An Alliance? – Page 8

October 28, 2006

Suspected N. Korean Spies, Shielded by Ruling Party Parliamentarian, Played a Leading Role in Anti-U.S. Protests (The Death of an Alliance, Part 58)

[Update: Welcome Gateway Pundit readers; this story is developing rapidly, and now, there’s new evidence that the North Koreans tried to help the ruling leftist Uri Party win the Seoul mayor’s race last May. Plus, more evidence of a North Korean hand in fanning anti-Americanism in the South.] A widening spy scandal surrounding several senior members of the leftist Democratic Labor Party and a U.S. citizen may have led to the resignation of the head of the National Intelligence Service...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/The Fifth Column/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military

October 25, 2006

S. Korean Cabinet Shakeup: Unifiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok Will Resign; Defense, Foreign Ministers Will Also Step Down

Reuters Photo: UniFiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok and Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon at the National Assembly, Oct. 6, 2006. [Scroll down for updates] Roh has not confirmed that he will accept the resignation of the UniFiction Minister who replaced Comrade Chung Dong-Young. Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok was soon expected to confirm his intention to step down during a meeting with reporters, according to the officials. With Lee’s resignation, if accepted, the president is expected to reshuffle all of his...

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

October 23, 2006

So Much for a Nuclear-Free Korea

Update: A well-informed reader says the Pentagon denies this story. This should get their attention in Beijing. As ye sow: Seoul and Washington will add use of nuclear arms by U.S. forces in response to North Korean atomic weapons in a joint operation strategy codenamed OPLAN 5027, sources said Thursday. That would mean the return of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea 15 years after they were pulled out in 1991. At the 28th Military Committee Meeting (MCM)...

An Alliance?/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/WMD

October 21, 2006

Dance, Little Piggy! (Kim Jong Il Unplugged, Part 14)

Most observers had speculated, since at least 1994 or so, that North Korea has the capacity to create a crude nuclear weapon. That appears to be exactly what they demonstrated recently, meaning that the only real news was our need to recalibrate Kim Jong Il’s brass-to-brains ratio. I didn’t guess whether he’d actually go through with it, but I did believe that he’d try to time it just before the U.S. election if he did. I also guessed that if...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/China & Korea/Diplomacy/U.S. & Korea

October 19, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 56

At the end of this post, there is big news, but if I told you now, I couldn’t wring the last full measure of absurdity out of it. So please stick with me here. I have accused the South Korean government of promoting anti-Americanism. When I do, I speak of things like this: The chief presidential secretary for security Song Min-soon on Wednesday said South Korea would be the greatest victim in a war on the peninsula due to the...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/WMD/WTF?

October 19, 2006

Interview: L. Gordon Flake, Executive Director, Mansfield Foundation

Gordon Flake (bio) is two things that make his opinions interesting and valuable to me. First, he’s a fluent Korean speaker, and those of us who aren’t are always at some disadvantage to those who do when we are gathering the facts we process into our views. Second — and Gordon may not agree with this characterization — his views strike me as classically liberal. His views are probably more independent and less jaundiced by partisan bias or ambitions than...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Blogs & Blogging/Famine & Food Aid/Google Earth/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Korean Society/Media Criticism/NK Economics/Proliferation/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views

October 16, 2006

NRO on Ban Ki-Moon and the Alliance

It reads like an autopsy. The choice of Ban Ki-moon should have been good news. South Korea and the United States are formal treaty allies. We have about 30,000 troops in South Korea, who train alongside the South’s army, and a headquarters meant to take operational control of all of them in the event of a crisis…. Yet the author, Mario Loyola, thinks that South Korea is fully capable of self-defense. He thinks Roh and Ban really see the alliance...

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

October 16, 2006

Grand Nationals Call for Reexamining Aid to North Korea

The GNP had been modestly supportive of “engagement” theories during the high times of the unifiction, but in South Korea, the high has worn off. Park Geun-Hye, an exceedingly cunning sensor of the shifting political winds, is staking out “Sunshine Lite” as something more reciprocal than her previous statements had suggested. Here’s a rough translation of her most recent statement: The Sunshine Policy is necessary for leading North Korea toward change and for releasing tensions between North and South. But...

