As expected the anti-US groups in Gwangju are quite happy to see the PATRIOT missile unit in Gwangju leave:

Protesters are glad to see them go. Supporters want them to stay. And the mayor is riding the fence on the announcement that U.S. troops are leaving Gwangju after less than two years in the city.

U.S. officials confirmed Thursday that the 2nd Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment, part of the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, is to be moved to Camp Carroll, about 40 minutes north of Daegu, by year¿s end.

¿On one hand, we are very pleased,¿ said Park Sang-chun, a representative for about 100 civic groups that protested stationing the Patriot missile battalion at the South Korean military¿s Gwangju Air Base. But ¿just to relocate the base to another area in Korea,¿ he said, ¿the problem remains the same substantially.¿

Now what would that problem be exactly Mr. Park?  I don’t see what the problem is from PATRIOT missiles units protecting your commie ass from your “brothers” in the North.  Maybe he would prefer his own government to spend the billions of dollars needed for the Koreans to buy their own PATRIOT missiles to protect him and his commie bretheren in Gwangju.

Tags: PATRIOT, US, Gwangju

Don’t look for the White House or the Defense Department to do South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in favors and Mr. Rumsfeld has just confirmed what was speculated President Bush had already approved; the early transfer of war time command to South Korea:

U.S. Defense Secretary of Donald Rumsfeld recently told Seoul the U.S. wants to hand over wartime operational control of Korea’s armed forces in 2009, it emerged Sunday. That signals tough negotiations ahead since Korea¿s proposed date is 2012.

Rumsfeld wrote to his Korean counterpart Yoon Kwang-ung on Aug. 17 saying Washington plans to hand over wartime operational control to South Korea in 2009, a government official said. It was the first time the U.S. defense chief has officially confirmed the open secret.

This confirms my earlier speculation that the Bush administration wants to make sure that President Roh reaps what he sows on his watch as President of Korea.  The Korean government has been pushing for a 2012 date for the hand over which would mean that President Roh wouldn’t be in office when the aftermath of his anti-US policies would really be felt.  However, with the 2009 handover that means that probably next year further troop cuts and transformation of the US-ROK alliance would begin.  That would mean that any effects a US draw down or complete pull out would have on the economy would begin on Roh’s watch.  Without a doubt it appears that Roh will go down as the most incompetent President in the history of the Republic of Korea.  That’s no small accomplishment because South Korea hasn’t really hasn’t been blessed with to many enlightened leaders since the founding of the Republic after World War II.

What I like even more is that the US government is even rubbing salt into President Roh’s political wounds by demanding a more equitable defense cost sharing of the alliance:

In the letter, Rumsfeld also proposed that two allies divide the upkeep cost of the USFK at an “equitable” rate, which pundits say means 50:50. Korea currently shoulders slightly less than 40 percent of the cost. He also pressed for a new bombing range for the USFK to replace a facility in Maehyang-ri that was shut down, and expressed hope that the two sides can sort out their differences over who should pay for the environmental cleanup at bases the USFK is vacating.

It is going to be interesting to see what excuse the Roh’s government is going to come up with, about why they can’t share the cost of the alliance equitably when they have war time operational control, not the US.  Roh has been talking about having a more equal alliance with the US since he took over as President in 2002, well guess what, let’s see if his money is where his mouth is.

Just think of the cost this news is going to have on the South Korean tax payer.  There is going to have to be a number of system that have to bough immediately to meet the hand over timeline plus if Korea is forced to pay 50% of the alliance costs that is just even more money the South Korean tax payer is going to have come up with.  Is it any wonder why the Korean government rather sell apartments on the handed over Yongsan Garrison land instead of turning it all into a park?

Not only is the economic security of the peninsula being compromised by Roh’s incompetence, but also the national security as well because even if the government purchases the needed systems in time there is no way they will have trained soldiers and leaders to operate and command those system in time for the turn over.  The US government takes it’s security commitments very seriously and initially were trying to approach the war time command issue in a rational manner to not compromise the security of the peninsula and still meet the US military’s transformation plans, but with Roh and his minions politicizing the issue there is going to be serious national security issues on the peninsula, which will allow the North Koreans to really extort money from South Korea because his military threat to South Korea will be greatly enhanced by a US pull out or reduction.

