This guy is so dumb I wonder if the Korean courts will just give him a slap on the hand sentence like they usuall do for sex offenders?:

Seoul Jungbu police on Thursday asked for an arrest warrant for a man identified a Lee for sexually assaulting and robbing his next-door neighbor. Lee allegedly took a key the victim had inadvertently left in her front door at the beginning of the month, and April 7 at around 2 a.m. let himself in to rape the woman and steal valuables from her home. The victim was able to get a look at the man?s face, but she failed to identify him as the neighbor whom she had seen only once.

However, Lee was apparently so enamored of his victim that he started leaving text messages on her phone. ?You are like an angel,? one read. ?Tonight I just want to sleep beside you, then I?ll go,? read another. The third was a dead giveaway: ?Leave me a message in the apartment mailbox.?

Police reviewed security camera footage but were unable to find any unfamiliar faces coming or going at the apartment. To catch the rapist, they left a note in the mailbox that read, ?Come and play.? Lee promptly went back to the scene of his crime at 11:40 p.m. the following Saturday to find a female detective waiting to take him into custody.

Courtesy of Japundit, here is the trailer of the latest version of Memoirs of a Geisha that you probably won’t see hitting a theater near you anytime soon:

The fate of the entire world continues to hang in the balance due to the latest Dokto crisis between South Korea and Japan. Don’t worry though because the South Korean government in their infinite wisdom on this issue may ask Kim Jong Il for help defending the island from those dastardly Japanese oceanic research scientists:

The two Koreas may discuss the threatened incursion of a Japanese research vessel into Korea?s exclusive economic zone during the inter-Korean ministerial talks starting in Pyongyang this Friday. Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday he would ?talk to the unification minister? about the matter.

Ban was answering a question from Uri Party lawmaker Choi Sung in the National Assembly. Asked if Korea will seize the Japanese research vessel if it violates the EEZ in the course of what Japan claims is a hydrographic survey near Dokdo, Ban said, ?Concrete steps will be determined depending on how the situation progresses.? The chief diplomat agreed with commentators that it is ?highly likely that Japan is attempting to turn the sensitive Dokdo area into an area of territorial dispute by violating our sovereignty over the islets.?

First of all, what does North Korea have to do with the Dokto controversy between South Korea and Japan. Secondly what could North Korea even do if they do get involved in it? Nuke the research vessel with a No Dong Nuclear tipped warhead? Probably more threatening would be to shut down some pachinko parlors in Osaka? That will really show those wicked Japanese who is boss.

Bringing in the North Koreans into this mess would only play into the Japanese government’s hands because it would further demonstrate the ROK government as behaving irrationally over this issue. The more irrational the ROK government is, the more foreign governments will tend to side with the Japanese government on this issue.

Plus the absurdity of asking North Korea for assistance on this issue just cannot escape me. Remember the North Koreans are the same people who deliberately planned, ambushed, and cold bloodedly killed six South Korean sailors in the Yellow Sea in June of 2002 in order to draw attention away from the South Koreans hosting of that year’s World Cup competition. No apologies, compensation, absolutely nothing from the North Koreans after that incident. In fact the South Korean government went to great lengths to cover up the attack and keep the grieving families quiet.

So now to go ask the murders of South Korean military personnel to come and help them over a small island territorial dispute with Japan just seems ridiculous to me.

With the current interest in Korean reunification theories, which you can read more about here, here, and here; I have decided to repost a reunification theory published last year by the Korean publication Oh My News that I found many reasons to dispute. These disputes are what initially sparked my interest in what would happen if China ever got involved in peacekeeping operations in North Korea.

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Oh My News, has an article discussing how to properly reunify the Korean peninsula. This is how the article opens up:

By using Germany as a template on what to do and what not to do, we can minimize the problems of reunification by delaying it for several decades. A divided Korea will be needed to minimize the burden to South Korea’s economy when the North does collapse. This is the general consensus among South Koreans — even though they do genuinely care about the harsh conditions in the North — but they are not willing to give up their luxury cars and vacations to help them. This may seem heartless and cold but it is also reasonable. (*)

I really don’t consider keeping your luxury cars and vacations despite the suffering of the North Korean people as caring in general about the conditions in North Korea. I pretty much consider that as not caring at all about North Korea. Which is fine, but at least be honest about it.

