A couple of weeks ago I posted about the SSRT internet corruption scandal on Osan Airbase. SSRT is still providing Internet access on Osan for now, but Mike from USFK Forums appears to possibly be the victim of more SSRT fraud on Osan:

Another Saturday and yet another day without internet access at the Turumi Lodge at Osan Air Base,
South Korea. SSRT, the corrupt internet service provider at Osan, seems to have a contract with Osan that stipulates they don’t have to work on the weekend.

Well, since they are being kicked off base for bribery they seems to be exploiting a loophole to deny 100s of military personnel internet access on the weekends. I can’t prove it 100%, but SSRT seems to be turning off internet service to the Turumi Lodge around 4 AM each Saturday, purposely causing an inconvenience to all occupants of the lodge. (…) Of course, the Turumi Lodge manager doesn’t work on the weekends, but I did talk to an Airmen at the front desk who said, “Around 4 AM every Saturday the internet goes down.” Sounds fishy to me. I bet if you read the contract it states that SSRT doesn’t do repairs after 4 AM. It seems they are getting sweet revenge and no one that works at the lodge seems interested in fixing the problem.

It appears SSRT will be screwing USFK personnel until the very bitter end.

From the Stars and Stripes:

The top commander in
South Korea wants NFL football back on the only free American Forces Network channel on the peninsula, he said during an Area II command visit on Thursday.It’s not appropriate to tell a U.S. troop who “just got his ass shot off” while deployed to fight the war on terrorism that he can’t watch National Football League games for free because South Korean cable companies pirate the signal, said U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. B.B. Bell.(…)During an interview later in the day,
Bell called the issue a “big problem.” He said he needed additional details before making a decision on what to do.“My gut feeling is we’re going to turn the service back on and then phase it out” gradually so the community has adequate time to prepare, he said.“If we’re going to cut their service off for good and proper reason, and have them purchase service through another medium, we ought to give them advance notice,”
Bell said. “Months … so they can make their plans and accommodate the change.”

 The NFL on AFN-Prime controversy erupted because Korean cable companies were pirating the AFN-Prime signal and selling it as part of their cable packages including the NFL games.  Details of this controversy can be read by clicking here.Also the AFN Commander LTC Mike Lawhorn has also commented on this matter on my prior posting of this issue.  Here is the update provided by LTC Lawhorn:

Hey all!
Lt. Col. Lawhorn, the AFN Commander here, and I can definitely tell you that no decision has been made yet to as to whether or not to put any games back on. Also, NFL contract doesn’t allow for its games to be broadcast “over the open air” and since AFN Prime Pacific IS broadcast OTOA you can guess what that means.

However, you will see the BCS championship games, NFL playoffs, and the Super Bowl on AFN Prime Pacific..apparently the contract allows for those games. Also, any NFL game that happens on a Friday will be broadcast here at the same time (Sat morning).

If I find out anything else, I will definitely let you know. 

Bottom line is that good people are working on this issue and hopefully a resolution can be reached that benefits everyone. 

From the Stars and Stripes:

During a court-martial Thursday, Sgt. Luke S. Davis, Company A, 527th Military Intelligence Battalion, was sentenced on one count of maiming to eight months of confinement, partial forfeiture of his pay during that time and reduction to the military’s lowest rank.

Meanwhile, Pvt. Robert Kim of the same company and unit is anticipating more reconstructive surgery. He suffered second-degree burns over 15 percent of his body during a July confrontation with Davis, according to testimony and court proceedings.

Kim, who is Asian, has been counseled by his chain of command since the July 4 incident for his choice of words, according to court proceedings. Davis, who is white, said it was Kim’s racially charged story — which Kim testified was meant as a joke — that prompted him to lunge for Kim as he stood near a stove with a pan of hot water.

Read the rest of the article for the full story, but the whole incident was so stupid. By all accounts the SGT Davis was a good NCO, but let me tell you where he went wrong. First of all he was overly intoxicated which is never good and then secondly he was overly intoxicated and hanging out with lower enlisted soldiers. If you are an NCO you are putting yourself in a situation where nothing good can come from if you are overly intoxicated and hanging out with subordinates. Unfortunately for this NCO he has

It feels like 2000 all over again, when then Korean President Kim Dae-jung bribed his way to receiving a Nobel Peace Prize.  Now accusations are being made that the current Korean government is trying to bribe their way to winning the UN Secretary General position:

 India’s Shashi Tharoor’s bid for UN secretary-generalship may stand a chance with a report claiming that South Korea was spending millions of dollars in aid and offering other incentives to Security Council members to get support for its candidate Ban Ki Moon.

