Tag: Incheon

This is probably the first time I have heard of Koreans unhappy with one of its national teams winning a gold medal:

The South Korean baseball team Sunday clinched the gold at the Incheon Asian Games, but a lot of people here seem to have more reasons to mock their achievement than celebrate or be proud of it.

They think players will enjoy greater benefits than they deserve — exemption from the country’s mandatory two years of military service. Ironically, their gold has also led to fierce discussion about abolishing such rewards to athletes.

“I wish they lost the game,” 29-year-old baseball fan Park Tae-yang said. “I do not understand why Korea, in the 21st century, still has to give military exemption for athletes on the grounds that they help promote the country.”

Such harsh feelings against the national team are also based on the fact that South Korea is the only country that sent professional baseball players, who appeared desperate for a military exemption, and let them compete against teams consisting mostly of amateur players.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but it does seem kind unfair to all the other males in Korea that they have to do their mandatory service obligation while these professional athletes now will get out of it because they blew out a bunch of Asian amateur baseball teams.

Can’t people just keep their hands to themselves?

Two Palestine football players have been booked for investigation on suspicion of sexually harassing a female official at the Asian Games in South Korea, police said Wednesday.

The footballers, whose names were withheld, were suspected of approaching and groping the South Korean woman on Monday in a laundry room in the athletes’ village in Incheon, the host city of this year’s Asiad, they said.  [Yonhap]

The Korea Herald is also reporting that a Iranian athlete is accused of groping another Korean women as well:

The Palestinian incident is the second such case at the Asian Games, after an equipment manager for the Iranian men’s football team  was charged with sexually harassing a female volunteer at a stadium on Monday. [Korea Herald]

I wonder if the mayor of Incheon will issue a proclamation that citizens of Incheon are scared of Middle Eastern athletes like the mayor Uijongbu recently did towards American soldiers?

I wonder if they also complained about the display of the Chinese flag who is also responsible for the deaths of many Koreans during the Korean War and the key enabler of North Korea?:

Organizers of the upcoming Asian Games in Incheon pulled down all national flags that lined the streets of the port city after rightwing groups complained about the public display of the North Korean flag.

The flags of the 45 participating nations were hoisted along the streets of Incheon and the city of Goyang north of Seoul last week.

Under Olympic Council of Asia regulations, the flags of the council, host nation and participating countries are displayed around sports stadiums, accommodation and airports.

The North Korean flag was also hoisted during the 2002 Asian Games in Busan and Daegu Universiade in 2003.

But this time rightwing groups in Goyang protested, and the organizers took the drastic step of removing all national flags and replacing them with the OCA flag and Asian Games banner.  [Chosun Ilbo]

Is there anyone out there suprised by the arrest of one of the leaders of the MacArthur protests as a North Korean spy? From the Chosun:

An activist who is on parole after serving time for spying for North Korea has been arrested for espionage again. Kang Soon-jeong, the former vice chairman of the South Korean chapter of the Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification, an outlawed pro-Pyongyang group, was arrested on Tuesday for providing “national secrets” to Pyongyang, police said. Kang was also co-chairman of a civic group that led efforts to topple the statue of U.S. general Dougas MacArthur in Incheon last year.

Let’s remember the MacArthur protests of 2005 for a minute. The biggest protest happened on September 11, 2005 and was deliberately planned to occur on the same date of the worst terrorist attack in American history in order to rub it into Americans’ faces.

How can we ever forget images like this:

Or my personal favorite:

Something else to remember was that it wasn’t just the North Korean stooges calling for the removal of the MacArthur statue, but also the Korea Times newspaper:

As President Roh made it clear that it is the government’s position to keep the statue, U.S. lawmakers had better wait and see. Nor is this an issue for partisan wrangling domestically. Related officials can consider relocating it to a war memorial from the present public park someday. We have never heard of a statue of Dwight Eisenhower in Normandy to commemorate D-Day.

So keep that in mind the next time you read the Korea Times, that they advocated removing the MacArthur statue because a bunch of North Korean sponsored stooges demanded it. Plus their claims that Eisenhower’s statue is not on display at Normandy were proven to be utterly false as well. Ike’s statue stands proudly at Normandy just like MacArthur’s statue should continue to stand proudly at Inchon.

However, not everyone has forgotten about what MacArthur means to South Korea:

These ROK veterans at the time called the anti-MacArthur protesters North Korean spies and they were right.

The US Congress even got involved in the MacArthur controversy by sending this letter to the Blue House condemning the protests:

Members of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations on Thursday protested at calls in Korea to topple a statue of U.S. general Douglas MacArthur in Incheon. Their protest came in a letter to President Roh Moo-hyun signed by committee chairman Henry Hyde and others.