The writer goes on to discuss how after reunification internal security should be handled in North Korea:

One of many important aspects needed to be considered by South Korea and the U.S. is internal security. The U.S. should play an integral role in the planning of internal security in the same way it has invaded and occupied Iraq, Japan and Afghanistan. Public relations should be on the minds of the U.S. when organizing internal security. Many anti-U.S. supporters may disagree with this statement, but you have to ask yourself this, “Which country has the expertise in this area?”

South Korea should handle all internal security because after reunification North and South Korea should technically be one country with the legimate government being the elected government in Seoul. A state of marshall law will probably have to be declared for a period of time to prevent looting and a mass refugee exodus to the south. The ROK Army has more than enough man power to handle this. During the period of marshall law the local North Korean police structure will have to be rebuilt to purge people guilty of atrocities and to train new policemen in the ways of modern law enforcement including such basics as, executing people is not standard police practice.

Here is something I can agree with the writer on:

The U.S. should not enter North Korea territory. The reason for this is because the North Korean government has used heavy anti-U.S. propaganda on their people for 50 years and the sight of a U.S. Marine could incite panic among North Koreans, especially in rural areas.
(…)
With the U.S. taking a prominent role in maintaining South Korea’s side of the DMZ….

There is absolutely no reason American soldiers should enter North Korea. The amount of propaganda taught to the people in the North is sure to cause many problems if American soldiers enter North Korea. This will also cause the North Korean public to wonder if the South Korean government is really legitimate and not an American puppet.

It would also be foolish to have American soldiers secure the entire DMZ. First of all there are not enough US soldiers here to even do it, so more GI’s would have to sent here creating a larger US footprint in Korea. Plus does anyone beside this reporter think it would be a good idea that the first person a North Korean refugee would meet when trying to enter South Korea would be an American GI? If that doesn’t reinforce the image of an American puppet regime in the south then I don’t know what will.

The best thing the US Army could do is just stay on post and speed up the current down sizing of forces on the peninsula. This would free up more needed soldiers for the War on Terror plus reduce the US footprint in Korea, and put China at ease that the US military isn’t trying to move into North Korea.

All the shots including internal and border security issues in North Korea needs to be called by and executed by the South Korean government to build legitimacy in the eyes of the North Korean people.

The Oh My News reporter thinks otherwise:

United Nations peacekeepers will be needed to ensure stability in the region. All internal security matters should be handled by the UN behind the scenes for PR purposes, since the United Nations did fight against North Korea during the Korean War.

This is the last thing South Korea should send into North Korea. To the North Korean public it would just look like another foreign occupation army wanting to take over Korea. Plus how would foreigners from third world countries like; Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, etc. that make up the majority of UN peacekeeping force handle enforcing the peace in North Korea. They can’t speak the language, don’t know the history, or the cultural differences in North Korea. Worse yet what if they get caught raping girls like they did in the Congo? It would be a PR nightmare for the Korean government.

The UN is successful in executing operations like caring for refugees and providing food aid. However, there is no government body worse at handling peacekeeping than the UN. Does Rwanda, Bosnia, and Somalia ring a bell? All collosal UN peacekeeping failures, especially Rwanda. Check out this PBS Frontline report to see how effective UN peacekeeping is.

Then the reporter thinks that Chinese Army would be a great element to have join in on the peacekeeping operation:

If the UN is the head of this operation, China will be the face of the operation. North Koreans have been taught that the Chinese have helped (not saved) North Korea from the U.S. during the Korean War; China is considered a brother to North Korea.

The People’s Liberation Army of China is not known for liberating anyone much less North Korea. Tibet ring a bell? If the Chinese are allowed into North Korea, mark my words, South Korea will have a hard time getting them out.

