Apparently the Korean military is looking to purchase the most advanced US PATRIOT missile system:

South Korea requested the United States send pricing and availability data for the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile systems of Lockheed Martin for its surface-to-air missile procurement project, a military source said Monday.

The Air Force asked Lockheed Martin for the pricing and availability data in mid-November and the U.S. company plans to give the price information by next month, the official at Lockheed Martin’s office in Seoul said.

The U.S. government is reviewing the data before sending it to Seoul, she added. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration, in charge of the country’s arms procurement affairs, also confirmed it.

(…)

Under the $1 billion project, code-named SAM-X, South Korea plans to buy 48 advanced Patriot missile interceptors to replace aging Nike Hercules missiles against the threat of North Korean ballistic missiles.

To tell you the truth I really hope the South Koreans do not get the PAC-3 because I would be seriously concerned that the sensitive data about the PAC-3 would end up in the hands of the North Koreans in addition to China. Edit this Post | Delete this Post

Valentine’s Day is a day that means lots of chocolate for the ROK Army:

Valentine’s Day in South Korea is a time when the attention of the country’s massive army turns to romance and a mission to spread love via military transport.

Under the Valentine’s Day tradition in South Korea, women give chocolates to men. And with compulsory service of two years for young men and a military of almost 700,000 troops, that translates into a lot of sweets.

South Korea’s military last week completed its annual delivery of chocolate from women to their boyfriends in uniform. The sweets are sent to regular post offices and the military sends its trucks to pick up the parcels and take them on base.

According to this report, Kim Jong Il expressed his concerns about the collapse of the North Korean regime with Chinese leader Hu Jin-tao:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is worried that prolonged U.S. financial sanctions on the Stalinist country could lead to the regime’s collapse, Japan’s Kyodo News agency reported on Saturday. It said Kim expressed his concern during his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing last month.

He was responding to a call from Hu to drop threats to stay away from six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program unless the United States lifts the sanctions, the Japanese news agency said.

North Korea is obviously feeling the heat of US economic sanctions, but the only way their regime will collapse is if either China or South Korea also implements sanctions as well and discontinues propping up Kim Jong Il’s regime. I wouldn’t hold my breath to long waiting for that to happen.

Here is another update from the story that refuses to die. Hines Ward has now said that he is going to set up a scholarship fund in his mother’s honor and maybe meet President Roh:

Korean-American Super Bowl hero Hines Ward said Friday that he hopes to create a scholarship named after his mother, Kim Young-hee, to help ethnic Korean students in the United States.

Ward said it is a blessing for him to be half Korean, and he wishes to meet with Korean government officials and youth during his upcoming trip to South Korea in April.

I think it is great that he is setting up a scholarship fund, but I would recommend to him that it would be better to set up the scholarship fund for mixed race children in Korea as well. They are the ones who need it more than anyone. Also when he talks about visiting Korean youth, I hope he visits some of the youths in the orphanages as well as average Korean youths.

I got to give Hines Ward credit, he definitely does know how to say the right things to the Korean media:

Even today, his mother tells America’s Super Bowl MVP, “I don’t care how much money you have. Never treat people like you’re better than others.”

Now, Ward wishes to pass down the values he learned from his mother to his son. “I hope my son will grow up honoring his heritage,” he said. “I want him to be proud to be partly Korean,” he added.

His son was dressed in Korean traditional clothes on his first birthday, and following Korean tradition, picked a ring from an array of items such as money and a pencil, which is said to determine a child’s future career.

Ward, who has a few Korean language books himself, regrets that he did not have a chance to learn the language when he was younger and living apart from his mother.

“I wish I could turn back time and learn Korean so that I can converse with my mother better,” he said. Ward pledges to teach the Korean language to his son.

Oh yeah, this is going to be a lovefest by the Korean media when he arrives in the “motherland” in April.

By the way for those that don’t read Korean the tatoo says Hines Ward in Hangul. Could you imagine what people would say if he walked through downtown Seoul dressed like that a month ago compared to now?

Here is something I’m sure no one will see on CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, NY Times, orthe LA Times tonight:

Active-duty services exceeded their January recruiting goals, while some reserve branches fell short, the Defense Department announced Friday.

The Army met 103 percent of its goal with 8,337 recruits; the Navy got 101 percent of its goal with 2,726 new sailors; the Marine Corps met 106 percent of its goal with 3,234 Marine recruits; and the Air Force got 101 percent of its goal with 2,195 new airmen, according to the DOD.

The Army National Guard also got 113 percent of its goal with 6,341 recruits, while the Marine Corps Reserve and Air Force Reserve each met 100 percent of their goal with 854 and 2,362 recruits respectively.

Meanwhile, the Navy Reserve came up short, meeting 88 percent of its goal with 757 recruits.

Actually I can envision the headlines now if a story is made of this: Navy Falls Short of Recruiting Goals, Iraq War to Blame, with no mention of how everyone else has well exceeded their recruiting goals especially the Army while simultaneously expanding the size of the military. In fact the military has been exceeding recruiting goals for months now, yet you hear no one talking about it outside of the blogosphere.

