Month: February 2015

Jasmine Lee is the first non-Korean member of the National Assembly in South Korea and the Korea Herald has an interview with her published that discusses some of her views:

When the governing Saenuri Party picked Jasmine Lee to serve as a lawmaker in April 2012, hate groups attacked her as a “dark-skinned” foreigner posing as a Korean.

Saenuri officials hoped Lee would encourage “diversity” in a dominantly homogenous, and sometimes xenophobic South Korea, to better represent naturalized citizens, foreign laborers, and other minorities in the National Assembly.

She has done her best to meet the expectations, Lee said in an interview with The Korea Herald earlier this month, but the country has a long way to go.

“There has never been a multicultural society in South Korea,” she said. “So officials here don’t know exactly how to support such families here.”  [Korea Herald]

Here is what she had to say about mixed race males serving in the ROK military:

South Korea’s Constitution obligates physically and psychologically fit men to serve 21 months in the armed forces. But the military did not accept “multicultural” men until 2011, as officials thought they would lack the social skills to mingle with others in their unit.

Lee has a son with her late Korean husband, who is likely to enter the military sometime next year. She said incorporating men from multicultural families was a step in the right direction.

“A Justice Ministry official once suggested that ‘multicultural’ servicemen serve in segregated units,” Lee said.

“I asked the official if those multicultural men would fight separately from other units if a war broke out. He said no.”

“So I asked him, then why segregate them?”

You can read more of the interview at the link.

Mongolia will ship 25,000 tons of coal to North Korea’s Rajin port: http://t.co/A16xo7gPDb

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) February 25, 2015

People across a wide swath of the West, from Arizona to Canada, looked up at the sky late Monday to see a cluster of weird lights followed by an orange tail streaking across the night.

The lights were not a meteor, but a Chinese rocket booster that broke apart, said Maj. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for U.S. Strategic Command.

There were no reports of damage or injuries, O’Donnell said, pointing to statistics showing there is a 1 in a trillion chance of being hit by space debris.

Canadian photographer Neil Zeller was on his way home from shooting the Northern Lights when he saw the cluster of fireballs in a rural area outside of Calgary about 11 p.m. local time.

“I’d never seen anything like it,” he said. He captured several shots of an orange streak slashed above dark trees. (AP)

An example of how this story has gone viral is that over in the Forums where I posted this article it received nearly 2,000 page views yesterday:

The start of the upcoming military exercises between the US and South Korea has been released:

The South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) said that the two allies will conduct their annual joint military drills starting March 2.

Approximately ten-thousand South Korean and eight-thousand-600 U.S. troops will take part in this year’s Key Resolve exercise, which will run through March 13.

Of the involved U.S. forces, six-thousand-700 will be brought in from U.S. bases in other countries such as Japan for the computer-simulated command post exercise.

This year’s Key Resolve exercise will also involve forces from five other countries such as Australia, Canada, Denmark, France and the U.K.

In a separate exercise, South Korea and the U.S. will hold Foal Eagle from March 2 to April 24 with some 200-thousand South Korean and three-thousand-700 U.S. soldiers being mobilized.

The USS Fort Worth, a three-thousand-450-ton Freedom-class littoral combat ship (LCS), will participate in the tactical field training exercise for the first time.Equipped with a helicopter, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and 21 missiles, the Fort Worth is capable of nearing the shoreline despite the shallow waters of the Asia-Pacific.  [KBS World]

You can read more at the link, but I guess we will see if the North Koreans want to respond with a provocation cycle or not.

The Korea Herald has an editorial that explains why they believe China has been so adamant at preventing the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea:

China’s dogged opposition to the potential deployment of an additional U.S. missile defense asset to South Korea has raised questions over Beijing’s true intensions, given that the interception system does not pose any serious security threat to China.

Some assume the opposition to the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense system is intended to forestall any potential negative ramifications for China’s security. Others say the dissent appears designed to weaken the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

Despite the fact that THAAD is a wholly defensive system capable of targeting only North Korean missiles directed at South Korea, top Chinese officials ― most recently China’s Defense Minister Gen. Chang Wanquan ― have repeatedly voiced opposition to THAAD.

Military experts say that, contrary to lingering speculations, THAAD could not shoot down Chinese intercontinental ballistic missiles headed for the U.S. mainland, or pose any missile threat to China, should it be based on the peninsula.  [Korea Herald]

Here is what the article says about the radar being used for intelligence collection:

China may take issue with the radar system with the argument that THAAD could be used to gather intelligence about Chinese military activities. But China is already under the scrutiny of a host of U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets including military satellites, and vice versa.

You can read much more at the link, but the editorial believes this is simply a ploy by the Chinese to create tension between the US and the ROK in order to weaken the alliance.

This reminds of something that would happen in South Korea during the military dictatorship era when people could just be snatched off the streets and detained without recourse:

Shocking story by @guardian on a "black site" like Chicago detention facility. RT @chrislhayes Read the story here: http://t.co/NWEzkrREhB …

— Trenni Kusnierek (@trenni) February 24, 2015

A hanbok (traditional Korean dress) fashion show is under way in Los Angeles on Feb. 20, 2015. (Photo courtesy of Hanbok Advancement Center) (Yonhap)

How much does anyone want to bet that this 18-year old South Korean was a loser in real life and getting involved with ISIS is something that makes him feel empowered at something for the first time?:

A South Korean teenager who vanished in Turkey last month has joined the Islamic State (IS) militant group and has been receiving training, lawmakers quoted South Korea’s national spy agency as saying Tuesday.

The 18-year-old, identified only by his surname Kim, disappeared on Jan. 10 during a trip to the southern Turkish town of Kilis and was last seen leaving a hotel.

He was reported to have crossed the border into Syria voluntarily to join the extremist group.

“Kim has joined IS and although the location hasn’t been confirmed, he has been receiving training,” lawmakers quoted an official of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) as saying during a meeting of the parliamentary intelligence committee.

“The agency said it has confirmed that Kim has been staying in a training camp,” a lawmaker said, requesting anonymity, without further elaboration.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I have to think this US Marine is pleading not guilty for murder in the hopes that he will instead be charged with a lesser manslaughter charge:

A Philippine court entered a not guilty plea Monday for a U.S. Marine charged with murdering a transgender Filipino, allegedly after he discovered her gender when they checked into a hotel.

Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton refused to enter a plea in the brief proceeding in a court in Olongapo city northwest of Manila, according to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. Journalists were barred from the courtroom.

Dozens of left-wing protesters waved red flags outside the courthouse, demanding justice and an end to the U.S. military presence in the former American colony. Gay and lesbian groups have also staged protests denouncing the killing of Jennifer Laude, whose former name was Jeffrey, as a hate crime.

Monday’s arraignment paves the way for Pemberton’s trial, which lawyers of the victim’s family said is scheduled to start next month.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.