This is yet another example of how empowered the anti-American left currently is in South Korea:
Members of civic groups demonstrate in front of the Uijeongbu Sports Complex on June 10 in protest against the concert. / Yonhap
Korean singers on Saturday boycotted a government-backed concert for United States Forces Korea troops after workers and netizens revived a bitter episode involving the American military.
The municipal government of Uijeongbu in Gyeonggi Province organized the concert to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 2nd Infantry Division, which is stationed in the city.
USFK commander Vincent Brooks, the 8th U.S. Army commanding general Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal, 50 officers and 400 soldiers as well as more than 3,000 civilians attended the free concert at the Uijeongbu Sports Complex.
But the musicians invited ― including soloist Insooni, K-pop bands EXID, Oh My Girl, Sweet Sorrow, punk band Crying Nut and rapper SanE ― neither showed up nor performed.
Insooni, 61, whose father was an African-American USFK soldier, told the audience at the start of the concert that she would not perform her three songs.
Shorty after this, the audience was told that all planned performances had been cancelled, causing many people to leave.
The concert, scheduled for three-and-a-half hours, was cut short by an hour, and went ahead with gigs by the 8th Army Band, the city orchestra and dancing troupe, a gukak (Korean traditional music) band and a taekwondo demonstration.
The boycott stems from a tragedy in 2002 when a 2nd Infantry unit tank accidentally ran over and killed two female middle school students on a street in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province.
Even though the unit commander apologized and compensation was paid, two soldiers were found not guilty of killing the students because a U.S. military court at Camp Casey in Dongducheon ruled their deaths were an accident. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but for those that have not, I highly recommend reading my entire prior posting on the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident that provides the context of what happened:
The threats against these groups must have been very serious considering that Insooni pulled out of the concert and her father was a USFK servicemember and grew up around US military bases in Korea. So who was behind the threats? None other than the anti-US Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU):
Hours before the event, 10 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions’ northern Gyeonggi branch also demonstrated against the city government in front of the complex.
A confederation spokesperson said, “Forcing students to congratulate USFK’s establishment with celebrities goes against our educational ethics,” according to the Chosun Ilbo.
The KCTU also played a key role in the violent 2008 anti-US beef protests. Yes you heard that right these thugs from the KCTU launched violent protests against US hamburgers and steaks being sold in South Korea.
US beef protestors beat a Korean riot policeman in 2008.
10 years of conservative rule had forced the KCTU and other anti-US groups to lower their profile after the anti-US beef protests since the government took action against them and put their leaders in jail. With the new Moon Jae-in administration in charge, it is clear that these leftist agitators feel they have free reign to once again conduct aggressive anti-US activities just like what we just saw happen in Uijongbu. Expect more of this to happen in the coming months and years.
I never thought of this before, but yes Army units from Alaska would have a very limited amount of time to train in darkness since the best months weather wise to train have a lot of daylight:
A soldier from 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, wears chemical-resistant gear while training at Rodriguez Live Fire Range, South Korea, Sunday, June, 4, 2017.
Six hundred U.S. troops wrapped up a monthlong training rotation to South Korea Monday with something in short supply this time of year at their home station in Alaska — darkness.
Soldiers from the Fort Wainwright-based 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment “Bobcats” spent May living and training at the 3,390-acre Rodriguez Live Fire Range north of Seoul.
“We’re here to build our lethality,” battalion commander Lt. Col. R. Blake Lackey said Wednesday.
That includes being able to operate day and night, the latter being difficult in the Alaskan summer, he said.
“This time of year we’ll be training at 1:30 in the morning and it’s still daylight,” said Staff Sgt. Benjamin Moore, 34, a recon team leader with the battalion.
“When it’s dark in Alaska it’s winter and it’s pretty harsh,” the West Palm Beach, Fla., native added. “So it’s really difficult to get after some of the more basic and fundamental [requirements].”
The Korea rotation has taken the unit “to a higher level of readiness we didn’t think was possible,” Lackey said. [Stars & Stripes]
If anyone has ever wondered why there aren’t more US Marines stationed in South Korea here is the reason:
Maj. Gen. Robert Hedelund, the outgoing commander of U.S. Marine Forces Korea, said he has about 75 Marines on his staff and their main mission is fostering the relationship with South Korean forces and facilitating training exercises.
The commander of the small contingent of Marines based in South Korea says the corps does not have enough forces to permanently expand its presence on the divided peninsula.
Unlike the Army, Navy and Air Force, the Marines do not have operational units stationed in South Korea despite the growing threat from the North. Instead, Marines travel from Japan to the peninsula on a rotational basis to conduct training exercises with their South Korean counterparts.