The letter said but for the 1950 Incheon landing led by MacArthur, the Korea of today would not exist. If attempts to damage the statue continued, it would be better to hand it over to the Americans, the signatories said.

(…)

Needless to say Mr. President the Congress of the United States and the American people would never subscribe to such a description of a hero who led the allied forces which liberated the Republic of Korea twice, first from the yoke of Japanese colonialism 60 years ago this summer and secondly through the brilliant execution of the Inchon landing 55 years ago this month. Our critical bilateral alliance was forged in the crucible of Inchon. The common sacrifices, goals, and achievements which sprang out of Inchon form, in our opinion, the continuing basis for our alliance. We presume that the government of the Republic of Korea shares this view of the critical importance fo the Inchon Landing and the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur.

(…)

In the chamber of the US House of Representatives, directly behind the speaker’s podium hang two portraits. On one side is that of a foreign friend, a soldier who came from a far to assist in the common cause of American independence. That portrait is of the Marquis de Lafayette. For more than 200 years his memory has been implanted deep in the hearts of the American people. We would hope that General MacArthur is so remembered in the hearts of the South Korean people.

Not to be out done the British ambassador to Korea had plenty to say as well:

“I have been saddened to read that a group of protestors attacked and called for the removal of the statue of the U.S. general MacArthur in Incheon. The statue was erected to commemorate the Incheon Landing, which he led, and which was one of the most decisive interventions of the Korean War. British naval vessels were among those involved. By attacking his statue and his memory, these protestors are also denigrating ALL those foreign soldiers under the UN command, who came to fight alongside South Korea in that war. There were men and women from more than 20 nations involved, including my own. Tens of thousands of them gave their lives so that South Korea should remain free and independent. Without the fierce allied fighting that followed there was a real chance that South Korea, by then pinned down to Busan, would have been overrun.

“None of us can change our country’s history. What happened, happened, and we should respect the right for people to demonstrate peacefully, but these protestors risk alienating more than just American friends. I am glad there have been some firmly-worded editorials, and that a number of leading figures, including Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, have spoken up. They need to, and strongly, if good friends of Korea and war veterans from many countries are not to feel insulted.”

With North Korean agents leading protests to tear down the MacArthur statue and create a wedge in the US-ROK alliance what does the ruling Uri Party chairman do? Blame the conservative groups protecting the statue of course:

Ruling Uri Party chairman Moon Hee-sang said Sunday the dispute over a statue of U.S. general Douglas MacArthur in Incheon was “a clash between civic organizations,” but some media outlets and conservative forces blew it out of proportion for reasons of their own. They “sow distrust and friction between Korea and the United States on the pretext of being concerned about the Korea-U.S. alliance,” he said.

With this arrest of a North Korean spy it is also important to remember those in the Korean government and media that were complicit in this obvious North Korean sponsored attempt to create a wedge in the US-ROK alliance. The only thing I find surprising about the spy arrest is why it took so long to uncover it?

HT: One Free Korea

The Incheon Landing, code named “Operation Chromite” is quite possibly the most recognized action taken during the Korean War and what is most amazing about the operation is the fact that it happened at all. Just about every general in the Pentagon was against General MacArthur’s plan to invade Incheon because of the great danger involved in navigating Incheon’s infamous tidal flats. Everyone else was convinced that Kunsan or even Osan south of Incheon were better locations to launch an amphibious operation of this magnitude. MacArthur knew that this is where the North Koreans would expect the UN forces to land and the North Korean were in fact making preparations for landings in these areas because they believed no one was foolish enough to try and land at Incheon. Well no one accept General MacArthur.

MacArthur convinced the Secretary of Defense that his plan was the right course of action and eventually using has famous flare and prestige MacArthur was able to convince the Joint Chief’s of Staff and President Harry Truman to sign off on his plan. However, visions of landing crafts trapped in the Incheon mud which would be sitting ducks for the North Korean artillery raced through everyones minds.

Fortunately the successful “Operation Trudy Jackson” put those fears to rest. The operation allowed General MacArthur’s armada of ships containing the newly constituted X Corps and associated combat power to safely navigate the treacherous Incheon Bay the night of September 14, 1950. The bright light of the Palmi-do lighthouse proved to be a critical navigational aid for the sailors involved with the landing.

Lt. Eugene Clark’s successful intelligence gathering also allowed General MacArthur to gain much needed knowledge about the enemy’s strong points and weaknesses. However, General MacArthur had one weakness himself. The X Corps that would carry out the operation was highly inexperienced. The X Corps commanded by MacArthur’s close friend and advisor Major General Edmond Almond was created specifically for the invasion of Incheon and featured many troops with no combat experience.