Of course the anti-American website Voice of People would have the first reports and pictures concerning the protest Sunday at Camp Humphreys.

People Protesting Without Bashing in Policemen’s Heads with Pipes.

The report is all in Korean, but using my limited Korean knowledge I was able to make out, correct me someone if I’m wrong, that the protest drew approximately 4,000 people and get this, there was no violence against the riot police. In fact the riot police look pretty bored judging by this picture:

I have no problems with this protest; these people got their message out without destroying property or injuring anyone. In fact instead of violence they resorted to flying kites:

Actually looks like fun, but I don’t think young children should be at a protest like this, but I guess if you belong to one of the hate groups it is best to indoctrinate them while they are still young before they actually have a chance to meet any US soldiers and judge for themselves if they are the evil, thug barbarians that they have been told about.

Besides the kite flying this bomb fire looks like fun for the entire family as well:

Where’s the Marshmallows at?

Here is one of the main guys stirring up the trouble down there in Pyoengtaek, a Catholic priest named Mun Jeong-hyun:

Now my first question for him is how is he a Catholic priest, but is able to endorse people making offerings to an altar that is used to please the traditional Korean Gods for a good harvest:

On top of that the Shaman priest is some guy from Okinawa, Japan:

I thought these hate groups hated both the Japanese and the Americans?

Mr. Mun is a well known anti-USFK activist from Kunsan, not Pyeongtaek, and he has caused violence before in the past and has had police warrants out for his arrest, but yet here is again. At least this time he didn’t incite violence, but still I find it interesting that a Catholic priest is compliant with shamanist offerings and inciting violence in the name of the Catholic church.

Well I will continue to update this post as more information becomes available in the English media, but from what I can tell this protest wasn’t very large but I never expected it to be. The hate groups’ Super Bowl will be when the Korean government tries to forcibly remove protesters from homes on the bought land that will be used to expand Camp Humphreys.

UPDATE: I don’t know if people are happier that Korea got a gold medal or that Ohno lost:

Articles on online editions of major dailies followed the same line as the TV networks.

“The final race was Korea’s celebration party,” the usually staid Maeil Business Newspaper wrote.

South Koreans in the world’s most wired country also showed their joy over the Internet.

“The race without Ohno showed what clean play is all about,” one South Korean wrote on a message board on the popular Internet portal Naver.

“There was no Hollywood ending for Ohno in Turin,” read a separate commentary.

I still find it interesting that Koreans hate Ohno so much when in 2002 it wasn’t his fault the referee made the call that disqualified the Korean skater. Ohno just benefited from the call. I don’t know enough about skating to say if the call was right or not, but bottom line it wasn’t Ohno’s fault but yet he is demonized and not the referee who wasn’t an American. Yet Ohno is demonized in the media and the Korean media is an orgy of joy after his fall. Why can’t the media just celebrate the fact the Korean skaters skated well and won instead of celebrating more, the fact that Ohno lost?
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Maybe Ohno can come to South Korea without death threats for now on, after losing the 1500 meter short track speed skating event:

South Korea’s Ahn Hyun-Soo won the men’s 1,500m short-track Winter Olympics speedskating gold medal while defending champion Apolo Anton Ohno blew his chances with a semi-final stumble.

Three-time world 1,500m champion Ahn finally captured gold after he had been disqualified in the 1,500m semi-finals at the 2002 Olympics and was leading in the 2002 1,000m final when he was caught in a four-man crash and placed fourth.

Ahn won in 2 minutes, 25.341 seconds with 19-year-old compatriot Lee Ho-Suk second in 2:25.600 and China’s Li Jiajun third in 2:26.005, taking his fifth Olympic medal but still unable to grab a gold.

Via Riding Sun, the Japan Times is reporting a veiled threat made against Japan by the Egyptian ambassador to Japan:

Attacks like the ones on the Danish embassies in Syria and Lebanon last weekend could take place in Japan if the media here insult Muslims by reprinting cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, Egyptian Ambassador to Japan Hisham Badr warned Friday.

“This is not a question of freedom of expression… This is a question of blaspheme of religion,” Badr said in an interview with The Japan Times. “It touches a very raw nerve” with Muslims worldwide.

Badr praised both Tokyo for urging media not to reprint the cartoons and news organizations for complying.

…”Reprinting (the images) is a provocation,” the ambassador said. “It is as if they are saying ‘we don’t care about your feelings.'”

He added that even pictures of the caricatures that show them indirectly is unnecessary. The Japan Times printed a photograph in its Feb. 4 editions of a person holding a French newspaper that carried the cartoons.

Amazing that an ambassador is threatening Japan with violent protests over a cartoon. I doubt the media will publish the cartoons due to Japanese business interests in the Muslim world but still I find it arrogant that this guy is trying to push his country’s societal norms on to the Japanese. What he is going to tell the Japanese next, that all the women in Japan must wear burkas because the women showing their faces offends Islam? Where do you draw the line?

This story made me think if Islamic countries like Egypt have made any threats against Korea. I haven’t heard about any veiled threats and I have not seen the Korean media publish the cartoons either; probably because of the same business reasons as the Japanese.

