An Alliance? – Page 4

January 18, 2009

U.S. and ROK Sign Cost-Sharing Agreement

After more than a year of acrimonious negotiations — a year that should be seen as part of a perpetual, multi-year negotiation — the United States and South Korea have signed another cost-sharing agreement. So is it a good deal? The question isn’t easily answered, with all of the bullshit you have to squeegie away to get down to the facts of it: Korea has signed an agreement with the United States to provide W760 billion to keep American troops...

An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea

November 17, 2008

Freedom Isn’t Free

USFK has announced that a battalion of Apache attack helicopters, comprising some 24 aircraft and half of USFK’s Apache strength, will leave Korea for Ft. Carson. The choppers are expected to redeploy to Afghanistan and Iraq later on. Washington had in the past tried to redeploy some of its Apache helicopters from Korea, but such moves were often met with strong opposition from the government in Seoul, which feared a possible reduction of U.S. strength here. “The situation we are...

An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea

August 19, 2008

Richard Halloran Prognosticates on N. Korea Regime Collapse

Halloran knows how many predictions of North Korea’s collapse that have passed unrealized, and he’s wise enough to abstain from outright predictions. Instead, he walks us through the factors that make it worthy of urgent-yet-careful planning: North Korean soldiers in a regime that gives priority to the military forces have been reduced to two skimpy meals a day. Factory workers nap on the floor for lack of food and energy. That has led to conjecture that North Koreans, despite the...

An Alliance?/Regime Change

August 17, 2008

What Ranch Country Thinks of Korea’s Beef Protests

Update, 12/08: Here’s how history will record this whole ridiculous episode. As Korea heaves a meek “never mind” to a national crisis based on exposed falsehoods and manipulated by an anti-democratic fifth column, American Korea-watchers may be tempted to assume that the episode passed without being noticed by most Americans. That’s not a safe thing to assume for my part of the country, the part that produces most of that beef. If you’re not from that part of the country,...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Society/U.S. & Korea

July 30, 2008

Tokdo: Now Officially the Dumbest International Crisis in History

… thus supplanting all of that Seige of Troy unpleasantness. I cannot say that South Korea would be much the worse for having dismissed Ambassador Lee Tae Shik from his post, but that is incidental to the skull-smacking stupidity of why: The government on Monday decided to call Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Lee Tae-shik to account if it is found that the embassy did not react promptly to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names listing Dokdo under “undesignated sovereignty.”...

An Alliance?/Japan/Japan & Korea/Korean Politics/Korean Society

July 10, 2008

It’s Official: South Korea Is a Lost Cause

After opening last week in 350 theaters across South Korea, “Crossing” is now showing on 289 screens. As of Tuesday, 654,000 people had seen it ““ a modest number by local box office standards. In fact, the film’s producers are not certain if they will recover the investment of $4 million ““ a hefty sum by local standards. “Crossing” aims to remind South Korean viewers of an issue that they tend to overlook in a society concerned with its own...

An Alliance?/Korean Society/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized

June 28, 2008

Mad Sheep Disease

Update, 12/08: Here’s how history will record this whole ridiculous episode. It is an inviolable rule of today’s South Korea that all social movements will eventually become violent and anti-American. So inevitably, a movement that was, at first, ostensibly about food safety has descended into a violent anti-American riot, with protestors ransacking the offices of newspapers that don’t echo the street’s bleat. I’d love to know a little more about who the shepherds are: Junior Naver, the children’s site of...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/Korean Society

June 25, 2008

With Friends Like These (Pt. 2)

Via Robert, there is finally confirmation for something I’ve long suspected — the South Korean government brings anti-Americanism to the bargaining table and uses it as a negotiating tool: Hong Seong-tae, a sociology professor at Sangji University, said, “The anti-American sentiment, voluntarily created by citizens, helps South Korea increase its negotiating power in its relations with the U.S. In fact, Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon said, “Whenever the negotiations were at risk of failing, I produced a picture of the candlelight...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism

