Category: An Alliance?

February 12, 2008

I Wonder How Much $4 Million Can Buy in Gitmo

There’s yet more news on our South Korea-Taliban ransom story. Last September, I told you that Mullah Abdallah Jan, one of the leaders in the kidnapping and murder of South Korean hostages, had an unexpected meeting with an American J-Dam and shortly thereafter, 72 virgin prepubescent boys. This week, when I heard that Mansoor Dadullah had been captured, it occurred to me that the name was familiar, but the Chosun Ilbo makes the connection: Pakistani authorities said that Mansoor Dadullah...

Categories An Alliance?/Terrorism (NK)

February 11, 2008

S. Korea Still Denies Paying Ransom to Taliban; Larry Craig Still Not Gay

After months of wildly inconsistent estimates ($2 million? $20 million?) of just how much ransom the South Koreans paid for their two dozen-odd hostages in Afghanistan, the Taliban is saying the actual amount was “at least” $4 million. This final, authoritative answer is brought to you by an unidentified “senior Taliban commander,” so we need not ever speak of this again. Until the next time it happens: If we were going to free them without any payment, [the hostage taking]...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Terrorism (NK)

February 4, 2008

USFK Commander Against Further Troops Cuts (Update: USFK Denies)

General Burwell B. Bell III, commander of United States Forces Korea, expressed his wish to keep the status quo at a meeting last month, the sources said. South Korea and U.S. officials met for talks in Washington on Jan. 23.  According to the sources, Bell asked Korean officials to back his proposal to hold force levels at the current 28,500 troops. As a part of a plan to realign US. troops around the world, Washington and Seoul have agreed to...

Categories An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military

February 4, 2008

U.S., ROK Forces Will Draw up Contingency Plans for N. Korea Unrest

It’s about time: The Defense Ministry is planning to create a joint plan with the United States to cope with possible internal unrest in North Korea after the Lee Myung-bak administration comes into office.   According to military sources, the ministry reported last month a US-Korea joint plan to the transition committee in preparation for possible contingencies in North Korea from March to the end of this year. [….]   “The current administration was too conscious of North Korea to...

Categories An Alliance?/Reconstruction/Uncategorized

January 8, 2008

The Restoration

No one should take pleasure in seeing another person worry about  losing his job, but there  is much to celebrate about how Lee Myung-Bak’s new administration is shaping up.  Some doubt is now cast on earlier reports that  the UniFiction Ministry would be abolished, although it’s clear that  its size and influence will be reduced  dramatically.  Its days as a foreign policy player are over,  and the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) will regain its foreign policy...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/U.S. & Korea

December 19, 2007

U/S Lawless’s successor has Senate confirmation hearing

I’ve linked John Shinn’s advance Q&A below, and although I don’t have time to graf it, Shinn is saying — emphasizing, really — that he plans to drive on with USFK restructuring. He also sounds agnostic on North Korea’s commitment to disarmament. Read the whole thing here (it’s a big pdf).

Categories An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military

September 24, 2007

Some USFK Stats and History

A few days ago, a reader asked me how much the presence of the USFK cost American taxpayers.  This is a research project I’ve taken on before, only to be confronted by few answers from credible sources.  You’re about to see what I mean here. Writing for the Nautilus Institute, Selig Harrison claimed in 2001 that the annual cost was $42 billion per year.   Another Nautilus alum,  Doug Bandow, claimed in his recent Korea book  that withdrawing from the...

Categories An Alliance?/History/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military

September 13, 2007

What the Bush Administration Really Thinks About ‘The Spat’

Commenter Michael Sheehan dropped a link to a must-read by former senior NSC advisor Michael Green, on Roh’s bumbling open-air negotiation with President Bush last week. Green also thinks that Roh knew what he was doing, that he did it for domestic political reasons, and that he set his own goals back in the process. In other words, typical Roh: Watching the exchange later on YouTube.com, I felt great sympathy for my former national security colleagues in both countries, since...

Categories An Alliance?/Diplomacy/U.S. & Korea

September 7, 2007

The Death of an Alliance, Part 67

[Update: As I had figured, only video really does it justice. Just watch the body language and Bush’s expression. And for that matter, Roh’s. Roh certainly has used his presidency to perfect a sublime aura of idiocy. It’s hard for me to imagine that South Korean voters will be impressed if their media ever decide to cover this story. There definitely isn’t much love in that room. Click the image. Update 1 continued below, with an AP report that does...

