The Joong Ang Ilbo has a good article comparing the sizes and capabilities of both the ROK Army and the North Korean’s People’s Army.  So can the ROK Army defend South Korea without help from the US?  Yes, but there is a catch:

 “Their experience and the sheer numbers alone make up for what they lack in quality,” Mr. Kwon said. “For instance, there is probably less automation, but an artillery unit operated by experienced soldiers is still deadly and they have many of them.” He cites examples in Germany, saying that after reunification in 1989, West Germany inspected former East German troops who were to be integrated into West Germany’s forces. Although the East was no economic match for the West, the Westerners were surprised to see that their former adversaries’ equipment, although old, was well-maintained and fully operational.
Mr. Kwon said that another balancing factor is the long mandatory military service requirement in North Korea, whose troops typically serve five to ten years in uniform, and even longer for the North’s special forces. The term of mandatory military duty in the South is two years. That, he said, made the average North Korean soldier the equal of a non-commissioned officer here in terms of experience. Currently, the North fields 1.1 million troops against South Korea’s 680,000. Seoul has a 3-million-strong reserve force, while North Korea’s reserves number 7.7 million.
Mr. Kwon estimated that based solely on conventional arms, South Korea has about 85 percent of the combat ability of the North; he says the republic’s Air Force is at a par, the Navy stands at 90 percent and the Army 80 percent of the North’s capabilities. He was using, he said, a formula in which weapons and units are assigned a point value based on their perceived combat effectiveness.
That, Mr. Kwon continued, would be adequate for South Korea to defend itself effectively.

According to this expert the ROK Army can independently defend South Korea.  However, here is the catch, geography:

 “If you trade space for time to gather your strength while exhausting North Korean forces as they move deeper into South Korean territory, and plan to deliver a knockout punch later once sufficient force levels have been built up, what we have now is enough,” he said.
But that’s probably not acceptable, he noted, because of an inconvenient point of geography. Seoul, the nation’s capital and with its environs home to almost a quarter of the country’s population, sits only about 30 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone. Trading Seoul for time would be a psychological as well as economic blow, and a more active defense strategy would be needed. Then, he said, the South would need a combat power superiority of at least 50 or 100 percent over the North.

This is where the loss of US military is going to be felt in South Korea.  Yes South Korea probably could win a war against North Korea, but at what cost?  The country would be completely devestated after any second Korean War that to say that South Korea won the war would be ridiculous when the whole country and society are in ruins.   The winner could be China who may see an opportunity to come in and pick up the pieces after a second Korean War.

South Korea doesn’t have the overwhelming combat power to completely deter a war with North Korea which makes a war more likely.  The loss of USFK on the Korean peninsula will greatly effect the national security on the peninsula despite what the Roh Administration claims.  Nothing is going to stop the transfer of wartime control or the possible reduction of USFK troops yet the Korean government acts like it is nothing to worry about.  They can’t even settle the bombing range issue yet much less build the ROK Army to the point of overwhelming combat power to completely deter any possible North Korean attack and protect the country from an unnecessary level of destruction after any war.  Hopefully the next elected President of Korea will take national defense more seriously because as Nomad pointed out this train has already left the station.

UPDATE: Robert has more sob story translations from the original Donga article.

From the Donga:

Albuquerque is a city of 500,000, which is built in the middle of a vast wilderness in New Mexico. The Detention and Correction Center that I visited on September 18 was in the middle of its downtown area unlike my imagination. However, security and guard were heavy, just like other correctional facilities. On the fourth floor of the building, seemingly the tallest one in the city, were Korean women in custody.

“With my hands tied and shackled, I was taken here by flight for 23 hours. They didn’t care even when I said I had a hygienic emergency.”

Korean women who came out to a hall after every 3-4 were locked up in a room, poured out complaints and pleas. There were so many complaints that Kwon Tae-myun, consulate general in Washington D.C. couldn’t even answer.

“Out of the blue, policemen with guns raided us and we were dragged out without wearing proper clothes. We were locked up in some kind of a hotel for a week and were sent here. We couldn’t bring anything. They took our money.”

