The US has decided to send 50,000 tons food aid to North Korea. However, it is not as much as the World Food Program wanted:

In an exclusive interview with CNN, WFP Asia Director Anthony Banbury called the donation “an important contribution but it is not enough.”

“If no new donations come in, 80 percent of the 6.5 million people we are trying to help will be without our assistance and they will be in a desperate situation,” Banbury told CNN.

What I find interesting is that the UN’s World Food Program makes it look like it is America’s fault that North Koreans are starving because we only gave 50,000 tons of food. I’m sure if the North Koreans would allow American or WFP authorities to distribute the food the US government would send more, but how come the UN doesn’t go ask France to buy a bunch of food for North Korea? Why is it that every time a country has a problem it is suddenly America’s problem? It seems like often that the same people who bash America are the same ones getting a free ride off the global security our military provides and the generosity of our citizens and government. Even North Korea.

The cost for the recent North-South talks in Seoul at the Walker-Hill Hotel have been extremely expensive. The overall cost for the four day talks was 400 million won. Take a look at some of these costs reported in the Joong Ang:

In contrast with past talks, Pyongyang’s chief negotiator, on this occasion Kwon Ho-ung, is staying not in a luxury suite but in a relatively modest guest room on the seventh floor, which costs 430,000 won per night. The other North Korean delegates are sharing rooms on the same floor.

South Korean Minister Chung Dong-young, however, is staying in a special suite on the 17th floor at a cost of 3.5 million won a night. Seoul said the room is necessary for Mr. Chung to hold private meetings with the North Koreans.

Modest room for 430,000 won a night!? Minister Chung needs a room that costs 3.5 million won a night for private meetings? Doesn’t he live in Seoul? So why does he need a hotel to stay in? If it is just to hold meetings in then why can’t he use a government office building instead? What a waste of money for a set of talks that accomplished nothing. I’m sure the Walker-Hill Hotel isn’t complaining though.

I heard some interesting information from a ROK Army source concerning last weekends shooting in Yoncheon. What I was told was that after the shootings the ROK Army moved the dead and wounded soldiers bodies to separate hospitals to prevent families members of the dead and wounded from bonding together after the incident and to also limit the media impact of the incident. Small groups of families crying on TV look better than all the families together grieving over their losses.

Plus five of the dead soldiers were the only sons of those parents. It is horrible to think that families lost their only sons due to something as pointless as this. Feel free to comment if anyone else out there has heard similar information.

Some very disturbing details are beginning to emerge from the ROK Army shooting rampage. The soldier named PVT Kim apparently planned the attack 2 days prior due to bullying from senior soldiers. After he got off his guard shift on the DMZ he didn’t turn in his weapon. He instead decided to take his weapon to his barracks and attack his own platoon.

With guys like this pulling border guard is it any wonder whyrefugees have been able to sneak through the DMZ? Does this sound like anybody you know?:

“Kim is a very timid person who is easily hurt by trivial words,” the investigator said, adding the private was found to be allegedly addicted to a computer game, including online gun-shooting games.

I have felt that the country’s youth has slowly been becoming softer and softer. Next time you are in a Internet Cafe look around. Those mindless drones playing Starcraft for 18 hours a day are who are going to be defending this country. Plus you add this inactivity with the current mind set that North Korea is not the enemy and this is causing the youth here to question why they have to do their mandatory service and it is making them bitter. Why should they be drafted if North Korea is not a threat according to their own government? With the USFK forces slowly withdrawing that is only causing the youth here to further judge North Korea as not being a threat if even the Americans are leaving.

I have been chronicling the generational problems with the ROK Army for sometime now. You would think the corruption scandals, draft dodging, and increasing suicide rates would tip people off to the problem. The conscription system is slowyly faltering due to the cultural change in the youth. This incident has finally gotten the Korean media to take notice. This from the Korea Times:

The ideals of the young generation, with high value on freedom and individuality, conflict greatly with the military culture that gives priority to discipline and regulation.

Imagine that discipline and regulations in the Army!

The younger generation, with fewer siblings and many of them being the only children in their families, feel less comfortable with group life than older generations. Soldiers have to share a single room with many others for 24 hours a day, sleeping and eating together, and they are simply not used to it, Lee said.

