Tag: South Korea

Here is the latest from the Stars & Stripes on the closing of Camp Red Cloud:

The Indianhead Division officially moved its headquarters to Camp Humphreys, some 40 miles south of Seoul, last week, becoming the last major command to do so, after the Eighth Army and U.S. Forces Korea. The grand opening of its new headquarters building, which will also be called Freeman Hall, is scheduled for next month.

Camp Red Cloud is on the northwestern edge of Uijeongbu, which was home to the real-life unit that inspired the popular TV show “M.A.S.H.” The base was originally known as Camp Jackson but was renamed in 1957 in honor of Medal of Honor recipient Cpl. Mitchell Red Cloud Jr.

But the shuttering of facilities is only the start of a lengthy transition process, including the capping of utilities and fuel tanks, negotiations over environmental cleanup requirements and other issues related to the status of forces agreement between the two countries.

“It’s estimated that the earliest that CRC will be able to be returned to the [South Korean government] is sometime in January/February 2020 if all of that process goes through and there are no issues,” said Paul Hubbard, the garrison’s lead base-closure analyst.

Hubbard said it has taken between three and 15 years to hand over other bases that have been closed due to disagreements over obligations for environmental cleanup and other issues.

The land will be turned over to the Defense Ministry, but city officials say they’re hoping it will be developed as a security-themed park.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but I seriously doubt that Camp Red Cloud will be handed over by 2020 because I really think the anti-US left in South Korea will claim all kinds of environmental pollution like they have done in the past to delay closing vacated US bases and try to get more money out of USFK.  However, their biggest goal this time will be to cause antagonism in the US-ROK alliance.

Here are a couple of prior articles I wrote about Camp Red Cloud that I recommend everyone read if you haven’t already:

https://www.rokdrop.net/2005/05/profile-camp-red-cloud-south-korea/

https://www.rokdrop.net/2012/10/the-true-story-of-how-camp-red-cloud-south-korea-got-its-name/

China violated Korea Air Defense ID zone (#KADIZ) w fighters in the article, but also reconnaissance aircraft. 2017: 10 times. 2018 thus far: 110 times.https://t.co/FaywAKFGB7

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) October 22, 2018

Sure he is sorry (insert eye roll):

Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon held meeting with defectors in Seoul on Wednesday where he apologized for his controversial decision to prevent a defector-turned-journalist from covering recent inter-Korean talks, a participant said.

Cho had a lunch meeting with representatives of three North Korean defector groups at a Seoul restaurant to explain his position on the controversy and listen to defectors’ opinions on pending inter-Korean issues.

One participant said after the meeting, “Minister Cho said sorry and made an apology for excluding a defector-turned-journalist from the coverage of inter-Korean talks.”

The minister recently caused a stir by excluding a defector-turned-journalist of the conservative Chosun Ilbo daily newspaper from the pool of reporters covering high-level inter-Korean talks held at the truce village of Panmunjom on Oct. 15.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but this is just another example of how the Moon administration has been stomping out conservative media coverage in South Korea.

I hope the US pushes back hard on this proposal because this is a total concession to North Korea which has few aircraft to fly along the DMZ compared to the US and ROK.  USFK should be respond by saying that North Korea should withdraw all of their artillery 80 miles away from the DMZ if they want this no fly zone.  Now that would be a more equitable agreement:

Last month, North and South Korea signed an agreement that is designed to de-escalate tension at the demilitarized zone between the two nations, which have technically been at war since the 1950s. One major feature: a no-fly zone over the border.

At the time, some South Korean government officials called the agreement the “equivalent to declaring an end to the Korean War.” But the call for a no-fly zone over the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) is facing pushback from the South’s biggest backer, the United States.

Last week, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told reporters that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed “discontent” with the agreement during a phone call. This week the pushback seemed to escalate as unnamed officials told Reuters that U.S. military commanders are specifically unhappy with the no fly zone, which is to begin on November 1.

So why is the U.S. so upset?   [Popular Mechanics]

You can read the rest at the link, but the reason for the displeasure is because US helicopters and fixed wing aircraft routinely train in the border areas.  The proposed no fly zone would extend any where from 25-50 miles from the DMZ making this training impossible and further eroding the readiness of US forces.

This proposal gets back to what I have been saying for months, the Moon administration will not openly say they want US forces to leave, but will create conditions that will make US forces withdraw on its own accord.  If this agreement is implemented this is just another example of this strategy

The important thing to remember is that this concession is easily reversible:

North and South Korea and the UN Command agreed on Monday (Oct 22) to withdraw firearms and guard posts in an area within the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) this week, Seoul’s defence ministry said, the latest move in a fast-improving relationship.

The three sides held their second round of talks at the village of Panmunjom to discuss ways to demilitarise the border in line with a recent inter-Korean pact reached at last month’s summit in Pyongyang.

The US-led UNC, which has overseen affairs in the DMZ since the end of hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War, was not immediately available for comment, but it said on Friday it supports the two Koreas’ efforts to implement their military deal.

The announcement comes amid US concerns that the inter-Korean military initiative could undermine defence readiness and comes without substantial progress on North Korea’s promised denuclearisation.

The neighbours are looking to withdraw 11 guard posts within a 1km radius of the Military Demarcation Line on their border by the end of the year.

