. They accused him of having paid his first visit to North Korea in 1989, just before joining the U.S. Army. He allegedly traveled there again in 1993, joining the North Korean Workers Party that year.

Mr. Jang is suspected of having operated as an undercover agent for Pyongyang since then, the prosecution and intelligence service sources said. In 1997, he was said to have organized a group of former student activists targeted at gathering information from members of political parties and civic groups.

It will be interesting to see what legal action the US government would be able to take against this guy in regards to he had to have lied about his North Korean ties in order to enlist into the Army not to mention whatever espionage activity he may have been part of at Yongsan. If President Roh tries to stop the investigation it will interesting to see if the US pursues it instead.

HT: One Free Korea

Senator John Kerry was just had a press conference and he blames the controversy over his comments on (drum roll please) a Republican conspiracy against him!  Karl Rove must of drug and hypnotized him before he gave his speech.  He said his comments about stupid people going to Iraq was a “botched joke” against how stupid the president is.  Let me take this time to remind everyone, courtesy of B5 that Kerry wasn’t any genius at Yale either.

Kerry does say he supports the troops, and once again let me show everyone how he supports the troops:

I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command….

They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

Here is his more recent comments about US troops “terrorizing” Iraqis:

In accusations about American troops reminiscent of what the young John Kerry said to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971, the senator and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee told CBS “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer there was no reason for U.S. soldiers to continue “terrorizing” Iraqi children.

“And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the – of – the historical customs, religious customs,” Kerry said Sunday

Oh yeah, he doesn’t like obese people either as he called Rush Limbaugh doughy.

Kerry refused to apologize for his remarks and I’ll take him at his word as this being a “botched joke” however, I think it is more offensive that he won’t apologize for his “botched joke” and just shows that his liberal politics are more important to him than apologizing for his bad joke and letting this thing blow over.  He is actually feeding the controversy now in order to bash President Bush as leading some kind of conspiracy against him.

North Korea continues to be full of surprises as the six party talks are back on:

The U.S. and Chinese governments announced Tuesday that North Korea agreed to rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, a surprise diplomatic breakthrough that comes only three weeks after the communist regime conducted its first known atomic test.

The agreement was struck in a day of unpublicized discussions between the senior envoys from the United States, China and North Korea at a government guesthouse in Beijing. The U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said the six-nation negotiations could resume as early as November or December.

“We took a step today toward getting this process back on track. This process has suffered a lot in recent weeks by the actions the DPRK has made,” Hill told reporters afterward. DPRK stands for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.

The agreement is one of the first signs of easing tensions since North Korea conducted the underground detonation on Oct. 9, defying warnings from both the United States and Japan and its staunchest ally, China.

With the six party talks back on, North Korea now has less cards to play as they have already conducted missile and nuclear tests.  They are playing with a much weaker hand but I don’t think they really have any intention of cutting a deal.  This seems more like a face saving measure for China.

The North Korean spy scandal in South Korea continues to get interesting as the Korean National Intelligence Service Chief who resigned in the wake of the spy scandal is accusing the ruling Korean government of trying to influence the investigation of the North Korean spies:

National Intelligence Service chief Kim Seung-kyu said the case involves long-serving North Korean spies. “I suspect this case is about a North Korean spy ring,” he said. “It is shocking to see.” Kim, who resigned Thursday, said an intensive one-month investigation confirmed the charges raised against the five already arrested. “We are investigating additional suspects in the case”. Asked who will succeed him, Kim told the Chosun Ilbo it was “very important” who becomes the next NIS chief. “Some of the candidates are unsuitable due to concerns that they tend to do what [politicians] want them to do. Considering the presidential election next year and the operations of the NIS, the right candidate would be politically neutral and have a global view and knowledge,” he said.

The former NIS chief’s comments has drawn a strong reaction from President Roh Moo-hyun’s Uri Party:

Uri Party lawmakers who object to the investigation say the case tarnishes the entire generation of ex-student activists and say the probe is politically motivated. At Monday’s audit of the Justice Department, they laid into the NIS. Uri lawmaker Kim Dong-cheol raised suspicion that the NIS is intentionally leaking information about the case to the press. Rep. Lee Jong-kul alleged the investigation was planned for ulterior motives. “The suspects say that the case is a setup by the NIS, and a thorough investigation should determine whether that is true.” Im Jong-in, another Uri lawmaker, protested against Kim’s definition of the investigation as a “North Korean spy ring case,” “It’s inappropriate to define the case that way when the suspects just met a few North Koreans,” Im said.

Things are playing out as I suspected with the Uri Party trying to minimalize the damage from this spy scandal by blaming conservatives for framing them. The NIS chief did a great job with his comments, in making it politically difficult for President Roh to put one of his Uri Party stooges into the NIS chief position like he has with other sensitive governmental and national security positions in order to squash the spy scandal.