To young people who are used to a variety of activities, the military’s simple routine, such as getting up and going to sleep at set times, is also stressful. Their freedom is limited and they are even punished if they do not eat their meals.

So in other words they are not allowed to play Starcraft 18 hours a day and eat junk food while doing so.

In the case of privates, they have to study the subtle communication of a senior’s face to avoid being punished. Many young people have never experienced harsh punishment or insults from their parents or teachers.

Just go to a elementary school here and watch the kids run wild.

But he also pointed out that inordinate hierarchy and abusive language still prevail in the army, even among young soldiers.

Cursing in the military? Say it ain’t so:

Critics say commanders should change their approach and recognize soldiers as their partners, not as those who must passively follow their command.

“Leadership is required for officers and ordinary soldiers so that senior soldiers can make junior soldiers follow their command without physical violence or abusive language. Soldiers have to learn better communication skills and build respectful relationships with others,’’ Lee pointed out.

If the ROK Army follows this advice they are even in bigger trouble. Trying to be buddies with all the soldiers is not how to run a military thats got a legitimate threat just 30km North of Seoul. Any war on this peninsula will be fought primarily by the ROK Army in a tough infantry fight focused on capturing hills. It takes strict discipline to get a soldier to run up a hill under machine gun fire. Being buddies with the soldiers will not a way to enforce strict discipline. Neither is beating the soldiers or making them eat feces.

More analysis on today’s Korean youth from the Chosun:

The armed forces don’t exist outside the flow of social change. Above all, the young who join the military today are not the young of the past. There exist some fundamental differences that cannot be glossed over with conventional reference to the generation gap. These are new people: their thinking is quite different from their parents’, as are their patterns of behavior and values. Most of them, for instance, are only sons who lack the socialization larger families provide. Though they have enjoyed parental love, they have never shared the love of brothers and sisters. Such youngsters put themselves above anything else in setting their values, and they are that much less likely to think of sacrificing themselves for an organization. By the same token, they are less skilled in resolving conflicts with their comrades-in-arms.

Korea at some point is going to have to swallow the pill and look at an all volunteer force though the amount of money to raise on volunteer force would be sizable. However, soldiers that want to be there are how you can enforce strict discipline without abuse in a generation of youth that have been raised to not want to defend their own country. This from thethe Chosun:

Our military is now unable to explain against whom the soldiers should defend the state. Last year a Navy boat was reprimanded after repulsing a North Korean naval vessel that had crossed the Northern Limit Line into South Korean waters. Last week, meanwhile, a sizeable South Korean delegation took part in what was touted as a festival of “national unity” in Pyongyang.

Is it any wonder, under these circumstances, that no order to carry out their sentry conscientiously can appeal to the frontline soldiers? Outside the military, it is not uncommon to hear that the U.S. is a greater threat to our national security than North Korea. Many of the frontline soldiers must feel that what they are doing is pointless.

I find it funny that people are more upset by this than when the North Koreans attacked and killed nearly as many ROK sailors in the Yellow Sea. No wonder the youth doesn’t want to defend the country in anymore.

Chrenkoff’s blog has a nice run down of the coalition of the willing in Iraq which includes Korea’s Zaytun unit pictured below:

Here are my favorite coalition of the willing troops in Iraq:

The last time Mongolian soldiers marched in Iraq was 1258. They burned down Baghdad and slaughtered nearly everyone. Baghdad was once the center of learning and culture and has never recovered from the Mongolian sacking of the city. Now Mongolia has 173 soldiers of the 150th Elite Peacekeeping Battalion in Hillah, Iraq. Hillah is actually a much more dangerous area in Iraq than where the Korean soldiers are at. Actually there are many smaller countries in the coalition conducting active patroling in some very dangerous areas. See the linked blog for more info.

Finally is it just me or do the Mongolian soldiers look an awful lot like Koreans?

Where do you think these pictures are from? Is this from the neighborhood market in Korea?

Or is it E-Mart?

Maybe this picture will help you out.

Here’s your final clue.