June 25, 2008

With Friends Like These (Pt. 1)

Today is June 25, 2008, the 58th anniversary of Japan’s America’s North Korea’s invasion of South Korea. I hope you’ll excuse my temporary confusion; my han has been acting up again: More than half of teenagers here do not know when the Korean War broke out or who started it, showing ignorance about the country’s history and national security. The Ministry of Public Administration and Security said Monday that a survey of 1,016 middle and high school students showed nearly...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean History

June 16, 2008

B.S. Stands for ‘Bovine Spongiform’

At this time a year ago, I thought by now that I’d be writing about the restoration of an alliance that Roh Moo Hyun had just about managed to destroy. Although I’ve long felt that a large U.S. military presence in South Korea was an anachronism no longer justifed by any North Korean threat, I saw benefits to having a healthy military, diplomatic, and economic alliance between South Korea and the United States. Also, I think it would be nice...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized

April 17, 2008

Must Read: Sung-Yoon Lee on the Bush-Lee Summit

If anyone ever asks what we should do about North Korea from this day forward, I think I’ll just refer them to this: Empower the office of the US special envoy for human rights in North Korea so that the special envoy can fulfill his mandate as per Section 107 of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 unfettered by Washington politics. Make full use of the $20 million appropriated for 2008 to provide assistance to North Koreans outside...

An Alliance?/Money Laundering/U.S. & Korea

April 16, 2008

The Death of an Alliance, Part 68

Here is a delicious pairing of cause and effect: The U.S. has notified the South Korean government it will withdraw one squadron of some 20 F-16 fighters by the end of this year. [….] The Defense Ministry is reportedly busy working out a response. They take the view that the abrupt notice of the withdrawal has something to do with the U.S.’s demand that Korea bear more upkeep cost for the USFK. [Chosun Ilbo] If you happen to believe...

An Alliance?/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea

April 13, 2008

Kim Won Ung: A Most Joyous Political Obituary

Imagine an America in which Cynthia McKinney chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and holds regular meetings with Osama Bin Laden, and you can be begin to grasp the national embarrassment of Kim Won Ung’s tenure as leader of the Korean National Assembly’s Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee. Perhaps this analogy will also illustrate the depth of my ambivalence at confirming that Kim has lost his bid for reelction. Kim Won Ung at Kim Il Sung’s Birthplace in North...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics

April 9, 2008

America: Now 16% Less Hated!

We have some more results for the OFK poll archive on South Korean anti-Americanism. Koreans’ attitudes toward the U.S. are improving, according to a poll by Britain’s broadcaster BBC late last year. A survey of 17,457 people in 34 countries on U.S. influence in the international community shows that the number of positive respondents outnumbered negativists only in South Korea and Portugal. Among 1,031 South Korean respondents, 49 percent showed a mainly positive attitude toward the U.S. The number of...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Society

March 28, 2008

South Korea Grows Up

First the Human Rights Commission, now this: The South Korean government has decided to vote for a resolution on human rights in North Korea to be adopted by the UN Human Rights Council this week, it emerged on Tuesday. South Korea has so far boycotted or abstained from all UN votes on North Korea including the General Assembly, except for 2006, when the North conducted a nuclear test. [….] A government official, speaking on the customary condition of...

"United" Nations/An Alliance?/Appeasement/NK Military/U.S. & Korea

February 19, 2008

S. Korea’s Next Unification Minister Denounced as “Collapsist” and “Neocon”

The left-wing Hankyoreh is predictably disgruntled about the new Unification Minister: Nam [Joo Hong] is your typical member of the “school of collapse. He has consistently claimed that there are signs that a sudden situation could arise in the North, saying that it has problems in five major areas, including food, energy and succession. Immediately after the February 13 agreement was made, he said that the crisis management ability of the leadership in Pyongyang was reaching a breaking point. Naturally...

An Alliance?/Korean Politics/Reconstruction/Regime Change

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...

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]...

An Alliance?/Appeasement/Terrorism (NK)

Category: An Alliance?