ROK Drop Open Thread – March 13, 2021

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

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Korean Man
3 years ago

Biden’s US is getting out of the Middle East, to focus on Asia Pacific.

**https://bylinetimes.com/2021/03/12/joe-biden-is-done-with-the-middle-east/**

Other than the US pressure to South Korea to join the Quad, I see a very important future implication for South Korea. The US is getting out of the Middle East because they no longer need Middle East oil. However, for South Korea, the Middle East is still a vital oil source that needs to be protected militarily. It’s now becoming vital for South Korea to build a navy capable of protecting the South Korean oil tankers as the country’s survivability depends on them. For this, South Korea’s controversial decision committed to build the nuclear powered subs and naval carrier groups is now looking very justified.

South Korea also needs to depend less on Middle East Oil, that’s why South Korea is in the process of exploring and drilling for oil in the sea south of Jeju Island and the South China Sea, where both Japan and China are claiming vast areas as their own. A strong navy is needed to protect the South Korean interests in that region.

Korean Man
3 years ago

This Quad group is an interesting group. According to this Korean article (https://n.news.naver.com/mnews/article/057/0001557585?sid=104), India is not really enthused about countering China as the US is, despite India’s border problems with China. This is due to India’s heavy trade dependence on China and they don’t want to make the economic relations any worse than it already is.

Then there’s Japan, who claims that they were the ones who created the Quad group and that Japan is the leader of the group, according to this article. And Japan is flatly against the US idea to bring South Korea into the Quad group. lol. For the US, these complex regional problems of rivalry between Asian countries, is what makes it difficult for the US plan to make Quad, a real relevant organization to counter China. In my opinion, it’s basically a useless lame duck group that will only exasperate the tensions in Asia.

OleTanker
3 years ago

For all the forward thinkers here. A real bunch of Einsteins. https://www.facebook.com/mark.step.7/

TOK
TOK
3 years ago

Usually in other countries, right wingers are nationalists while the left are considered less so and show willingness to work with other countries.

Interestingly in Korea, it is the other way around. The leftists show strong nationalistic tendency and promote the ideal of a ‘Great Korea that can do anything better than the rest of the world’ while right wingers are willing to work with other nations especially the United States and Japan.

The reason for this is that in the past the military dictatorships knew that cooperation with and if necessary yielding to Japan and the US were in their best interests.

The leftists who opposed the military dictatorship opposed everything that the military did. So naturally Japanese and US friendly ideals, policies, and actions went out the window.

TOK
TOK
3 years ago

In other words, to the leftists, the military dictatorship were nothing more than lackeys of Japan and the US, so since there were opposing everything about the military dictatorship, it was natural for them to adopt a nationalistic anti-Japan and anti-US stance.

Besides, they also felt that the US and Japan were helping prop up by the dictators.

Ironically, the above is the same propaganda BS that the North Korean Workers’ Party spews out.

setnaffa
setnaffa
3 years ago

TOK, it’s not ironic, it’s a baked-in feature.

The leftists in South Korea are essentially card-carrying water-bearers for the Kim regime. They aim to isolate South Korea internationally and bankrupt the country so that a merger with the norkistanis will be seen as a good thing.

And I wish they’d prove me wrong.

setnaffa
setnaffa
3 years ago

Setting aside all the unpleasantness of late, does anyone rememberone of John Wayne’s sons working on Yongsan in the 1980s or early 1990s?

According to my sourc d’s, he was a friend of “Shorty” Kim, who also worked on base and had a place called Roadside just arond the corner frpm the Crown Hotel.

I saw his photo back in the day. He was apparently a regular.

Korean Man
3 years ago

TOK, did the US work with South Korea when they pressured South Korea to host the THAAD on South Korea and China retaliated? The US trying to blackmail South Korea with $5 billion demand is your idea of “working with South Korea”? Friends are friends as long there are national interests to protect, or in this case, money. It’s just business, you fool. It’s not South Korea’s national interest to quarrel with China to please the US, so that the US can protect their hegemony at the expense of South Korea’s economy. The US loved South Korean right-wing dictators because they were anti-communists, nothing more and nothing less.

Korean Man
3 years ago

As much as I don’t trust China and their media, at least they got these parts right (that’s why China is probably laughing at the US right now).

For Japan:

“China and Japan have disputes, but both countries have a common interest in managing those disputes. The biggest task for Japan is to manage its relations with both the US and China well and to establish a special strategic balance centered on Japan’s own interests. No Japanese politician would put China-Japan relations and US-Japan relations into a zero-sum model. It is true that Japan has a desire to strengthen Japan-US relations and is willing to express its loyalty to the US to achieve this end. But there is bound to be a limitation to the strategic function of the Japan-US alliance against China.”

For South Korea:

“South Korea would not become the strategic vanguard of the US to contain China. The scale of economic cooperation between China and South Korea completely overwhelms that between the US and South Korea. To ask South Korea to decouple from China would be like trading an apple for a crabapple, which is much smaller than the former one.”

You really think that South Korea, Japan, India, and even ASEAN, will really join the US in any real meaningful way (other than empty words and empty gestures to sooth US feelings) and torpedo their own financial interests in China, just to suck on US a$$? What does the US offer that China doesn’t, economically other than more demands for money. China is not going to be ruling Asia, nor the world, but it’s too late for the US to counter them. The world should just watch and let those two figure it out by bashing and smashing each other to weaken each other. The world should not get involved and stay out of the fight.

Korean Man
3 years ago

Forgot to post the Chinese media link **(https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202103/1218474.shtml)**

setnaffa
setnaffa
3 years ago

Beijing boy still pretending he hates China. Like this:
comment image?w=650

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
3 years ago

“To ask South Korea to decouple from China would be like trading an apple for a crabapple, which is much smaller than the former one.”

What if they traded an apple for a crab & apple?

Even if the second apple was smaller, they would still be ahead by one crab. Then they could trade an orange for a lemon and some garlic butter.

Then they could invite everyone over for crab cakes.

This could really be a new international relations paradigm.

setnaffa
setnaffa
3 years ago

How about that?!?!?! The US Army has a new Chief Diversiry Officer.

Does that mean they’ll be firing Blacks to make the force demographics more like American demographics?

Or will they institute separate but equal units based on suntan, gender preference, and citizenship?

Will there be safe spaces for the new GIs who feel the command staff has committed microaggressions? Will PT be ruled out as raacist, sexist, and homophobic?

I’m a boomer, so I need help understanding the new rules.

setnaffa
setnaffa
3 years ago

BTW, this song from Canada is pretty catchy…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9JYd7W_x4A

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
3 years ago

Setnaffa, you are late to the party.

Because 65% of women were failing the new gender neutral PT test, that got put on hold while a workaround that makes women seem physically equal to men is contrived.

Clearly, the answer is MOAR TRANNIES!

Stephen
Stephen
3 years ago

The Senate confirmed Katherine Tai to serve as US trade representative on Wednesday, giving her a key role to smooth supply chains shaken by the pandemic, implement a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada and address a multitude of challenges with China.

Tai, the daughter of immigrants from Taiwan, is the first woman of color to be the top US trade negotiator. The vote was 98 to 0.

setnaffa
setnaffa
3 years ago

“first woman of color”

Yeah. Chosen because of suntan and plumbing. Great. And a person from Taiwan to address problems with Beijing…

J6Junkie
J6Junkie
3 years ago

KM

Emperor Xi is totally going to be ruling Asia.

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
3 years ago

If minority status has to be a big factor in appointments, can’t they find some crippled tranny Uyghurs or Tibetan to deal with China?

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