Off Limits and No Drinking Policy Letter
In response to planned protests in Uijongbu, the downtown area of Uijongbu has been put off limits.

A planned “civil gathering” prompted the U.S. Army to warn its military and civilian personnel to avoid downtown Uijongbu city, the Uijongbu subway station and roads leading from the station to Camp Red Cloud on Wednesday and Thursday.

Fliers distributed to people leaving Camp Red Cloud by gate guards on Tuesday — and a warning broadcast on American Forces Network television — advised that the subway station and downtown shopping district would be off-limits from 9 a.m. to midnight and that roads from the subway station to the camp would be off-limits from 5 p.m. to midnight both days.

In addition to this off limits policy, all 2ID soldiers have a no drinking order placed on them from 12AUG – 03SEP during the entire length of Eighth Army’s ULCHI Focus Lens exerise. This does not effect any soldiers outside of 2ID unless they are soldiers from other Eighth Army units involved in UFL.

I guess we will see if anyone “runs amok” this weekend anyway.

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UPDATE: Apparently another factor weighing in on the decision to suppend drinking priviledges during UFL is the fact that 2ID has been notified that anti-American groups have made plans to go to areas where soldiers frequent and provoke incidents with the soldiers and capture it on camera to be downloaded to the internet and the Korean media. So if you are out and about these upcoming weekends be careful of these goons trying to provoke something. Think before you react.

With all this going on I really can’t blame General Higgins the 2ID commanding general for placing this order. With UFL going on and all the senior leaders in the Divison occupied by this important exercise the last thing they need to worry about is another “runs amok” incident. I know a lot of soldiers are complaining about this policy but heck I have been on more field problems than I can remember that were longer than this. Were professionals and should be able to comply with this order. It could be a lot worse. Soldiers in Iraq have a no drinking policy for one year.

More corruption is being reported to be happening on US Army installations in Korea:

A former U.S. Forces Korea civilian employee pleaded guilty last Thursday to conspiring to defraud the United States of more than $300,000, according to a Justice Department news release.

Fidel Diaz, 49, of Visalia, Calif., entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Washington. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a three-year term of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

Diaz was employed by the Defense Department as the chief of the Supply and Storage Division for the U.S. Army, Department of Public Works, USFK.

According to the release, Diaz and co-conspirators defrauded the Army of thousands of dollars between 2002 and 2004 while at Camp Giant.

Diaz admitted to violating DOD contracting rules and falsifying purchasing documents, according to the release. In his guilty plea, he admitted he purchased $309,978.58 in nonexistent electrical transformers from two co-conspirators with his and his subordinates’ government credit cards. In exchange, the release stated, the co-conspirators paid him more than $200,000.

The corruption continues here in Korea after last month’s report on the corruption at Kwangsa-ri:

Local police are seeking a South Korean man who works for the U.S. military in connection with the discovery of about 12 tons of U.S. military shell casings and live ammunition in a commercial warehouse Monday.

Detective Im Il-soon of the South Yangju police station identified the suspect as a 47-year-old man named Kim who works for the 17th Ordnance Company, which operates from the Kwangsa-ri ammunition depot, south of Dongducheon.

Im said three other South Korean men, none of whom work for the U.S. military, are being held in connection with the case.

Then you had executive linked to the corrupt Colonel Moran convicted:

Young Y. Lee, 46, of Rockville, Md., and Lorn J. MacUmber, 67, of Gypsum, Colo., each pleaded guilty Monday to one count of aiding and abetting a conflict of interest. Lee was president and chief executive officer of ISS and MacUmber was a senior vice president, according to federal prosecutors.

The executives also had offered the colonel a job at $125,000 per year, according to a news release from Rod J. Rosenstein, a U.S. attorney.

Moran never got the ISS job. The colonel pleaded guilty in 2003 to conspiracy and bribery charges in a federal court in California involving contracts not related to this most recent case, the news release stated. He is in prison in California.

Then there is the continuous black marketing going on:

Military officials are targeting a black-market scheme that involves spouses of U.S. soldiers and civilians buying duty-free food at commissaries in Area I and II for resale to South Korean restaurants, according to ration control officials.

What is it about Korea that causes corruption to flourish here? Does anyone have any comments about if military bases in Japan or Europe have as much corruption as here in Korea?