The reporter then goes on to think that by keeping the country divided, by having the UN govern North Korea, that more international aid will roll in. After the Asian Tsunami in Southeast Asia five billion dollars overall of international aid was pledged to the effected areas. How much of that money do you think those countries will actually see? Probably not much now that the media focus has moved on, plus the cost to reconstruct North Korea will run at approximately $350 billion dollars over 10 years from just South Korea. So Korea shouldn’t count on international aid, this will be their financial burden.

Then the reporter continues to go on thinking that neighboring countries will help finance reconstruction in the name of free trade:

You may be asking yourself, why would North Korea’s neighbors be willing to spend so much on another country? There are many uses for free trade. It is the view of this writer that trade prevents wars and ensures peace between nations. This view draws on the fact that everyone wants to be rich and people would not look favorably on their government if they took steps that threatened trade. In this instance, trade will be used as a tool to speed up normalization of relations.

Before you can have free trade you need to have something to trade. North Korea won’t be in the missile exporting, counterfeit money, and drug trafficking business after reunification which leaves them with nothing to trade. It will take years to build up the economy to attract international investment.

Then the reporter concludes by thinking that money for investment in North Korea’s economy can initially be provided by making cuts in the ROK military:

I have mentioned the domino effect. Since the threat from the North would be non-existent, South Korea could redirect billions spent on defense into North Korea.

It would be extremely foolish to cut the military in Korea especially with neighbors like Korea has in northeast Asia. Northeast Asia is a tough neighborhood that requires Korea to have a strong army to prevent past national humilations from occurring again. Plus the money saved cutting the ROK Army would only put a small dent in the overall amount of money needed to fix North Korea.

The bottom line is that Korea sooner or later is going to have to suck the egg and pay for the price of unification. The current policy is to pro-long the Kim Jong Il regime to put that day of reckoning off so that the citizens of Korea can enjoy their current prosperity. I don’t agree with it but if that is what Korean government wants to do and they don’t represent me, so that is their choice. But when the day of unification does come the South Korean government needs to immediately establish its authority over North Korea to build the legitimacy of the ROK government in the eyes of the North Korean people. Any intervention by foreigners like the US, UN, or China will not be received very well by the North Korean public and will harm the legitimacy of the South Korean government, which needs to be the number one authority over any peacekeeping operation in North Korea.

Here is a new trend that people in the military better get used to:

For all you navy guys out there, this is a picture of US Navy sailors under going Army basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. The military is now having people in the military who are not being utilized for anything related to the War on Terror, to begin filling augmentee roles with the US Army. Makes sense to me because there are plenty of areas out there in not only the Navy but the Air Force and even inside of the Army that are not pulling the same amount of weight that the Marines and the majority of the Army have been pulling in the combat rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan.

If this augmentee system can prevent guys in the Army who have already deployed multiple times avoid another deployment than I think it is a worthwhile system. There is an old saying that every Marine and Soldier is a rifleman first, well now that may have to change to every sailor and airmen are rifllemen first as well.

There is some good discussion about possible reunification scenarios between North and South Korea, currently being debated on a couple of high profile blogs that are worth checking out. It began with Lirelou’s post on Coming Anarchy and that post was picked up on by Robert over at the Marmot’s Hole. I gave my opinion on the topic over at Coming Anarchy that drew some discussion, but I will go ahead and expand on my possible reunification scenario here.

Many people like Lirelou think reunification of the Korean peninsula is likely and will happen fairly soon. I tend to think that the possibility that Korea does not reunify is just as likely as reunification and yet no one plans for a non-reunification scenario despite the possibility. Let me outline my reasoning. First of all Kim Jong Il will not seek reunification despite the Sunshine Policy advocates claims because it is not in his interest to do so. Once the country is reunified the horrors of the NK regime would become public and KJI and the NK elites would lose their heads over it not to mention the loss of wealth and prestige from being the ruling class. So reunification with KJI is not going to happen.

