Tag: USFK

Here is the latest on the THAAD deployment to South Korea:

Lim Sang-hwan, who has an anti-THAAD banner across the front of his cellphone shop, says he thinks up to 90 percent of his neighbors are worried that the system’s high-powered radar will pose a hazard.

“It’s being deployed too close to where families live,” he says. “I have a 4-year-old son and I don’t want him harmed.”

Since the South Korean government chose the site in neighboring Seongju County in September, it’s created tension in the adjacent communities, says Shin Sang-won, a taxi driver here.

“A lot of people argue about it,” he says. “I don’t talk about the missiles unless my passenger brings it up. I don’t want any problems.”

Shin says he personally supports the new defense system and doesn’t believe speculation about the potential effects of the radar emissions.

Anger over the THAAD deployment, which is expected to take place by the end of 2017, has focused on officials in Seoul. Locals say they feel they were left out of the decision-making process and their concerns have not been addressed.

Both the U.S. and South Korean militaries have tried to calm local concerns. They’ve said the THAAD system’s radar emissions meet safety standards and there won’t be any adverse effect on the surrounding communities.

Still, local farmers don’t want their produce to be known as THAAD grapes or plums, according to Kim Hee-soo. The supermarket manager, 45, has joined recent demonstrations against the missile shield system, which so far have been peaceful.

“If these missiles are brought to the area, I expect the protesters might turn aggressive,” she said.  [USA Today]

You can read more at the link, but the protesters vow to demonstrate and block the roads of the identified THAAD site when the missile defense system arrives.  With a politically weaken Park Geun-hye it is going to be interesting to see how this all plays out next year.

The 2nd Infantry Division headquarters will move to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek next year which means Camp Red Cloud will be closed and redeveloped:

A U.S. military base in Uijeongbu in Gyeonggi Province will be turned into tourist facilities after U.S. forces there move to Pyeongtaek, the city government said Wednesday.

The U.S. Army’s 2nd Infantry Division (2ID) stationed at Camp Red Cloud (CRC) is scheduled to be moved to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek next year in accordance with Seoul and Washington’s plans to relocate the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK). Pyeongtaek is located 70 kilometers south of the capital.

“We will come up with detailed plans by February 2018 to turn CRC into a tourist complex,” the city said in a release. “Toward that end, we recently commissioned a study to a private, specialized company.”

Once the 628,000 square meters of land are vacated, the city is planning to create a complex in which visitors can learn about Korea’s modern and contemporary history as well as the importance of national security.

The city is also considering using records related to the Korean War, World War II and the Vietnam War, currently stored in a CRC war museum.

After detailed plans are prepared and a feasibility and profitability study is conducted, the city will ask the central government to lead in the construction.

The city expects the envisioned complex will be especially attractive to tourists, together with another cultural complex there whose construction is scheduled to be completed in 2018. The cultural complex will host a Pororo theme park, featuring the popular animated character, and family hotels as well as YG Entertainment’s YG Global K-Pop Cluster. [Korea Times via a reader tip]

You can read more at the link, but a history complex and a Pororo Theme Park to me seems like it does not go together very well.  Plus Korea already has so many museums that another one in Uijongbu will not drive tourism to the city.  The government should turn the whole thing into a giant Pororo Theme Park which would drive tourism to Uijongbu and further develop that part of the city.  As it is right now Koreans really don’t have a reason to go to Uijongbu and a Pororo Theme Park would give Korean families a good reason to visit.

According to Victor Cha, under a Trump Presidency expect the OPCON issue to come back again:

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump could try to complete the postponed transfer of the wartime operational control of South Korean forces from Washington to Seoul in an effort to reduce American security burdens, a top expert on Korea said Wednesday.

South Korea handed over control of its forces to the U.S. during the 1950-53 Korean War to defend against invading troops from North Korea. Peacetime control of its forces was returned in 1994, but the wartime control, known as OPCON, still rests with the U.S.

The two countries agreed in 2007 to transfer OPCON to Seoul by 2012. But the planned transfer was postponed twice amid growing threats from North Korea, first until 2015 and then indefinitely until the South becomes more capable of coping with the North’s threats.