Two of the three Marine regiments that composed the 1st Marine Division involved in the operation had no combat experience. In fact the 1st Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division was activated in August and staged in Japan preparing for the invasion and the 7th Marine Regiment was activated on the 1st of September before deploying to fight at Incheon. Both of these regiments were filled with replacements from state side school houses, half of them were from the US Marine Reserve, and Marines transferred from the Mediterranean. The 5th Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division on the other hand were battle hardened Marines who fought in ferocious battles along the Naktong River Line during the Pusan Perimeter defense. They were the only unit in the X Corps with combat experience.

The 7th Infantry Division which was the Army’s contribution to the invasion was in worse shape than the Marines. They were the division responsible for occupation duty in Japan. However, as the war raged on in Korea the division was stripped for replacement soldiers in Korea. In August of 1950 the 7th Division was at approximately half strength. By channeling all infantry and artillery replacements into the 7th Division and transferring 8,000 ROK Army KATUSA trainees from Pusan to join the 7th Division in Japan, the division was able to near 100% strength by September.

However, these 8,000 KATUSA soldiers were merely nothing more than poor Korean boys taken from the refugee camps of Pusan for KATUSA training before being picked up for the Incheon invasion. They had not received any English or military training before leaving for Japan. Many of the KATUSAs in fact wore only shorts and sandals when they reported to their respective units in Japan.

To say the US invasion force lacked experience was an understatement but they did have numbers because X Corps when it was all said and done was composed of over 70,000 soldiers. MacArthur however, would rely heavily on the battle hardened 5th Marine Regiment to spearhead the landing at Incheon.

For two days prior to the landing the North Korean positions had been bombed repeatedly by US naval and air power. At 6:30AM on September 15, 1950 Marines from the battle hardened 5th Marine Regiment with nine Pershing tanks landed on Green Beach on Wolmi-do Island. The island sat in the middle of the harbor and had to be secured before the remaining invasion force could land at Incheon proper. The Marines secured the island in one and a half hours and killed or captured 400 North Korean soldiers while only suffering 17 wounded themselves.

However, the tide receded by 8:30AM and the invasion fleet had to retreat or risk being stuck in the mud flats. The Marines on Wolmi-do had to hold the island from an enemy counter attack along the tidal barrier connecting the island to the mainland until the tide rose again and more troops could land. The Marines held the island until 5:32PM when the tide rose again and the remaining Marines from the 1st Marine Division stormed Red Beach to the North and Blue Beach to the south of Wolmi-do, crushing the enemy resistance in the city of Incheon.

A picture of a Marine climbing a 15 foot high tidal barriers with a ladder while being shot at by North Koreans hiding in buildings over looking his position became the iconic image of the landing .

There had been no such amphibous landing during World War II into a city like what was being attempted now. Also during this time of combat in the streets of Incheon the Pershing tanks and Marines on Wolmi-do began to cross the tidal barrier to enter Incheon and also engage the overwhelmed North Koreans.

By 0130 on 16 September, 1950 the Marines had secured all their objectives in Incheon and allowed the ROK Special Marines to enter the city and mop up any remaining enemy forces, which they did with great brutality. Overall the X Corps had only 20 men killed, 174 wounded, and one MIA in taking Incheon. It was truly a brilliant amphibious operation constructed by General MacArthur.

The harbor was secured and the remainder of the X Corps, mostly the 7th Division, unloaded their equipment and men and began the march to capture Seoul. By September 26, 1950 Seoul was in UN forces hands and the North Korean supply lines had been effectively cut to their forces in the south. The 8th Army units at the Pusan perimeter mounted an offensive against the North Koreans and quickly the North Korean units were crushed by MacArthur’s hammer and anvil tactic. The North Koreans would never recover from this major defeat until the Chinese entered the war. But that is a story for another posting.

Information about the Incheon Landing was provided by the Kmike.com website and the book, This Kind of War by T.R. Fehrenbach.

The Battle of Incheon

This Kind of War

 This is how 9/11 is remembered in South Korea:

Useful Idiots out in force in Inchon protesting the MacArthur Statue.

Riot police playing king of the hill by holding the high ground against the hate group protesters wielding bamboo poles trying to tear down the MacArthur Statue.

This is the scene from yesterday’s anti-American hate fest in Inchon. Notice that the hate groups are using the same tactics they used in Pyongtaek, a frontal assault with bamboo poles and metal pipes. This is what the Chosun Ilbo had to say about the protest:

Dozens were injured when groups calling for the removal of a statue of U.S. general Douglas MacArthur clashed with police in Incheon’s Freedom Park on Sunday. The clashes came four days ahead of the 55th anniversary of the Incheon Landing of UN forces led by MacArthur that marked a turning point in the Korean War.