Are you a German retiree and looking for a cheap place to retire? Well look no further than South Korea:

In one of the southernmost points of the Korean Peninsula, hours away from the nearest city, a couple of dozen houses with sloping, red-tiled roofs and large white walls dot the side of a hill here. More are under construction, separated from one another by wide, sometimes cobblestone streets.

On closer inspection, as the setting sun enveloped the hill in a warm glow one recent evening, large and, well, German-looking men could be seen standing on a terrace or in a yard next to garden dwarfs and white picket fences. German could be heard, not only from the men, but also from the Koreans here.

Yes that is right folks, there is a German village in South Korea. So who is populating this village? Well Koreans of course:

The authorities here in Namhae County took the invitation a step further by carving this village out of a mountain facing the sea. They offered cheap land and construction subsidies to any Korean nurse or miner who had lived in Germany for at least 20 years, requiring that they build houses in one of five German architectural models. The village will eventually accommodate up to 75 houses.

The village has drawn a small community of Koreans and some Germans, who may not have ever imagined whiling away their retirement days in a corner of South Korea that is visited by few Koreans, though famous for its garlic.

Just what Korea needs a German village with Koreans in it that are not even there:

Not everybody thinks the village project, at $7.5 million, has been a success so far. Ha Young Je, the head of Namhae County, whose predecessor conceived of the German village idea, said some of the house builders still lived in Germany and rented out their homes.

“We give them privileges,” Ha said. “But they go to Germany every nine months to renew their residency there. This becomes a holiday home for them.”

Sign me up for this tourist attraction. What is also interesting about this whole thing is that the above pictured homes don’t really look German when compared to this picture:

Anyway since the residents are moving in and then moving right back out, Namhae now has an even better idea to attract American retirees:

Still, Namhae County – where the population is fast decreasing and aging – is planning to build an American village for Korean-American retirees. This time, Ha said, the county will require the new residents to give up their American citizenship, so that they will live here full time.

Some how I don’t think the Arizona retirement communities are worrying about Namhae county yet.

Many of you that follow my blog know that I criticize Oh My News every once in a while. I maintain that Oh My News is an interesting concept it just needs better editorial over sight IMHO. However, this recent article about the victims of the Hiroshima bombing I felt was very well written because the author let the people tell the story instead of the writer trying to create a story by reinterpreting history as Oh My News has done in the past. Here are some quotes from the article I found interesting:

“We used to chant during the war ‘Be united in one mind like a fireball, 100 million people,’ she recalls. “Then when the bomb fell the trucks came around and ignored women and children, and just helped the healthy men. We were no use to them. That’s when I first understood what war really was.”

“I’ve been to Hawaii, Korea, China, Okinawa and the U.S. and seen for my own eyes what we did so now I can say now what I like. I criticize all governments, including Japan and America. I tell children to come to Hiroshima and see what war means.

“I knew nothing at the time, but that is how we were educated. We were told until the day the bomb fell that we were winning the war. Every day we were told: Die for your country! That’s the terrible power of education, so I ask teachers to tell children more about the war to avoid making the same mistakes. I fear people will forget.”

When the Dome was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, the U.S. and China objected. America said it was “concerned about the lack of historical perspective” in the nomination. China worried that people who deny the facts of history might “utilized the Dome for harmful purposes.”

Official Hiroshima defends against these claims ritually: “We don’t intend to play up our victim-hood,” says Minoru Hataguchi, Director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. “But I appreciate it must seem that way to others. We make efforts here to show what Japan did to other Asian countries.”

I find this comment about not playing up one’s victimhood interesting because I don’t see the survivors of the atomic bombings demanding compensation from the US government like Korean civilian victims of the Korean War. Maybe it is a cultural thing I don’t know; I’m sure the commenters out there have an opinon, but for whatever reason Koreans seem quick to demand compensation. However, as this article in the Joong Ang Ilbo states there are Korean victims of the atomic bombings wanting compensation from the Japanese government:

HAPCHEON, South Gyeongsang ? Three years after a Japanese court ruled that victims of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, no matter where they live in the world, are eligible for support from Tokyo, activists in Korea are struggling to establish the rights of more than 400 South Koreans.

