Here is another one of those only in Korea problems:

The U.S. took the opportunity of just-concluded Security Policy Initiative talks with Korea to press for a new bombing range for the U.S. Forces Korea to replace a facility in Maehyang-ri that was shut down. The U.S. says its Air Force needs somewhere to practice and could move off the peninsula for training if Korea does not oblige.

Assistant Defense Minister for Policy Kwon An-do, who represented Korea at the regular talks, told reporters Friday the U.S. repeated the warning and asked for the issue to be resolved as quickly as possible. A string of such statements have come from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, USFK Commander Gen. Burwell Bell and others over recent months.

After the Maehyang-ri range was shut down, there were plans to move bomber training to the Jikdo range in Kunsan, North Jeolla Province, but local government and citizens protested.

What is so hypocritical about this is that the US Air Force cannot train because of environmental and noise pollution concerns while the ROK Air Force continues to train with many of the same planes that the US Air Force uses.  The ROK Air Force must have bought the noise free, non-polluting models.

There has been some progress on turning over the closed US bases in South Korea:

Seoul and Washington Friday agreed on the transfer of 15 of 59 U.S. bases to South Korea where the U.S. side had cleaned up environmental pollution in accordance with a bilateral accord, the Defense Ministry said.

The agreement was made during the ninth Security Policy Initiative (SPI) meeting in Seoul.

The 15 bases include the Camp Bonifas near the inter-Korean border; the Camp Howze and the Camp Greaves both in Paju, Kyonggi Province; and the Koon-Ni Range in Maehyang-ni, Kyonggi Province, the ministry said in a statement.

The two sides, however, failed to narrow differences over cleanup costs and contamination levels at 11 other bases which have soil pollution levels in excess of South Korean environmental standards.

They will continue discussions on the matter in the next meeting slated for September, it said.

Keep in mind the Koreans signed an agreement saying they would take the camps “as is”, but of course the anti-US hate groups and the political allies demagogued the issue enough to where the camp turn over has been delayed for over a year for some of the camps.  Also keep in mind these so call “polluted” camps are actually oasis of green in the real polluted Korean urban jungle that surrounds the camps.  That is what is so frustrating about this issue because all the time and energy spent on this so called camp pollution issue would be better served by focusing on all the real pollution in Korea.

It is safe to say the anti-US hate groups are not happy right now:

Seoul will pay for any additional required work and turn the sites over to the local governments in the areas. Kim Hak-ju of the Environment Ministry said no estimate has been made of those costs.
Yun Gi-don of Green Korea United mourned the agreement, saying he did not think the public would accept the outcome.

This is what I don’t understand.  If Green Korea was a real environmental group why should they care who pays for the clean up, as long as it is getting cleaned up.  The Korean government has said they will pick up the extra costs of any environmental clean up, so what grievance does Green Korea have?  This just goes to show that they don’t care about the environment, this is all about stopping the USFK move to Camp Humphreys and in turn trying to end the US-ROK alliance.  Green Korea’s real agenda is clear as day right now, but I don’t think anyone is watching.

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UPDATE:  Where is Green Korea on this issue?

Well, you be the judge:

Hordes of protesters against a Korea-U.S. free trade agreement turned central Seoul and nearby areas into pandemonium for about eight hours Wednesday. Coupled with the pouring monsoon rain, the demonstration made workers on their way home in the evening suffer immense inconvenience. As anticipated, members of the Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. FTA wielded 3-meter bamboo sticks against police and broke police car windows with iron pipes. They threw broken paving blocks at the police and mobilized fire and sand as protest tools.
They broke out of the area where they were supposed to have staged their demonstration, occupied roads and even blocked the Gwanghwamun intersection, where the law bans demonstrators from congregating.
Traffic was rerouted and the streets near Seoul City Hall were little more than parking lots.
While over 20,000 riot police were on hand there, only about 300 traffic police were on hand to try to help motorists. In the name of protesting against the free trade agreement, they they were not shy about showing their anti-U.S. sentiment, crying, “Americans should get out of this country,” and the traditional “Yankee, go home.” When some anti-FTA protesters went to Washington for demonstrations early last month, they never deviated from the legal boundaries. They mobilized peaceful means such as holding candles and pickets, effectively attracting the attention of Americans there.
Why did those people take peaceful measures in the United States while adopting extremely violent and illegal measures here? Do the Korean police look like scarecrows while the U.S. police seem frightening in their eyes?
It is true that the protesters are doing wrong, but the passive attitude of the local police is also open to criticism as well. The police arrested not a single protester at the demonstration site after warning earlier that illegal protesters would be dispersed forcefully or arrested. A police official said, “Arresting protesters on the spot could have aggravated the already bad situation at the time, because the venue was central Seoul and it was raining heavily.” That attitude just encourages demonstrators to ignore the law.

