According the Japundit North Korean cheerleaders are creating more sports fans and corrupting Korean youth at the same time:

According to the Japanese weekly magazine FLASH, this marked the third time that Pyongyang dispatched its bevy of beauties, and each time woman have become progressively younger and more beautiful. FLASH reports that this time around the oldest of the 124 members of the NORK cheering squad are second year university students. Reportedly, this is the first time that attendance at the Asian Athletics Championship hit 130,000, and organizers are admitting that it is the Pyongyang pretties that made the difference.

Event organizers and TV broadcasters are reportedly so eager to have the group attend that millions of dollars in cash and trade are promised to North Korea under the table in return.

But not everyone is happy with the women of the North and what they represent.

There are publications in South Korea who are warning that behind the women’s pleasant smiles are sinister plots to conquer the South. They worry that South Koreans, especially the younger generations, may become so enamored with NORK cheerleaders that they will take the side of North Korea should hostilities ever break out.

Maybe this explains the Inchon protesters. They have been brainwashed by North Korean cheerleaders.

Then:

Pusan 1902

Now:

Pusan Today

It appears that the Hyundai tours to different North Korean locations may end:

Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun on Monday publicly rejected a North Korean demand to reinstate Kim Yoon-kyu, the disgraced vice chairman of Hyundai Asan who had dealt with the North for many years in arranging their joint tourism projects. “I now seem to stand at a crossroads of whether to continue or quit our North Korea projects,” she said. Since Hyundai’s ouster of Kim, Pyongyang has applied pressure on the group by slashing the quota for the Asan’s Kumgang Mountains tours and blanking requests for negotiations on stalled projects to Kaesong and Mt. Baekdu. When Hyun visited the Kumgang Mountains, she says, authorities forced her to open her handbag, a gesture she interpreted as contempt, and she concluded, I’ll choose honest conscience rather than opportunistic servility.”

It is standard practice in inter-Korean economic cooperation to put up with Pyongyang’s demented behavior. That makes Hyun’s statement all the more significant. Her resolve not to allow North Korean pressure to meddle in her corporation’s managerial rights is the natural choice for a top executive, but in the reality of inter-Korean relations things rarely take their natural course.

I think this is great that someone is finally taking a stand and not kissing the North Koreans butts continuously. The Korean government can learn something from Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun. It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

This is a lesson worth remembering:

Soldiers who last month stripped rank chevrons, ribbons and other items from the uniform of a soldier who’d just been sentenced in a rape case acted illegally and undermined military justice, a military judge said Friday.

Last month’s stripping occurred inside the courtroom at Camp Humphreys and in full view of the rape victim, who was seated just yards away.

Even convicted criminals have rights and this is a perfect example of this. Having been witness to a situation similar to this in the past, what should of happened is that the escorts should of took him out of the courtroom and transported him to the confinement facility at Camp Humphreys. There they take his Class A’s, awards, and other items and inventory them and store them until release.

The leaders involved in this incident claim they didn’t know the proper procedures which is probably true. The prosecuting lawyers have some culpability in this because they should have briefed the escorts on how to properly handle their duties once sentencing is complete. So the blame can be spread around, but what is important that everyone learns from the mistakes made here so they don’t get repeated in the future.

The Korean government has responded to the MacArthur statue controversy in Inchon:

South Korea’s presidential office expressed “serious concern” over a violent protest by anti-American activists seeking to demolish a statue of US war hero Douglas MacArthur.

“We express serious concern at violence yesterday over the statue of General MacArthur,” the office said in a statement.

“Such an illegal attempt to demolish the statue is not good for friendly relations between South Korea and the United States.”

Here is more from the Chosun:

The meeting chaired by presidential Chief of Staff Lee Byung-wan expressed concern that calls to take down the statue have turned violent. “An illegal attempt to pull the statue down would not only be of no help to the Korea-U.S. relationship, but would run counter to a mature historical understanding in our society,” spokesman Choi In-ho said. “President Roh Moo-hyun recently said the statue must not be pulled down, and to do so would not reflect the wisdom needed to live in the modern world.”

President Roh says one thing and then a member of his political party says this:

Ruling party lawmakers were split. Uri Party standing committee member Chang Young-dal told a meeting of legislators the people calling for the removal of the statue revealed a “deep ethnic purity” and warned the party to watch out for “ultra-rightists” latching on to the statue issue to band together and ratchet up tensions.

What the heck is a “deep ethnic purity”? Is he suggesting that foreigners should not be welcomed in Korea? Is there any doubt that these groups protesting and causing violence are in fact hate groups when you read statements like “deep ethnic purity”. It almost sounds like something Hitler would of said.

