Tag: Guam

More of the typical North Korean rhetoric in response to the US deployment of B-1 bombers to Guam which I have assume is in preparation for the upcoming UFG exercise in Korea where North Korea always seems to act up:

North Korea has accused Washington of planning a pre-emptive nuclear strike, after the US announced it would deploy its B-1 bomber in the Pacific for the first time in a decade.

The strategic aircraft were to be deployed on Saturday on the US island of Guam, the US military said last month, describing the operation as a routine rotation with the B-52 bomber.

Tensions have been running high since North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test in January, followed by a barrage of missile launches that this month reached Japanese waters directly for the first time.

Pyongyang accused Washington of “becoming all the more pronounced in their moves to topple down the DPRK by mobilizing all nuclear war hardware,” using North Korea’s official title.

“The enemies are bluffing that they can mount a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the DPRK by letting fly B-1B over the Korean peninsula within two-three hours in contingency,” said an English-language statement on state media.

“Such moves for bolstering nuclear force exposes again that the US imperialists are making a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the DPRK a fait accompli.”  [AFP]

You can read more at the link.

Everything Congresswoman Bordallo is saying is true, but it will not matter to the anti-US leftist protesters spreading the misinformation in South Korea that the THAAD radar causes cancer, miscarriages and ruins crops:

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system will pose no environmental problems whatsoever if it is set up away from heavily-populated areas as in Guam, a U.S. Congresswoman representing the Pacific island territory told South Korean media.

Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-Guam) made the remarks in a meeting with South Korea’s Defense Ministry Joint Press Corps on Tuesday following their tour of an operational THAAD battery a day earlier.

The reporters were on the island to check how an actual THAAD battery is run and if it poses a health risk to people nearby and the environment.

She said there has never been a complaint raised about noise related to the THAAD system since it was brought onto the island in 2013. She said that as long as the battery is placed in an “isolated” area and not in the middle of a town there should be no problems.

The lawmaker also made clear that since the battery’s deployment, there has been no signs that it has impacted the environment around it, and that the presence of THAAD has not hurt the island’s tourism trade.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

In regards to the political opposition to the THAAD deployment to South Korea facts do not matter.  We saw this before with the US beef protests.  For those that do care about facts, the US military yesterday opened its THAAD base on Guam to reporters and test the electromagnetic waves from the radar.  Here is what they found:

The United States disclosed its advanced anti-ballistic missile battery in Guam to South Korean media on Monday to help allay fears about the health risks linked to the system’s powerful X-band radar.

A pool of Korean reporters visited the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in northern Guam, a part of Andersen Air Force Base, so they could check for themselves the major issues related to the electromagnetic waves emanating from the AN/TPY-2 radar and the noise level of the emergency generators.

Using equipment brought from Seoul, military officials of both the U.S. and Korea measured the levels of electromagnetic waves from the THAAD radar for the first six minutes at a point 1.6 kilometers away from the THAAD unit after it was activated. The measurement conditions in Guam were set similarly to those in Seongju, the selected site for South Korea’s first THAAD.

The radar waves reached a maximum of 0.0007 watt per square meter, accounting for 0.007 percent of the 10 watts per square meter maximum permitted under Korean laws.

Robert F. Hedelund, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Korea, told reporters that the THAAD battery does not hurt the health and safety of the unit’s operators, soldiers or residents nearby and that the safety standards that apply to the Guam THAAD unit are higher than those recommended by the U.S. government. He said the Guam base’s safety standards will be applied to Korea’s THAAD battery.

Another U.S. military official on the U.S. Pacific territory said that as the U.S. has a duty to protect its own soldiers and residents in adjacent towns, every effort will be made to make sure the THAAD battery to be set up in Korea will be operated safely.

As for the noise level of generators near the THAAD radar, soldiers working at the site do have to wear earplugs, but the noise is no longer an issue at about 500 meters away, the commander explained.

The U.S. military said as Korea’s THAAD system will get its power mainly from the commercial grid, not from emergency generators, soldiers and residents will not be affected by the noise.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but like I said facts don’t matter to the political opposition so expect to continue to hear about the health and environmental risks of THAAD in South Korea.  However, this visit at least allows supporters of the deployment to have hard evidence to point to in order to counter claims from the political opposition.

With the environmental concerns floundering this how the Korea Times decided to approach the THAAD visit by insinuating that the system doesn’t work:

When the two allies announced the deployment of the advanced anti-missile defense system in Korea, July 8, they stressed that the deployment will greatly enhance Seoul’s ability to deal with North Korea’s evolving nuclear and ballistic missile threats. But some experts still question the capability of the system.

Lockheed Martin, the producer of THAAD, said that the battery was nearly 100 percent successful in interception tests, but critics claim that such tests took place under defined conditions, and that THAAD has been never utilized in practice.

In addition, skepticism over the system has been also raised as Seoul and its surrounding area, with a population of roughly 25 million and major facilities, are out of its coverage range. The missile interceptor has an effective range of 200 kilometers, while Seongju is located 290 kilometers southeast of Seoul.  [Korea Times]

Of course tests are under defined conditions which get increasingly more complicated.  The last flight test for THAAD featured it conducting a joint live fire with the Aegis SM-3 system and was successful in shooting down all targets.  As far as being used in combat this is an impossible argument to counter because the system is new and there has not been a need to use it in combat.  As far as defending Seoul there are already Patriot systems in Korea that can defend Seoul.  The THAAD has always been intended to defend areas in the southern region of the peninsula.