Categories An Alliance?/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea

September 1, 2007

Ransom Is Material Support for Terror

[Updated, edited, and bumped, 9/1]   With friends like these …. Thanks to the weakness of the South Korean government, it’s a great day to be a terrorist.  I second what other Korea bloggers are saying about the Taliban’s victory over South Korea.  The Nomad:   “[W]hen Canada criticises you for being soft on terrorism, you’re in big trouble.”  Andy Jackson quotes the Taliban thusly: “We will do the same thing with the other allies in Afghanistan, because we found this...

Categories An Alliance?/Terrorism/Iraq

August 2, 2007

Double Extortion

Yesterday’s report that a hostage  rescue operation was underway in Afghanistan turned out to be premature, but spin operations in Seoul  are sharply accelerating.  In a South Korean election year, it couldn’t be more predicatable that its unpopular  and desperate leftist government, far-left “civic” groups, and certain media are looking for a way to make the  Taliban’s  kidnapping and murder of 23 Korean hostages  America’s fault.  It remains to be seen whether the greater  South Korean public will buy this....

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Terrorism/Iraq

July 3, 2007

Anju Links for 7/3

Forgive the light blogging of late, the result of competing obligations, a bigger project I hope you’ll see here soon, and frankly, a lack of interesting fodder in the news recently. *   When I read that South Korea was already preparing to ship fuel oil to North Korea (see also), even before Yongbyong is shut down, I thought that seemed a bit overconfident.  AF 2.0, as explained by Chris Hill to the Congress, specified that the first 50,000-ton delivery...

Categories An Alliance?/Anju Links/Appeasement

June 2, 2007

U.S. to Hand Over Nine Army Posts to S. Korea, Including Sears, Edwards, and Essayons

The U.S. and ROK governments have agreed on the handover of nine more U.S. bases, further reducing our footprint in South Korea. The process was concluded Thursday as a joint committee under the South Korea-United States status of forces agreement (SOFA) approved and signed the agreement on the relocation of the bases, the ministry said. …. The relocation of the bases are part of a long-term, multi-billion dollar project to realign and move the U.S. forces in South Korea further...

Categories An Alliance?/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Military

May 7, 2007

So Much for ‘Hawk Engagement:’ Victor Cha Steps Down

The proponent of the “hawk-engagement” theory of North Korea policy looks to be the first casualty of the unraveling of Agreed Framework 2.0.  The AP  tries to shoehorn this into its standard anti-Iraq War meme, but it’s a strained fit for  on Cha,  an architect of  a soft-line diplomatic approach that is clearly failing:  Cha leaves amid concerns over  North Korea’s failure to comply with deadlines to eliminate its nuclear weapons programs.  [AP] Reporter  Matthew Lee’s story is  what you’d...

Categories An Alliance?/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/U.S. Politics

May 5, 2007

Who Still Wants the Alliance?

Because of Agreed Framework 2.0, South Korea thinks it’s set for the duration of the Bush Administration — which it is — so it now feels free to demand our taxpayer dollars rather than ask for them politely. There are unpleasantries like Washington’s decision to sell off its ammunition stockpiles in Korea, but no matter; South Korea is certain war will never come (no, we still can’t leave). South Korea also feels free to ignore our requests not to give...

Categories An Alliance?/Diplomacy

April 4, 2007

Richard Lawless Resigns

Lawless was responsible for pushing the South Koreans into USFK restructuring and cost-sharing agreements, and unlike years of predecessors, had been tough enough to sit down and negotiate as firmly as his counterparts.  No one pushed Richard Lawless around.  As a result, the Korean government and press were not fans.  See, e.g., this picture the Joongang Ilbo printed.  “Hulk angry!” Lawless cited personal reasons for his resignation, according to one official. He will leave his post in a few weeks,...

Categories An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/U.S. Politics

March 31, 2007

An FTA Pre-Post Mortem

At this hour, it looks like free trade talks with South Korea are about to fail, despite their extension for another 48 hours.   It may be  a bit  early for  the Chosun Ilbo  to have  published this post-mortem, but any free-trade agreement we reach now will be unworthy of the name and hardly worth doing from an American perspective.  Yes, I still  believe an US-Korean FTA is a good idea, but it’s pretty hard to  write a good one when...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Politics

March 25, 2007

Anju Links for 3/25: N. Korea Threatens to Do Us a Favor, Money We Can’t Follow, the FTA Circus, and S. Korea’s Slavery-Loving Unions

*   No.Please.Stop.   North Korea is threatening to pull  out of the  dreadful (for us) February 13th Agreed Framework 2.0 over  the RSOI / Foal Eagle exercises. “This may entail such serious consequences as escalating the tension between the DPRK (North Korea) and the US and scuttling the six-party talks for the settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, arranged with so much effort.”  [Channel News Asia] A KCNA statement wouldn’t be complete without a reference to...

Categories An Alliance?/Human Trafficking/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/UCMJ & SOFA