Now when KJI dies from old age which could be 20 years from now and he has a hand over of power to a designated successor this is the time that maybe somebody in the military may make a move though I think unlikely to over throw the regime. I think a just as likely scenario is that NK becomes destabilized due to the financial pressure of the US and internal discontent over the next 10 years and KJI sees an internal collapse coming and instead of going down in flames turns to China to stabilize the country. Chinese peacekeepers come in and set up shop in NK. KJI cannot turn the country over to South Korea because he would lose his head to where if he turned the country over to China he would live to see another day. China would be eager to prevent a humanitarian crisis from spreading across their border and also China would seize the opportunity to dilute the potential regional power, though a long term possibility, of a unified Korea on the Chinese border. Keeping the Koreas separated prevents a possible long term regional rival from developing which a unified Korea once was in ancient Korean Kugoryo times.

China has already made moves to claim the ancient Korean Kugoryo kingdom’s history as their own through different UN programs and their own history textbooks. The Kugoryo kingdom covered parts of Manchuria and all of NK. If the Chinese moved into NK they could justify their claim to the land due to the claimed history. It worked before, does Tibet ring a bell?

The South Koreans could do nothing to stop the Chinese because they do not have the military or global diplomatic might to kick them out. The way things are going now, Korea would have no allies to help them in this scenario. The US-ROK alliance could very well be over and definitely highly transformed by this time with a reduced troop presence if any in South Korea. The US would probably not be willing to go to war with China over Korea, especially if there is a bitter divorce between the US and SK which the way things look now is a possibility. The US attitude may very well be towards SK, that you wanted us out and be a regional balancer, well now you got it, deal with it. Another possible ally Japan will be even further estranged from Korea as well. No help from the US and Japan would mean China would have no problems moving into NK and setting up shop. If NK falls to China that would mean that SK would fall firmly into China’s sphere of regional hegemony. That is why I see the current anti-Americanism in Korea runs contrary to Korea’s long term goal of reunification. If the US-ROK alliance remains strong the Chinese would not entertain the idea of provoking a war with the US over NK thus ensuring reunification with SK some time in the future.

I find it interesting that IMHO the absorption of NK into China is just as likely as the absorption of Taiwan into greater China. Yet no one has done any contingency planning if the NK-China absorption scenario happens. I’m not saying it is a sure thing to happen, but it is at least worth considering the possibility; or is it that no one really cares?

And here I was thinking the traffic in Korea was bad, courtesy of the Asiapundit, here is a traffic jam in China:

Holy crap, I couldn’t imagine trying to drive through that crap. Here is something else that China has Korea beat at; the overloading of motorcycles, also courtesy of the Asiapundit:

While I’m on the topic of China, we all know how bad the yellow dust blowing in from China can be in Korea, well in China can you believe according to Shawn of former Korea Life fame, that it rains dirt?

So yes it could be worse.

The Joong Ang Ilbo has its latest Going to the Blogs article up. This week the focus was on the Da Vinci Code and Dokto controversies in Korea. Here is an excerpt from the Da Vinci Code portion of the article:

Calling it ?an insult and defamation? to the Bible, the Christian Council of Korea last week launched a legal bid to have the film version of Dan Brown?s ?The Da Vinci Code? barred from general release in Korea. For the host of ?Oranckay,? (http://oranckay.net/blog) the actions of the council – which ?remained silent when torture was taking place in South Korea and now only talks about human rights as it pertains to North Korea? – are bad enough.

But for the Grand National Party chairwoman Park Geun-hye to champion the council?s ?Talibanesque? cause is just rank hypocrisy, Oranckay says.
?If you?ve ever asked yourself why Korea?s traditional `democratic elements? have their doubts about the motives behind the anti-NK protests organized by the country?s conservatives, I submit that it is largely the conservatives? lack of respect for and understanding of, well, democracy.?

