If you really care:

South Korea and Japan held talks on Monday to take the steam out of a simmering dispute over desolate islands claimed by both countries.

Tensions have flared in the past year and a half over the islands, called Tokto in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, which lie about the same distance from the two Asian neighbours.

Plans by Japan to conduct a maritime survey near the islands in April led South Korea to dispatch about 20 coastguard vessels to head off the survey ship.

The two-day talks in Seoul will address claims for economic exclusion zones around the islands, sitting among rich fishing grounds and above what South Korea says could be billions of dollars’ worth of gas hydrate deposits, officials said.

So says Oh My News:

The parliament’s budget office in South Korea pointed out on June 20 that the share taken up by defense expenses was much too high, given the limited economic size and financial structure of South Korea. The office added that the additional expenses already covered by South Korea were not recognized. It argued that its share should be decreased corresponding to reduced U.S. contributions to South Korean national security owing to strategic flexibility, while the burdens for security of South Korea have been increasing.

The government of South Korea has shared the defense expenses because U.S. forces functioned as a buffer against North Korea. If U.S. forces in South Korea were to confront not only North Korea but also China and Russia, however, the share could be reduced. The demands of the U.S. for increasing South Korea’s share of the expenses are nothing better than those of gangsters.

If equitable cost sharing is so expensive than go by your own stealth bombers, spy satellites, signal intelligence monitoring equipment, nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, PATRIOTs, tomahawks, Apache attack helicopters, etc.  When put like that, USFK is an absolute bargain.

Sad News, Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter has been killed:

Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray while filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.

Irwin was killed by a stingray barb to the heart on Batt Reef, off the remote resort town of Port Douglas in northeastern Queensland state, his wildlife park Australia Zoo said in a statement.

Crew members aboard Irwin’s boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead a short time later, the statement said.

Irwin was famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchword “Crikey!” in his television program “Crocodile Hunter,” which was first broadcast in Australia in 1992 and has aired around the world on the Discovery channel.

He rode his image into a feature film, and developed the Australia Zoo as a tourist attraction.

It is really too bad because I loved the Crocodile Hunter series.  Many people thought the guy was crazy doing what he did on the show, but I never thought the things he did with the crocodiles or the snakes would ever kill him.  He had the crocs figured out and I figured if he ever was bitten by a snake he would have anti-venom on the scene for whatever snake he was dealing with.  I always thought if the guy was going to be killed by his job, it would be by a shark.  He used to swim around with the sharks which I thought was stupid because it isn’t like you can swim away from a shark.  A pissed off crocodile you can run away from, a pissed off shark you have no chance.  I never would have thought he would have been killed by a stingray though.  Very strange incident, but I’m sure more info will come out about what happened.

Right now I just feel really bad for his family.  His wife is actually an American from Oregon which he had two children ages 8 and 3 with.  Terrible loss.

UPDATE #1:  Was it really 200,000? From the Donga:

As many as 50,000 members of conservative groups gathered in front of the Seoul City Hall on September 2 at 2:00 p.m. They held an emergency gathering for South Korea and urged the government to postpone the transfer of wartime operational control and revision of the private school law.

How the hell do you confuse 50,000 from 200,000?  From the picture it is hard to tell but it is a lot of people and looks similar in size to the anti-US protests held there in 2002 that allegedly had 200,000 people attend those.  So who knows.

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This is actually an amazing number of people the conservatives have been able to rally in Seoul against the Roh Moo-hyun administration:

Seoul saw a massive combined protest on Saturday against the government¿s plan to take over wartime operational control of Korean troops and controversial private school laws, two issues that however disparate have galvanized conservatives here. Some 200,000 members of about 200 groups including the Korean Veterans Association and the Christian Council of Korea braved sweltering weather to gather in front of Seoul City Hall.

¿Both national sovereignty and pride are important,¿ said Park Seh-jik, the president of the Korean Veterans Association in a speech. ¿But if we fail to prevent war and the nation is annihilated and turns Communist, where will we find that sovereignty and pride?¿ Park demanded an immediate halt to the wartime control plan.

This is actually the largest number of people I have ever personally seen the conservatives able to rally.  These numbers are on par with the numbers the anti-US groups drew after the 2002 armored vehicle accident.  However, I think it is going to be to little, to late to be able to stop the wartime control from happening.  The conservatives probably realize this and may be showing Washington that a large number of Koreans are for a strong US-ROK alliance and that the problem is President Roh.  This may convince the US government that pulling all the troops from Korea may not be good thing because a pro-US government may come into power in Korea after the next Korean election next year and soldiers on the ground does give the US influence within that government.  So this may ultimately just be a play from the conservatives to at least keep some kind of ground presence in Korea even after the hand over of wartime control.  A ground presence of some sort assures Korea of war time reinforcements from the US in case of hostilities.  This would ensuresthe national security of South Korea, which is ultimately what the conservative want.

Either way I think the debate going on within Korean society over the wartime control issue is very healthy.  To long USFK has been taken for granted and used as a punching bag for variety of groups and politicians in Korea looking for any issue to demagogue and blame on USFK in order to draw attention from the Korean public.  Also many Koreans falsely believed that the US was getting more out of Korea from the alliance than what Korea was getting in return.  Not anymore.  I think it is starting to sink into many people in the country that Korea is not as important in the grand scheme of things to America as they once thought it was.  I think it was a real shock to many that America would be willing to pack up and leave so readily and this massive protest is a response to that.  Like I said before this will be a healthy debate within Korean society that is way over do and hopefully it doesn’t get lost in a wave of slogans and accusations, but turns into a real debate between leaders in Korea about the future of the country and it’s relationship with America.

