Tag: USFK

Congratulations to General Scaparrotti if the below report is true.  This is pretty impressive that he is going from one very important four-star command to take over another one as the head of NATO.  I can’t remember the last USFK commander that moved on to such a prestigious position after leaving their post in Korea:

Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, will probably be promoted to head NATO Forces.

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday said U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is to recommend to President Barack Obama that Scaparrotti become the next commander of U.S. European Command.

Scaparrotti will serve concurrently as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, or the head of NATO forces. He assumed command of the USFK in August 2013.  [Chosun Ilbo]

The article doesn’t say if the person was a government civilian or contractor, but regardless he has been fired for having ecstasy pills mailed to him in South Korea:

An American civilian who worked at the U.S. military in South Korea has been indicted on charges of trafficking drugs to Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul, prosecutors said Friday.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said the 35-year-old, identified only by his initial J, is suspected of receiving 35 pills of MDMA, better known as “ecstasy,” and 20.5 grams of hemp from an unidentified seller last year.

Still, the suspect was not taken into custody.

The drugs were sent from the Netherlands and went through the distribution center for military posts at Incheon International Airport, Seoul’s main gateway, before arriving at the military base, prosecutors said.

The suspect, who worked with the 8th U.S. Army, was fired in September after being caught by South Korean police who received a tip from the U.S. military’s criminal investigation division.  [Yonhap]

Another ordinance round landing outside the limits of Rodriguez Range is the last thing USFK needed to happen at the increasingly controversial firing range.  It will be interesting to see if the investigation results will be released because it would helpful to know if this was human error or a problem with the TOW missile?  Regardless activists will undoubtedly jump on this in their effort to get paid:

The U.S. military has suspended training at the Rodriguez Live Fire Range in South Korea after a stray missile struck a nearby building.

No one was injured in the Wednesday incident, which is under investigation, 8th Army spokesman Col. David Patterson Jr. said Thursday.

The tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided (TOW) anti-tank missile was fired by Marines training at the range, 2nd Infantry Division spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hyde said. It landed 200 meters outside the range boundary in an abandoned building within the Pocheon city limits.

“All operations have been ceased at the range,” Patterson said.

Rodriguez Live Fire Range is a 3,390-acre complex used year-round by both U.S. and South Korean forces. While most of the surrounding area is rural, residents have long voiced complaints over noise, fires and other incidents.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

A reunified Korean peninsula is a big if, but if it did happen one thing is for sure that USFK’s role in South Korea would undoubtedly change if not end all together.  That is what former CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry writes about in a paper discussed in the below National Interest article.  I for one think that the ROK would want to keep USFK intact with less troops on the ground as a hedge against any Chinese adventurism on the peninsula:

Last week Kim Jong-un marked the fourth anniversary of his succession to leadership and his father’s death in North Korea. The leadership transition reignited discussion among North Korea watchers over how and whether the regime would be able to survive. Two years later, Kim had his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, executed for treason, sparking another round of speculation over whether the execution reflected a step toward consolidation of power under or was evidence of infighting that might lead to a leadership vacuum in Pyongyang. Because North Korea’s totalitarian system requires isolation to perpetuate political control yet is increasingly penetrated by markets and information, speculation about North Korea’s collapse will persist, and outside observers will judge that Kim is playing a losing hand.

For this reason, policy wonks continue to discuss whether North Korea might collapse and what challenges might emerge out of such a scenario. Nevertheless, seldom discussed is how a unified Korea might behave or how the U.S.-South Korea alliance might or might not adapt, change or even dissolve as a result of unification. Answers to these questions, of course, are speculative and are difficult to conceptualize, but Sue Mi Terry, managing director for Korea at BowerGroupAsia and former CIA analyst, seeks to tackle them straight on in her discussion paper, “Unified Korea and the Future of the U.S.-South Korea Alliance.”

Starting with the most likely scenario that unification will occur with South Korea absorbing the North without a devastating war, Terry argues that a unified Korea would face three possible strategic choices: continuing the alliance with the United States in some form, becoming an independent regional power and tilting toward China. A multilateral security arrangement or a collective security mechanism is unlikely to materialize as an option.  [The National Interest]

You can read the rest at the link.

The investigation into the live anthrax spores shipped to the US military in South Korea has uncovered numerous other shipments of anthrax.  However, those shipments featured dead spores unlike the one that was mistakenly shipped to South Korea that had live spores in it.  Fortunately no one who was exposed to the live spores has contracted anthrax:

A probe by Seoul and Washington into an erroneous shipment of a live anthrax sample to a U.S. military base in Korea revealed on Thursday that samples of the deadly bacteria have been brought into the country many more times over the past six years than initially known.

Since 2009, a total of 16 anthrax samples were brought into the country by the United States Forces Korea (USFK) without the knowledge of Korean authorities, according to the results of the joint investigation.

The USFK initially told the Korean government in May that only a single anthrax sample was shipped here and that it was the first time for such an occurrence.

A live anthrax sample was mistakenly shipped in late April to the Osan Air Base in Gyeonggi, where 22 personnel were possibly exposed to live anthrax spores.

These exposed researchers and staff took antibiotics and vaccines and have not contracted the disease so far, and the live bacteria sample was immediately destroyed. However, there was an outcry in Seoul over the potential risks.

