Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert wipes away tears during a press conference at his residence in Seoul on Jan. 13, 2017, to mark his departure from the position. (Yonhap)
If you are a US government civilian employee working outside of the Seoul area you are about to get a cut in pay. According to the below article those losing their differential pay could lose around $300 a month:
Kim Yong-Sik, then a U.S. Forces Korea employee, checks boiler room machinery at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, Nov. 8, 2010. The U.S. recently eliminated a hardship differential allowance leading to a loss of income for nearly 3,000 Korea-based civilian employees.
In an unusual move, the U.S. has eliminated the post hardship differential allowance for some 2,800 Korea-based civilian government employees stationed outside the Seoul metropolitan area, according to a memo obtained by Stars and Stripes.
U.S. Forces Korea informed the employees about the pay reduction over the weekend in a letter dated April 15 and signed by chief of staff Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal. Vandal told the employees he was “very concerned about the effect this will have on you and your families” and promised to address the issue as quickly as possible.
The State Department determines the hardship differential – distributed for extremely difficult or unhealthy conditions or physical hardship – based on a questionnaire that is supposed to be administered by local installations. It has been 5 percent of basic compensation for most locations outside Seoul for the past several years.
“However, as a result of the latest (Department of State) review, the rate was reduced to 0 percent for all U.S. government civilians in Korea” as of April 3, according to the memo, which also said eligible employees will see start seeing the loss in paychecks this week.
Civilian employees in the Seoul metropolitan area were not affected since they did not receive the differential. [Stars & Stripes]
I was a bit surprised by this news because it was only a few years ago that Stephen Bosworth was the key person in the Obama administration making North Korea policy:
Stephen Bosworth
Stephen Bosworth, a long-time Korea expert who served as U.S. ambassador to South Korea and as Washington’s special representative for North Korea policy, has died. He was 76.
Bosworth died at his home in Boston on Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Bosworth had served as chairman of the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS until recently. SAIS did not give the exact cause of his death, but the former diplomat suffered from prostate cancer.
Bosworth served as Washington’s top envoy to South Korea from 1997-2001 and special representative for North Korea policy from 2009-2011. He also served as executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization from 1995-1997.
KEDO was set up to implement a 1994 deal with North Korea under which the communist nation promised to freeze and then ultimately dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for energy-producing light water reactors and other concessions from the U.S. and other partners.
That deal later fell apart as the North was found to have run a clandestine uranium-enrichment program in violation of the agreement. [Korea Herald]
You can read the rest at the link, but condolences to his family.
It would be interesting to see what the leading causes for veterans leaving government jobs is since the article does not really provide one. I think it could be the difference in culture where in the military you have a team and can do attitude that maybe is not replicated in the government sector. Does anyone else have any theories on the high attrition rate?:
The share of federal jobs going to veterans is at its highest level in five years, new data shows, with former servicemembers comprising almost half of full-time hires in the last fiscal year.
One in three people in government is now a veteran, proof that the White House’s six-year push to give those who served in the military a leg up in the long hiring queue for federal jobs is working.
The bad news is that once veterans get into government, they don’t stay long. They’re more likely to leave their jobs within two years than non-veterans, the Office of Personnel Management reports, even if they’ve transferred from other federal agencies.
The Small Business Administration had the most trouble keeping veterans in fiscal 2014, with just 62 percent staying two years or more, compared to 88 percent of non-veterans. Former service members left the Commerce Department at similar rates, with 68 percent staying two years or more compared to 82 percent for non-veterans.
Even the Department of Veterans Affairs, traditionally a draw for former troops, lost a little more than a quarter of its veterans within two years, compared to 20 percent of its non-veterans.
The only agencies that kept more veterans than non-veterans on board were the Defense and State Departments, the report released last month shows.
The growing presence in government of men and women with military backgrounds is the most visible federal effort to reward military service since the draft ended in the 1970s. President Barack Obama pushed agencies to increase hiring of veterans starting in 2009, in response to the bleak employment prospects many service members faced after coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq.