Remember all the stories a couple years ago about the “difficulties” in US Army retention?  Well here is another update on those “difficulties”:

The active Army reached its fiscal 2006 retention goal one month early today when a Fort Campbell Soldier reenlisted.

Staff Sgt. Michael Obleton, a truck driver assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, became the 64,200th reenlistment since Oct. 1, 2005. Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Richard Cody presided over the ceremony.

¿What a commitment. Our Army has been at war longer than we fought in World War II. Soldiers still reenlist knowing full well the dangers, knowing full well the sacrifice,¿ said Cody.

Obleton, of Columbus, Ga., joined the Army in 1997 at age 27. “I had a job, but I was looking for more,” he said. “I was looking for a challenge.¿

Obleton’s wife, Sheila, is also a Soldier serving with the 101st Abn. Div. She is a sergeant first class and career counselor. Both Obleton¿s hope to make careers of the Army.

Obleton has deployed to Kosovo, Bosnia and twice to Iraq since his enlistment. He reenlisted to attend the career counselor course, and received no bonuses.

¿The Army has met its retention goals for the past nine years in a row and making this year’s goal shows that once people join this team, they stay with the team,” said Maj. Gen. Sean Byrne, director of Military Personnel Management.

Let’s see this guy has deployed multiple times including twice to Iraq and reenlisted without even getting a bonus.  People on the left would call him stupid, I call him a real American hero.

Like I reported earlier this year, the military is also surpassing their recruiting numbers as well.  However, who knows this?  The MSM created this perception of people not re-enlisting in the military when in fact the military has made their retention numbers for 9 straight years!  By the way who was in office 9 years go?  It sure wasn’t President Bush.

Now also think about this, it takes about 4-5 years to make sergeant in the US Army.  That would mean that the vast majority of soldier ranks between E1-E4 who do the majority of the country’s necessary dirty work and sacrifice from the streets of Ramadi to the valleys of Afghanistan, are filled with soldiers that enlisted after the Iraq War fulling knowing they were going into combat.  This is not your daddy’s Vietnam Army anymore.

The left’s arguement that the US military is dragging kids who signed up just for the GI Bill to war has been completely proven false.  Will the US media ever call them on it.  Of course not.  These kids are signing up not only for the GI Bill but also to serve their country in the War on Terror fully knowing the risks and dangers involved.  Just like SSG Obleton, all these soldiers who have enlisted in the army during the War on Terror are real heroes that everyone should be proud of to have defending our great country, not to mention the recruiters out there working tirelessly to keep our forces manned.  It heroes like this the US media unfortunately by choice, cannot and will not ever understand.

Fom the S&S:

Military police have handed out almost 100 citations in a traffic safety campaign that began Aug. 18.

And they¿ll be keeping a close eye on the roads through the Labor Day weekend, according to a military news release.

The campaign, called ¿You drink and drive. You lose,¿ is scheduled to conclude Monday.

Military police officials had set up seven random checkpoints as of Wednesday, according to the release.

They had issued 28 citations for driving without a license and another 48 for failure to wear seatbelts, according to the release.

Other citations included violations such as expired car registration paperwork, failure to stop at a posted sign and using a cell phone while driving.

And eight motorcyclists were cited for not wearing the proper safety equipment.

Officials said they were happy by what they didn¿t find: a drunken driver.

Apparently the Camp Humphreys expansion will not be effected by possible dissolving of the Combined Forces Command:

Local media reports claiming that expansion plans for the U.S. military¿s Camp Humphreys are stalled are incorrect, U.S. Forces Korea and the South Korean Ministry of National Defense stated Friday afternoon.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper, quoting an anonymous ¿diplomatic source in Seoul,¿ reported that expansion talks are on hold because South Korea wants wartime command of its own troops. Humphreys plans have called for a Combined Forces Command headquarters building, but if that command is dissolved as the U.S.-South Korean military alliance transforms, the building won¿t be needed, according to the Chosun Ilbo.

U.S. Army Gen. B.B. Bell, commander of the Combined Forces Command, has told Stars and Stripes that officials are considering creating two independent commands that would take advantage of U.S. air and naval powers but put USFK in a supporting role. He said he hopes to have a plan ready for approval at an October security consultative meeting between the two countries.

The planning contractor briefed the prefinal draft of the plan to [South Korean] and U.S. officials Wednesday, USFK spokesman Col. Franklin Childress said in an e-mail Friday. Minor adjustments may have to be made to the plan once the details of wartime operational control are determined, but those changes are expected to be handled easily within the framework of the current plan.

Well there you go, straight from the horses mouth.

Allegedly and I stress allegedly, some undercover US news people may be out in Seoul this weekend trying to get film of US soldiers with prostitutes.  Just be extra careful this weekend and watch your battle buddies.  We all know these media vampires will ignore the 99% of soldiers doing the right thing this weekend and look for that 1% of knuckleheads.

Are the Norks about to put on an encore fireworks extravaganza for the US?:

South Korean and the U.S. intelligence authorities have detected suspicious vehicle movements in and out of North Korea’s major missile test site, a government source here said Sunday.

“Military intelligence officials have spotted movements by several large vehicles in the North’s Gitdaeryeong area,” the source spoke on condition of anonymity. “They don’t rule out the possibility that it is part of preparations for additional missile tests.”
North Korea test-launched six short-and medium-range missiles from the Gitdaeryeong site in its eastern coastal area, on July 5, along with a long-range Taepodong-2 missile from separate facilities.

If you haven’t already, check out this interview at The Korea Liberator with Chuck Downs who is a Senior Fellow at the National Institute for Public Policy.  He seems to confirm much of the speculation in the K-blogosphere about recent developments in Korea.  Mr. Downs is also taking questions on TKL, so if you have a burning question you would like answered by somenbody dealing with Korea in Washington, here’s your chance.