This small town in South Gyeongsang province has been referred as Korea’s Hiroshima because it has 609 people who faced radiation and blast effects in Hiroshima. With the assistance of Seoul and Tokyo, the Red Cross of South Korea in 1990 opened a welfare center in Hapcheon for atom bomb victims.

The problem some of these elderly people are having is proving they were at Hiroshima that day. Lack of documents and witnesses to verify their claims. I can understand the frustrations of these people but the Japanese government is providing compensation to Koreans with legitimate paperwork verifying them in Hiroshima that day.

The Japanese government also recently had a ceremony honoring Korean victims of the bombing:

HIROSHIMA — A memorial service for Koreans who died in or after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, many after being brought to Japan as forced laborers, was held in the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on Friday, a day ahead of the 60th anniversary of the bombing.

The ceremony at a cenotaph in the park dedicated to Korean victims drew about 350 attendees including South Korean survivors and relatives of Koreans who died as a result of the atomic bombing of the western Japan city on Aug. 6, 1945. (Kyodo News)

I’m sure somebody out there is going to comment that the Japanese ceremony was not sincere enough.

I came upon this Staff Sergeant’s take on the no driving policy implemented by USFK for E6’s and below due to the spike in drunk driving incidents:

Here at Yongsan Army Garrison in Seoul, most E5’s and above are required to live off post on the economy due to a lack of barracks space on post to house them in. Well, after one too many drunk driving incidents, the General decided to take away driving privileges from all Sergeants and Staff Sergeants, even though they are required to live off post. Now, these soldiers who live off post are supposed to either walk in to work every day rain or shine, or take a taxi at their own expense. Some live very far off post, and some are hurt physically and don’t have much choice but to take a taxi.

OK folks, now here is the part that pisses me off the most…..One of the reasons besides drinking and driving when taking away driving privileges away from these soldiers was immaturity, yet UNDERAGE DEPENDENTS here in Yongsan have cars and drivers licenses. Now if this isn’t a slap in the face to every NCO who is walking into work every day then I don’t know what else is. Well, now it should be evident that the driving policy is clearly self serving to our Senior Officers and NCO’s, as who else is crusty enough to have kids old enough to drive in country?? That’s right folks, the top brass and stripes themselves, while pulling driving privileges from those soldiers they should be looking out for kept the driving privileges in place for their own flesh and blood.

I did not know that many junior NCO’s lived off post at Yongsan much less the fact that underage dependents are allowed to drive on Yongsan as well. I can understand this staff sergeant’s frustration level every day seeing high school kids driving cars while junior NCOs can’t plus the fact they have to walk to work every day from off post. Does anyone in Yongsan know if this issue has been addressed yet?

One of my commenters fortunately pointed out this article in the Christian Science Monitor about the controversy surrounding the General MacArthur statue in Incheon. The article talks about the generational gap between older Koreans who respect the US-ROK alliance and younger protesters who want to end it. Here is an excerpt of some of the usual propaganda put out by the anti-American crowd:

“General MacArthur is a maniac for war,” says one professor, Kang Jeong Ku, whose comments are handed out in fliers at demonstrations.

That remark has the full support of the quasi-governmental National Human Rights Commission, which fueled the protest with a statement condemning MacArthur as “a war criminal who massacred numerous civilians.”

Indeed, the commission adds, “To induce or force children to respect such a person by erecting a statue of him and teaching them that he is a great figure is a national disgrace and greatly injures the dignity of our people.”

If this National Human Rights Commission is connected to the government it seems that President Roh has an obligation to comment on policy being put out by this government agency. However, President Roh is continuing to keep quiet on this issue:

Leftists deny disloyalty to South Korean leaders as the South pursues reconciliation with the North. In fact, they say the protest against the statue supports government policy – and view it as a symbol of much more strenuous demands for US troops to leave South Korea altogether.

Neither Roh nor local authorities have publicly opposed the campaign against the statue, but policemen guard it round the clock with reinforcements ready to rush in when protests get unruly.

Both the protesters and a government affiliated agency are claiming they are supporting national government policy and President Roh or anyone else has yet to comment on this issue.

The Mayor of Incheon has at least released a statement:

Inchon’s mayor, Ahn Sang Soo, who recently visited North Korea promoting Incheon’s role as a regional hub serving both Koreas, prefers not to speak out, but a spokesman says, “We’re going to keep the statue as it has historical meaning.”