Just another indication of how far the rift in the US-ROK alliance is growing:

According to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, military authorities requested the U.S. to sell it four Global Hawks in 2008 at last year’s SCC in Hawaii in order to secure independent surveillance ability on North Korea. Korea requested this several times. However, last June, the U.S. put out a not for sale policy and have rejected Korea’s requests.

So why would the US deny this system to our “blood allies” the South Koreans?  You shouldn’t have to think to hard:

The U.S. is thought to have rejected the request for fear that the core technology might be leaked. Some are known to be worried that confidential information collected on North Korea using the Global Hawk might be leaked to the North.

But look who the US is selling the system to:

The U.S. refusal to sell the Global Hawk has set back the South Korean’s military’s plan to introduce a high altitude UAV system until after 2010, and if the U.S. continually refuses, the whole system could fall apart.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration said, While continuously requesting the U.S to sell us the Global Hawk, we are also developing a domestic mid-altitude UAV system. However, the mid-altitude UAV system development will be possibly completed around 2015. On the other hand, Japan received consent to buy the Global Hawk last June, and it has already secured budgets and commenced preparations to introduce the Global Hawk into its system.

You can read more at the link.

So much for meaningful inter-Korean talks:

North Korean Senior Cabinet Counselor Kwon Ho-ung on Wednesday told a stunned South Korean delegation at ministerial talks in Busan that his country¿s Songun or military-first policy ¿helps the security of South Korea too, and a vast majority of South Korean citizens have benefited from it.¿ North Korea’s missile launches and nuclear weapons program are apparently a boon to us. The least we can do in return, Kwon indicated, is let our delegations visit ¿sacred places¿ in the North like Kim Il-sung¿s embalmed cadaver, suspend Korea-U.S. joint military exercises, and abolish the National Security Law. Oh, and deliver the 500,000 tons of rice and light industry raw materials we promised.

I’m sure there are people in the US and Japanese government saying I told you so and laughing their asses off  after reading the above paragraph and who can blame them.

At least one person in the South Korean government has had enough with the North Koreans with the (anti)Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok having this to say in response to the North:

South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok in his speech warned things could ¿get out of control¿ if the North launches any further missiles. Lee gave short shrift to Kwon¿s claims for the Songun policy. ¿Has anyone in the South asked the North to protect our safety?” he demanded. “North Korea can help us protect our security when it stops launching missiles and dismantles its nuclear program”.

I have to give Minister Lee credit, he is the first SK governmental official I have seen to actually stand up to the North Koreans.  In fact it appears that he has pissed off the North Koreans so much that they are withdrawing from the talks. From the Marmot’s Hole:

The two sides met this morning at 10:30, but apparently couldn¿t narrow their differences (read: the South wouldn¿t pay protection money). So the delegated decided to end the meeting following today¿s concluding meeting at 2:30.

This would be the first time since November 2001 that intra-Korean ministerial talks have failed to produce a joint statement, and the first time ever that the talks have ended early.

Reportedly, the North kept talking about the 500,000 tons of rice the South promised them, while the South stood firm in its position that until there was an end to this missile mess, there would be no discussion of rice aid. No date has been set for the next round of talks, although the two sides might agree to one this afternoon.

So any bets when the South Koreans will kiss and make up with the Norks and give them their bribe money or is South Korea finally growing some balls?

The Dokdo Riders have been out of the spotlight for a while now but Jeff over at Ruminations in Korea has a great wrap up of the Dokdo Riders mission to bring awareness to the issue on every American’s mind, the Dokdo Islands. A absolutely hilarious read.

While you are it you can check out the Dokdo Rider website as well and check our Hanguk Heroes current progress across Europe. They may not have been drawing large crowds in the US, but they are drawing huge crowds in Europe:

Maybe their new found fame is because of the new hot chick they have moonlighting with them now:

Let’s see world tour, motorcycles, cute girls, attending the World Cup, etc. all for free. The Dokdo Riders are truly geniuses.