The Korean government is not the only ones responding to the MacArthur controversy:

The confrontation is, however, expected to last for a while because a conservative group is scheduled to hold a “Great Meeting for a Resolution to Keep National Security and the Statue of MacArthur,” on September 15. Up to 20,000 members are expected to attend.

(…)

Yu, president of the Hwanghaedo Society, said, “The statue of MacArthur was built by the donations of Incheon people who wanted to remember the Incheon landings that preempted North Korea’s greedy intention to communize the entire Korean Peninsula,” adding, “The R.O.K Marine Corps Veterans Association’s 16 local offices will protect the statue until the end of this year.”

That would be quite impressive if the pro-American groups can turn out 20,000 people. Also I got a word of advice for those hate groups out there; I wouldn’t mess with the ROK Marines guarding the statue.

Here are the statements of the leadership of Inchon:

Rep. Han Kwang-won, whose constituency includes Freedom Park, said, “The statue was erected with donations from Incheon residents… If you are truly progressive, you must think about why MacArthur is a hero in the hearts of your elders and why he’s become a symbol of Incheon.”

(…)

Incheon mayor Ahn Sang-soo told a press conference pulling the statue down or moving it elsewhere would not help the interests of the city or the nation. He also urged “outsiders” to stop making trouble in his city.

The good mayor is absolutely right. Outsiders are the ones causing the trouble in Inchon. The people of Inchon actually take pride in the MacArthur statue. I have spent a considerable amount of time in Inchon for various reasons and I feel confident in saying that the people of Inchon are not anti-American. So these hate groups should not reflect poorly on the citizens of Inchon because they are generally very welcoming of foreigners due to their long history as a city of international trade.

If the people of the city approve of the statue and the local government supports it as well then what business do these hate groups have in causing violence and smearing the good name of the city of Inchon? The easy answer is that the police need to arrest these people and lock them up and hand out stiff fines. These idiots will continue conducting these attacks as long as they are not arrested.

This is amazing that a statement like this came from the Korea Times:

It is impossible to imagine that we can enjoy the freedom of life as we do now if the South were communized by the North aided by China and the former Soviet Union. Even though we lived under suppression from authoritarian rulers of the past, it was no worse than what the people in the North have been suffering since the division of the peninsula. Nobody can deny that the North is one of the most severe violators of human rights, starving many of its people to death despite enormous food aid from the international community.

The Korea Times actually gets it right. Anyone that thinks that Korea would be better off today if the North Koreans and Chinese won the Korean War is out of their minds.

UPDATE: Oh My News has a good article on the hiring of Coach Advocaat:

Dick Advocaat is known as one of soccer’s disciplinarians, someone who is used to doing it his way, on and off the training field. It certainly wouldn’t be advisable for the KFA to give the two-time coach of the Netherlands a four-year-old tape of an opponent.

By appointing the “Little General” and bringing back Pim Verbeek to South Korea, who was Guus Hiddink’s assistant from December 2000 to June 2002, the KFA has got what it wanted; a big-name coach with World Cup experience as well as knowledge of South Korea, the domestic scene and the players.

It doesn’t look like the KFA will be pushing this guy around like they did the prior coach Joe Bonfrere.
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Korea has finally hired their new soccer team headcoach:

Korea is betting on yet another Dutchman to take the national football team to glory in the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The Korean Football Association has decided to hire Dick Advocaat (58) despite potential wrangles over the coach’s contract with the UAE, it announced Tuesday. Advocaat is to take over where his fellow countryman Jo Bonfrere left off after the latter’s ignominious departure earlier this month.

I find it interesting that some people here in Korea are criticizing Apple for “cutting corners” with the new Apple iPod-nano:

Korean MP3 player makers are miffed by the release of a new product by world market leader Apple that they say is cutting corners by using Samsung Electronics flash memory chips.
Apple Computer unveiled its ultra-lightweight i-Pod nano flash memory player on Thursday (local time). The U.S. company holds 50 percent of the global market share with its iPod series.

The domestic MP3 player industry is sulking, saying the iPod nano owes its exceptionally low price to Samsung Electronics. “Memory chips affect more than 50 percent of MP3 players’ prices. Apple presumably bought the flash memory chips at a 50 percent discount from Samsung.” But Samsung Electronics executive Joo Woo-sik defends the company. “I can’t tell you the discount rate, but it stands to reason that we expand the range of discount rates for a big buyer like Apple,” he said. “Samsung didn’t mean to do any harm to domestic MP3 manufacturers.”

