Tag: Korea

It sounds like some in South Korea are getting tired of hearing complaints from the Chinese and Russians against the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system:

On Thursday, the Russian ambassador to South Korea called the proposed deployment of a U.S. missile defense system on the peninsula a security threat to the region, the third time in as many weeks that he has weighed in on the issue.

In an interview with Yonhap News Agency, Alexander Timonin, who served as the ambassador to North Korea until last year, said the deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on the Korean Peninsula would constitute a security threat to both Russia and the wider region.

“What concerns us is that a U.S. missile defense system could be placed in areas not far from Russia, adding to worries over THAAD’s radar system or technology,” he told Yonhap.  (…….)

“Of course it has multi-purpose tasks. One of the tasks, of course, is North Korea,” Vorontsov told The Diplomat on Thursday. “But, additionally, the capability of this system allows this equipment to intercept missiles, Russian… missiles for example. So, yes, unfortunately, there are grounds for concern vis-a-vis [the] security situation of Russia… and the Chinese.”  (……………..)

But some Koreans have received the Russian and Chinese objections coldly.

Song Dae-sung, a professor of political science and former brigadier general with the South Korean Air Force, said that Russia and China preventing THAAD would be the same as South Korea demanding the removal of Russian and Chinese missile placements that could target the Korean Peninsula.

“If China and Russia really hate the placement of THAAD in South Korea, they can take resolute action to ensure the destruction of weapons of mass destruction held by North Korea and a halt to their development,” the Konkuk University professor told The Diplomat late last month. “The insistence that we only consider the South Korea-China and South Korea-Russia relationships and not deploy THAAD, which is opposed by China and Russia, is an insistence that neglects the absolute value of national security.”  [The Diplomat]

You can read the rest at the link, but I do find it interesting that a Russian is publicly complaining about THAAD preventing their country from shooting missiles at South Korea.

Here is the latest on the comfort women front:

A congressional delegation led by U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi met with Korean leaders including President Park Geun-hye on Thursday in Seoul, where they discussed regional and bilateral issues, particularly the outstanding historical issues between Korea and Japan.

The bipartisan congressional delegation arrived in Korea for a two-day trip, part of its five-nation Asia tour. The 10-member team included Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel and Sander Levin and Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick.

During their meeting at the Blue House, President Park explained to the delegation the urgency of resolving the issues concerning Korea’s “comfort women,” a term used for the women Japan coerced into sexual slavery during World War II.

Park pointed out that the victims are now elderly – some reaching 90 years old – and that the clock was ticking, a Blue House official said.

Pelosi replied that the issues needed to be resolved for the sake of women’s rights, the official said.

Tokyo’s refusal to officially apologize for forcibly recruiting thousands of young women, mostly Koreans, into military brothels during World War II has long been a key point of contention between Seoul and Tokyo. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link,but I wonder if these representatives know that the Japanese government has already apologized multiple times in regards to the comfort women issue.  Here for example is the apology that Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Kato made back in 1992:

The Government again would like to express its sincere apology and remorse to all those who have suffered indescribable hardship as so-called “wartime comfort women”, irrespective of their nationality or place of birth. With profound remorse and determination that such a mistake must never be repeated, Japan will maintain its stance as a pacifist nation and will endeavor to build up new future-oriented relations with the Republic of Korea and with other countries and regions in Asia.

As I listen to many people, I feel truly grieved for this issue. By listening to the opinions of people from various directions, I would like to consider sincerely in what way we can express our feelings to those who suffered such hardship.  [Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan]

I wonder if this Congressional delegation knows that Abe already apologized over the comfort women issue all the way back in 2007 as well in Newsweek magazine:

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday expressed regrets that his country’s military forced women into sexual slavery during World War II.

The remark, made in an interview with a weekly U.S. news magazine on the eve of his visit to the United States, may have been aimed at mending fences. The premier has been criticized by many countries for claiming there is no evidence that the Japanese military took any part in the forced recruitment of the so-called comfort women to serve its troops who invaded Asian countries.

“As Japan’s prime minister, I’m extremely sorry that they were made to endure such pain,” Abe told Newsweek. The Japanese leader reiterated that his government respected and stood by a statement by former Chief Cabinet Minister Yohei Kono in 1993 that apologized for the Japanese military’s involvement in the use of women as sexual slaves.

There is no argument from me that Prime Minister Abe and some of the people around him have made insensitive comments in the past in regards to the comfort women, but they have maintained all prior apologies made by the government of Japan.  Is the standard now that every Prime Minister in Japan has to apologize for World War II crimes when they take office?  Even when they take office for a second time like Abe has after already making a prior apology?  This is why the Japanese public I think has reached apology fatigue and support Abe on this issue.  .

