South Korean President Park Geun-hye (L) shakes hands with her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping prior to their summit talks in Hangzhou, eastern China, on Sept. 5, 2016. The meeting came amid strains in their relations over the planned deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, in South Korea. (Yonhap)
It sounds like the critics of the Hanjin bankruptcy think the Korean government should have bailed them out like the US did the too big to fail banks in 2008:
A container terminal is shown above in Singapore, Sep. 3, containing seized cargo from Hanjin Shipping. Analysts say that Hanjin’s court receivership could be just the tip of the iceberg for the shipping industry as the long-running global economic downturn has left it drowning in excess capacity. / AFP-Yonhap
Hanjin Shipping’s filing for court receivership is inflicting far larger-than-expected negative impacts both at home and abroad as major routes for trade are being suspended.
The government and creditors are facing growing criticism that they are responsible for having thrown global ports and traders into confusion.
About half of Hanjin’s fleet is stuck in ports around the world as the authorities there fear the shipper whose assets have been frozen is unable to pay fees.
The government will not be able to avoid criticism for underestimating the fallout of the bankruptcy of the world’s seventh largest shipper.
It is still pondering over contingency plans to contain the backlash, creating a task force to ensure there are no delays in the flow of cargo.
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries will lead the task force along made up of ranking officials from nine related ministries and agencies.
“The government will make sure that the fallout from Hanjin Shipping doesn’t lead to chaos in logistics or a transmission to the real economy including exports,” said Oceans and Fisheries Minister Kim Young-suk, after an emergency meeting held Sunday.
“We will closely cooperate to support damaged industries, taking all possible policy measures,” he said.
However, officials from the shipping industry criticize the government for allowing the shipper to go bankrupt without having drawn up proper countermeasures.
The most urgent problem is that exports may fail to arrive at their final destination on time as 68 of Hanjin Shipping’s vessels are stranded at sea worldwide as of Sunday. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but it is pretty amazing that a huge company like Hanjin has gone into bankruptcy. It seems like the simple answer is that another company buys Hanjin and then restarts operations with a fresh cash flow to pay the various port fees that are currently delaying shipping.
A customer looks at a “Mudeungsan” watermelon (R) and an ordinary one at the Daegu Department Store in the name sake city on Aug. 26, 2016. Mudeungsan watermelon, which was an offering to the king during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), sells for 200,000 won (US$180). Gwangju, 329 kilometers south of Seoul, is the origin of the watermelon. The department store provided this photo) (Yonhap)
A Korean golden frog is seen at a watercourse in Dangjin, a city in the central province of South Chungcheong, in this undated photo released by the Dangjin municipality on Sept. 2, 2016. The endangered species is indigenous to the Korean Peninsula. (Yonhap)
A former Washington Post journalist has released a new book that details his experiences living and working in South Korea:
In his new memoir, Ahrens, a former Washington Post journalist, tells of the three years he spent in Seoul working for Hyundai and his rough adjustment adapting to a culture that is, in many ways, the polar opposite of how we live in America.
When Ahrens’ wife, who worked for the Foreign Service, received a posting in Seoul, Ahrens was hired by Hyundai to head up their global p.r. effort. But almost two decades in a Washington, DC, newsroom hadn’t prepared him for his new home.
For one thing, Korea’s culture of personal improvement would make a Kardashian blush, as plastic surgery is far more pervasive than in the US. This obsession with appearance is known there as “lookism.”
“South Korean women use on average three times as many daily skin-care products as Western women,” Ahrens writes, noting that plastic surgery is so common, it’s regarded as a major economic engine.
“There is a medical-tourism booth in Incheon International Airport. Korea has the highest number of plastic surgeons per capita and the world’s highest rate of cosmetic surgery. Buses and subway ads all over Seoul show highly graphic, often gruesome before-and-after photos.” [New York Post]
You can read more at the link, but the article describes many things most readers here would probably not be surprised by such as Koreans drink a lot of soju.
When are people going to learn to not post naked photos on the Internet? They can come back to haunt you at any time like this Changwon teacher is finding out:
A Changwon city elementary school teacher who posted naked pictures of his fiancee online and described what it was like to have sex with her has been suspended.
The incident came to light after a netizen posted “Please save the fiancee of the XX year old Changwon elementary school teacher” on the South Gyeongsang Office of Education Facebook page.
The netizen claimed the teacher had posted to the Internet naked pictures of his fiancee and revealed explicit details of his sex life with her. The netizen said the woman should be told of the man’s misconduct to stop their October marriage.
After the post went viral, Gyeongsang Province Changwon Office of Education (GCOE) summoned the teacher on Wednesday. He admitted he made the posts in a private internet cafe a few years ago. [Korea Times]
Something many people may not realize is that the Korean War was the first conflict where the United States military fought with a policy of racial desegregation. The policy was passed by executive order by President Harry Truman who wanted all the old all black units of World War II disbanded and African-American servicemembers integrated throughout the ranks of all the services. This policy is what allowed Hero of the Korean War, Ensign Jesse Brown to become the first black US Navy pilot.