It is still kind of cowardly to not come out and speak for yourself about an issue that is having such an impact on the city, but at least a representative gave a statement. Why hasn’t a spokesman for President Roh released a statement yet?

The US Embassy here should be demanding a comment from the Korean government about the policy regarding the General MacArthur statue. With so many other people making claim they are supporting government policy the Korean government should at least speak up and let people know where they stand on this. The US Embassy should make an official request demanding answers to if the official Korean government policy is that General MacArthur is a war criminal and responsible for many massacres. The US government should put them on the spot for a change.

There was a quote in the article from the legendary Korean War General Paik Sun Yup I liked:

For Korean War veterans, any affront to the statue is a national disgrace, stirring the passions of patriotism that match the leftist convictions in intensity. Retired General Paik Sun Yup, who rallied, organized and led fledgling South Korean troops in some of the toughest fighting of the Korean War, talks about MacArthur’s legacy as a hero in his own time and an example for the future.

“We have to preserve the statue for peace in our country,” he says, reminding veterans that the statue was erected in 1957 with funds collected by a Korean committee. “Many people in the United States and our country were worried about the Inchon landing. The tide was very severe, and the landing seemed impossible, but General MacArthur made one of the greatest decisions in world history. As communism was in danger of taking our country, he rescued us.”

I have actually met General Paik before, he speaks English, has a sharp memory, and is a real hero who played a key role in saving this country from communism. He is also a strong supporter of the US-ROK alliance. It is good to see him speak up for the General MacArthur statue. Anyone know if General Paik is being quoted in the Korean language press? He is the type of person that can sway public opinion for USFK.

With the Korean government still trying to buy the land near Pyongtaek for the Yongsan and 2ID move there, expect these protests and the highlighting of all the GI crimes in the Korean media to continue. The anti-American crowd’s agenda is to have the general population in Pyongtaek to turn against the US forces moving there.

To do that the protestors want to revise history to stoke Korean pride and anger such is the case with the MacArthur statue and the Nogun-ri controversy, plus continue to beat the image of thug GIs, followed by blaming the US for anything else like the failure of the six party talks to whatever else comes up. It will continue to pile up until a decision is made to buy the land.

The anti-American crowd actually want the land to be bought because when it is bought and the people have to be forcibly removed, trust me this will be when all hell breaks loose down there and we will see if the anti-American crowds efforts now at stoking the passions of the general Korean population come to fruition.

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By the way if you haven’t read General Paik’s book from Pusan to Panmunjom you should. This is the only English language book I have read that gives a description of the Korean War from the Korean perspective. I developed a new appreciation of what the ROK Army did during the Korean War from reading this book. Highly recommended.

The criminals who stole rifles from a ROK Army patrol last month, have now been arrested:

Police and military authorities apprehended three men suspected of attacking two soldiers on patrol along the east coast and running off with their rifles and ammunition last month.

Police said they recovered two riles and two 15-cartridge magazines near a fishing place in Hanam, saying fingerprints on a ticket at a tollgate in the province helped them to identify the suspects.

I’m still curious what they had planned for those rifles?

The Korea Times is running an article about the claimants from Nogun-ri demanding more compensation from the US government:

The controversy continues over how to settle a civilian massacre that U.S. troops committed during the Korean War at Nogun-ri, a rural village in central South Korea, as Washington considers the case closed.

The U.S. Department of Defense said Thursday that it stands by its announcement in 2001, when then U.S. President Bill Clinton offered a memorial and scholarship fund. The Koreans rejected the proposal, calling it insufficient.

It is not that the compensation is insufficient it is more like the compensation isn’t going directly into their pockets:

The dispute centers on who should benefit from the $1 million monument and the annual scholarship fund of $560,000 that will run for five years.

The White House intends them to cover all South Korean civilian victims of the Korean War, while the Nogun-ri victims say the beneficiaries should be restricted to that single incident.

(…)

He said that since 2001 the U.S. Department of Defense has set aside roughly $500,000 each year to fund the scholarship program.

“Each year, the funds have been returned because there have been no applicants for these scholarships, but they are still available,’’ Hicks said.

The U.S. Embassy in Seoul was not immediately available for comment, however a spokesman there assumed the families had been notified of the American fund but said it had not received any applications.