“Trump’s guiding principle has been to put American interests first. In this regard, it is entirely plausible that a Trump presidency may seek to complete OPCON transfer and put these responsibilities in the hands of Koreans,” said Victor Cha, Korea chairman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised if Trump uses the OPCON issue as a negotiating chip to get South Korea to pay more for the upkeep of USFK.

This photo taken from the website of the 8th Army of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) on Nov. 7, 2016, shows families of U.S. troops boarding a C-130 transport plane during the recent Courageous Channel noncombatant evacuation exercise at an undisclosed military base here. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed here as a deterrent against North Korea, while there are more than 150,000 civilians with the USFK, including U.S. government noncombatants, and private American citizens and their families. (Yonhap)

Here is an interesting read from the LA Times about a soldier stationed at Yongsan Garrison that was being charged with the manslaughter of his best friend:

The men were U.S. Army mechanics, and they had arranged to be deployed at the same time in South Korea. Pfc. Royal, 22, was based at the Yongsan Garrison, a major U.S. military base near Itaewon. Pfc. Anderson, 20, was stationed at Humphreys, a rural garrison 55 miles south, and he was visiting for the weekend.

They drank; they played pool; they wrestled like muscle-bound, army-trained puppies, grappling into chokeholds until one or the other cried uncle. They got matching tattoos — “friends forever” swirling down their forearms in blue Korean script.

Chrissy — an energetic young woman from Royal’s North Carolina hometown — went home early, and just after midnight, Royal and Anderson decided to go home too. A taxi dropped them off near Royal’s apartment. Royal and Anderson began roughhousing. Royal pushed Anderson with two hands — a shove to the chest — and Anderson fell backwards.

Thus began the first in a tragic series of unpredictable events that would leave one friend dead, the other on trial, and the military justice system forced to grapple with complex questions about responsibility and punishment in a case whose primary villain seemed to be fate.

It happened in a matter of seconds. Just as Anderson tumbled into the street, a car veered around a corner and blazed through a red blinking light, plowing suddenly over Anderson with both axles — bump, bump. The car stopped. The police arrived. And 12 days later, Anderson died in the hospital, hooked up to a mechanical ventilator.

The Army charged Royal with manslaughter.

The hearing that would determine whether Royal would have to face a full court-martial began on a crisp day in October.  [LA Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but it seems to me that the person most culpable for the accident is the driver that ran the red light in the first place.

U.S. Forces Korea’s top commander Vincent Brooks gives a pep talk to South Korean soldiers in Yeoju, about 100 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Nov. 2, 2016, as he visits a river-crossing drill conducted by the Army’s 8th Division. The maneuver is part of the broader Hoguk combined drill that the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force have carried out since 1996. (Yonhap)

Via a reader tip comes this article from Korea Bizwire criticizing USFK’s use of electricity compared to the ROK military.

Recent data from the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) showed that electricity consumption per capita for the USFK was almost ten times the average rate for the Korean military, again raising questions over excessive energy consumption by American military personnel stationed on the peninsula.

According to KEPCO, electricity consumption by the USFK was 683 million kWh in 2015,  compared to 1.595 billion kWh for the Korean military.

However, given the number of personnel, with 28,500 American soldiers but around 630,000 Koreans, the average American soldier (23,965 kWh) consumed 9.47 times more electricity than their Korean counterpart (2,531 kW), the data noted.

Officials suggest that the USFK’s cheaper electricity rates are one of the factors encouraging excessive consumption of electricity.

The USFK currently receives electricity benefits, paying cheaper rates than Korean households and even industrial customers, which pay the lowest rate at 107.41 won per kWh. In 2015, the USFK paid a rate of 106.94 won/kWh, while the rates were 122.28 won/kWh for the Korean military, 123.69 won for households, and 113.22 won for educational institutions.

Another electricity benefit includes exemption of penalties or interest for overdue electricity bills.  [Korea Bizwire via reader tip]

You can read more at the link, but considering the various command centers, barracks, family housing, commissaries, exchanges, etc. that US military bases have compared to a typical ROK military installation its seems this article is comparing apples to oranges.

This is just another example of why these sexual assault cases are so hard to litigate and not as cut and dry as the activists and politicians want people to believe:

The Seoul High Court upheld Tuesday a lower court ruling that acquitted a former Korean soldier of raping a female American soldier, saying sexual relations between the two did not involve a physical attack or threats.