That is what the lone big question is that is remaining for the US, will it be a complete US pull out or just a reduction?  I don’t even think the White House knows yet, but I do think they wouldn’t be shy about pulling the trigger on a complete US pull out if they don’t get what they want like equitable cost sharing, the speed up of the camp relocation issue, and a bombing range for the Air Force.

What about President Roh?  Well look for him to try and cover his ass by continuing to make grand proclamations that the ROK Army is ready now for the hand over even though they aren’t and he knows it, while the ROK Army turns to their retired brass and veterans to spearhead a drive to delay the hand over.

I think it would be best for the ROK military to cut their loses and do what they can to just keep whatever US presence on the peninsula that they can, but it is quite clear now that the hand over is going to be 2009 and it is no sure thing that a robust US presence is going to remain on the peninsula at all.  To make things even worse there is so far no guarantee that the Yankee cavalry will come save South Korea with a massive deployment of forces in case of hostilities:

But abandoning OPLAN 5027, which guarantees automatic U.S. reinforcements, and replacing it with a piece of paper that will require congressional approval, however, is like swapping cash for a dubious promissory note. What’s more, we will have to pour W620 trillion into our self-defense by 2020 to exercise sole operational control of our forces.

President Roh wanted an “independent” Korea, well it looks like he got it.

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The Marmot has more on this issue and make sure you read Brendon Carr’s posting in the comment section as well. It’s a great read.

Tags: korea, us, roh, bush, rumsfeld

It looks like even President Bush has agreed that South Korea needs to take war time control from US forces:

U.S. President George W. Bush told his military commanders that he agrees South Korea is capable of exercising wartime control of its own forces, diplomatic sources here said Thursday.

In a meeting Aug. 14 of senior military leaders at the Pentagon that the president sat in on, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) commander Gen. Burwell Bell reported that South Korea has the needed capability, according to the sources.

“I agree,” Bush was quoted as saying.

I love this paragraph that Yonhap, the official government news agency made sure to throw into the article:

The realignment reflects Seoul’s growing stature in the international community and Washington’s need to have its troops readily available for speedy redeployment for contingencies around the world.

“Seoul’s growing stature in the international community”?  What does war time control have anything to do with this?  The war time control is happening due to the combination of freeing up US troops for deployments elsewhere and the state sponsored anti-Americanism in Korea by the Korean government.  If anything, Seoul’s international stature is going to drastically decrease without a close cooperative relationship with the United States.

Anyway the words from President Bush seems to go along with the timeline that October is going to be the month that big changes may be announced for the US-Korea relationship.  For reasons I have stated before, the timing of this all is what the real news is going to be because we have all long suspected that changes in the US-ROK alliance were coming.  I for one hope it happens sooner rather than later.

I had a good laugh when I read this:

The Social and Spatial Inequalities Research Group in the University of Sheffield¿s Geography Department and a research team at the University of Michigan have produced a ¿World Wealth Map 2015¿, a collection of maps resizing territories according to their economic power. The map projects Korea as the world¿s sixth largest in terms of per-capita GDP in purchasing power parity with US$38,249, surging ahead of the U.S. in seventh with $38,063 and Japan in ninth with $35,694. The two teams took into account data from nine organizations including the World Bank, the CIA and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in creating the map.

Great that means that Korea should be able to afford their own national defense.  I need to carry a copy of this article around and pull it out every time I hear someone from Korea complain they are still a developing nation or the economy is so bad.  Or better yet, can’t afford to rebuild North Korea, thus reunification needs to be put off at all costs.  Looking at this map I can help but think it is easy to have inflated purchasing power when you don’t have to be the world’s policemen to ensure global stability for the same countries making money on this list.

Korean mafia is involved in video gambling:

Adult game arcades and distribution of gift certificates were discovered to be dominated by crime organizations, which used the profit to fund illegal activities.