Maj. Gen. Robert Hedelund, the outgoing commander of U.S. Marine Forces Korea, said he has about 75 Marines on his staff and their main mission is fostering the relationship with South Korean forces and facilitating training exercises. [Stars & Stripes]
Great job by these soldiers serving up at Panmunjom for rescuing this ROK farmer last week:
U.S. and South Korean soldiers attached to the United Nations Command Security Battalion in the Joint Security Area on the border with North Korea rush a South Korean farmer to a U.S. Forces Korea helicopter that carried him to a hospital on May 31, 2017.
U.S. and South Korean soldiers stationed in the Demilitarized Zone that separates the country from the North responded to a different kind of emergency last week.
A farmer in Taesong-dong, the only South Korean village located in the heavily fortified area, got his right leg caught in a tractor Wednesday. His mother, who was with him, called the village chief, who contacted the civilian affairs company with the security battalion at the nearby Joint Security Area.
Soldiers acted quickly, rendering first aid while the farmer was bleeding profusely. U.S. Forces Korea, meanwhile, sent a helicopter to medevac him to a hospital, Jung Dongho, a public affairs officer with the security battalion, said Friday.
The farmer, who was only identified by his surname Choi, was flown to the Ajou University Hospital in Suwon, where he underwent surgery for four hours. He remains hospitalized so doctors can monitor his condition, Jung said, adding it took just over an hour from the time of the 5:15 p.m. accident to get Choi to the hospital. [Stars & Stripes]
U-2 spy planes, fighter jets and other aircraft have been deployed off the peninsula as the Air Force temporarily halts flights from Osan Air Base while it begins rebuilding a Korean War-era runway.
The disruption comes amid rising tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs, but officials stressed missions would continue to be conducted from other air bases in South Korea and Japan.
Four U-2 planes were moved to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa last week along with some 180 personnel from the 5th Reconnaissance Squadron usually stationed on Osan.
“While at Kadena the 5th RS will continue to fulfill their intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission and provide continued support to U.S. allies and partners” in the region, Pacific Air Forces said in a statement. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but other aircraft have been moved to Alaska and Kunsan AB during the June 5th – July 5th construction period.
Maj. Gen. Thomas Tempel, chief of the U.S. Army Dental Corps, speaks during a ceremony at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, on May 30, 2017, to open Camp Humphreys Dental Clinic, a dental clinic of the 65th Medical Brigade. The dental clinic is the largest U.S. Army dental clinic in the Asia-Pafific region with 79 state-of-the-art chairs, it said. (Yonhap)
The obvious question with this incident is where were their parents at? What an embarrassment:
Three teenage children of U.S. forces in South Korea have been arrested for assaulting Koreans, including a 50-something taxi driver, while drunk, police said Sunday.
One victim was reportedly assaulted because he did not know the location of a nearby nightclub, according to Mapo Police Station.
The alleged incident happened at 2 a.m. of May 23 near Sogang University in Mapo, northwestern Seoul.
According to police, the teenagers picked a fight with two adult Koreans after they bumped shoulders accidently. The teenagers were then involved in a fight with a Korean man near Hongik University at around 3 a.m. after he failed to answer their question about the nightclub. A taxi driver who tried to intervene was also assaulted. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but their parents should be held accountable as well for allowing their kids to be wandering around Seoul at 2AM in the morning.
Via Popular Military comes a video filmed by Korean-American servicemembers serving in USFK. They interviewed random South Koreans in Daegu on what they thought about the US soldiers in their country. The opinions on the whole were largely favorable with most criticism being soldiers spending too much time in clubs, womanizing, and not learning Korean.
It just seems that this is a pretty bold theft to try and pull off with little reward when they were trying to sell the HMMWVs for $10,000 a piece:
An American soldier and six South Korean civilians have been accused of stealing three Humvees from an unnamed U.S. base in South Korea and trying to sell them.
A U.S. soldier and six South Korean civilians have been accused of being part of a ring that stole three Humvees from a U.S. base in South Korea and tried to sell them, police said Thursday.
The soldier, identified only as a 47-year-old Korean-American man, allegedly conspired with the others to arrange for three Humvees to be stolen from the base in June and September of last year, police said.
The thefts were carried out by camouflaging the vehicles to appear as unused items, said Kim Dong Hwan, chief detective of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s international crime investigation unit.
“The soldier insists that he was not trying to steal the vehicles with the rest of the guys,” Kim told Stars and Stripes. “The Koreans kept denying what they did at first. But they’ve been saying lately that they attempted to sell the Humvees.”
Kim said it was the first time police have uncovered a ring trafficking in stolen Humvees in South Korea.
The suspects — who also included a civilian contractor working on the base, three junk dealers, a film-prop maker and an intermediary — have been booked without detention. [Stars & Stripes]
Here is a power tip for everyone, if the MP tells you to get out of the cab, then get out of the cab especially on a weekend when they have little tolerance for foolishness:
Never say “NO” to a MP! This soldier gets dragged out and arrested because he refused to get out of the taxi cab at a ECP. [US WTF Moments]
