Category: Uncategorized

This post from Celestial Junk pretty much sums up how I feel about the recent news of the beheading and mutilating of the two US soldiers in Iraq this week:

As news reaches us that two US troopers were ¿slaughtered¿ by Islamo-fascist terrorists, we must brace ourselves for the inevitable Mainstream Media outrage, human rights organization fury, and overall international do-gooder annoyance. It¿s going to be quite something as page after page of editorials from BBC to NYT scream headlines like, ¿US Troopers Denied Geneva Rights¿, or, ¿Islamist Crime Evidence that Freedom Fighters are Just Terrorists¿. Daily KOS will launch into days of angry profanity filled rage against the Islamist thugs who committed the crime, and even Al Jazeera will bemoan in giant headlines, ¿Islam Slandered Once Again by Islamist Extremists.¿

Brace yourselves boys and girls, it¿s going to be ugly. Amnesty will of course decry the fact that Islamist terrorists, after this sadistic act, are now even more depraved than the Abu Ghraib bum-pile perverts. Leftist blogs the world over will warn Muslim fanatics that they had better start wearing uniforms if they want to be accorded Geneva convention rights. And, the CBC in Canada and the BBC will come to the conclusion, that the murder of the two US servicemen, proves once and for all that ¿Terrorism is the enemy of all Civilization¿.

And of course, Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, rep. Murtha, Jack Layton, and an army of elite will come to the conclusion that this act alone proves that the United States must remain in Iraq until the job is done. ¿How can we expect the Iraqi nation, in fact any nation, to have to stand alone against such barbarism,¿ they will crow, ¿ All freedom loving people everywhere must stand fast, shoulder to shoulder, and defeat Islamo-fascism.¿

Yes siree boys and girls, brace yourself for the inevitable Socialist Utopian outcry.

Just in case there was any doubt:

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a lower court ruling that civilian employees of the U.S. Forces Korea fall under South Korea’s criminal jurisdiction in peacetime. This is stipulated in the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) concerning the USFK, but it is the first time that the Supreme Court has issued a ruling on the matter.

The court on Monday upheld W5 million (US$5,000) in fines levied against a U.S. troop supply worker (49) who was brought to trial on charges of causing a traffic accident while driving a cargo vehicle.

The court said in its ruling, “In accordance with section 22 article 1 of SOFA as well as annals of agreements reached, the Republic of Korea has jurisdiction in times of peace on the peninsula to prosecute criminal trials against civilian employees of the USFK. “

I didn’t even realize there was a gray area here, but obviously there isn’t anymore.

I went to Wal-Mart one time in Korea and never went back, so this isn’t a surprise to me:

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said yesterday it was pulling out of the Korean market after eight years of doing business here.
Korea was Wal-Mart’s second foray into Asian markets; it began here with four outlets and later expanded to 16. The U.S. retail giant opened its first Asian outlets in China in 1996, two years before coming here.
At a press conference yesterday, Wal-Mart and Shinsegae executives announced the sale of Wal-Mart’s Korean assets to the nation’s largest retailer. Shinsegae, which runs the E-Mart discount chain, paid 825 billion won ($877 million) for Wal-Mart’s assets here.
Joe Hatfield, the president of Wal-Mart Asia, told the press conference that his company’s decision was based on an analysis that the company could not move up to second or third position in the retail market here in the next four or five years.
Beth Keck, the company’s spokeswoman, said, “We want to be able to grow in a market, and we saw it would be quite slow at this point in time.”
Wal-Mart is the second foreign mass retailer to fold its tent in Korea in the last month. In late April, Carrefour of France sold its stores here to Eland, another local retailer.
Wal-Mart has been struggling in Korea, losing 9.9 billion won last year on revenues of 728.8 billion won. It ranks last in sales among the five mass retailers in the market.

Read the rest of the article about why Wal-Mart failed in Korea.  I tend to agree with a lot of what the Joong Ang had to say but the biggest thing that I think was their down fall was location.  Just for the record Home Plus is my favorite shopping center in Korea.

Tags: wal-mart, korea, e-mart

So far so good for the six North Korean defectors granted asylum in the US:

For their entire lives, six North Koreans had heard that Americans were hostile to people from their country.
But the six, who were granted refugee status in the United States earlier this month, said they were surprised to feel safe and relieved because they have been treated warmly.
The four women and two men attended a welcome dinner hosted by the Bethel Korean Church in Los Angeles on Saturday.
During the dinner, the six were tearful. “I never thought time was so precious,” said a 32-year-old former North Korean soldier, who is now calling himself Sin Joseph. “But, now, I don’t want to waste any second, any minute.” He said he has two goals – to learn English and to earn a license as an auto mechanic.

You would think that if people from North Korea of all places could enter the US legally and agree to learn English that our neighbors to South could do so as well.

Here is something else that isn’t to much of a surprise either:

The situation is not quite as rosy in South Korea, where 10 stadiums were built. 

Attendance for South Korea’s K-League has gone down in recent years. 

“The attendance rate at our matches seems to be dropping these days,” said an official of K-League team Chonbuk, who declined to give his name. “Korean people only get excited about the national team. Many people like baseball or the English Premier League but aren’t really interested in the K-League.” 

Jeju World Cup Stadium, which cost US$133.6 million (euro104.64 million) to build on the south side of South Korea’s honeymoon island, wasn’t getting much use until K-League side Jeju United moved in this year. 

Whether the arrival of one of the weakest teams in the league will help the stadium turn a profit remains to be seen.

Is there even enough people on Cheju to fill up the stadium?