Yes folks these are pictures from the new Iraq. The Iraqi city of Dohuk just to the North of Mosul shown in these pictures, I actually had the pleasure of driving through one time when I was in Iraq picking up a convoy with my platoon of MPs at the Harbur Gate on the Turkish border. It is amazing to think what life could be like in all of Iraq without the terrorists.

This site where these picture are from, the Michael Yon, Online Magazine, is truly the best site I have seen that describes Iraq exactly how I experienced it. Everything from his desciptions of the children, people, viewpoints, the land, the terrorists, and the media in Iraq are all extremely accurate. Some of his desciptions of the Iraqi civilians and soldiers killed broght a tear to my eye because I seen the same senseless violence claim lives in Iraq too. While the media focuses on terrorists locked up in Gitmo being tortured by having their AC turned up to high the terrorists are doing things like this unreported:

Recently, an insurgent hid behind a child in order to attack Americans. The tactic came as no surprise to the soldiers here. Terrorists routinely play wounded or feign their surrender in order to get close enough to launch an attack on Coalition or Iraqi Forces. In January I wrote about one bomber who grabbed the hand of a small child while she was playing on a sidewalk. Smiling, he walked with the child in hand, approaching some Iraqi police, and exploded. Americans standing close by were unharmed.

Many children died or where injured in this attack. Read the posting for a full report with more pictures about what happened. Here is a picture from the attack that actually made the news wires but how many people actually know the above story that caused the child to be killed in the first place?

Definitely check out this site if you want to know what is really going on in Iraq.

Hat tip to Skippy-san for pointing this out.

These protestors are protesting at the funeral for a soldier killed in Iraq. I have always told soldiers here in Korea not to get to offended by the anti-American protestors you sometimes see here in Korea because they are no where near as offensive as the anti-American protestors I have seen in America. These despicable protestors above are just another example of that.

It appears the Jeff from Ruminations in Korea is back to regular blogging after a long hiatus. He has a post I got a good laugh out of. He talks about the new Seoul Forest Park. This park has been featured pretty heavily on the Korean news lately with video of the trees, deer, and other animals at the park. What I didn’t realize was that your not allowed to go in it:

Seoul Forrest is 1/3 the size of central park. Also, one portion of the park, which is actually broken up into 5 smaller parks, “is an ecological forest filled with a variety of trees such as chestnut, pine, and cherry with animals like squirrels, deer and elk. Visitors are not allowed to enter the area, but they can enjoy the nature from the observatory bridge which crosses over the forest.

Welcome to the park. Don’t go in. I’m wondering how long it will be before we see a TV news magazine program about some guy who got all liquored up on fire water and broke into the Enchanted Magical Forbidden Forest (or whatever they call it) so he can poach himself an Elk or three.

It is pretty sad when you have to build walk ways over your parks because you know if you let people in them they will just trash it.

The Lost Nomad points out this mass shooting just up the road from me in Yeoncheon, by a disgruntled ROK Army soldier.

A South Korean soldier threw a grenade at his commander and then opened fire on his fellow soldiers Sunday near the border with communist North Korea, killing eight and injuring two others, the Defense Ministry said.

Kim Dong-min, 22, told military investigators he threw the grenade in an army barracks packed with sleeping soldiers out of anger when he saw a senior soldier who had often yelled at him, according to Army spokesman Chang Suk-gyu.

Five soldiers died in the explosion. Another three were killed when Kim then took a rifle from a fellow soldier and opened fire, the spokesman said. Kim fired some 40 shots, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

Suicides have been on a sharp increase, then there was the human feces scandal, then the continuing draft dodging, and corruption scandals.

What is going on with the ROK Army? I have posted my thoughts about this before, but these increasing incidents are a reflection of the changing attitudes of Korea’s youths toward mandatory military service. I have seen it myself in how much the attitudes of Korea’s KATUSA soldiers have changed over the years.

Military service in Korea used to be looked at as the last challenge to over come before becoming a real man. Now it is just something to be avoided at all costs. With USFK slowing decreasing forces and a shake up of the ROK-US alliance a possibility Korea will have to depend even more heavily on conscripted soldiers. It is difficult to turn volunteer youths into combat ready soldiers, I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for the ROK Army to make their conscripts combat ready soldiers when the majority of Korea’s younger generation think of Kim Jong Il as a quirky uncle with no hostile intentions towards South Korea, instead of the agressive tyrant that he is.