Up on the USFK webpage is a pretty good video from the Pyeongtaek city government supporting the planned USFK camp consolidation at Camp Humphreys.  The video makes some key points about how the US is responsible for bringing unprecedented security and economic growth to the country and is now transforming to escape the congestion of the current camps and to meet security requirements in the future.

The video sticks to the planned time table of all 41 current USFK camps being consolidated into 10 camps by 2008, which I find extremely hard to believe.  The video continues by emphasising how Korea is receiving valuable land in return for allowing USFK to consolidate in a non-congested area of Korea, but then goes on to say how the relocation is going to bring great investment into Pyeongtaek and cause unprecendented regional growth.  So in other words the congestion of the Seoul area will eventually move down to the Pyeongtaek area.

If the relocation actually does happen, the graphic of the planned expansion at Camp Humphreys was quite good explaining all the upgrades that are coming to Camp Humphreys.  Some of the improvements include a golf course, a world class fitness center, amusement park, and expanded family housing.  The video continuously emphasises how this will all be done in a environmentally friendly way.

So if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth a look, but it going to take more than this video to convince me this relocation will actually happen by 2008 or the anti-US hate groups that this will happen at all.

What I find most interesting about this is the lack of coverage of this terrorist attack.  The train bombing in Spain and the London subway bombings received much more global coverage.  Does only Muslim extremist attacks against the west count?:

Police suspect Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) and banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) to be behind the serial blasts in suburban trains in Mumbai.

The magnitude of the sychronised blasts has conclusively pointed to the use of RDX by the attackers, official sources have revealed.

However, LeT has denied any hand in the incident. “We condemn Srinagar, Mumbai blasts,” said their spokesperson.

At least 183 people were killed and 663 injured in a series of blasts that rocked the city on Tuesday. Seven blasts took place on different railway stations in the city.

Use the above link to send messages of support to the people of India.  The US is fighting a war on terror to stop these type of terrorist attacks from happening in the US.  So far the Indian politicians are remaining united against the terrorists which got me thinking about what would the Democratic reaction be if the recently busted terrorist cell that was plotting to bomb the New York subway system succeeded in carrying out the attack?  Any guesses if they would blame Bush instead of the terrorists?

South Korea the world’s 4th largest oil importer has now layed claim to a large oil reserve in Canada: South Korea intends on buying an oil sands mine in Cold Lake with a capacity of 250 million barrels. The commerce ministry announced on July 2 that the purchase would be made official later this month, as part of its effort to secure South Korea¿s oil needs. The purchase price is being kept confidential. State-run Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) is expected to begin construction of a production facility in Cold Lake, with initial production in 2008, and full-scale operations to commence two years later. The size of the deposits of the mine will allow for between 30,000 and 35,000 barrels of oil to be extracted per day for the next 20 years. Oil sands, also referred to as tar or bituminous sands, are deposits of bitmen trapped in a mixture of clay, sand and water. In essence, they are sand or sandstone containing at least 10 per cent petroleum. South Korea, the world’s fourth-largest crude oil importer, has to import all its crude oil needs to feed its economy, Asia’s fourth largest. The country currently produces 115,000 barrels of oil daily from local and overseas oilfields. The commerce ministry said in an official statement that once production begins, it could noticeably raise the country’s oil output self-sufficiency level by around 1.2 percent. Seoul wants to raise the self-sufficiency level from around 4 per cent at present to 18 per cent in 2013.

I don’t like seeing protests turn violent but these people had it coming:

A van containing several protesters drove toward the entrance of Daechu-ri, a village near Camp Humphreys, to check reports that a large group of pro-U.S. South Korean demonstrators was formed to block any anti-U.S. rally in the village, the Korean news agency reported.

Task force members, according to Yonhap, say that around 9 p.m. the van was met by 200 members of the Anjung-ri Merchants Association who allegedly blocked its path, pulled the occupants from the van and began beating them.

The task force was quoted as saying three members of its group were attacked, and that one man remained hospitalized for treatment of cuts and fractures, including a head injury.

Kim Ki-ho, president of the Anjung-ri Merchants Association, said Monday that at least two association members were injured in Saturday¿s clash with the protesters and were hospitalized.

This type of thing has actually happened before in the past in Dongducheon where the locals there have no love for the anti-US protesters.  Protests outside of a US camp mean soldiers get locked down on post which hurts the merchants’ bottom line that day.  Hitting Koreans in the pocketbook is definitely one way to get them motivated to come out against the anti-US protesters.

Check out Nomad for more on the Rumble at the Hump.