They also plan to pull out all firearms from the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom and cut to 35 each the numbers of personnel stationed there and share information on surveillance equipment.  [Strait Times]

You can read more at the link, but I would think the American JSA battalion commander will have a well rehearsed battle drill ready to issue weapons at a moments notice in response to this.  Does anyone really think the North Koreans will not have weapons stashed on their side of the border?  Will the UNC be allowed to conduct no notice inspections to verify?  I doubt it.

States (here #SouthKorea) shall prevent (banks) from opening branches in North Korea–that's pretty clearly stated. Secondary #sanctions affect not only the banks, but their client firms as well. Moon Jae-in should not gamble with #SouthKorea's economy. https://t.co/daaRczIXUL

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) October 23, 2018

Could you imagine what the reaction would be from mainstream journalists if the Trump administration cracked down on fake news put out by liberal websites?  The Moon administration does this against conservative websites and there is not a peep so far about it from so called journalists:

Justice Minister Park Sang-ki called on prosecutors Tuesday to crack down on fake news, saying the spread of false information undermines public trust in society and can lead to serious political and economic damages.  (……)

Opposition parties fired at Lee, saying the Moon Jae-in administration was out to suppress freedom of speech.

In a Justice Ministry press release Tuesday, Park ordered prosecutors to crack down on fake news and track whoever was responsible for its production and distribution. In cases in which serious falsehoods are clear, prosecutors were told to “actively start” investigations even before a formal complaint had been submitted to them.

The Justice Ministry said it planned to collect cases that local courts ruled to have been fake news and pass them on to the police, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Communications Standards Commission in order to request assistance in deleting them from the internet, monitoring any further spread and educating society about their false nature.

The Justice Ministry denied Park’s orders amounted to a violation of freedom of speech, saying authorities were trying to tackle the spread of fake information, which actually “disturbs” the public’s right to know and “threatens the sphere of democratic public debate.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but remember the Moon administration has already used violence & labor unions to consolidate control of local media and been busy jailing conservative journalists using libel laws.

What makes this crackdown even more dubious is that the Druking Scandal that linked the Moon administration to election manipulation through false comment liking software has quietly went away.

This is an issue I hope at some point the Trump administration confronts the Moon administration on because this blockade of the THAAD site is ridiculous and could be ended at any time by the Korean government:

“The buildings we have weren’t built to house soldiers,” she said. “It’s not unlivable, but it’s not nice.”

She says the protesters not only force her troops to fly in and out every week via helicopter, but also stop U.S. vehicles from shipping in goods and supplies.

“Currently, the only way on and off of the site is by helicopter,” she said. “A week at a time at least, every single one of my soldiers is away from their barracks room, their family.”

She said if the gates weren’t blocked they wouldn’t require the extended rotations and could keep more people at Carroll, which is only a 25-minute drive away.

Spc. Josiah Welch, a THAAD operator, said conditions have improved since he started at the site in November.

“There was pretty bad mold initially,” said the 25-year old from Winter Park, Fla. “There was a week where we didn’t have running water – we had baby wipe showers.”

Now they have air conditioning and showers, he said.

The military finally began shipping fresh food three times week last month, reducing some reliance on pre-prepared field rations, Theilacker said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Retired General David Stilwell speaks Korean and has very close ties to US Ambassador Harry Harris because of their prior work together at US Indo-Pacific Command:

U.S. President Donald Trump has nominated Air Force veteran David Stilwell as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, according to the White House on Wednesday.

The position covers diplomacy with the Korean Peninsula, China, and Japan. His predecessor Susan Thornton stepped down in July amid rumors that she was too moderate, whereas Stilwell is thought to be a hardliner.

It can be hard to tell why people come and go in the frantically revolving doors of the Trump administration, but Stilwell’s appointment may reflect the fact that hardliners are increasingly gaining the upper hand. Trump only recently described Defense Secretary James Mattis, who is thought to have been a steadying force, as “sort of a Democrat.”

The White House described Stilwell as “an Air Force veteran with more than 35 years of experience as a pilot, commander, and Korean linguist.”

He retired in 2015 with the rank of brigadier general and is currently the director of the China Strategic Focus Group at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Headquarters in Hawaii.

He learned Korean in a military language school in California and served as a fighter pilot in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, from 1993 to 1995. He also speaks Chinese and some Japanese.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

It appears the UNC is on board with letting this happen:

South and North Korea are likely to start their joint on-site inspection as early as this week for a project to modernize and re-link railways across their border, government officials said Sunday.

At high-level talks last week, the two Koreas agreed to begin field surveys of the western Gyeongui railway in late October and the Donghae railway along their east coast in November.

“The Koreas are known to be discussing ways to conduct the inspection (on the North section) of the Gyeongui line starting late this week,” a government official said.

“The schedule is flexible, depending on consultations between the government and the United Nations Command (UNC) over the passage of the Military Demarcation Line,” he added.

In August, the Koreas failed to carry out a joint railway field survey as the U.S.-led UNC did not approve the plan, citing “procedural” problems, a move widely seen as U.S. objection to the inter-Korean railway project on the basis that it might hamper sanctions.  “As far as I’m concerned, Seoul’s consultations with Pyongyang as well as the UNC are smoothly under way,” the official said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.