In its aggressive campaign on behalf of Ban, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the front-runner to succeed Kofi Annan, Seoul has been offering “inducements ranging from tens of millions of pounds of extra funding for African countries to lucrative trade agreements in Europe- and even the gift of a grand piano to
Peru,” The Times has reported.

Ban Ki-moon would actually be a perfect person to take the UN job because he is well trained obviously in corruption, overlooking human rights abuses, appeasing dictators, and bashing to US, which are all prerequisite skills for any UN Secretary General.   More on this over at TKL.

Julian Ryall, a reporter for the British daily The Scotsman recently visited the disputed Dokdo islets and wrote an article about it. Basically the same old Dokdo garbage, but I thought this passage was pretty telling:

So if Korea is so firm on its position over Dokdo, why won’t it boldly take the case to International Court of Justice? The article quotes Lee again: “The government does not think the court could take the historical (colonial) relationship seriously and it does not know whether the evidence that would be presented to the court would be effective.

“Korea is concerned about an unpredictable outcome and that we could lose this case. If Seoul agreed to go to an international court, it would lose the advantage that it enjoys at the moment by being in control of the islands.”

I guess forged maps don’t go over very well in a court of law.

Former Mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung-bak promised a greener Seoul while he was mayor and delivered by constructing the Cheongyecheon stream in the middle of Seoul.  However, this public art work project recently completed in Seoul has got to be the worst idea of all his time as mayor: 

For South Park Fans out there, this thing looks like Mr. Hanky the Chrismas Poo with some food coloring:

 

Yes shit happens and this thing is definitely crap. This thing is so bad that the artist who made it would not even take credit for it:

With the erection of a 20-meter-high bright blue and red snail-like object called “Spring’’ over the stream,
Oldenburg appeared yesterday at the Chonggyechon to look over the work and to say it wasn’t really his idea. In an interview as he sat in a car by the side of the stream, Oldenburg gave credit instead to his wife and long-time artistic collaborator, Coosje van Bruggen of the
Netherlands.`‘We work on large-scale projects together and get a double billing, but it was Bruggen’s idea to use the shell form and Korean color scheme,’’ Oldenburg said. “She mixed the colors herself.’’

 So any other words, this ugly monstrosity is all her fault.  It is also so bad that the artist would not even come to
Seoul to see his creation:

Oldenburg and his wife visited Seoul only once in 1996 and said they had seen the Chonggyechon restoration only through television news and a videotape sent by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, an umbrella organization of the Seoul government.

He was more than happy to take the money though:

Oldenburg and van Bruggen were chosen for the $4 million sculpture last year by the former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak with advice from the state-run Seoul Museum of Art. The artists were paid $600,000, and $3.4 million was spent on production, with the entire cost paid for by telecommunication conglomerate KT.

More on this at the Marmot’s Hole

The worst kept secret of the US-ROK alliance is out:

 The Eighth U.S. Army command, which is in charge of U.S. ground troops stationed in South Korea including the core Second Infantry Division, is highly likely to be disbanded, it emerged Friday. Asked about the chances that the Eighth will be dismantled, USFK Commander Gen. Burwell Bell did not deny the possibility and indicated it will undergo a transformation. He said its role has completely changed to RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration) and is “radically different” than it was in the Korean War, when it served as fighting headquarters. Bell said no matter what decisions are made about the army’s future, they have nothing to do with conducting wartime operations on the Korean
Peninsula.

On top of this development if Korea wants to keep any presence at all the Pentagon is saying they better start paying their fair share:

 If Korea maintains its share in the upkeep of the U.S. Forces Korea at the current level, it will be unable to keep the number of USFK troops it wants stationed here,
U.S. defense department official Richard Lawless warned Wednesday. The Pentagon’s under secretary for Asia and Pacific affairs made the remarks at a hearing of the House International Relations Committee on Thursday, saying
Korea’s financial contribution is 10 percent short of what is required now. Lawless said the USFK was now being bled white despite already having shed excessive flab and some essential flesh. Korea and the U.S. annually renegotiate their share in the
U.S. forces upkeep and every year find it harder to narrow their differences.