A 1950 image of Ensign Jesse Brown in his F4U-4 Corsair.
However, the policy was poorly implemented by some commanders, with segregation in the military really living on for another 10 years. Overall though, black servicemembers were given increased opportunities in the military after the issuing of Truman’s order. At the start of the Korean War there was roughly 100,000 black servicemembers in the US military, which composed 8% of the total manpower. By the end of the war over 600,000 black servicemembers would serve in the 3-year long war. It was one of these black servicembers Charles M. Bussey that would become one of the most recognized African-American servicemembers during the Korean War.
Charles Bussey Before the Korean War
Charles Bussey was born in 1922 and grew up in Bakersfield, California. After graduating from high school Bussey attended Los Angeles City College for two years before enlisting into the US military. Bussey was assigned to fly with the prestigious all-black Tuskegee Airmen who were tasked to defend US bombers during World War II. His commander General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. played a big role in shaping Bussey who he speaks very highly of in his book, Firefight at Yechon: Courage and Racism in the Korean War. For those that haven’t, I highly recommend reading up on General Davis because he may quite possibly be the greatest African-American servicemembers ever.
General Benjamin Davis
Following World War II Bussey left the Army and returned to Los Angeles where he became a policeman. He didn’t like the work and decided to return to college by enrolling at San Francisco State University. After graduating from SFSU in 1948, Bussey rejoined the Army and was eventually stationed in Japan on occupation duty. Here is what Bussey says occupation duty in Japan was like:
Well, there was no combat-readiness for sure. The lifestyle involved a lot of leisure, a lot of involvement with the native women. The officers were involved with buying furniture, buying fancy chinaware for their homes there was no concern whatever about combat-readiness. Absolutely none. Even in the manoeuvre areas the concern was the good life. A very leisurely life was not involved in any way with combat. There was just no concern whatever and it was our life there was lived through the Sears Roebuck catalogue who bought nylons and whatnot for the native girls and that sort of thing. It was a good life. [Charles Bussey – March 2, 1997]
What is funny I knew guys in Yongsan that still live like this.
Deployment to Korea
On May 26, 1950 Captain Charles Bussey would become one of the few black company commanders in the US Army when he took command of the 77th Engineer Combat Company in Gifu, Japan. The 77th Engineers was an all-black unit that provided engineer support to the all-black 24th Infantry Regiment. The 24th Infantry was the only all-black subordinate unit of the 25th Infantry Division commanded by Major General William B. Kean. Here is how Bussey remembers taking command:
It was a time of my life when I had the maturity and the physical, mental, and emotional strength necessary to command a company of combat engineers. When the opportunity came for me to assume command of the 77th Engineer Combat Company, I reveled in it. I worked at it from sixteen to twenty hours aday. Fortunately, it was when I was overseas in Japan, and fortunately, my family had not joined me. I was free to work all the hours I needed or wanted, and I did. There was no better job for a workaholic. There was strong training requirements. …………… But the biggest demand on my time and attention came from the men. The men had problems of all kinds, and those who didn’t have problems usually generated some.
Sounds like the life of a Company Commander in 1950 is the same as one now a days. A month after taking command the Korean War would begin and shortly after the 25th Infantry Division to include Captain Bussey’s 24th Infantry Regiment would find themselves deployed to Korea in July 1950.
Engagement at Yechon
On July 20, 1950 Captain Bussey was running mail to a platoon in his company that was currently stationed in the Korean village of Yecheon.
Along the way Bussey heard some rifle file from the village just further up the road. Bussey stopped his vehicle and walked up a small hill that overlooked the village. Captain Bussey saw from his elevated position men dressed in white trying to outflank his men in the village. Bussey ran down the hill and rounded up three truck drivers from another unit that were parked along the road near the hill. Bussey had them carry a .30 and .50 cal machine guns up to the top hill. Here is Captain Bussey’s narrative from his book, Firefight at Yechon, that explains what happened next:
I watched the group of farmer-soldiers coming ever closer and reckoned that farmers scatter and tun if you send a long burst of machine-gun fire over their heads, but soldiers flatten out like quail and await orders from their leader…I sent a burst from the .50 caliber machine gun dangerously close above the heads of the approaching group…True to the form of soldiers, they flattened into the paddy as the bullets flew past them…Bullets raked and chewed the up mercilessly…The advancing column was under tight observation from somewhere on the mountain because large motar rounds started…overhead. I was knicked by a fragment. the gunner on the .30 caliber machine gunner was hit badly, and his assistant was killed. The enemy mortar was accurate. The shells were bursting about twenty to forty feet overhead, showering us with shell fragments. And we were now drawing small-arms fire from the rice paddies below…I chopped the North Korean troops to pieces…I was ashamed of the slaughter before me, but this was my job, my duty, and my responsibility. I stayed with it until not one white rag was left intact.
