Tag: Andrew Salmon

A ROK Drop favorite, the reporter and author Andrew Salmon offers some perspective about claims of an imminent strike on North Korea:

Two weeks ago, I dined with a rather interesting visitor to Seoul. An ex-military officer, he assesses geopolitical risk for a global bank, and had been put in touch with your columnist by a mutual acquaintance. We compared notes on various peninsula-related matters.

He told me that several multinational banks and companies were quietly dusting off and reviewing plans to evacuate expatriates from South Korea in the event of a crisis. This raised my eyebrows. I live at ground zero ― central Seoul ― but had sensed no unusual tension.

These concerns, the gentleman explained, stem not from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ― a largely predictable quantity ― but from neophyte US President Donald Trump. Some fear that the mercurial POTUS is mulling military action against the North ― fears buttressed by his secretary of state’s comments that “all options” are on the table.

Our dinner took place prior to Trump’s warning that the U.S. would deal with North Korea independently of China, and before the U.S. Navy devastated a Syrian air base with a cruise missile barrage.

Since then, doom merchants have gone ballistic and media pundits are suffering from a near-terminal attack of the vapors.

“Trump wants war to divert attention from domestic failings!” quaver some. “The Syrian strike is a work-up for a North Korea operation!” simper others. “If Trump hits North Korea, Kim will invade South Korea, and/or retaliate with nukes!” gasp yet others. Even my mother (!) called from the UK to warn me.

Let’s calm down, man up and take account.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but basically Salmon discusses that what is new here is the Trump factor; everything else has happened before with out a war starting.  However, if a strike does happen North Korea’s reaction will likely be less than expected because if they to too far it could lead to regime change.

Great opportunity for those interested on April 9th, 2016 to be part of a tour of where the Gloster Regiment made their final stand along the Imjim River during the Korean War.  The tour will be led by a ROK Drop favorite Andrew Salmon:

History writer and journalist Andrew Salmon will run a tour to one of the Korean War’s most notorious battlefields next week under a Royal Asiatic Society tour.

Salmon will guide the group around the hills that surround the Imjingang River, where the British Gloucester Regiment was wiped out holding back a Chinese assault.

The attack was part of the largest communist offensive of the war, and though the Glosters were eventually overrun, their actions blunted the assault sufficiently for U.N. forces to repel the Chinese before they could take Seoul.

The battle has since been compared to the battle of Thermopylae because of the extent to which the British regiment was outnumbered.

Two of the Glosters were awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest military medal for their actions in the battle. Salmon will look at where one of them, Lt. Philip Curtis, died in actions that would later see him honored and suggest an explanation for why he acted in the way he did.  [Korea Herald]

Read the details at the link.

A ROK Drop favorite Andrew Salmon recently had his great book about the British and Australian forces that served in the Korean War translated into Korean:

British Ambassador Charles Hay welcomed the release of the Korean translation of “Scorched Earth, Black Snow: Britain and Australia in the Korean War, 1950” on Friday at the British Embassy in Jung District, central Seoul, expressing optimism that the book will help boost public awareness here and in the United Kingdom of a battle he suggests is being forgotten.

“When we look back over the relationship of the U.K. and Korea since the establishment of diplomatic relations, one of the most important events is the U.K. contribution in the [1950-53] Korean War,” said Hay.

“Unfortunately, as global history developed, the Korean War tends to be largely overlooked in the U.K.,” continued Hay, adding that the phenomenon seems “very strange” to witness from a country where it is deemed such an important part of history.

Hay, who served for five years in the British Army, commended the author of the 735-page book for bringing the war “alive” through personal interviews with British and Australian soldiers who took part in the three-year battle, saying the record of those memories seemed to have “captured the reality.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but if you haven’t already I highly recommend reading Scorched Earth, Black Snow: Britain and Australia in the Korean War, 1950. It is great that Korean readers will now have an opportunity to learn more about the British and Australians that fought in the Korean War like I did.