Some 4,000 members of progressive groups who had gathered in Sungeui Stadium in Incheon’s Nam-gu started marching on the park at 1 p.m. to demand the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Korea and the removal of the monument to the U.S. general from Freedom Park.

Here is my first point of contention with the Chosun article; they try to make it out that this protest was held on Sunday because the 15th is the 55th anniversary of the Inchon Landing. This is incorrect. The hate groups specifically held it on the anniversary of 9/11 to rub it in the USA’s face the terrorist attack that killed 3,000 Americans. My second point of contention is that the newspaper dignifies these people by calling them a “progressive group”. They are a hate group. If you exchanged the words they say about Americans to Koreans the media would have no qualms calling them a racist hate group. If tomorrow I had a protest demanding that every statue in tribute to Koreans in America should be torn down, my group would be labeled a hate group. These people are no different. Call them what they are, they hate Americans.

Here is another example of how out of hand this is getting. Some of you may remember this picture from July’s hate fest at Camp Humphreys:

At the Inchon protest, children were once again subject to violence:

Here is a quote I had to chuckle at when I read it:

The park resembled a battlefield littered with branches, dirt, eggs, torn-up paper and the blood of the wounded. Police had deployed no fewer than 38 companies of riot police — about 3,800 men — and 78 transport vehicles, but they were unable to stop the violence and earned complaints from protesters for hurling stones.

The protesters are complaining that the riot police threw stones at them when they are attacking the police with bamboo poles, metal pipes, and rocks? I guess they are just supposed to stand there and take a beating from these idiots.

Is this Inchon or New Orleans?

Overall though, this protest was unsuccessful in creating the huge anti-American movement they hoped to create. In fact now more pro-American Koreans are mobilizing against the hate groups:

From the Chosun:

Earlier, some 1,000 members of conservative groups rallied at Inseong Girls High School near the Park to defend the statue of a man they see as a hero of the Korean War. At 4 p.m., they too entered Freedom Park with the intent of burning North Korean flags, throwing stones and eggs, and stopping the progressive groups from entering the park, but were stopped by police.

From the Joong Ang Ilbo:

On Thursday, more than 10,000 conservative activists including former marines will gather for a rally to protect the statue. “After the rally, we will take a turn to guard the statue on our own,” a representative of the Marine Corps Veterans Association said.

In the coming days we will see what the pro-American groups do in response to the hate groups. However, the true show down will be in Pyongtaek when the land is forcibly removed from the last few farmers still holding out and preventing the USFK from relocating soldiers there from Yongsan and the DMZ areas. This was just another warm up for the upcoming hate fest Super Bowl coming up this winter. And finally I will pose the question of why these people of continually beat, assault, and injure Korean policemen are not in jail?
______________________________________

Here is the first South Korean press report on today’s anti-American hate fest at Freedom Park in Inchon were hate groups vowed to tear down a symbol of Inchon the General MacArthur statue:

(ATTN: UPDATES with reports of injuries in clashes)
INCHEON, Sept. 11 (Yonhap) — Hundreds of anti-U.S. protesters clashed with riot police Sunday as they marched tried to march onto a public park in South Korea’s western port city of Incheon where a statue of U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur stands.

The protesters were part of 4,000 leftist activists who staged street demonstrations earlier in the day, demanding the removal of the statue which they argued hinders inter-Korean reconciliation and unification.

They think MacArthur’s statue hinders reunification? There idiot policy of providing nearly unmonitored food aid to North Korea that goes directly to the North Korean military has done more to hinder reunification than MacArthur’s statue. I guess they think if a Kim Il Sung statue sat there instead reunification will come quicker.

There are reports of injuries. Hopefully the injuries are not of the riot police that have to continuously put up with the violence from these hate groups. I’m sure there will be more updates on this in the morning.

The controversy over the MacArthur statue located in Jayu Park in Inchon first raised it’s ugly head last December.

This Kim Su-nam character appeared last week promoting last weekends protest at Jayu Park:

The group’s chairman Kim Su-nam said rectifying “the vestiges of colonialism and our distorted history must begin with removing the MacArthur statue, which is a symbol of imperialism.” He said the group would form a coalition with other groups from Inchon to bring down the statue.

So originally he says that removing the statue is an effort to correct distorted history. I don’t know what is so distorted about MacArthur saving the Korean nation twice, once from the Japanese and once from the North Koreans. Heck you could even say he helped save them from the Chinese too. Anyway this guy had a different story to say during last weekend’s protest:

“The statue is part of our humiliating history,” said Kim Su-Nam, a 65-year-old activist wearing a yellow jacket inscribed with anti-US slogans.