What is even more incredible is that the liberal party at the center of the party the DLP are making a trip to Pyongyang in the midst of this spy scandal:

The Unification Ministry ignored protests from the National Intelligence Service and the Justice Ministry in permitting members of the Democratic Labor Party, some of whose leaders are under arrest on spying charges, to visit North Korea on Monday, it has emerged. The NIS called the permission “inappropriate” when the ministry sought the agency’s views. A former and current DLP leader are being held in a spy ring case involving former student activists of the so-called 386 generation now close to the centers of power.

Justice Minister Kim Sung-ho told a parliamentary audit Monday his ministry advised the Unification Ministry not to give the green light to some applicants who had criminal records for violating the National Security Law and remain under police watch. Those who violated the National Security Law include DLP chairman Moon Sung-hyun and lawmaker Roh Hoe-chan.

A Unification Ministry official said the ministry gave the go-ahead nonetheless since it considered the visit an exchange between North and South Korean political parties and expects the DLP to act responsibly as a party registered in the National Assembly. An NIS source said it was “incomprehensible” that the ministry gave permission when former and incumbent party leaders are under arrest and the investigation continues.

This is absolutely incredible that officials in the ruling government are allowing DLP members to go to North Korea in the midst of this spy scandal investigation. What are they doing up there, getting their stories straight from their Nork handlers for when they are questioned by the NIS when they get back?

Courtesy of One Free Korea, DLP is saying they are going to North Korea to ask Kim Jong-il if he had anything to do with the spy scandal within their own party! I’m not making this stuff up:

The Democratic Labor said, “As for the suspicions of spying, we will speak directly to the North to verify or disprove them.” The Democratic Labor Party will ask about the ”386 spy scandal” when its leaders visit North Korea between October 30th and November 4th.

The DLP said, “Kim Jong Il already promised not to spy on us at the 2000 meeting with Kim Dae Jung. So they will check this and find out what the real story about this spy scandal is.”

I wonder if Kim Jong-il is going to be able to keep a straight face when these people ask him if he has been using them for spies? I agree with One Free Korea, I smell Chewbacca Defense all over this one.

The best way I can describe this, is if high ranking members of a political party in the US Congress were suspected of spying for let’s say Iran and then that party is allowed to send members to Iran to consult with the mullahs over there and ask them if they have been using their political party as spies, all with the approval of the President. This all sounds absurd right? Well, this is exactly what is going on in South Korea right now.

Yeah, really:

Tonight’s “John Ziegler Show” on KFI 640AM in Southern CA played a clip from Senator John F Kerry’s appearance at Pomona College with candidate Phil Angelides, Democrat for CA governor.

At the event, Kerry had this to say about our brave military volunteers:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Once again these are the same people who say they support the troops, not the war.

I highly recommend that everyone read this article from Greyhawk about the latest efforts by the liberals to undermine and bad mouth the military through a “astroturfing” campaign.

Just to summarize a Navy liberal spy seaman comes out with a website about serving military personnel against the war, which suddenly over 200 newspapers and media outlets around the world pick up on and tout as a “grassroot effort” by US troops to speak out against the war.  However, on closer inspection it turns out the seaman is actually a covert agent for Amnesty International planted in the Navy in order to have him come out and claim racism in the Navy and be seen as a “grassroot” upriser within the military against the war.

The “astroturfing” term is used to describe efforts by larger entities to disguise their activities as being “grassroot” efforts through front entities such as this seaman’s webpage in order to give their views added credibility.  The tentacles behind this seaman’s “grassroot” efforts extends all the way back to the greatest media power brokers of the liberal establishment.  It makes me wonder how many more plants from the anti-war establishment has been put into the military?  Notice they picked the Navy to plant this guy in because you know for damn sure they wouldn’t pick the Marines where any plant would likely face combat.  So they have this guy nice and safe on a boat speaking out against the military.  I think I read something the other day about the Navy looking for naval infantry to man river patrol boats in Iraq; they ought to put this guy on one.

Once again make sure you read the whole posting.  It is shocking how far the liberal establishment is willing to go to bash the military.  What is even more shocking to me is that the media went and accepted this “grassroot” effort at face value while a milblogger with a full time military career on his own time is left to expose this fraud for what it is.  What the heck are journalists payed for anymore if they are not even willing to do simple background checks on people?

Maybe the liberal establishment took some tips from Kim Jong-il.  As the recent  spy scandal in South Korea has shown, the North Koreans have been running their own “astroturfing” campaign in South Korea for quite some time.  The North Koreans have been using their own covert agents to stir up anti-American sentiment in Korea through their own front entities of “grassroot” citizen activist groups.  This “astroturfing” campaign has been widely successful in recent years in South Korea.  Let’s hope the liberal establishment in America is not as successful in undermining and bashing the military with theirs.

