South Korean actor Song Joong-ki salutes reporters and fans near a military unit in Goseong on South Korea’s east coast on May 26, 2015, as he is discharged from the Army after spending 21 months in military service. (Yonhap)
This type of blue on blue shooting is unfortunately becoming a somewhat annual occurrence in the ROK Army:
Two died and three injured in what is believed to be a shooting spree at around 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday during a reserve forces training session at a military base located in Seocho District, southeastern Seoul.
The suspect, one of reserve forces trainees, is known to have killed himself with the weapon after the incident, according to the Army.
“During a zeroing fire session, a trainee fired a rifle at fellow soldiers which killed one and injured four others,” said an Army officer after the shooting spree. “Death toll may rise as well.”
The injured are being evacuated to the Armed Forces Capital Hospital. Two of the injured were in critical condition and one of them died after the Army’s announcement.
The Army is still on an internal investigation. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
The 2nd Infantry Division is moving forward with its combined division concept with the ROK Army:
2nd Infantry Division civil affairs officer Lt. Col. Gil Kwon, left, and his deputy, Lt. Col. Michael Cole have shared an office at Camp Red Cloud, South Korea since Kwon and 30 other South Korean officers joined the division in January.
It’s a little cramped these days in the office that South Korean Lt. Col. Gil Kwon shares with his deputy, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Michael Cole.
But they are learning more about each other every day as the two countries’ militaries try to bridge cultural gaps and prepare for a major reorganization that will shift south most U.S. forces from bases north of Seoul to an expanded megabase at Camp Humphreys.
What’s left will be a combined U.S.-South Korean unit prepared to defend the peninsula if war were to break out with North Korea.
The transformation involves adding South Korean troops and units, including 31 staff officers and an entire infantry brigade; replacing the Camp Hovey-based 1st “Iron” Brigade Combat Team with U.S.-based rotational brigades on nine-month deployments, and moving the bulk of the division to Camp Humphreys.
South Korean and U.S. officers started sharing offices inside 2nd Infantry Division headquarters on Camp Red Cloud in January as part of the transformation. In January, the division received a complement of 31 Korean officers with ranks ranging from major up to a brigadier general who is now deputy 2nd ID commander, said Maj. Gen. Thomas Vandal, who turned over command of the division to Maj. Gen. Theodore Martin last week. Vandal spent the past two years preparing for the changeover.
The South Korean officers speak English and have experience at U.S. and British military schools. Each is paired with a U.S. counterpart with one serving as the other’s deputy, he said. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but 1st Brigade on Camp Hovey will deactivate this summer and be replaced by rotational units coming to Korea from the US for 9 months at a time. The rotational units will train with the 16th ROK Brigade.
A light utility helicopter, the Surion, takes off in the city of Yongin, south of Seoul, on May 1, 2015, as the Army conducts a drill to evacuate emergency patients to its main hospital in the adjoining city of Seongnam. The drill was timed with the launch the same day of the aviation command for the operations, with six of the choppers to be deployed. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Choi Yoon-hee (L, front), accompanied by Thomas S. Vandal (R, front), head of the 2nd Infantry Division of U.S. Forces Korea, tours the division in the city of Dongducheon, north of Seoul, on April 20, 2015, in this photo released by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Yonhap)
These are very small amounts of money to be taking to be worth putting an entire military career at risk which leads me to believe that he has probably been doing this for a very long time and saw others doing it as well:
An Army brigadier general was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of taking bribes in exchange for paying favors to his friends’ sons serving mandatory military duty, the defense ministry said.
The general, who currently serves as a vice commander of the country’s Army Corps, allegedly received some 13 million won ($11,989) from five of his friends between 2012 and 2014, who asked him to change their sons’ assignments at the barracks.
“While the general, surnamed Kim, had been trying to peddle his influence, only one of the five was able to be transferred to another position,” a defense ministry official said on condition of anonymity. [Korea Herald]
A soldier from the 2nd Infantry Division of U.S. Forces Korea fails to spike the ball with his foot during a foot volleyball match against a team of Korean soldiers at Camp Casey in the city of Dongducheon, north of Seoul, on April 17, 2015, as soldiers of the two countries hold an athletic event aimed at promoting the South Korea-U.S. friendship. The Korean sport of foot volleyball, known as “jokgu” in Korean, is similar to European football tennis and Malaysia’s Sepak Takraw and is basically a combination of soccer and volleyball. (Yonhap)
A soldier from the 2nd Infantry Division of U.S. Forces Korea and a soldier from the 65th Division of the Korean Army compete in a “ssireum,” Korean wrestling, match at Camp Casey in the city of Dongducheon, north of Seoul, on April 17, 2015, as part of an athletic event aimed at promoting the South Korea-U.S. friendship. (Yonhap)
Family members photograph soldiers in the Arc Unit, South Korean troops dispatched for special military operations in the Middle East. The special commandos attended a farewell ceremony on Tuesday at the training field of the Special Warfare Command in Songpa District, Seoul. [NEWSIS]
Jasmine Lee is the first non-Korean member of the National Assembly in South Korea and the Korea Herald has an interview with her published that discusses some of her views:
When the governing Saenuri Party picked Jasmine Lee to serve as a lawmaker in April 2012, hate groups attacked her as a “dark-skinned” foreigner posing as a Korean.
Saenuri officials hoped Lee would encourage “diversity” in a dominantly homogenous, and sometimes xenophobic South Korea, to better represent naturalized citizens, foreign laborers, and other minorities in the National Assembly.
She has done her best to meet the expectations, Lee said in an interview with The Korea Herald earlier this month, but the country has a long way to go.
“There has never been a multicultural society in South Korea,” she said. “So officials here don’t know exactly how to support such families here.” [Korea Herald]
Here is what she had to say about mixed race males serving in the ROK military:
South Korea’s Constitution obligates physically and psychologically fit men to serve 21 months in the armed forces. But the military did not accept “multicultural” men until 2011, as officials thought they would lack the social skills to mingle with others in their unit.
Lee has a son with her late Korean husband, who is likely to enter the military sometime next year. She said incorporating men from multicultural families was a step in the right direction.
“A Justice Ministry official once suggested that ‘multicultural’ servicemen serve in segregated units,” Lee said.
“I asked the official if those multicultural men would fight separately from other units if a war broke out. He said no.”
