Category: Uncategorized

South Korea to Develop E-bombs

I  found this to be curious:

Ahn Dong-Mahn, head of the Agency for Defence Development (ADD), also said South Korea had joined the international race to develop electromagnetic E-bombs capable of disabling enemy computers and radio or radar receivers.

In an interview with the Korea Defence Daily, Ahn said the agency and 16 other defence companies planned to develop a medium-range ground-to-air missile, known as Iron Hawk-II, by 2011.

Doesn’t North Korea need to first have computers and other electronics to disable?  Unless of course this is really meant for the upcoming Dokdo/Takeshima War. 

Maliki to Roh: Less Zaytun More Hyundai

Well he didn’t actually say that, but that is pretty much what he meant:

“South Korea will be a good model for us,” Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo during a dinner. “Iraq should learn from South Korea’s experience.”

Al-Maliki is scheduled to hold a summit with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Thursday.

Their meeting is expected to center on expanding cooperation in various sectors, including natural resources, electricity and construction, Roh’s office said.

Notice not one word about Zaytun.  Like I have said before, 2,300 Korean businessmen can do more for Iraq, than what 2,300 ROK Army soldiers are doing right now and Maliki knows it.  Another thing Maliki can learn from Korea in regards to governing the country is less Rhee Syng-man and more Park Chung-hee.

Fact or Fiction: Deserting from Combat Stress

The US mainstream media has been working over time trying to create negative perceptions of the US military in the general American public. First they tried to create a perception of poor troop morale, which failed, along with their efforts to stop military recruiting by attacking and banning recruiters or going after ROTC programs. Remember all the stories of the military not meeting their recruiting numbers a couple years ago? That was because the military was in the midst of expanding the overall force numbers, which meant more people had to be recruited. Now that the force has completed the expansion it is easier to maintain recruiting numbers which the military has been able to do for well over a year during a time of war.

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Korean Females Addicted to Cell Phones

From the Korea Times:

Female cell phone users in their late teens or early 20s are found to be the most vulnerable when it comes to obsessive use of the handset, according to a government survey Tuesday.

The Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion said the cell phone addiction index for 1,639 respondents stood at 2.085 out of five points.

Broken down into four categories _ withdrawal symptoms, tolerance, coercion and deviation regarding cellular phone use _ females showed a higher dependence than males.

First of all who cares, secondly this is about as unsurprising as North Korea reneging on another nuclear agreement. 

BBC Will Not Show Documentary of Victoria Cross Hero

Just when I think the media can’t get any worse it does:

Amid the deaths and the grim daily struggle bravely borne by Britain’s forces in southern Iraq, one tale of heroism stands out.

Private Johnson Beharry’s courage in rescuing an ambushed foot patrol then, in a second act, saving his vehicle’s crew despite his own terrible injuries earned him a Victoria Cross.

For the BBC, however, his story is “too positive” about the conflict.

The corporation has cancelled the commission for a 90-minute drama about Britain’s youngest surviving Victoria Cross hero because it feared it would alienate members of the audience opposed to the war in Iraq.

Unbelievable. Here is more on the reason given for cancelling the documentary:

“It began to have second thoughts last year as the war in Iraq deteriorated. It felt it couldn’t show anything with a degree of positivity about the conflict.

“It needed to tell stories about Iraq which reflected the fact that some members of the audience didn’t approve of what was going on. Obviously a story about Johnson Beharry could never do that. You couldn’t have a scene where he suddenly turned around and denounced the war because he just wouldn’t do that.

“The film is now on hold and it will only make it to the screen if another broadcaster picks it up.”

Then at the same time you have the British sailors and marines selling their stories about being held hostage in Iran. The lone female hostage who was paraded around on Iranian TV selling out her country, is reported to be making $240,000 dollars from selling her story, yet the Victoria Cross awardee can’t even get his story told.

HT: Milblogs

North Korea Not Likely to Meet April Deadline

Seriously, is anyone really surprised by this?:

The U.S. chief nuclear envoy Christopher Hill has admitted that it is improbable North Korea will shut down its nuclear facilities by a mid-April deadline due to the delayed transfer of assets frozen in the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia, AP reported. A Feb. 13 agreement reached in six-nation talks in Beijing requires the North to shut down its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon by April 14 in return for a first shipment of energy aid.

Keep in mind that the funds in question were frozen by the Chinese bank at the US’s request due to being linked to counterfeiting and money laundering of US currency.  Also keep in mind that the return of the money was never part of the Agreed Framework 2.0 that was agreed upon in February during the six party talks.  The return of the money is something that North Korea has decided on their own to add to the agreement. 

You can read more about the latest North Korea reneging at One Free Korea.