“By dismantling the statue, we want to stoke an anti-US movement aimed at expelling US troops from the peninsula,” Kim said.

Using a loudspeaker, he rebuked the pro-US demonstrators as “followers of the US colonial master”.

Well at least Kim is now showing his true motives. He could care less about whatever history MacArthur has in regards to Korea. His real motive is to create images on American TV screens of the MacArthur statue being toppled ala Saddam Hussein, to create a strong anti-Korean backlash in the United States. He is absolutely right. If that statue gets torn down and that is broadcast across America, the US-ROK alliance is over and South Korea might as well put up this statue in MacArthur’s place:

The pro-US protesters that Mr. Kim spoke of actually greatly outnumbered his small 50 person protest group:

“We will never forget what he did for us. He is a hero who stopped the communization of the Korean peninsula,” said Lee Jin-Ho, a 74-year-old veteran who fought alongside US soldiers during the war.

But forget is exactly what some South Koreans want to do.

After laying a wreath at the memorial, Lee joined hundreds of other pro-US demonstrators, including war veterans in their 60s and 70s, who gathered in the park on Sunday to block about 50 anti-US activists intent on pulling down the statue.

Here is the money quote of the protest here:

“Instead of quibbling, they should pay attention to North Korea’s human rights situation and the dictatorship of its Kim Jong-Il regime,” Lee Phil-Han, a 56-year-old businessman in Incheon, said.

“We owe a lot to the United States which played a key role in our economic development. My notion is being supported by a silent majority of South Koreans.”

I cannot imagine the people of Inchon tearing down that statue. I have spent a lot of time in Inchon which is evident by my Focus on Inchon series of articles, and feel pretty confident when I say that Inchon is not a center of anti-US sentiment in Korea. If anything the city has always felt pro-US to me maybe due to the city’s connection with the Inchon landing and it’s long history of trade with the US and this feeling is supported by the strong counter-protest against Kim Su-Nam and his other pro-North Korean lackeys at Jayu Park last weekend. I would like to thank the people who showed up at the park and supported keeping the MacArthur statue.

Now my next question is, where is the Korean media on this? I’m getting the majority of the information on this event from Yahoo. We get wall to wall coverage of an idiot jumping on a taxi cab but very little coverage of this protest. In fact the only analysis I have seen of this protest was in the Korea Times of all places, which supported keeping the statue. Maybe the media just couldn’t bring themselves to run images like these I pulled off the Katolic Shinja site:

These pictures run counter to the anti-USFK tone the media likes to trump into the collective Korean consciousness here. Feel free to comment with links to any other Korean news analyis of this event I may have missed because I would like to read it.

Anyway, I tend to agree with the Katolic Shinja on this final quote here:

The best quote from the article above comes from former South Korean U.N. Ambassador Park Keun: “Not even dogs forget their benefactors.”

My final installment of my Focus on Incheon series is about the historical Wolmi-do island. Wolmi-do island was made famous due to General MacArthur’s Incheon Landing Operation during the Korean War. Wolmi-do is where the first American Marines landed at Green Beach on Wolmi-do to begin the critical operation to liberate the port city of Incheon from the North Korean communist agressors. Today Wolmi-do is not even an island due to land reclamation that has now connected the island to Incheon proper. You can in fact take a bus now to reach the “island”.

Wolmi-do island is viewable from just about anywhere in Incheon due to the large round hill that rises from the island. Radar Hill due to the large naval radar located on the top of the hill is a popular place for locals to hike up and get some fresh air and views of the island and the Incheon harbor below.

Wolmi-do is also popular for the nice upscale boardwalk that is built exactly where the Marines landed that day in 1950. The boardwalk includes many trendy coffee shops and seafood restaurants. Outside on the weekends there is usually a cultural event of some kind taking place, plus fortune tellers and artists who will service you for a price. For the adventurous there is always the amusement park on the island to check out. It has many high flying rides and games to try. If that isn’t enough you can just sit and watch the sunset and the boats going by. You can also catch a boat at the ferry terminal to tour the numerous islands located in the Incheon Bay. They even have special tour packages to view some of the island made famous in Korean dramas and movies such as Silmi-do island. All tours can be arranged through the tour information office located outside the Incheon train station.

No trip to Incheon would be complete without a stop over at Wolmi-do. Hiking up radar hill, eating seafood at one of the restaurants, and watching the sunset from the pier is enough to fill anyone’s afternoon. Definitely worth checking out.