Tag: South Korea

What @realDonaldTrump thinks about South Korea. https://t.co/UTLIujYdIu

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) July 23, 2015

Members of an amateur swimming association jump into the sea at a port in the southeastern port city of Ulsan on July 20, 2015. The 88 swimmers plan to swim about 400 kilometers to reach South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo on July 25, as part of festivities to mark the 70th anniversary on Aug. 15 of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule. (Yonhap)

DMZ Flashpoints is my ongoing series of articles chronicling the various incidents over the years that have occurred along the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).  A popular saying is that there is no “D” in DMZ and these decades of deadly incidents long the DMZ is proof of that.  Using newspaper archives I have been able to reconstruct the events of what happened in these incidents all those years ago.  You can learn more about these incidents and the brave servicemembers who gave their lives in defense of South Korea at the below links:

• The 2002 West Sea Naval Battle
• The 1987 KAL 858 Bombing
• The 1984 JSA Shootout
• The 1983 Hijacking of CAAC Flight 296 to Camp Page
• The 1976 DMZ Axe Murder Incident
• The 1969 Truck Ambush
• The 1969 Hijacking of Korean Airlines YS-11
• The 1969 EC-121 Shootdown
• The Deadly 1968 Truck Ambush
• The 1968 USS Pueblo Incident
• The 1968 Blue House Raid
• The 1967 Camp Liberty Bell Attack
• The 1967 Landmine Attacks
• The 1967 Work Detail Ambush
• The 1967 Camp Walley Barracks Bombing
• The Deadly 1966 DMZ Ambush
• The 1963 Jeep Ambush

A newly-wed couple clad in traditional Korean wedding attire distribute Korean rice cake during a Korea festival event at the Canadian Embassy in Seoul on July 18, 2015, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the embassy’s opening, in this photo provided by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry on July 20. (Yonhap)

It looks like South Korea’s F-16s are about to get some further upgrade work done:

The U.S. State Department has approved a possible $2.5 billion sale in F-16 upgrades to South Korea as part of Seoul’s effort to revamp its aging fighter fleet.

The sale, announced this week, would contribute to the security of both the U.S. and South Korea, which faces an ever-present threat of hostilities from North Korea, said the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

“This upgrade allows (South Korea) to protect and maintain critical airspace and provide a powerful defensive and offensive capability to preserve the security of the Korean peninsula and its vital national assets. (South Korea) will have no difficulty absorbing this additional equipment and support into its armed forces,” said a statement from the agency, which notified Congress of the possible sale on Tuesday.

The upgrades would include modular mission computers, radars, navigation systems and other equipment and logistical support, according to DSCA.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

As I was browsing through the Stars & Stripes archives I found this interesting nugget that the first German to gain Korean citizenship, Fritz Hohmann did so in 1967 in Yeosu of all places:

December 2, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes

I wonder if Mr. Hohmann decided to stay in Korea or not over the long term?  Considering that he received citizenship and changed his name to Yongbu Homan it seems he was committed to living his life out in South Korea. I hope everything worked out for the best for him.

One of the criticism often claimed by anti-USFK activists is that US soldiers commit crimes and not be tried in Korean courts.  This is of course ridiculous, but it was a claim often made by Koreans especially during the 2002 anti-US movement period.  This claim had no truth to it stretching all the way back to 1967.  It was in 1967 that a US-ROK Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) was reached that allowed US troops to be tried in Korean courts.  Before then crimes committed by US troops were handled by US military court martials.  When the SOFA was agreed upon back in 1967 it was only a matter of time before someone became the first US servicemember tried in a Korean court.  That person would end up being US Air Force Staff Sergeant Billy Cox:

Billy Cox was arrested for crimes that are amazingly similar to stupid crimes committed by US servicemembers to this day.  SSgt Cox on the night of February 20, 1967 was accused of setting fire to the home of his Korean girlfriend named Kyung-soon Eum who lived in Osan.  He was alleged to have set the fire because he found out Eum had been cheating on him with another man.  After setting the fire he was then accused of assaulting a cab driver.  Considering all the incidents with cab drivers in recent years, it is only fitting that the first servicemember case handled by Koreans courts was a taxi cab related incident.  Here is how the March 10, 1967 Stars & Stripes described the incident:

As the case went to trial the Korean prosecutors asked the Seoul court to sentence SSgt Cox to three years in a Korean jail.  Here is how the June 7, 1967 Stars & Stripes described the trial:

The trial ended with SSgt Cox being acquitted on the arson charge, but convicted of assaulting the cab driver. He was given a 50,000 won fine by the court which was about $185 back in 1967.  So if there was ever a trivia question asking what crime the first US servicemember tried in a Korean court was convicted of, it would be for assaulting a cab driver all the way back in 1967.  Good luck though getting an anti-US activist in Korea to ever believe it.

Note: You can read more GI Flashbacks articles by clicking on the below link: 

https://twitter.com/SouthKoreaDaily/status/622492365006114816

A member of the Solidarity for the Peace and Reunification of Korea, a progressive civic group, speaks during a rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on July 16, 2015, to voice her objection to Japan exercising the right to collective self-defense. Japan’s ruling coalition pushed controversial security bills through the lower house that would allow it to exercise that right the same day. (Yonhap)

Considering that South Korea is home to Hitler Bars it should be no surprise that anti-Semitism is so open in the media:

U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management’s bid to block the merger of two affiliates of business giant Samsung was always going to generate plenty of contentious media coverage in South Korea. Samsung Group, after all, accounts for roughly 20 percent of the country’s economy; any shakeup in its organization, or foreign move to prevent it, would be a big deal.

Less easy to predict may have been the deluge of coverage about the hedge fund’s Jewish connections. Leaning heavily on anti-Semitic tropes that would meet nods of approval on Stormfront, several media outlets honed in on the Jewish background of CEO Paul Singer, who on Friday ultimately lost his bid to convince shareholders to reject the merger.

Speaking to prominent weekly magazine Sisa Journal this week, Park Jae-seon, a former ambassador to Morocco and a current member of the preparation committee for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics, warned of the outsized influence of Jews in global finance.

“The scary thing about Jews is they are grabbing the currency markets and financial investment companies,” he said.

Park, described as the “country’s top expert on Jews,” continued: “Their network is tight knit beyond one’s imagination.”

Mainstream outlets Money Today and YTN joined the fray with similar stereotype-laden reports. But the most egregious offender was Mediapen, which rallied against the supposed Jewish conspiracy to hurt South Korea over the course of several articles.  [The Diplomat via One Free Korea]

You can read the rest at the link, but reading what is written about Jewish business people these anti-semitic types in South Korea make them out to be the equivalent of ISIS by secretly coordinating for world domination with Samsung being one of their targets.