Can anyone guess what the top six US military installations around the world are?  Hint none of them are in South Korea or Japan.

Hat Tip: Live from FDNF

The woman standing trial over starting the March Yongsan fire has admitted in court to starting the fire.  Get this, she started the fire over a credit card dispute that denied her visa to return to her family in the United States:

A South Korean woman admitted in Seoul court Thursday that she set a March fire on a U.S. military base to publicize her fight to rejoin her family in America, according to court testimony.

Kweon Jung-ja, 57, has spent years trying to garner help to return to her U.S. husband and Korean-born sons in the States, but her one-person protests near U.S. facilities fell on deaf ears, her lawyer said. She decided to change from her self-proclaimed peaceful protests to a more violent one after a U.S. military police member in March called her crazy and a liar, her lawyer said after the court proceeding.

During her 30-minute court appearance, Kweon at times cursed and shouted her answers to the Seoul Western District Court judge, accusing authorities of kidnapping her and railing at both U.S. and South Korean governments for not helping her renew her U.S. visa. She also accused court officials of terrorism as she admitted to arson and to trespassing on government property.

After reading the whole article I can’t help but wonder why did the husband not move back to Korea with the rest of the woman’s family?

From Yonhap:

South Korea’s opposition leader Park Geun-hye was attacked by a 50-year-old drunk man and was taken to hospital, party officials said Saturday.

Rep. Park, chairwoman of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), was canvassing for Oh Se-hoon, GNP candidate for Seoul mayor, in Sinchon in Seoul when the man, identified only by his surname Ji, allegedly slashed the right side of her face with a utility knife.

“Park had an approximately 10-centimeter cut to the face from ear to jawline. It seems like a utility knife was used, given the shape of the cut,” Kim Hyeon-jong, a doctor on duty at Yonsei University’s Severance Hospital, said.

She received 17 stitches in an operation and her life is not in danger, according to the doctor.

Two heavily intoxicated suspects were detained by GNP officials and citizens at the scene and taken to a nearby police station.

“It appears to be election terror,” Rep. Lee Ke-jin, spokesman of the GNP, said in a telephone call with Yonhap News Agency.

The government should take responsibility for the lack of security, another high profile GNP official said.

Rep. Chung Dong-young, chairman of the ruling Uri Party, said that the assault was an “unforgivable act” and that it should be dealt with sternly.

“It is very shocking. I am really worried about her health,” Chung said.

Park is the daughter of former Korean President Park Chung-hee.  She is one of the leaders in the conservative movement in Korea and a possible candidate to replace the current liberal President Roh Moo-hyun in national elections next year.

I find it interesting that the ruling party chairman Chung Dong-young thinks this stabbing should be handled “sternly” when he could care less about the police and soldiers in Pyeongtaek being beaten and stabbed by his supporters.

The Da Vinci Code is set to debut Friday and military chaplains are preparing to respond to the claims the movie makes about Christianity:

Chaplain Paul Passamonti plans to stand near a theater exit to hand out copies of a book that refutes the Da Vinci Code.

Another military chaplain in Europe, Collin Grossruck, is encouraging the faithful to send him an e-mail if they have any questions about Gnostics, Opus Dei, the secret gospels or the Holy Grail. The Army captain says he wants to set the religious record straight because many soldiers are spiritually discouraged by aspects of Dan Brown best-selling book, turned movie.

The book insists the Bible is a deliberate deception, and that [people] spirituality, which gives them comfort and strength, is wrong historically, said Grossruck, a Protestant chaplain. That’s a pretty heavy load.

I’ll probably go see the movie tomorrow.  So far the reviews are not encouraging.  A good read for those who have read the Da Vinci Code is to also read the book Da Vinci Decoded.  This book really provides some great information that disputes many of the key points Dan Brown makes in his book.

There is a great editorial in the Chosun Ilbo that highlights exactly what is motivating the Camp Humphreys protests.  Here is a snippet:

In the minds of the Pan-National Committee, the Republic of Korea is a country that should never have been born or should be absorbed into the North Korean system as soon as possible. That became clear during the protests against the Pyeongtaek base. Protestors planted not the Taegukgi ? the South Korean flag — but pan-Korean flags in the rice fields. They attacked troops from the Republic of Korea with split bamboo sticks and cut barbed-wire fences to trespass on military facilities. The Pyeongtaek coalition says on its homepage it opposes the relocation of U.S. bases “because it is designed to launch a preemptive attack on North Korea.” That betrays a mindset more concerned about the security of the Kim Jong-il regime than the Republic of Korea. They live here, but their true fatherland is elsewhere.

Amidst all this, the president after a long silence mumbles something about how some nights he can¿t sleep for worry about the Republic of Korea. The prime minister says everyone involved ¿should take a step back and look at the situation calmly.¿ How much further can troops step back if they are ordered not to retaliate when they are attacked with sharpened bamboo sticks? A ruling-party lawmaker, mingling with the protestors, said, “The U.S. is a land owner, the South Korean government a farm manager and the people are tenant farmers. It makes one weep to see the manager and the tenant farmers fight.”

The 2002 candle vigils over the deaths of the two schoolgirls provided the impetus that propelled the Roh Moo-hyun administration to power, an administration that has asked, “What’s wrong with being anti-American?” Is it because of this debt in their mind that those in government close their eyes to the attacks on our democracy? Or is it because they agree with the protestors, even if they cannot say so openly? Having entrusted their country to such a government, it is the people who should have sleepless night.

Pretty well put if I do say so myself.