If the people criticizing Japan really cared about women’s right they would instead be directing their outrage towards China which currently maintains a modern day comfort woman system using North Korean refugees who are coerced into becoming prostitutes.  Likewise if Abe was serious about resolving the comfort women issue he would make Japan into a champion of women’s rights by advocating for the North Korean refugees currently being used as a modern day comfort women.  Instead 10 years from now the same people will probably still be arguing over who needs to apologize for what while the modern day comfort women system continues.

Regarding Korea, China and Japan’s troubled modern history, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman seemed to side with Tokyo’s stance when she said, “Of course … it is not hard for a political leader anywhere to earn cheap applause by vilifying a former enemy. But such provocations produce paralysis, not progress.” By Park Yong-seok

Members of South Korea’s first anti-Ebola medical team, who completed their mission in the western African nation of Sierra Leone in late January, hold a news conference in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Feb. 15, 2015. They returned to normal life after a three-week isolation period. (Yonhap)

Our Run DMZ t-shirt is back by popular demand! Get it here: http://t.co/b4NPZBdTCH pic.twitter.com/kVgVx0Dr6Q

— Liberty in NK (@LibertyinNK) February 25, 2015

Jasmine Lee is the first non-Korean member of the National Assembly in South Korea and the Korea Herald has an interview with her published that discusses some of her views:

When the governing Saenuri Party picked Jasmine Lee to serve as a lawmaker in April 2012, hate groups attacked her as a “dark-skinned” foreigner posing as a Korean.

Saenuri officials hoped Lee would encourage “diversity” in a dominantly homogenous, and sometimes xenophobic South Korea, to better represent naturalized citizens, foreign laborers, and other minorities in the National Assembly.

She has done her best to meet the expectations, Lee said in an interview with The Korea Herald earlier this month, but the country has a long way to go.

“There has never been a multicultural society in South Korea,” she said. “So officials here don’t know exactly how to support such families here.”  [Korea Herald]

Here is what she had to say about mixed race males serving in the ROK military:

South Korea’s Constitution obligates physically and psychologically fit men to serve 21 months in the armed forces. But the military did not accept “multicultural” men until 2011, as officials thought they would lack the social skills to mingle with others in their unit.

Lee has a son with her late Korean husband, who is likely to enter the military sometime next year. She said incorporating men from multicultural families was a step in the right direction.

“A Justice Ministry official once suggested that ‘multicultural’ servicemen serve in segregated units,” Lee said.

“I asked the official if those multicultural men would fight separately from other units if a war broke out. He said no.”

“So I asked him, then why segregate them?”

You can read more of the interview at the link.

An example of how this story has gone viral is that over in the Forums where I posted this article it received nearly 2,000 page views yesterday:

The start of the upcoming military exercises between the US and South Korea has been released:

The South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) said that the two allies will conduct their annual joint military drills starting March 2.

Approximately ten-thousand South Korean and eight-thousand-600 U.S. troops will take part in this year’s Key Resolve exercise, which will run through March 13.

Of the involved U.S. forces, six-thousand-700 will be brought in from U.S. bases in other countries such as Japan for the computer-simulated command post exercise.

This year’s Key Resolve exercise will also involve forces from five other countries such as Australia, Canada, Denmark, France and the U.K.

In a separate exercise, South Korea and the U.S. will hold Foal Eagle from March 2 to April 24 with some 200-thousand South Korean and three-thousand-700 U.S. soldiers being mobilized.

The USS Fort Worth, a three-thousand-450-ton Freedom-class littoral combat ship (LCS), will participate in the tactical field training exercise for the first time.Equipped with a helicopter, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and 21 missiles, the Fort Worth is capable of nearing the shoreline despite the shallow waters of the Asia-Pacific.  [KBS World]

You can read more at the link, but I guess we will see if the North Koreans want to respond with a provocation cycle or not.

A hanbok (traditional Korean dress) fashion show is under way in Los Angeles on Feb. 20, 2015. (Photo courtesy of Hanbok Advancement Center) (Yonhap)

A US military contractor working at Yongsan has found himself in hot water with the ROK authorities:

Police said Monday that a civilian worker with the Eighth U.S. Army has been charged with violating a drunken driving inspection and injuring a police officer on duty.

The U.S. national contractor, whose name was withheld, is suspected of hitting the police officer while dodging a crackdown on drunken drivers late Sunday in the Seoul district of Yongsan where the Army base is located, according to police.

During questioning, the 31-year-old said he was searching for a hospital to get medication for his heart disease but denied that he was driving the wrong way or hit the police officer.

Police said the results of tests conducted hours after the accident showed that the contractor was sober but added that they could not confirm his state at the time of the accident.

The injured police officer has been hospitalized for an abrasion and an ankle ligament injury, police said. (Korea Herald)