It is estimated that Bussey and his three men using these two machine guns killed approximately 250 guerrillas that day. What I find interesting about this battle is that revisionist historians today would probably declare his engagement against these people dressed in white clothes as a war crime. Bussey is lucky the Associated Press’s Charles Hanley and the Korean Truth & Reconcilliation Committee isn’t after him yet.
This engagement did happen just one week before the tragedy at No Gun Ri with civilians intermixed with guerrilla fighters. Plus Captain Bussey’s unit the 25th Infantry Division was located on the eastern flank of the 1st Cavalry Division that was involved in the No Gun Ri tragedy. Later on Bussey writes that guerrilla fighters would hide during the day in the farm houses to ambush his men at night. He even claims to have killed two guerrilla fighters during one of these ambushes who were as young as fourteen years old.
This is all just further evidence that guerrilla fighters were operating in the area of not only No Gun Ri, but throughout the frontlines of US forces wearing white Korean peasant clothes. This is contrary to what many of the current historical revisionists want to believe, but Bussey provides yet another account of this guerrilla infiltration of the American front lines.
After the Firefight at Yechon
Following the engagement at Yecheon the 25th ID moved further south towards the city of Sanju and then eventually even further south between Chinju and Masan where his unit held a frontline position along the Pusan Perimeter. Interestingly enough Captain Bussey would end up having a white lieutenant to become his executive officer as part of the slow integration of the ranks. This lieutenant, Paul Wells would be one of the soldiers in his book that he speaks the mostly highly of during his time in command.
However, there was plenty of white officers he didn’t speak fondly of because of tactical decisions that were made that led to the 24th Infantry Regiment retreating from their frontline positions. He feels very bitter that many people blamed the defeat of the 24th Infantry Regiment on the quality of black troops instead of the white officers that made the decisions that led to their retreat.
After the successful Incheon Landing Operation in September of 1950 the 24th Infantry Regiment found themselves on the offensive, pushing the retreating North Koreans farther north. After crossing the 38th Parallel, Bussey felt like they had won the war and remembers celebrating a festiv Thanksgiving to only be spoiled two days later by advancing Chinese troops. Bussey was very impressed with the Chinese troops, but would ultimately be more impressed with General Matthew Ridgeway who took over the command of the 8th United States Army and turned around the war effort.
Bussey After Retiring from the Military
Charles Bussey retired from the US Army in 1966 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He would work the next 20 years as a construction consultant before retiring and beginning work on his book about his wartime experiences, Firefight at Yechon: Courage and Racism in the Korean War. Bussey’s book was published in 1991.
Post-Korean War picture of Charles Bussey via SFGate.com.
In 1994 a campaign was launched to try and upgrade Captain Bussey’s Silver Star for his actions at Yecheon to a Medal of Honor. Captain Bussey is quoted as saying that the reason he didn’t get recommended for the Medal of Honor was due to racist reasons:
Well, I worked for a man whose name I guess I should not mention but he commanded the regiment and his attitude was — and he explained this to me — and this was a man with whom I drank a lot of whisky in those days — when he had whisky, he’d give me a call and come sundown, we’d toss a few and when I had whisky I did the same with him. And so we were drinking along, we were on the way into North Korea at the time and we stopped on the side of the road for something, that whole convoy had stopped, and we got to talking and he was saying ‘you know the general insisted that I put you in for a congressional medal for that thing at Yechon but I disagree with him.’ I said ‘oh, why?’ and he said ‘well you know how things are at home and you killed more than John Wayne and Audie Murphy and all these other guys and the American people wouldn’t like that. We don’t want black people to have heroes. Heroes are troublemakers and so if you had this medal then you’d be able to influence boy scouts and all kind of people and this is not good for us and I’ve been trained to not let these things happen and I can’t let it happen.’ [Charles Bussey – March 2, 1997]
Bussey still hasn’t had his award upgraded, but he has been recognized by the US military for his service during the Korean War all the way up to the Secretary of Defense:
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen (left) shows his wife Janet (right) a memento presented to him by members of the legendary Tuskeegee Airmen on May 16, 1998. With Secretary and Mrs. Cohen are from left to right Col. Lee Archer, Lt. Col. Howard Baugh, and Lt. Col. Charles Bussey. Cohen visited Norfolk State University to kick off the nation’s 50th anniversary observance of President Harry S. Truman’s executive order desegregating the armed forces. DoD photo by Helene C. Stikkel.