To ensure strict obedience from the conscripts the ROK Army uses heavy handed tactics which causes increasing disent and suicides among the ranks. Once the USFK forces complete their reduction these same protestors bashing the American Army will then turn their attention towards the ROK Army and begin bashing them because they don’t want to do their mandatory service.

If the ROK Army goes to an all volunteer force the government would have to greatly increase the defense budget. To recruit soldiers the Army would have to offer good pay, housing, above average health care, and college education benefits. All this takes a lot of money which Korea doesn’t have right now. The arguement over the money needed for the Yongsan Garrison move will seem like small change compared to this. Soon Korea will not be able to rely on the US’s defensive umbrella and have to defend for themselves. Once this reality sinks in will Korea be willing to spend the money to be truly independent of the US military?

This is why I have always felt it is foolish for the Korean government to continue to prop up Kim Jong Il because the South Korean youth are slowly losing the will power to defend this country. If South Korea was able to reunify sooner rather than later than they can avoid the upcoming crisis in regards to filling the ranks of the ROK Army.

President Roh always said he wanted a more equal relationship with the US, well it appears he might be on his way to getting it along with all the problems that come with it.

TIME magazine is reporting that another massive famine is approaching North Korea once again:

Now, partly because of the diplomatic gridlock, a new crisis is looming. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) recently warned that North Korea, a country where U.N. agencies estimate that more than a third of young children are chronically malnourished, could be on the brink of another deadly food shortage. Food aid has propped up the North since the mid-1990s, when famine killed between 1 million and 3 million people. But major contributors, including the U.S. and Japan, are reluctant to keep feeding North Korea while Kim refuses to relinquish his nuclear arsenal. The WFP is trying to provide for 6.5 million people in the country, says Richard Ragan, head of the WFP’s relief operation in North Korea. But donations from governments have withered by more than half since 2002, and the agency will be forced to halt food supplies to nearly 3.6 million people this month, Ragan tells TIME by phone from Pyongyang. “We are inching back toward the precipice,” he says.

Now the big decision for the US is to decide if it should stop or increase food aid to deal with the upcoming famine:

Washington insists it won’t use humanitarian aid as a stick to prod Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. “The President has always made clear that food shouldn’t be used as a diplomatic weapon,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan last week. The U.S. sent more than 500,000 tons of food aid in 1999, but last year it pledged just 50,000 tons, and has yet to promise any new food aid this year. (U.S. officials complain that Pyongyang still isn’t allowing adequate international monitoring to ensure food goes to the needy.)

That last sentence is what I find to be a key statement. I don’t think we should send any food aid to the North if it isn’t properly monitored. Ideally I would prefer to have a US agency monitoring the distribution of food aid, plus every bag or can of food given to the needy should have a US flag on it to show where it came from. It is very unlikely that a US agency would be allowed to monitor food aid so it would probably have to be the UN’s World Food Program. However, I wouldn’t send any aid until US monitors are allowed to go with the UN officials to distribute aid.

I don’t see the point of sending food aid under the current distribution system if it all just goes to Pyongyang and the North Korean Army anyway. Those are the people we want to have starve. When the elites go hungry that is when change will happen and as long as the food aid is not properly monitored the ruling elite will horde the food for themselves while the people who need it in the countryside starve. It appears even South Korea is getting sick of sending food to the elites:

Meanwhile, South Korea, too, has been stingier with the North of late. Seoul shipped 1.2 million tons of rice to Pyongyang over the last three years, plus another 300,000 tons of corn through the WFP. This year, it hasn’t sent anything.

I wonder what would happen if we instead of bombing North Korean nuclear facilities we instead bombed them with MRE’s (military rations) much like we did for the people in Afghanistan? How would the average North Korean citizen react to their government trying to shoot down planes delivering food aid to them while they are starving? North Korea also wouldn’t have any support from China if they wanted to start a war over an MRE bombing campaign. Plus the country couldn’t mobilize it’s citizens for a people’s war if all the people are starving and then the government decides to go to war over MRE’s. Sometimes I find it better to think outside the box because the current box everyone else is thinking in hasn’t solved anything.