I wonder if they were water boarded? Maybe Congress can open an investigation and create the Prostitute’s Bill of Rights.

Here is the scariest part of the article:

Mrs. A, 35, took a flight to Mexico eight months ago after listening to one of her acquaintances. She was guided to Tijuana, Mexico which borders San Diego in California and after staying at a tourist home for a couple of days, she crossed the border hidden in a car with a back seat removed. It cost her $10,000 to cross the border. There were a lot of ethnic Korean women who came from Yongbyon, China at the tourist home.

If a Korean prostitute can get across the border that easily who else is coming across as well?

It looks like General Trexler’s ultimatum worked. From Yonhap:

South Korea has finally approved the construction of an electronic weapons scoring system on an island southwest of the mainland, a move expected to kickstart firing exercises by United States pilots stationed there soon, a government official said Sunday.

The approval came after nearly a year of postponement amid protests from residents at the designated island site on Jikdo, some 70 kilometers off the port city of Gunsan.

Like many issues in Korea, it is all about the Benjamins:

The altitude of the bombers will increase to 4-5 km, from the current 600 m, to minimize noise, while the controlled sea area where fishing boats are banned is to be reduced from a radius of 18 to 9 to provide more fishing area. Gunsan city will be given W300 billion (US$1=W947) and other incentives by the government.

The next step by the anti-US groups will be to claim noise pollution and environmental damage on Jikdo once the Air Force begins training there. Eventually I wouldn’t be surprised if the groups try to take a boat to Jikdo to protest and delay training exercises there to increase tensions between USFK and the Korean authorities. Jikdo is just a short term solution to what will continue to be a long term problem for USFK.

It is not what you think.

HT: Japundit 

I didn’t know making toilets was considered being at war:

Anti-war groups said they planned to gather about 1,000 protesters for a march through downtown Seoul Saturday to press their demand for the withdrawal of all Korean troops from Iraq.

The protesters will also oppose any plan by their government to contribute to U.N. peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, because doing so would be tantamount to tacit support for Washington’s Middle East policy, the organizers said.

They will also oppose the planned relocation of most of the 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea to an expanded base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, by 2008.

I love this quote from a protester in a seperate Yonhap article:

“It is time that they come home. They’ve completed the stated mission of securing order in Irbil. It was only wishful thinking on the government’s part that the deployment will help solve pending issues between Seoul and Washington, including how to deal with North Korea’s nuclear weapons program,” Kong Sun-gyung, chief of the peace establishment center at the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, said Thursday.

“Securing order in Irbil?” There was never a problem of keeping order in Irbil to begin with. Plus you have to leave the base in order to restore order anyway which for the most part the Zaytun unit does not do. Having personally been to Kurdistan, the area is by far the safest area in Iraq. This is the area where the US military has R&R facilities set up and troops traveling through the area do not need to wear body armor or helmets. I absolutely loved Kurdistan and it’s people while I was there.

Hanging out on a compound making toilets in the same area where the US military goes for R&R leave is not what I consider going to war.

Here is another money quote from the anti-war crowd:

“The South Korean government has lost its cause for having troops there, and has failed to win practical gains in return for the deployment,” Kong said, noting that the U.S. has not acted in ways to benefit South Korea in its dealings with North Korea, while no economic benefits have materialized in Iraq.

Is that what the Zaytun mission is all about, what Korea get’s out of it? Not about helping rebuild an area that has been repressed by the Sunni Baathist Saddam Hussein regime for decades? What Korea get’s out of it, according to this guy, is more important and since they aren’t getting as much out of it as they thought, it is time to bring them back home.

I have been from the beginning skeptical of the Zaytun mission because I believed that if the politicians don’t have the stomach for casualties than don’t send soldiers to war zones because the US needs soldiers that can help restore security and rebuild Iraq, not political symbols. The Zaytun unit was originally going to be deployed to the city of Kirkuk and be given operational command of the zone, which would have been considered quite an honor to the ROK military because only Britain and Poland controlled zones outside of the US military’s control. This undoubtedly would have built closer US ties with Korea much like what Poland and the US now have from their involvement in Iraq.