In the coming weeks it should be interesting to see if the opposition to THAAD tries to change their message to focus more on the China and the THAAD doesn’t work angles to justify their opposition.

The Korean government has realized that the only card the protesters of the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system have to play is that the electromagnetic waves from the radar will harm people.  This is a well used tactic by leftists protesters and their media allies which worked brilliantly for them in 2008 when they passed off lies about US beef that nearly toppled then President Lee Myung-Bak:

The U.S. military will open its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) base in Guam to the South Korean media next week in an effort to dispel concerns here over deployment of the anti-missile system, according to military sources, Wednesday.

“The U.S. Army will open its THAAD facilities in Guam to South Korean journalists from July 17 to 19,” a military official said. “It will help them understand how the battery is operated and address any concerns about safety issues.”

It is the first time the U.S. Army has allowed foreign media access to the THAAD facilities, according to the official.

The South Korean military said journalists from seven outlets, including Hankyoreh and the Chosun Ilbo, will visit the base.

The move is seen as an attempt to quell controversy in South Korea over a THAAD deployment and ease public concerns over potentially harmful electromagnetic waves from the X-band radar that comes with the system. [Korea Times]

Here is the part of the article that I have been saying for months, the ROK already has air defense radars deployed around the country and no one protested them:

“Questions over harmful effects of electromagnetic waves emitted from THAAD’s X-band radar have been raised,” a defense ministry official said. “But they are no stronger than patriot or green pine radar. We are hoping to ease safety concerns surrounding the THAAD system.”

You can read more at the link.

I have always thought that one of the things that may have motivated some of these World War II hold outs was the fear of being prosecuted for war crimes, not the idea of never surrendering.  There was a number of massacres that happened on Guam during the war that makes me wonder of Sergeant Yokoi had anything to do with?:

For some combat veterans, war lives on in memories of camaraderie, loss, pride and shame.

For a small group of Japanese soldiers who fought in World War II, the war literally did not end for decades.

Referred to as “stragglers” or “holdouts,” these men retreated to remote, mountainous jungles as Allied forces retook dozens of Pacific islands conquered by Japan.

Guam is tiny compared with some other Asian nations, but its small population that clustered mainly along the eastern coastline left much of the interior isolated even 25 years after war’s end in 1945.

Cpl. Shoichi Yokoi was among the last of the stragglers discovered in the Pacific, captured on the eastern side of Guam in 1972 when two local shrimpers were checking traps along the Ugum River abutting the cave he’d lived in for 28 years.

Photographs of Yokoi and other Guam stragglers — Pvt. Bunzo Minagawa and Sgt. Masashi Ito, both captured in 1960 — are on display at the Pacific War Museum in Guam.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

This just goes to show how important B-52’s based out of Guam are to supporting deterrence on the Korean peninsula:

The U.S. Pacific forces commander requested that an additional six B-52 bombers remain on Guam in August when military tensions were running high on the Korean Peninsula, according to a U.S. military commander.

Gen. Robin Rand, commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command, revealed the request during a House Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday, explaining the roles the U.S. strategic bombers play in defending the country and its allies.

“Most recently, in North Korea, when there was a flareup back in August, we had our six B-52s that have been on a continuous bomber presence at Guam for the last decade nonstop, and we are in the middle of a swapout. Six were going in to replace the six that were there,” Rand said.

“And the PACOM commander immediately contacted the Joint Staff and Air Force Global Strike and said, ‘Could we leave those six additional B-52s longer? We really like the presence,'” he said, referring to Pacific Command commander Adm. Harry Harris.

Rand did not say whether the request was accepted and the additional six bombers had remained there.

In another example, the general also said that in 2013, B-52s and B-2s flew nonstop to South Korea and dropped training ordnance on a bombing range as a show of force against North Korea when the communist nation ratcheted up tensions with near-daily threats of war against the South and the U.S.  [Yonhap]

Here is a horrible story of a honeymoon gone wrong for a Korean couple who traveled to Guam:

Meanwhile PNC spoke to one of the witnesses of the Ritidian drownings. Ben “Guelo” Rosario says the victims were Korean tourists, a husband and wife who were on Guam celebrating their honeymoon. Rosario is a member of the nonprofit organization called Tasa and he said one of the rescuers who pulled the victims from the waters was one of the younger members of the organization Jerome Laguana. “He’s sixteen years old and he actually helped the two couples. The lady he said was too close to the reef and the wave came and pulled her out and the husband came and tried to help her and the husband got pounded by the second wave,” said Rosario.

Rosario says Laguana and his cousin battled rough currents to pull the couple in to shore. “After they brought them up some of the Koreans ran up there and started [doing] CPR and it tires you so you know I asked them to have me do it.” So Rosario jumped in and began to help administer CPR while they waited for Guam Fire Department crews to arrive. “How long until rescue units arrived?” asked PNC. Rosario replied saying, “After we started probably about another twenty minutes. Yeah it’s a far place you know.” Also, the road to Ritidian is riddled with potholes which no doubt made it more difficult for GFD units to get there. “Anybody that goes up to Ritidian please take care. The water is not cooperating up there all the time so be careful when you’re up there,” said Rosario.  [Pacific News Center]