President Harry Truman vowed “to end to such evils,” and he did — with a bold stroke of his pen that changed the face of the military, and indeed the face of America, forever. Justice Thurgood Marshall, Sr., once remarked that “Sometimes history takes things into its own hands.” 1948 surely was one of those times, for Truman’s executive order that year could not have put it any plainer: “There shall be equal treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.” President Truman cleared a path by wiping out an overtly racist rule. But it would fall to many others over many years to brave that path and turn those principles into practice.
One of the first who did was Charles Bussey, a Tuskeegee airman who made history again in July of 1950 at the battle of Yechon, South Korea. First Lieutenant Bussey was returning to the front when he spotted an enemy unit attempting to outflank his all-black company. Only Bussey, a group of three truck drivers and two machine guns stood between his men and 250 advancing North Koreans. But when the dust settled and the smoke had cleared, there was only Bussey and his men and America had one of its first victories of the Korean War. Reflecting on his heroic service to a country still shackled by segregation, this Silver Star hero later wrote, “I loved my country for what it could be, far beyond what it was.” Lieutenant Colonel Bussey, thank you for helping America to realize what it could be and taking us beyond what we were. [William Cohen – May 16, 1998]
Here is why Charles Bussey says he wants his awarded upgraded to the Medal of Honor so badly:
“After 40 years the personal significance of this medal has largely deteriorated for me,” he said. “But the importance is that if I can earn one of these, other kids can earn one as well. I want to be able to tell them that they can be all that they can be in the Army and that the service is grateful. But I can’t do that now.” [New York Times]
What I don’t understand about Charles Bussey’s reasoning is that there was other black soldiers during the Korean War that did get awarded the Medal of Honor if he is concerned about young kids having servicemembers who did get the medal to look up to:
Numerous African-Americans were awarded medals including the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and Bronze Star for service during the Korean War. Two African-Americans, Private First Class William Thompson and Sergeant Cornelius Charlton were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Thompson was killed in action on Aug. 2, 1951, at a critical juncture in the 8th Army’s attempt to stop the North Korean Army’s southward movement. Charlton displayed extraordinary heroism in rallying his platoon to continue its assault on a hill near Chipo-ri, just north of the 38th parallel. [Korean War 50th Anniversary Site]
Whatever the motivation for trying to have the medal upgraded I think Charles Bussey probably was not awarded the Medal of Honor because unlike the other black servicemembers who were awarded the medal Bussey did not die. The vast majority of people who are awarded the Medal of Honor died conducting whatever heroic act they were recognized for.
However, Bussey does provide a little known, but interesting look at the service of black soldiers during the Korean War. Bussey shows that just like any soldier, proper leadership is what determines the effectiveness of a servicemember; not the color of their skin. Captain Charles Bussey was a commander that did provide that leadership and his actions at not only the firefight at Yechon, but throughout the war proved this, and that is why he is one of the Heroes of the Korean War.
If she earned her money legally what business is it of anyone on how she spends it? If anything she is a walking economic stimulus plan!:
Cho Yoon-sun, a nominee for the minister of culture, sports and tourism, was grilled at a confirmation hearing, Wednesday, over various allegations including her excessive consumption which opposition lawmakers said goes beyond common sense.
The hearing by the National Assembly Education, Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee took place after President Park Geun-hye nominated Cho to be the minister on Aug. 16.
The morning session of the hearing was crippled due to wrangling between rival lawmakers over an issue of a supplementary budget. The afternoon session was held with only opposition lawmakers from the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) and the minor opposition People’s Party attending. Lawmakers from the ruling Saenuri Party refused to participate in the session.
One of major controversies facing Cho was her alleged extravagant lifestyle where she has spent about 500 million won ($448,000) a year.
Rep. Kim Byung-wook from the MPK, who estimated the amount of Cho’s annual consumption after reviewing her property details and tax payment, said it was also unclear where and how Cho and her husband have spent about 1.6 billion won from 2013 to 2015.
Rep. Kim said Cho currently has a property worth an estimated 5.2 billion won, noting that this has increased by 510 million won compared to her property worth 4.69 billion won reported in 2013 when she was serving as the minister of gender equality and family.
When the income of her and her husband was added up, the couple earned a total of 3.49 billion won from 2013 to 2015, Rep. Kim said, noting that the amount of her estimated annual expense is against the common sense of ordinary people.
Kim added that the couple provided the details of expenditures for the past three years only up to 230 million won, falling short of explaining how 1.6 billion won was spent.
Cho’s alleged excessive consumption also came into the spotlight during a 2013 hearing when she was a nominee to be the gender equality minister. At that time, she said, “My husband and I are generous when meeting friends and colleagues. So we were unable to manage our income well.”
But the public repulsion seems to have not been eased after it was known that the couple has spent only 1.1 percent of their income in donations for the past three years. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but it sounds like another one of these phony political scandals.