However, since the Korean government had no political will to take casualties, which they most certainly would have if they accepted the Kirkuk mission, they instead opted for the friendly Kurdish area instead and kept their soldiers for the most part confined to the camp. This in turn made the Korean presence in Iraq irrelevant and any perceived political and financial gains from the US irrelevant as well. So maybe the protesters are right, maybe it is time to come home.

UPDATE: Here is a great link from Budaechigae about what a former Zaytun officer thinks of serving in Iraq:

The original purpose of sending Korean troops there was to rebuild Iraq. But we went there and spent most of our time in maintaining our own living facilities. We are too withdrawn and I think it’s problematic. The people high up in the ranks are so concerned about our safety. For them, a safe return is more important than accomplishing anything.

I don’t know how South Korea’s sending troops has contributed to the national interest. I get the feeling that we didn’t offer something really useful for Iraqis. We did so for the sake of our national image in the outside world. American soldiers in Korea enjoyed a good reputation in the past because they gave chewing gum and chocolates to the locals. Perhaps my government is thinking about something similar. Personally, I believe that if we had sent actual combat troops to Iraq, we would have gotten a lot better deal from the United States.

Let me make it clear I have no problem with the ROK Army because I think they could handle increased responsibilities in Iraq. However, as this officer describes, if they are not allowed to do anything because of the lack of political will, than bring them home.

Over at You Tube they have a bunch of great soju commercials and video clips that all fans of of Korean soju should feel compelled to check out.

First start with this classic 1959 soju commercial.  Could you imagine if this commercial aired today, there would be people out there complaining that soju was being promoted to kids.  Than compare the 1959 commercial to a modern day commercial.
Than check out the Disco Sojus, followed by the Soju Girls, then of course there is always the classic Soju Mama if you haven’t seen that yet.
HT: TKL

A topic of some debate in the media is how the coup in Thailand would effect the tourism industry that is so critical to Thailand’s economy.  Well we may have an answer, for the first time a coup has become a tourist attraction itself.

Here are a couple of Joint Security Area (JSA) links for you.  First of all here is a Stars and Stripes report on the monthly training of the US security battalion located at the JSA.  The second link are pictures from John McCrarey of his trip to the JSA.  He has some pretty good pics of the place for those who have never seen the place before.  By the way if you live in Korea and haven’t done a JSA tour yet, what are you waiting for?

It looks like the US bombing range issue is reaching a point of no return:

The U.S. Air Force stationed in Korea has threatened to withdraw if the dispute over a shooting range for U.S. jets isn’t resolved in one month.

Speaking at the Gyeonggi provincial government office Thursday, Air Force commander Lieutenant General Gary Trexler said the U.S. might have to deploy its forces outside the Korean Peninsula.

The deadline for the ultimatum is October 20th, which is the date when the bilateral Security Consultative Meeting opens.

The U.S. Forces Korea is known to have informed Seoul’s Defense Ministry that overseas training is inevitable if it’s not provided an in-country practice range.

The ministry’s plan to install an automatic shooting score converter at a shooting range on Jikdo Island off the west coast has faced strong local opposition.  

Just another issue along with the troop control handover that can ultimately lead to the end of the US-ROK alliance.  I can’t imagine that the US would leave ground troops in Korea without having air cover from the US Air Force.

HT: Nomad

I’m a big fan of the Cheongyecheon stream restoration, however I’m not much of a fan of shantytowns:

As early as April of next year, shacks that once lined the streets near Cheonggyecheon in Cheonggye 8-ga in the 1960s will be displayed.

The Seoul city government said on September 22 that in an attempt to introduce the old landscape to visitors of Cheonggyecheon, it will display 12 life-size shacks in the fist half next year.

“Based on the photos of the old Cheonggyecheon, shacks will be built. The rebuilt shanty town will be developed as a tourist spot along with a Cheonggyecheon cultural hall,” said a city government official.