The market for adult only game arcades and commercial computer rooms reaches 88 trillion won annually, with tax evasion rates estimated to be 8.8 trillion won.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) submitted a report on July 11 to Cheong Wa Dae on Addressing Social Evils – Dismantlement of Commercial Game Arcades Urgently Require

According to the report, Ahn, a middle boss from the Yeonggwang crime family in South Jeolla Province, is in charge of national distribution of H Gift Certificates, the third largest producer of certificates, while Seobang crime family deputy boss Oh is operating two illegal casinos which generate daily profits averaging 100 to 500 million won.

The report stated, Tax evasion rates from illegal money exchange are estimated to amount to 4.5 trillion won for adult-only arcades, and 4.3 trillion for commercial computer rooms.

Who would of thunk it?

is is beyond low if true:

The kids from Taizhong Lixing Private School baseball team was invited by the organisers of a kids baseball tournament in Korea and went to Korea, and overcame barriers to get into the top 8. After the the Koreans said that only Koreans will be allowed to win, and they were not allowed to play anymore. The reason the Korean side gave was that ¿victory is reserved for a Korean team¿. They returned to Taiwan despondent.

The Taiwanese team played very well in Korea the earlier this month, they beat the other team in the first round finishing early with a stunning victory of 20:0, making everyone surprised. They finally got into top 8, but nobody believed that korea would stop them to keep playing when it really looked like they could win.

Teacher zhang for the Tainwanese team said that ¿they were scared we would win, because the winners trophy belongs to their country, so they talked to us, and only allowed us to play until top 4, forbidding us to continue beyond that¿.

I haven’t seen nothing about this in the Korean press, but I would hope that even the majority of Koreans would find this to be extremely distasteful.

I have been reading with amusement the current English teacher “scandal” in the Korean media reported here and then translated by Robert here. I say with amusement because it was all that long ago when US soldiers were looked down upon by the ex-pat English teacher crowd as giving them a bad image in Korea and aloe and be hold the tables have turned and the ex-pat English teacher crowd is giving us US soldiers a bad image. Especially with the latest “scandal” coming on the heels of last year’s Spectrum-gate “scandal”.

I can remember a few years back during my first tour in Korea a Canadian English teacher I met, yes in Itaewon, asked me why US soldiers were so misbehaved in Korea giving everyone else a bad name. I of course had to explain to this person that if you put a bunch of horny 18-21 year olds in a over sexed environment like Korea combined with unlimited amounts of alcohol, plus being away from home for the first time, what do think is going to happen? Boot camp doesn’t create asexual people who don’t want to drink.

It doesn’t matter where you are from young people are more obnoxious and get in trouble, it doesn’t matter if you are a GI, a English teacher, or a Korean for that fact. Ex-pats in a bar focus on the same obnoxious 18-21 year olds in the bars they frequent every weekend and not the majority of soldiers minding their own business in local bars or back on post calling their families in the US they haven’t seen in months and other people minding their own business in their room playing Playstation for example.

USFK currently has about 28,000 soldiers in it so of course there are going to be a few bad apples that cause problems and when problems do occur the Korean media sensationalizes it and it wasn’t to long ago that many ex-pats bought into the bad GI crap as well when in fact young GI’s were acting very similar to young ex-pats; it was just back then nobody cared about ex-pats, now people do.

I don’t know how many English teachers are in Korea but I’m sure there are thousands and of course within those thousands there are going to be a few bad apples that slip through the cracks. Should all English teachers be painted with the same brush because of the few bad apples? Of course not. Probably the best response I have read from this current “scandal” is from the Metropolitician that is a MUST READ if you are remotely interested in this topic. The Metropolitician I believe correctly believes that the real problem is with the Korean educational system that makes it easier for bad apple English teachers to enter the country, however it is easier to blame the foreigners instead of looking at the systematic problems within the country including sexual abuse of students by Korean teachers as well.