From Yonhap:

South Korean inmates overseas suffer from excessively heavy prison terms compared to convicts at home, due to cultural differences and language barriers, a lawmaker said Monday.

There were 1,400 South Korean nationals in foreign detention centers as of the end of August, with 6.3 percent, or 228 of them having received jail sentences of 10 years or more, Rep. Im Jong-in of the ruling Uri Party said, quoting data submitted by the Justice Ministry.

In the United States, more than half of the 197 South Korean inmates were serving prison terms of 10 years or longer.

The situation was the same in China where 54 out of 168 Korean prisoners were sentenced to imprisonment of 10 years or more.

Fifteen of them received life in prison or suspended death sentences for drug offenses or fraud, the lawmaker said in a press release.

The punishments are very harsh compared to those in South Korea where those convicted on such charges face maximum sentences of 10 years of imprisonment, he claimed.

“The Justice Ministry must devise measures to save South Korean inmates serving unnecessarily long prison terms in foreign countries after closely analyzing criminal cases involving them and their sentences,” the lawmaker said.

I find it interesting that the Korean media is complaining about overseas Koreans receiving unfair “heavy prison sentences”, while in Korea crimes against foreigners often go unpunished. Let me remind everyone of one of my all time favorite Korean justice system sentences:

The Seoul High Court yesterday overturned the conviction by a lower court of a 49-year old taxi driver who had been charged with the rape of a 19-year old U.S. female soldier.
The man had received a 10-month prison term in the original trial after being convicted of luring the newly-arrived servicewoman from Incheon International Airport to a hotel near there where the woman said he raped her. The woman reported the incident to U.S. military authorities, who asked for assistance from Korean prosecutors. The appeals court ruled that the woman had shown no evidence of having refused the man’s advances, and that he used “not enough violence to constitute rape.”

This guy rapes a US soldier and was freed on appeal when he only originally received a 10 month sentence for the assualt to begin with. Then this same media has the balls to criticize US prison sentences?

It looks like I got big brother after me now:

A new Army effort to monitor soldiers’ personal Web sites is raising concerns among military bloggers, who worry the service is discouraging the online community’s positive efforts.

Since July a new 10-man branch of the Virginia Army National Guard’s Data Processing Unit — a team of guardsmen trained in security issues — has been surveying the Internet for the Army, looking for online postings that might violate operational security standards.

The group isn’t reviewing things like soldiers’ e-mail accounts, but it is looking at blogs and photo-sharing sites like myspace.com.

Last year Army officials issued warnings to all soldiers posting information online, noting that certain mission information, photographs of defense facilities, and other unclassified information could pose a threat to soldiers serving overseas.

I just have to wonder why the military is taking such a pro-active approach to censuring milblogs while papers like the New York Times continue to regularly breach national security with impunity?

From the Stars and Stripes:

Hundreds gathered on Knight Field on Thursday afternoon to bid farewell to the deputy commander of the United Nations Command and U.S. Forces Korea.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Garry R. Trexler is retiring after 35 years of service. He’s spent the past three years in South Korea, also as the commander of the Air Component Command for U.S. Air Forces Korea and commander of the 7th United States Air Force.

As I alluded to in my title, General Trexler will always be remembered by many as the one who put his foot down and issued this ultimatum to the ROK government, and guess what?  It worked.

When I read claims of how US Korean War veterans are a bunch of war criminals and that the US government should pay compensation, my response is often here is your compensation:

It took 56 years, but Jenkins’ great-uncle, Army Pfc. Francis Crater Jr., now is home for good.

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced this week that it positively had identified Crater, who died after an overwhelming Chinese assault in North Korea on Nov. 28, 1950.

Jenkins and his family laid Crater to rest in front of 150 people in Akron, Ohio, on Oct. 21.

“The funeral we did was one of the most profound experiences of my life,” Jenkins said during a phone interview with Stars and Stripes.

Jenkins delivered the eulogy in front of his grandfather, Glenn Crater, 79, and other family members.

Crater’s 32nd Infantry Regiment was assigned temporarily to the Army’s 31st Regimental Combat Team on Nov. 27, 1950, when a massive and unexpected wave of Chinese soldiers attacked the heavily outnumbered United Nations forces.

Jenkins spoke to the lone U.S. survivor of that attack in Crater’s unit.

“He said [Crater] was fighting them off, hopping from one machine gun nest to the other,” Jenkins said. “He saw my uncle fighting hand-to-hand in the nest, trying to save his comrades. When he last saw him, they were overrun in the nest.”

Crater had multiple bullet wounds and likely died from a Chinese bullet to the head, Jenkins said.

I still find it amazing that people are demanding financial compensation for a war fought 50 years ago that the United States is still digging up bodies from of our fellow Americans.  Isn’t 36,516 dead, 103,284 wounded, 8,176 unaccounted for, and 7,245 POWs plus 50+ years of economic development and defense assistance enough American compensation to South Korea?