David Albright Responds to K-blog Criticism

There is an interesting series of postings and comments on both One Free Korea and DPRK Studies concerning noted North Korea apologist David Albright.

Start here and here with the DPRK Studies postings.

Then read here and here for the related OFK postings.

Both of them ask some fundamental questions which Albright continues to avoid in his comments. I believe Albright’s views on North Korea are motivated more by his own personal political views than real factual analysis. He has already put himself in a position of a North Korea apologist and isn’t about to change his position no matter how much he is challenged with facts saying otherwise, thus the evasive answers. It will be interesting to see if he ever provides any real answers to the specific questions posed to him.

All Carrots and No Stick

The North Koreans have until April 14th to shut down their nuclear reactor, which right now they show no signs of doing, while simultaneously the South Koreans are going to go ahead and send them 400,000 tons of rice anyway.   Even more appalling is that US financial negotiators appear ready to give North Korea back it’s $25 million dollars in a Macao bank that was garnered through counterfeiting and money laundering of US currency.  Unbelievably this is the condition the US negotiators put in place for the return of the money:

  "We stand ready to assist the Macanese authorities in their efforts to release the funds and with all parties to effectuate the North Korean pledge that any money received by them would be used for humanitarian purposes of benefit to the North Korean people," it said.

The US is trusting a "pledge" from the North Koreans that they will use this money for humanitarian purposes?  These negotiators cannot honestly think this money is going to be used for humanitarian purposes?  How is anyone going to verify this?  If they want to use this money for humanitarian purposes how about using the money to buy food and send the food to North Korea instead?  There is no way this money is going to be used for humanitarian purposes and I’m sure the negotiators realize that as well.  This "pledge" is just political cover to give the North Koreans back the money without the appearance of breaking the UN luxury goods ban which giving them $25 million dollars is sure to be used to buy.  What is even worse about this appeasement is that giving back the $25 million was never in the original Agreed Framework 2.0 deal signed earlier this year. 

I’m guessing the negotiators are gambling that the North Koreans will not shut down their nuclear reactor by April 14th and by giving them the $25 million now, this would deprive Pyongyang of an excuse to blame the United States for them not shutting down the reactor.  I think it is 50/50 right now if they shut down the reactor or not, but even if they don’t what is anybody going to do?  They got their money back and South Korea keeps giving them free goodies anyway, along with the inter-Korean Kaeseong and Kumgang cash cows that are still operating.  Plus their criminal enterprises is still bringing in enough money because nobody is intercepting and inspecting North Korean ships either.  Its all carrots and no stick and that is the way it always is with North Korea.  

Thai Government to Return North Korean Defectors

Here is some breaking news courtesy of OFK:

Just caught this story on naver – It seems about 52 defectors have been aprehended by Thai authorities and if convicted of entering the country illegally are expected to be sent back to North Korea.  [Joongang Ilbo, Korean link]

It looks like the new Thai military government is trying to cozy up to the North Korean regime by returning these defectors.  What is the Korean government doing to stop this?  Nothing that I could find.  Ditto for the US government as well.  To echoes OFK’s sentiment what the heck is Amnesty International doing about this?  Just like everyone else, absolutely nothing. 

I went over to the Amnesty International webpage and there was nothing about North Korea, but guess what right on the front page is this story about David Hicks the Australian terrorist who went from a skinny terrorist to a fat terrorist due to his time in Gitmo and received a trial to where he was sentenced to 9 months in jail.  Here is the human rights violations Amnesty International is more concerned about, overweight terrorists receiving a trail and sentence of 9 months while at the same time North Korean refugees are being sent back to North Korea to be enrolled into a gulag or be executed.  If only Bush or Haliburton could be connected to a North Korean gulag than maybe they would care. 

As usual it looks like the grassroots groups will have to be the ones to fight for the lives of the defectors.  In South Korea one Christian North Korea human rights group is already protesting at the Thai embassy. 

One Free Korea has a list of embassy contact information for people to contact these embassies in order to express displeasure with the return of these refugees to North Korea. 

Just another reason why I will not visit Thailand. 

Korea and Japan, World's Thinnest People

From the Chosun:

According to PopNews, a study on body mass index (BMI) released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2005 shows that only 3.2 percent of Koreans and Japanese have a BMI higher than 30.

A person with a BMI figure higher than 25 is considered overweight, while a reading above 30 means obesity.

The U.S. is the fattest of the OECD member nations with 30.6 percent of its population having a BMI higher than 30. It is followed by Mexico, Britain and Slovakia.

Towards the bottom of the list are Italy where 8.5 percent of the population is obese, Norway with 8.3 percent and Switzerland with 7.7 percent.

It will be interesting to see if Korea will be able to maintain this status because the younger generation of kids in Korea are definitely getting heavier, however they have a long ways to go to catch us Americans.Â