Believe it or not I actually have some English teaching experience. I taught English once every two weeks for nearly a year to elementary students near my camp. The school relied on US soldiers to teach accent and conversational skills to the students because they had no hired foreign English teachers at the school. Having US GI’s come in allowed the school to save the money of hiring a foreign English teacher and it gave us a chance to hang out with the kids and interact with the community. I really enjoyed my time helping out there, but something I found interesting was the fact that the Korean teacher in charge of the English language instruction at the school with a university degree in English could hardly speak it.

I was pretty much dependent on my KATUSA to translate what she wanted to tell me. In fact one of the 10 year old students had lived in America for a few years and spoke better English than her. She could read and write just fine, but talking and listening to English she had very minimal skills. If university educated teachers in Korea cannot speak English is it any wonder why the country is dependent on the same foreign English teachers that are now the subject of such ridiculous scorn by the Korean media?

With all the hoopla over the current English teacher “scandal” these ex-pats can at least take solace in the fact they don’t have to worry about having curfews, off limits policies, lock down on post, no drinking, and other restrictions put on them whenever an incident happens, like what USFK does. So it could be worse if that makes anyone feel better. But on the other hand USFK has proven that these restrictions work because behavior of US soldiers has improved greatly compared to as little as five years ago.

It is amazing to me that even after a year since Spectrum-gate the anti-foreigner focus is still on English teachers. I thought for sure it would shift back to US GI’s or 3D workers or some other ethnic group. Anyway in the spirit of international cooperation, I still offer my friendly advice from last year of how to blend in as a GI for any English teacher out there on the run from the English teacher Gestapo. I said last year that I thought this all would blow over and it has yet to blow over so what do I know, but it is still amusing.

I am sitting here watching the pre-game show on ESPN for the Pittsburgh Steelers versus Philadelphia Eagles game and ESPN announcer Stuart Scott just had a segment on Hines Ward and his visit to Korea which was interesting.  Hines Ward said he found the media coverage in Korea excessive when he visited the country.  He said it was like the pictures you see of the crowds following Tiger Woods around a golf course times 10 everywhere he went.  Then Stuart Scott starting talking about how Ward’s visit caused many editorials against discrimination in Korea and the government to propose anti-discrimination laws.  However, Scott made sure to point out that the Korean government has yet to pass any anti-discrimination laws.  I wouldn’t count on it happening any time soon either.

On a unrelated note, thank God it is football season again.

I’m currently working on redesigning the blog right now.  Not to long ago I mentioned possibly changing my blog title to something more original, so I chose the title ROK Drop instead.  Feel free to leave any thoughts if you have any, but I should be done with the redesign by the end of the day.

It looks like 35th ADA has wore out their welcome in Gwangju, actually I don’t think they were ever welcomed to begin with:

A battery of U.S. Patriot missiles stationed in the Gwangju area will be moved to Waegwan in North Gyeongsang Province by December, it emerged Thursday. U.S. Forces Korea command plans to relocate the 16 PAC-3 missiles, the 450-member 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade 2-1 and two air defense batteries.

The missiles were moved to Gwangju in Novermber 2004 despite violent protests from anti-American organizations, university students and labor groups, and there is speculation that the move is a belated response to them. But U.S. officials say the move is strategically motivated and has nothing to do with anti-American sentiment. The chief of the air defense unit, Lt.-Col. Marcus Black, met with Gwangju leaders at the base on Aug. 18 to reveal the plans. It is understood that Black would not comment whether the relocation had anything to do with local resentment.

The relocation of the Patriot missiles to Gwangju came after Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff requested that the U.S. deploy the missiles there to protect the Gwangju Air Base. The USFK deplays a total of 64 Patriots at bases in Suwon, Osan, Gunsan and Gwangju.

It wasn’t a very good idea to put PATRIOT’s in Gwangju to begin with because of the anti-Americanism and communist sympathies down there, but incidents like February’s Gochu-gate incident didn’t help matters either. As far as defending the city from North Korean attack, I don’t think the Korean government is to concerned about that because if the North Koreans bombed Gwangju it would be like bombing one of their own cities.