However, how would Korea react if the sizable migrant Islamic workers in the country suddenly started protesting violently and burning cars? Would the riot police beat them down and arrest them though they would never do that to Korean people that protest. With the large ROK Army troop presence in Iraq, the Islamic radicals stirring up these global protests backed by Iran and Syria, would be eager to stir up trouble in Korea. I doubt it will happen though because the vast majority of migrant workers in Korea are to busy working and earning a honest living to make a better life for themselves and their families than to stir up trouble over some stupid cartoons.

UPDATE: In response to my below question concerning teenage prostitution in Korea, the Metropolitician has in fact confirmed this problem:

I’m not saying the United States or any other country in the world has a monopoly on morality. What I am saying is that there seems to have been a disconnect somewhere in the rush for development in this country that has fostered the message that development and “getting ahead” is important enough to get there by any means necessary. This mentality is what leads to “education fever” that convinces healthy 18 year-olds to take flying leaps off buildings if they fail an exam, or the statistic that 1 in 4 high school girls has exchanged sex for money or favors in some form (in one study done by a Korean researcher for a paper on sex in cyberspace).

If it seems high, let me tell you that after having worked in Korean public, private, and especially alternative schools – this number seems to reflect reality, believe it or not. There’s even a name for the concept of underage female girls having sex for “compensation” – wonjo kyoje (원조교제) – which may give you a sense of how everyday such acts are. I’m not saying everyone’s doing it – I’m just saying that it’s not unusual. Not a social problem you hear about in the oft-described “liberal” or “morally corrupt” United States. Ah, right – Korea’s is a “family-oriented” society.

Read the rest of the post for some more interesting insights into this issue.
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This from the Korea Times, is kind of disgusting:

About 20 percent of teenage prostitutes in the southeastern port city of Pusan began working in the industry when they were under 14 just for money, according to a survey.

The Pusan Metropolitan Police Agency Friday released the survey of 85 teenagers and 157 men who were caught engaging in the sex trade in the city last year.

Police said that 44.7 percent of the underage prostitutes sold sex to make money to cover entertainment costs like social gatherings.

About 31, or 36 percent of them said they sold sex for a living, indicating their motivation in turning to prostitution.

Who are these people willing to buy sex from 14 year olds?:

Police said that prostitutes are getting younger as adults are luring vulnerable teenagers into the sex trade with promises of money.

About 47 percent, or 40 teenage sex workers, received 100,000-150,000 won for a prostitution job.

Some 21 percent, or 18 teenagers, took 60,000-100,000 won, while 16.5 percent earned less than 50,000 won.

Among the 157 men who bought sex from girls, office workers accounted for 30.6 percent, followed by independent business owners with 22.9 percent.

Does anyone know if teenage prostitution in Korea is as bad as this article makes it out to be?

In order to prevent violent protests on Sunday at Camp Humphreys, the Korean Riot police are going to try some new tactics:

The National Police Agency said yesterday it would limit contact between activists and riot police at a rally scheduled for Sunday to protest the relocation of United States Forces Korea bases to southern Gyeonggi province.
The Pan-South Korea Solution Committee Against U.S. Base Extension in Pyeongtaek, the rally organizer, earlier announced that 5,000 people would participate in the protest near the U.S. Camp Humphries in Pyeongtaek.

To prevent violent clashes, police in full riot gear would be inside the U.S. base, police said, and uniformed officers would patrol outside with observers from the National Human Rights Commission. At a similar rally last July, hundreds of protesters and police were injured in scuffles.

Let me get this straight, the riot police will hide inside of Camp Humphreys to prevent violent clashes. How about the protesters not bring metal pipes and bamboo poles to the protest to assault the police with? How about the protesters not throw stones and destroy public and private property? How about the police actually throw these people breaking the law into jail?

Here is an editorial also from the Joong Ang condemning the upcoming violence over the 2nd Infantry Division and Yongsan Garrison relocation to Camp Humphreys:

The government thinks that the residents have been influenced by outside instigators, who are demanding the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the peninsula. “Do you think the farmers know anything about a U.S. war plan? I don’t understand why outsiders keep stirring them up,” said a taxi driver.

The relocation of the Yongsan garrison and U.S. 2nd Infantry Division installations to areas south of Seoul have been approved by the National Assembly. Attempts to overrule such an agreement are a challenge to this nation. One is free to oppose the relocation plan, but protests should be done sensibly within a legal framework. And yet, the activists are not doing so. They have occupied empty houses inside the site that they do not own, after former residents left the area.

As the taxi driver noted this is not a grass roots protest against USFK, but a well organized protest for mass propaganda value by anti-US hate groups. That is why they are occupying houses that have already been sold to the government so that when the government comes to kick them out they can kick and scream in front of television cameras and create sympathy within the Korean public against USFK. Stopping the Camp Humphreys relocation is the hate groups Super Bowl because they know that if the 2nd Infantry Division and Yongsan Garrison is not allowed to relocate that it will mean the end of the US-ROK relationship as we know it.

It will be interesting to see how things go on Sunday.