The initiative has fueled tensions in federal offices, though, as longtime civil servants and former troops on the other side of the cubicle question each other’s competence and qualifications. [Stars & Stripes]
I always thought the Hillary Clinton email scandal was just the tip of the iceberg because of how many emails she was sending out and no one was questioning it. That made me think it must be accepted practice in the State Department to use private email to get around Freedom of Information Act laws. Well now we know Caroline Kennedy the US Ambassador to Japan was doing the same thing. Reading all this just makes me wonder what people would say if a US military Brigade Commander was sending out official emails from a Yahoo account. It would raise eyebrows immediately and definitely cause a JAG to get involved:
Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and senior staff at the U.S. embassy in Japan used personal email accounts for official business, an internal watchdog report said Tuesday — making Kennedy the latest Obama administration official to run afoul of email security guidelines.
The State Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) report said it received reports concerning the use of private email accounts for official business, and identified instances where emails labeled “sensitive but unclassified” were sent from or received by personal email accounts.
“On the basis of these reports, OIG’s Office of Evaluations and Special Projects conducted a review and confirmed that senior embassy staff, including the Ambassador, used personal email accounts to send and receive messages containing official business. In addition, OIG identified instances where emails labeled Sensitive but Unclassified were sent from, or received by, personal email accounts,” the report said. [Fox News via reader tip]
It looks like Ashton Carter will become the next Secretary of Defense if he passes the vetting process:
Ashton Carter, the former second-in-command at the Pentagon, appears to be the top choice to replace outgoing Secretary Chuck Hagel.
Barring any last minute complications, Ash Carter will be President Barack Obama’s choice as the new Secretary of Defense, several U.S. administration officials told CNN
An administration official had said that Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, a former General Counsel at the Pentagon, was also still on the list of possibilities, but on Tuesday morning, sources said Johnson was no longer being considered. The prospect of an additional confirmation hearing for Johnson’s replacement if he were to move to the Pentagon as the Senate switches to Republican control would have been problematic for the White House. [CNN]
Carter is actually a very brilliant man when it comes to defense issues and well respected within the defense community which should allow him to be a fine Secretary of Defense. With that said though even brilliant men like him can make eyebrow raising recommendations. Long time ROK Heads may recall that Carter along with former Defense Secretary William Perry once recommended bombing North Korea back in 2006:
Fears have grown in recent weeks following reports of activity at a site in northeastern North Korea where U.S. officials say a Taepodong-2 missile — believed capable of reaching parts of the United States — is possibly being fueled.
An op-ed piece in Thursday’s Washington Post by William Perry, secretary of defense under former President Bill Clinton, and Ashton Carter, Clinton’s assistant secretary of defense, advocates a pre-emptive strike to destroy the missile.
“The United States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched,” it said.
Cheney, however, told CNN that, while “I appreciate Bill’s advice,” such an action could worsen the situation.
I think the recommendation back then had a lot to do with politics because Perry and Carter likely understood former President Bush would not bomb North Korea. However, it would be interesting during his confirmation hearing if someone in Congress would ask him if he still believes bombing North Korea is a good idea.
This is like musical Defense Secretaries the way the Pentagon keeps going through them:
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down under pressure from President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, senior administration officials said Monday, following a rocky tenure in which he has struggled to break through the White House’s insular foreign policy team.
Hagel is the first senior Obama adviser to leave the administration following the sweeping losses for Obama’s party in the midterm elections. It also comes as the president’s national security team has been battered by multiple foreign policy crises, including the rise of the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. [Associated Press]
You can read more at the link, but I would be surprised if Michelle Flournoy is not nominated because she should be capable considering all her time at the Pentagon, is a strong Democrat supporter, and also brings political benefits. First of all she would be the first female Secretary of Defense and if the Republican controlled Congress does anything to try and block her nomination it can be played as the “War on Women” by the Democrats in anticipation of the 2016 elections.