The Korean soldier, 22, whose name was withheld, was serving as a sergeant in the Korean Augmentation Troops to the United States Army (KATUSA) in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, when he allegedly raped the U.S. soldier, 19, in December.

He was in charge of educating American soldiers new to Korea, and he and his accuser began seeing each other frequently and engaged in sexual relations from last October. However, on one occasion, while kissing at his barracks, the man told her he wanted to have sex and she refused. He then said he would not let her leave the room, and forcibly had sex with her anyway.

During sex, he asked her if it was rape, and as she said yes, he then stopped, and knelt down to apologize. She accepted his apology but later reported it as rape to the military police.

Even though the assailant partially admitted it was rape during the investigation, the lower and high courts did not recognize it as such.

“Although sexual intercourse occurred against the woman’s will, she said there was no physical attack, swearing or anything threatening,” the high court said. “She did not call for help or resist, but rather she undressed on her own volition,” it added. [Korea Times]

Should this be considered rape even though there was no physical attack and she did not resist in any way?  The Korean courts don’t think so, I wonder what a US court would have ruled on this?  I also wonder why the ROK Army did not try this case and instead gave it to a ROK civilian court?

Does anyone think permanently deploying US bombers and Aegis ships will do anything to change the behavior of the Kim regime?:

South Korea and the United States have officially begun discussions on the permanent deployment of strategic weapons such as nuclear-capable bombers on the Korean Peninsula.

This was at the top of the agenda in the “two plus two” high-level security talks among Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and Defense Minister Han Min-koo, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ash Carter in Washington, Thursday.

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told reporters after the meeting that the two defense chiefs will discuss details about how to deploy U.S. strategic assets in South Korea during the annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM).

“The permanent deployment of U.S. strategic assets will be discussed at the defense chiefs’ talks,” he said.

U.S. strategic assets include nuclear-capable B-52 and B-1B bombers, F-22 stealth fighter jets, nuclear-powered attack submarines and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

Military sources here said that working-level officials of the two nations have already been talking on permanently deploying B-1B Lancers or Aegis destroyers to South Korea. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but this article from Yonhap says the US is unlikely to station strategic assets in South Korea due to cost and concerns of upsetting China:

The scholar said as the U.S. has gradually reduced its defense budget, it will be financially burdensome to deploy its strategic assets on or near the Korean Peninsula.

“The U.S. prefers to operate those assets on a rotational basis to flexibly respond to conflicts in the Middle East, the South and East China Sea, if necessary,” he pointed out.

China remains another major obstacle as the North’s closest ally will be “definitely irritated” by permanent deployment of any U.S. nuclear-armed weapons in South Korea, said Kim Dong-yeob, a professor at Kyungnam University’s North Korean studies school.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest exercise held between the ROK and the United States to further deter North Korea:

The flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier was bustling with sailors and planes Friday to demonstrate air flight operations to dozens of South Korean reporters who arrived on board after an hour-long flight from a U.S. air base near Seoul.

The first thing that greeted reporters was pilots in the cockpits of their Super Hornet fighter jets getting ready to take off and the flight deck crew assisting in the operations in waters some 240 kilometers from Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, and north of Jeju Island.

Before the planned demonstration, Rear Adm. Charles Williams, commander of the carrier battle group of the U.S. 7th Fleet, delivered a short briefing on the ongoing joint exercise between South Korean and U.S. navies amid ever-growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.

“Our operations on the Korean peninsula are part of the ongoing partnership with our Republic of Korea Navy counterparts that has been around for more than 5 decades now. The work we have done with our counterparts has proven to strengthen our alliance,” the flag officer said.

As for the meaning of the combined exercise, Lt. Commander Aaron V. Kakiel, a spokesman for Carrier Strike Group 5, which the nuclear carrier is a part of, said, “This exercise has been planned for a very long time. We’ve been working with our Korean counterparts to exercise our interoperability in this area. It is not a direct response to any (provocative) actions (by any country). It is meant to be training for us to work together for a stronger alliance.”

During the 30-minute demonstration, nine fighter jets took off and 15 fighter jets made landings. Most of the fighter jets were FA-18 Super Hornets. Others were the E-2C Hawk Eye early warning plane and the EA-18G Growler, the fleet’s electronics warfare plane.

U.S. and South Korean navy officials said the joint exercise will further improve interoperability to be fully ready to strike back against any military attacks by North Korea.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.