The whole Da Vinci Code controversy I think is just stupid because if anything the Da Vinci Code is causing more interest in religion. Look at the best sellers lists and you see many religiously themed books. The Da Vinci Code is a fiction book and should not be taken as being real. If this book of, I repeat fiction, causes people to change their religious beliefs than that just shows they did not have very strong beliefs to begin with. Maybe that is what some of these ultra-religious types that want to ban the movie are scared of. Sounds “Talibanesque” on a much smaller scale of course, to me. However, Oranckay’s comments about the Korean right is spot on.

The Going to the Blogs articles are a good idea if they are getting translated into Korean as well (anyone know?). I think it would give Koreans an interesting insight into how foreigners perceive Korea through blogs, much like foreigners depend on websites like the Marmot’s Hole to provide English translations of Korean media and websites so foreigners have a better understanding of how Koreans perceive them.

In the spirit of the current mission of the Dokto Riders to bring awareness to all the globe about the greatest international dispute of the modern era that could ultimately lead to the destruction of the entire world, fellow K-Blogger Gangwonbrian has decided to bring awareness to quite possibly the second most greatest threat to international peace and stability, the dispute between Denmark and Canada over the sovereignty of the artic isle, Hans Island. Introducing the Hans Island Rider:

I have been inspired by the Dokdo Riders. I will be a Hans Island Rider and travel across Korea (or, at least, part of Gangwondo) telling people about how Denmark is trying to steal our island, Hans Island, away from us wonderful Canadians. I will ask Koreans whether Hans Island is marked on their maps as Canadian territory or erroneously as Danish Territory.

I need to make some flyers explaining the value of our claim. I hope the flag and the banner don’t slow my cycling down too much.

The Hans Island Rider’s story is so compelling that Oh My News may have been inspired by it to write this article in support of Canada’s claim to Hans Island and the Canadian Artic:

Apparently, if we don’t keep on claiming that the Arctic is ours — by being physically there — Canada has some challengers coming from elsewhere, from countries who might try to assume property rights and raise their own flags there. It is kind of like squatters. If you squat there long enough, you might get residential rights.

This kind of hassle is not new. Canada has ongoing territorial disputes with the Americans over the Beaufort Sea, Denmark is claiming that some silly little island off the coast of Greenland is theirs, and Russia is arguing with us about who has control of the Arctic going right up to the North Pole.

For Canadians, this could be seen as a matter of pride. Our current national slogan is “From sea to sea.” True, some say we should update it to include the northern coastline. So, it should say “From sea to sea to sea.” Others suggest we should make it read “From sea to sea to sea to see.”

Note the fourth key word “see.” That’s not a spelling mistake. That represents the Canadian attitude towards Americans. Every time those folks do something foolish we say “See, there they go again.”

I’m still waiting for an article that blames the whole Dokto and Hans Islands controversies on a sinister plot centered around a CIA black helicopter conspiracy theory to gain oil and natural gas reserves for Haliburton while systematically slaughtering native wild life just for the hell of it.

UPDATE: Here is some more details of this incident from the Korea Times:

Four U.S. soldiers have been arrested for allegedly stealing a taxi and injuring two pedestrians here, police said Saturday. The soldiers, who were only identified as members of the U.S.’ Second Infantry Division, are accused of stealing the taxi at around 2 a.m. Saturday, police officers said.

The incident took place shortly after the U.S. soldiers allegedly physically assaulted a 19-year-old South Korean, who was only identified by his surname Lee, local cable television news channel YTN reported. After the fighting drew attention from passersby, the soldiers tried to flee the scene by flagging a taxi, the report said. However, the taxi’s 25-year-old driver, identified only by his surname Kim, refused to accept them as customers because they were intoxicated, police said.

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Here is another taxi cab related incident involving you guess it, the 2nd Infantry Division:

DONGDUCHEON, South Korea, April 15 (Yonhap) — Four U.S. soldiers have been arrested for allegedly stealing a taxi and injuring two pedestrians north of Seoul, South Korean police said Saturday.

The U.S. soldiers, who were only identified as members of the U.S.’ Second Infantry Division, are accused of stealing the taxi in the northern city of Dongducheon at around 2 a.m. Saturday morning, police officials said.