It sounds like to me that Apple is conducting good business in acquiring parts for their new product at the lowest price possible. Also, Samsung must be making a hefty profit on this massive bulk order of memory chips or they wouldn’t have given Apple a discount. If Korean MP3 manufacturers want they same discount then they should order the same amount of memory chips as Apple.

Obviously the Korean MP3 manufacturers must feel they can’t compete with Apple’s new product so they have to slime Apple and Samsung and stoke Korean pride about unfair trade practices. As long as Samsung is making money I don’t foresee the company raising its memory chip prices due to complaints from Korean MP3 manufacturers. Money speaks louder than words.

North Korea has decided to kick out the World Food Program

North Korea has said it will no longer accept food aid from the international community and has demanded that the UN World Food Program shut its Pyongyang office and withdraw its monitors. The country’s grain production last year was about 4.2 million tons, more than 900,000 tons short of demand, which is why this year it accepted 500,000 tons of aid from the South, 150,000 tons from China and 100,000 tons from the WFP.

So why is a country that faces continuing starvation of it’s citizens kicking out the WFP? Here is why:

It appears that a country where every grain of rice is precious is turning up its nose at international aid because the scale of aid is growing smaller even as monitoring has grown stricter. At the same time, South Korean aid to the North has increased from 400,000 tons last year to 500,000 tons, but monitoring by Seoul is a mere formality. Pyongyang would thus much rather depend on the South than on the pesky international community.

The WFP, under the principle of “No Access, No Food,” mobilized some 100 staff and carried out 4,800 on-the-spot inspections last year, while South Korea carried out a grand total of 10. WFP agents even visit North Korean families, while the South Korean officials who go to the North bringing food will, at most, listen to what the officials in charge of food distribution centers have to say.

I have to commend the UN World Food Program for finally conducting stricter inspections. The WFP has been criticized in the past for not conducting enough monitoring of where the food is going. Obviously they must be doing a better job if the North Koreans have kicked them out.

I do find the fact that South Korea is handing food over to the North Korean regime with virtually no inspections reprehensible. Only a fool would think that this food is going to starving civilians. This food is going directly to the ruling class and the military in North Korea that are the ones responsible for the famine and human rights violations in the first place and South Korea knows it. They call this the Sunshine Policy of friendly engagement with the North, but it sounds more like common bribery to me.

For those wanting to see the real story on what happened in New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina check out this diary of photos from someone who was there and live through it.

Here is a quick synopsis of the photo diary. On Day One the hurricane did cause some damage that a storm of it’s caliber would be expected to cause. Damaged building windows, vehicles smashed by falling debris, downed power lines and trees, etc. On Day Two people were actually out barbequing and generally having a good time. There was even bars open selling beer to people on the sidewalks. At the end of Day Two everything seemed okay.

Canal Street on Day Two After the Hurricane. Some damage but not to bad. People are obeying the law and minding their own business.

On Day Three that is when the water levels started to rise. With the rising water levels that is when people began to panic. The looting started with people taking food and the police stood by and let them. Things got steadily worse as the day progressed. On Day Four the looting was out of control and no one was stopping it. Of course the media was there to further fan the flames of anger by spreading rumors and disinformation. I have alluded to this before to treat what the media puts out with a grain of salt. There not about facts but ratings.

On Day 3 the flood waters begin to rise on Canal Street and the looting began.

On Day Five the military moved in and began to get things under control and the author made his way out of town in a stolen truck because he could not evacuate out of the city by bus from the Convention Center because they were afraid the people there may harm them.

Helpless citizens of New Orleans looking for food in a Foot Locker store.

I can’t help but think if things could have been different if the New Orleans Police would of stopped the looting from the beginning. By allowing people to loot for food that only caused the next natural step to happen which is to loot for whatever you wanted because the police are not going to stop you. The mob mentality took over from there. I really don’t expect to see people wearing NOPD hats after this tragedy, like people still wear NYPD hats today after 9/11. NYPD ran into a burning skyscraper to save lives, NOPD ran into Wal-Mart to find some loot.

I also cannot help but think that if the city was so navigable on Day Two how come the local and state government was not using city buses to transport people out of the city? The flooding didn’t start until Day Three and all the buses they had for evacuating people got flooded. Why didn’t the mayor use them on Day Two? Why wasn’t any aid brought in from the state on Day Two?

I really think that there is lot more blame to go around on the local and state level after seeing this slide show. However, it is easier to blame President Bush.

Once again click here at get the real story that you can’t count on the media to give you.