 So the ball is really in the Korean’s court now because their amount of cost sharing is what is going to really determine how much of a US presence remains in Korea.   The Air Force will be staying though I think the recent compromise on the bombing range will be an issue again in the future.  Than as far as an presence General Bell made it clear that the only remaining combat troops on the peninsula the 2nd Infantry Division will be removed.  General Bell also made it clear that the mission of the US Army personnel that would be left in Korea would be for assisting the ROK in intelligence gathering and Reception, Staging, Onward Movement, & Integration (RSOI) or in otherwords support personnel responsible for maintaining the logistics chain of bases on the peninsula that would aid any US deployment of troops to Korea.  To train these logistics units left on the peninsula I see the military probably deploying Stryker Brigades and Marines to Korea on annual exercises to not only train the US support personnel, but also to maintain close contacts and training with the ROK Army.  Despite the political relationship between the US & Korea the military relationship has always remained strong and it is in the US’s interest to keep it that way.The current plan appears to be a solid one that would allow the US to free up more combat troops for world wide deployments while still keeping enough of a force presence on the peninsula to deter a North Korean attack.  Plus the remaining troops would be consolidated further south on Camp Humphreys and away from the DMZ and out of Seoul.  This moves all US troops outside of North Korean artillery range and out of the highly populated capitol city of Seoul. 

This plan will ensure continued US influence on the peninsula to ensure the stability of Northeast Asia overall.  There hasn’t been a war in Northeast Asia for the past 55 years because of one reason, the US military.  It appears Washington wants to keep it that way.  However, there is one wild card out there, the South Korean government.  Remember we may not have seen the last of the bombing range issue and the Camp Humphreys expansion hasn’t been completed yet either.  These are still issues that can flare up again that will require South Korean governmental leadership, and one thing that is in short supply in the current South Korean government is leadership. You can read more on this over at Nomad’s. 

The Korean economy has dropped to the 12th in the world when measured by GDP and may fall even further if current economic trends continue:

Korea has been overtaken by Brazil to settle in 12th place worldwide in terms of GDP. After ceding 10th place to India in 2004, Korea has again slipped down the ranks. ¿Korea in the World as Seen through Statistics¿, an annual report published by the National Statistical Office on Monday, says Korea raked 12th with GDP rising 15.7 percent from the previous year to US$787.5 billion in 2005. Brazil, which ranked 15th in 2004, saw its GDP jump 31.8 percent to come in 11th place with a GDP of $796.1 billion. While Brazil improved its economic status by four notches since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in early 2003, Korea took two steps down after the Roh Moo-hyun administration came to power.

The country will find it hard to cling to 12th place too. Mexico in 13th with $768.4 billion is stagnating, but Russia in 14th with $763.6 billion and Australia in 15th with $708.1 billion are coming on strong. Russia lagged behind Korea by as much as $201.4 billion in 2002, but the gap narrowed to $23.9 billion last year.

Global GDP Rankings

Let’s see the economy is dropping by GDP measurements, economic growth is not meeting expectations, household debts in Korea are at all time highs, and the Korean tax payer is about to under take the burden of a huge tax increase of nearly $500 per person due to the war time control transfer.  What does this all mean?  It means sell the Hyundai stock quickly.

Before anybody gets up in arms over this lawmaker’s attempt to go after low quality English teachers, read the article first:

The gist of the contemplated bill, initiated by Rep. Lee Joo-ho of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), is the “three-out system¿¿ under which English teachers who fail to meet the average score for annual English training three times in five years would be transferred to other jobs.

“Teachers¿ capabilities are a prerequisite for the success of English education,¿¿ Lee, a member of the Assembly¿s Education Committee, said during a debate on English language education in the country at the Assembly last week. “Simply speaking, how are you going to expect students to speak English fluently if their teachers cannot speak English well?¿¿

Lee, however, said those having excellent results would get incentives such as opportunities to study in a foreign nation for a year under the bill, modeled after a teacher¿s licensing system in Japan.

I agree with what the lawmaker is trying to do, instead of complaining about the bad foreign English teachers he is trying to improve the quality of ethnic Korean English teachers.  As expected the Korean

However, many education experts agreed in principle to Lee¿s idea but question the effectiveness of the “three-out system.¿¿

“I think the so-called three-out system is progressive enough to provoke teachers¿ opposition,¿¿ Lee Hye-joo, vice schoolmaster of the Sungkwang Elementary School in South Chungchong Province, said during the debate. Lee also heads an association of English teachers in the provinces.

He said the measure has a problem in terms of fairness if such strict rules apply only to English teachers, adding that it also could significantly hurt English teachers¿ pride and honor.

Ah yes, improving the quality of English education given to students in Korea is not as important as a Korean teachers “honor”.  Anyway it sounds like a good idea, it’s a better plan than declaring a jihad against foreign English teachers.