In response, the United States and Korea in July formed a joint task force to investigate how live anthrax shipments entered Korea undetected. It was composed of military and foreign affairs officials.

The 15 other anthrax samples were shipped to the U.S. military base in Yongsan District, central Seoul, between 2009 and 2014 for biological testing purposes, according to the investigation.

Korean authorities said they were not aware of these anthrax shipments because customs officials here are not authorized to look into biochemical samples for the USFK that are labeled “inactivated.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

The pool photo released on Dec. 13, 2015, shows the new headquarters of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) being built in Pyeongtaek, southeast of Seoul. USFK is moving its troops in Seoul and its vicinity to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, and officials said the relocation will be delayed to 2017 from 2016. Some 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to deter North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean War ended only in a truce instead of a peace treaty. (Yonhap)

The Camp Humphreys relocation is expected to take another year to complete due to a scandal that sent the construction company into bankruptcy and its Korean owner committing suicide:

The relocation of US forces in South Korea (USFK) to the new base in Pyeongtaek is expected to be completed in 2017, one year later than originally planned.The announcement was made by Kim Kie-soo, director of the office for USFK relocation at South Korea‘s Defense Ministry, and Lt. Gen. Bernard Champoux, commander of the US’s Eighth Army. The two officials spoke to reporters on Dec. 10 at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, which is currently under construction.“As of the end of November, progress on construction of the Pyeongtaek base stood at 86 percent, and most of this will be completed next year.

The relocation of the US army base will begin next year and will for the most part be completed by 2017,” Kim told reporters.This means that the move will take place a year later than promised in the government’s original plan, which had been to finish the move by next year.When asked about the reasons for the delay, Kim mentioned the bankruptcy of Keangnam Enterprises. “With Keangnam Enterprises entering receivership and the former chairman Sung Wan-jong committing suicide [due to scandal], a number of construction projects were halted, and we had to go through a new round of bidding,” Kim said.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link.

South Korean and U.S. soldiers set up a floating bridge during a river crossing operation as part of a joint military exercise on Dec. 10, 2015, in Yeoncheon, just south of the inter-Korean border, on Dec. 10, 2015. It was the last day of the exercise by the two allies that began on Dec. 1. (Yonhap)

Here is the latest on the protests outside of the Korea Training Center.  Basically the protesters want to get compensation money for the noise from the range.  If the US pays compensation will people living near Nightmare Range going to be the next to complain about noise and want compensation as well?  What about people who live near US air bases, should they be compensated as well for noise?  What gets me is how this is framed as a US military problem when the ROK military uses the KTC as well.  I have never heard of Koreans protesting against ROK military noise?  It would be an interesting fact to know if the ROK military has ever paid out compensation money for noise.

At sunset on Oct. 28, a group of South Koreans gathered outside the gates of Rodriguez Live Fire Complex at Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, some 24 kilometers from the heavily guarded demilitarized zone.

The numbers swelled into the hundreds, with the mostly middle-aged crowd from adjacent villages starting bonfires, singing songs and watching live dance performances. However, despite the seemingly festive atmosphere, hostility could be felt as villagers were there to hold a rally, calling for an end to what they alleged was excessive noise and danger from the U.S. military complex.

“I came here because I’m a resident here. The kids are so scared (because of the noise from gunshots), they keep waking up at night. I wish the noise could just go away,” said Lim Ga-young, a Vietnamese-Korean mother who accompanied her three children and mother-in-law to the rally.

Just like Lim and hundreds of people who gathered to seek compensation for decades of “living in fear,” villagers from near the U.S. shooting range in Pocheon, including in Yeongpyeong-ri and Yamae-ri, have complained about the noise and flying bullets from military shooting drills for over half a century.

The Rodriquez range, just a stone’s throw from North Korea, carries out live-fire exercises, including the annual Foal Eagle war games jointly conducted by the South Korean and U.S. military.

But flexing the allies’ muscles against the communist neighbor ― which remains technically at war with the South since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an cease-fire and not a treaty ― appears to have had unintentional negative repercussions on the well-being of the villagers.

“Living in this area, we are paying a hefty price because of the environment. Some even had to undergo surgeries for health problems. But there has hardly been any real probe or measures taken for us. They just don’t care, that’s why we decided to take the matter into our own hands,” said 62-year-old Lee Eung-soo.

“Decades have passed, but nothing has changed,” said Lee, who has lived in Pocheon for 60 years and works as a barber in his village. “It is hard for me to move because my entire livelihood is based in the city.” [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.

USFK personnel looking to get a phone through a Korean telecom company will no longer receive the same subsidies that Korean consumers receive unless they remain in country at least two years:

The South Korean government has ruled that cellphone subsidies given to thousands of U.S. servicemembers stationed there on short tours were illegal, officials said Tuesday.

The Korean Communications Commission fined LG U Plus 186 million won (about $161,000) for violating the country’s Mobile Distribution Law, which bars handset subsidies for customers committed to anything less than a 24-month contract.

Thousands of U.S. servicemembers in South Korea are stationed there on one-year tours — particularly at bases north of Seoul where 2nd Infantry Division soldiers often serve unaccompanied.

LG U Plus counts about 7,200 U.S. Forces Korea servicemembers, civilians and others as subscribers, according to a KCC official who spoke with Stars and Stripes on Tuesday.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.