Hat Tip: Greyhawk

 This is how 9/11 is remembered in South Korea:

Useful Idiots out in force in Inchon protesting the MacArthur Statue.

Riot police playing king of the hill by holding the high ground against the hate group protesters wielding bamboo poles trying to tear down the MacArthur Statue.

This is the scene from yesterday’s anti-American hate fest in Inchon. Notice that the hate groups are using the same tactics they used in Pyongtaek, a frontal assault with bamboo poles and metal pipes. This is what the Chosun Ilbo had to say about the protest:

Dozens were injured when groups calling for the removal of a statue of U.S. general Douglas MacArthur clashed with police in Incheon’s Freedom Park on Sunday. The clashes came four days ahead of the 55th anniversary of the Incheon Landing of UN forces led by MacArthur that marked a turning point in the Korean War.

Some 4,000 members of progressive groups who had gathered in Sungeui Stadium in Incheon’s Nam-gu started marching on the park at 1 p.m. to demand the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Korea and the removal of the monument to the U.S. general from Freedom Park.

Here is my first point of contention with the Chosun article; they try to make it out that this protest was held on Sunday because the 15th is the 55th anniversary of the Inchon Landing. This is incorrect. The hate groups specifically held it on the anniversary of 9/11 to rub it in the USA’s face the terrorist attack that killed 3,000 Americans. My second point of contention is that the newspaper dignifies these people by calling them a “progressive group”. They are a hate group. If you exchanged the words they say about Americans to Koreans the media would have no qualms calling them a racist hate group. If tomorrow I had a protest demanding that every statue in tribute to Koreans in America should be torn down, my group would be labeled a hate group. These people are no different. Call them what they are, they hate Americans.

Here is another example of how out of hand this is getting. Some of you may remember this picture from July’s hate fest at Camp Humphreys:

At the Inchon protest, children were once again subject to violence:

Here is a quote I had to chuckle at when I read it:

The park resembled a battlefield littered with branches, dirt, eggs, torn-up paper and the blood of the wounded. Police had deployed no fewer than 38 companies of riot police — about 3,800 men — and 78 transport vehicles, but they were unable to stop the violence and earned complaints from protesters for hurling stones.

The protesters are complaining that the riot police threw stones at them when they are attacking the police with bamboo poles, metal pipes, and rocks? I guess they are just supposed to stand there and take a beating from these idiots.

Is this Inchon or New Orleans?

Overall though, this protest was unsuccessful in creating the huge anti-American movement they hoped to create. In fact now more pro-American Koreans are mobilizing against the hate groups:

From the Chosun:

Earlier, some 1,000 members of conservative groups rallied at Inseong Girls High School near the Park to defend the statue of a man they see as a hero of the Korean War. At 4 p.m., they too entered Freedom Park with the intent of burning North Korean flags, throwing stones and eggs, and stopping the progressive groups from entering the park, but were stopped by police.

From the Joong Ang Ilbo:

On Thursday, more than 10,000 conservative activists including former marines will gather for a rally to protect the statue. “After the rally, we will take a turn to guard the statue on our own,” a representative of the Marine Corps Veterans Association said.

In the coming days we will see what the pro-American groups do in response to the hate groups. However, the true show down will be in Pyongtaek when the land is forcibly removed from the last few farmers still holding out and preventing the USFK from relocating soldiers there from Yongsan and the DMZ areas. This was just another warm up for the upcoming hate fest Super Bowl coming up this winter. And finally I will pose the question of why these people of continually beat, assault, and injure Korean policemen are not in jail?
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Here is the first South Korean press report on today’s anti-American hate fest at Freedom Park in Inchon were hate groups vowed to tear down a symbol of Inchon the General MacArthur statue:

(ATTN: UPDATES with reports of injuries in clashes)
INCHEON, Sept. 11 (Yonhap) — Hundreds of anti-U.S. protesters clashed with riot police Sunday as they marched tried to march onto a public park in South Korea’s western port city of Incheon where a statue of U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur stands.

The protesters were part of 4,000 leftist activists who staged street demonstrations earlier in the day, demanding the removal of the statue which they argued hinders inter-Korean reconciliation and unification.

They think MacArthur’s statue hinders reunification? There idiot policy of providing nearly unmonitored food aid to North Korea that goes directly to the North Korean military has done more to hinder reunification than MacArthur’s statue. I guess they think if a Kim Il Sung statue sat there instead reunification will come quicker.

There are reports of injuries. Hopefully the injuries are not of the riot police that have to continuously put up with the violence from these hate groups. I’m sure there will be more updates on this in the morning.