Concerning the $1 million budget for the memorial monument, the Pentagon said some of it has already been paid to a Korean firm to design the monument. He did not specify the amount, but the Korean families claim one-tenth of the fund was spent in 2003.

There is compensation available for the claimants that can be used to give a college education to members of their families. IMHO the reason they are not using the college scholarship fund is because they are still holding out hope that the US government will eventually just give them direct compensation to put this issue at rest. If the US gives them direct compensation I guarantee the government would be setting a precedent that would cause more people to come forward demanding compensation from other tragedies of the Korean War, real or imagined.

I don’t think the Korean govnernment wants direct compensation either because their own ROK soldiers and secret police are also accused of killing civilians during the war. Direct compensation may also cause people to demand compensation from the Korean government as well.

The idea of the scholarship fund and memorial plus a public statement of regret from President Clinton I believe is fare compensation for a tragedy that was largely caused by the mass confusion and conditions of the early period of the Korean War. I’m still waiting for North Korea and China to start a scholarship fund for all the civilians they killed during the war as well. How come nobody is demanding compensation from them?

For more on the Nogun-ri tragedy check the Focus On: No Gun Ri series.

Check out the Korea Sojourner’s take on why the Korean media is suddenly making a headline story out of this.

I am issuing an idiot alert in the Western Corridor after reading this in the Stars and Stripes:

The Yankees already had gone home or at least farther south when two buses carrying about ninety South Korean protesters arrived outside several U.S. bases near the Demilitarized Zone Tuesday.

The Western Corridor bases targeted by the protesters were vacated by 2nd Infantry Division units last year and soon will be returned to the South Korean government. So when the protesters mostly university students who were trailed by a few Korean National Police officers arrived, they found only empty buildings, rusting barbed wire and uninterested South Korean security guards.

Seth Robson hit that one on the head real well

Isn’t empty American bases what these people wanted to begin with?! That the Yankees go home, or in the case of the Western Corridor, go to Iraq?

Here is an idiot comment for you:

The lowest form of American culture spreads out from the bases,âsaid Lee Yongnam, 50, claiming that the soldiers bring crime and prostitution.

Okay, if the soldiers bring prostitution to Korea than how do you explain all the “barber shops” and “sports massage parlors” everywhere in Korea not to mention Paju? Shouldn’t have all these establishments in Paju closed down after the soldiers left? How come they are still there? Prostitution is a Korean problem not an American one. American MP’s cannot enforce Korean law. If this guy is so concerned about prostitution then get your own country’s police force to arrest the bar owners.

Here is another idiot comment:

Lee said the group was aware that the bases they visited had been vacated, but they chose to stage the protests to highlight their effect on the local community. The presence of the bases puts building restrictions on surrounding areas, he said, stunting industry and growth. The economies in areas outside the installations were fueled by bars and other businesses geared toward soldiers, so the soldiers departure had hurt the areas as much as their presence had, Lee said.

So does he want the US military to come back then? Plus the business owners in Dongducheon aren’t complaining about the soldiers. Just people like this.

These students came from Kyeonggi University and interestingly enough I met a student from Kyeonggi University when hiking up Pukhansan today. A good guy and former KATUSA who had obviously better things to do then hang out with idiots from his university at vacated camps.

I wonder if they visited the vacated camps because they got attacked by the business owners in Dongducheon the last time the idiots came up here?

I was reading Thomas Friedman’s latest article in the New York Times and I was amazed to find out that the US hasn’t implemented cell phone technology to talk on a subway yet:

I’ve been thinking of running for high office on a one-issue platform: I promise, if elected, that within four years America will have cellphone service as good as Ghana’s. If re-elected, I promise that in eight years America will have cellphone service as good as Japan’s, provided Japan agrees not to forge ahead on wireless technology. My campaign bumper sticker: “Can You Hear Me Now?”

“That is how you say something if you see something today in a New York subway – tin cans connected to someone with a cellphone on the street,” said Mr. Rasiej, a 47-year-old entrepreneur who founded an educational-technology nonprofit.

I like Friedman and tend to agree with a lot of what he says especially this article here. With all the time I have spent overseas the last five years I have never realized how backward the US is in regards to cell phone technology. How is it that we just put a space shuttle into space but a cell phone doesn’t work in a New York city subway?