U.S. & Korea – Page 5

April 13, 2007

‘Kim Jong Bill’ Richardson and Camp 22

[Update: The dissenting comments have been erased again. Gov. Richardson’s fans want to create a cult of adulation in which all dissent is stifled and concentration camps are never mentioned. All of this is somehow familiar to a North Korea-watcher.] [Update 2: Help us keep “Kim Jong Bill” on Wikipedia until he asks Kim Jong Il to close down Camp 22. I’ve put the text and code at the bottom of the post, below the line. Everyone is...

Appeasement/Diplomacy/U.S. & Korea/WMD

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,...

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

April 1, 2007

FTA Agreement Reached FTA Talks Near Failure: The Death of an Alliance, Part 66

[Update 2: Well, as it turns out, the two sides did reach an agreement, although it’s not clear how comprehensive. Both sides — mainly us — made major last-minute concessions. Talks were ongoing until minutes before the legal deadline. Beef tariffs will be phased out over 15 years, which is a long time. (We’ll see if the Koreans actually accept the next shipment.) Korea also gets to protect its rice market. There’s really only one bright spot I can see:...

Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/NK Economics/The Fifth Column/U.S. & Korea/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...

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...

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

March 20, 2007

Anju Links for 3/20

* Renaissance man Kevin Kim, a/k/a The Big Hominid, has launched his new book, “Water from a Skull.” * Missed the train, but not the train wreck. “Notice me!,” cries Ban Ki Moon, just as the February 13th deal starts to strike immovable objects, one of which has an atomic mass of 238. * I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Japanese are an odd people. * Don’t Forget to Ask for Receipts:...

"United" Nations/Appeasement/Blogs & Blogging/Diplomacy/Japan/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. & Korea/WMD

March 19, 2007

Chipyong-ni It Aint

[See also: A very good, thorough ROK Drop post, and a dissent from Andy Jackson.] Reporting from Kurdish Iraq, Michael Totten says the only booms are economic, and that the Kurds are leveraging peace and prosperity into de facto independence. It’s a long, interesting, occasionally fretful post, and well worth reading. Along the way, Totten notes how Kurds view the South Koreans’ “sacrifice” for a democracy in Iraq: Iraqi Kurdistan is technically occupied by a foreign power, but this...

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

March 14, 2007

Wiesenthal Center’s Associate Dean to Speak on Anti-Semitic Korean Comic at Seoul Grand Hyatt Tomorrow

[Update: The AP has more. The end result may be to show just how much anti-Semitism there really is in Korea (see this and this, with its updated “traditional European” inspiration). I will concede that before this epsode, I perceived it to be relatively rare. I don’t think so anymore. I also think that for now, it’s pretty shallow, and mostly a biproduct of anti-Americanism, which is not shallow. Racism in its broader sense is pretty much on open...

Korean Society/U.S. & Korea

March 6, 2007

Take the OFK Statesmanship Quiz

You are a major political leader of one of the world’s major industrialized democracies. An actor-turned-author publishes a book in which he photoshops the name of the country’s top newspaper into a picture of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Just to make sure there’s no room for ambiguity, he says, “I want to become a terrorist …. The newspaper is the sole monolithic monster remaining in [this] society.” As a statesman, your response is to: a. Jail the man...

An Alliance?/Democracy/Terrorism (NK)/U.S. & Korea/WTF?

February 26, 2007

The Death of an Alliance, Part 65: Beyond Dependency, Toward Reunification

[Update: In the course of a whiney tirade about how America “betrayed” South Korea, Kim Dae Joong also calls for a national conversation about South Korea becoming more self-sufficient in its own defense. I’d suggest to Mr. Kim that it’s a wee bit early to declare South Korea fully abandoned by America while we still have 29,000 of our people there. Kim also admits that the (elected) South Korean government got the deal it wanted, and in light of...

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

February 23, 2007

U.S., ROK Ministers Agree on OPCON Date

[Update: But we’re demanding benchmarks! Gates apparently shares my fears and has demanded ROK assurances that the date won’t slide yet again. He’s also demanding “tangible moves,” such as “establishing a military command that would take charge of troop control, and an earlier start to drawing up new military strategies once Combined Forces Command is dismantled.” Those sure do sound a lot like “benchmarks,” although that term was understandably avoided. I think the value of a promise made...

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

February 20, 2007

Pentagon’s Position on OPCON Deadline Slides to 2010

The report doesn’t specify what month, or how the Korean side reacted. The two countries’ defense secretaries will discuss the issue further this month.

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

February 8, 2007

‘We have a lot of challenges in front of us.’

Richard Lawless is in South Korea, talking about cost-sharing, USFK restructuring, and other problems with this declining alliance.

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

February 6, 2007

Come Here and Let Us Hate You!

Don’t get me wrong; I actually like Dick Cheney. He’s from Wyoming, which practically makes him a neighbor, and he may be one of the few people out there who’s hard-line enough for my taste, particularly on North Korea, but you have to admit that he has lacked rock star appeal recently. That’s why it’s puzzling to see even hypersensitive South Korea feel slighted by the fact that Cheney will give the place a miss in an upcoming Asia trip. ...

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

February 3, 2007

Here Comes the Election!

Update: I’ve been expecting this, and I expect more of it: There is a fourth reason why the P.P. [the new leftist party that will officially replace Uri this month] will recover considerable support, and it’s the timeless appeal of nationalism, particularly in Korea (ht). The P.P. leaders, Comrade Chung and (especially) Kim Geun Tae, show no sign of any ethical, political, or financial restraints to stop them from setting new lows in crass appeals to those sentiments, to include...

Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/Korean Society/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/UCMJ & SOFA

February 2, 2007

Jay Kim’s Irreconcilible Differences

With some Americans disturbing calm waters with the suggestion of an “alliance at risk,” Korea thinks it has found a man — a “former Korean congressman” — who can quietly bridge our widening differences: A former Korean-American congressman launched on Thursday a forum led by first-generation figures like himself to help advance Korea-U.S. relations. Chang-jun “Jay” Kim said the Washington Korea-U.S. Forum will start with 16 participants who are professionally active in political, economic, judicial and academic fields and have...

America/An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views

January 31, 2007

Hey! Clarify This!

South Korea expressed concern over “undiplomatic” remarks made by the top U.S. military officer here regarding possible delays in the relocation of U.S. military bases, a Foreign Ministry official said yesterday. [link] Background here. The Foreign Ministry would also like you to know that this is not an “official” warning; it’s really just the diplomatic equivalent of a fix-it ticket. No fine, no court appearance. Guess that “I support the alliance” bumper sticker paid off after all. “The comment (made...

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

Category: U.S. & Korea