An Alliance?/Appeasement/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/WMD

October 12, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 55: South Korea’s Ruling Party Blames America for North Korea’s Nukes

Update 10/15: Correction — according to a newer poll, 43% of South Koreans are retarded. – If you also watched the new “South Park” episode last night, you may still be laughing about it. I still am. It dealt with 9-11 conspiracy theories, and naturally, Eric Cartman acted as the surrogate for all that is irrational, prejudiced, and nasty (Kyle was the scapegoat, of course). I won’t spoil any of the plot twists, but there’s a scene in the...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/WMD/WTF?

October 11, 2006

The Sunshine Policy Is Dead, Part 3

Like the captain of a sinking ship herding rats back into the hold, Kim Dae Jung is desperately trying to preserve a policy that was his dubious legacy. Without Sunshine, there is only bribery and a tarnished hunk of metal. Kim, predictably, apportions blame equally between North Korea and the United States. Honestly, there is just no pleasing some people. We’ve offered the North Koreans far too much for far too long. If DJ really thinks the North Koreans have...

An Alliance?/Appeasement/Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/U.S. & Korea/WMD

September 30, 2006

Fifth Column Watch: The USFK, Free Speech, and Subversion

Nothing really surprising here: North Korea on Tuesday criticized the U.S. military for giving American names to certain areas in South Korea, arguing that it is part of a ploy to “permanently Americanize South Korea.” Americanize South Korea? Perhaps you can be forgiven for suggesting that if you live in an oppressed, suffocated, isolated tyranny where reading up on current events can get you killed. Since we’re on the subject, where has the U.S. military given an American name to...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/The Fifth Column/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military

September 29, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 53

The end of the Eighth U.S. Army in Korea comes as no surprise to me; the rumors are not new, and this is easy to downplay as “restructuring.” With less than one complete U.S. infantry division left in Korea, it’s hard to call it EUSA a true Army-level command, but the symbolic value of its removal would be very significant. I suspect it will also mean that the USFK’s new commander will be a three-star.

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

September 28, 2006

What, Me Wimpy?

“Sometimes I may look like a weak, soft leadership,” Ban said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. “You may look at me as a soft person, but I have inner strength. This is what normally people from the outside world would have some difficulty in seeing — people from Asia particularly, when we regard humility, a humbleness, as a very important virtue.” Ban spoke to reporters after being reached at a Manhattan salon, where he was receiving a...

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

September 27, 2006

My Testimony at the House International Relations Committee

[Update: For some strange reason, the document was coming up as a previous, incomplete draft. Sorry for any who saw that one; you should be able to see the final version now.] [Update 1/2007: , including my verbal testimony, written statement, and photographic exhibits, at pages 59-94 (pdf). Other witnesses that day were Amb. Chris Hill, Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless, and Korea experts Balbina Hwang and Gordon Flake.] Well, I can’t thank Rep. Henry Hyde’s staff enough for believing...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views

September 26, 2006

DOA 52 Update

Ordinarily, allies shouldn’t have to issue ultimata to each other, but in this case, it got results when nothing else did. In a few days, you can expect to see the Roh Administration use this to play the han card for political gain and depict themselves as helpless victims of Yankee bullying. We’ve gained a range, and Roh will gain a moment’s sympathy, but the alliance’s long-term political support will suffer.

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

September 22, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 52: Thirty Days

The Air Force, via USFK Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. Garry Trexler, speaking at a public lecture, has given the South Korean Defense Ministry thirty days to find it some training range space, or see the air component relocated. I’ll go that one further: if the air cover leaves, the ground forces leave, too. With the exception of small Special Forces and SEAL teams, the U.S. military fights combined arms warfare. Take away the air cover and we go home. I...

An Alliance?/Korean Politics/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military

September 19, 2006

Self-Fulfilling Demagoguery

The background research for Roh Moo Hyun’s national security policy was a “progessive” TV documentary. The claim: The USFK could strike North Korea and lead the South Korean army into a war without even consulting Roh first: A ruling-party official quoted Roh as saying at the time, “Could the U.S. carry out a bombing raid on North Korea as it wishes without our knowledge? It is possible. South Korea can’t even claim the status of a sovereign state. The truth:...

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

September 18, 2006

Uri Goes Wobbly

… on troop control. Twenty members of the Uri Party issued a statement Monday calling for flexibility in the handover of wartime operational control of Korean troops to Seoul. “There has to be a structure allowing for flexibility in the timetable, with respect to South-North relations, the North Korean nuclear issue, and the state of affairs in Northeast Asia including security on the peninsula,” they said. It was the first time ruling party voices have publicly called for linking the...