Tag: Korea

Korean Security Chief to Discuss THAAD Deployment with China

| September 5, 2014

The Chinese have been complaining about the deployment of THAAD to Korea and it looks like the Korean government is going to try and alleviate their concerns:

The government is moving to ease China’s concerns about the possible deployment of U.S. missile interceptors on Korean soil.

National Security Office (NSC) chief Kim Kwan-jin is expected to undertake this hard mission on a visit to Beijing to meet with State Councilor Yang Jiechi in October.

Government officials have recently dropped hints that they would not object to the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) plan to bring in a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

The advanced missile-defense system that has a range of up to lometers is regarded as an indispensable element of the U.S. missile defense system.

“The NSC chief will try and acquire China’s understanding on THAAD,” a government official said. The resumption of six-party talks aimed at stopping North Korea’s nuclear programs would also be on the agenda, he said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

US & Korean Governments’ Announce Establishment of Combined Military Unit

| September 5, 2014

I have always liked this idea of a combined division and it appears it will become a reality:

Headquarters of the 2nd Infantry Division in Uijongbu.

South Korea and the United States have agreed to establish a combined division of their troops next year that will be tasked with carrying out wartime operations, Seoul’s defense ministry said Thursday.

The unit, slated to be organized in the first half of next year, will be comprised of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division and a South Korean brigade-level unit, according to the ministry.

The 2nd Division commander plans to head the newly-made joint staff of the combined unit, with South Korea’s brigadier general-level officer to be its vice chief, the ministry said, adding that an equal number of dozens of service personnel from the two sides will form the leadership.

“While being operated in a separate fashion in peacetime, the 2nd Division and the Korean brigade will carry out joint exercises when necessary,” a ministry official said, asking not to be named.

In time of war, the two entities will get together to carry out diverse “strategic operations” such as eliminating weapons of mass destruction as well as civil missions against North Korea, he noted, without elaborating further.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the article says this will not impact the relocation of the 2ID to Camp Humphreys.  However, I wonder how it is going to impact the residual combat power in Area 1 that has long been discussed.

Mark Lippert Tapped To Become the Next US Ambassador to South Korea

| May 2, 2014

Congratulations to Mark Lippert for being picked as the next US ambassador to South Korea:

Mark Lippert via Wikipedia.

Mark Lippert, one of U.S. President Barack Obama’s oldest and closest aides, has been nominated to be the United States’ next ambassador to South Korea.
Multiple diplomatic sources say the U.S. government notified Seoul of the impending announcement during President Obama’s visit to the nation last week.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Lippert will replace the current ambassador, Sung Kim, in the second half of the year.  Kim, who’s three-year term is nearing an end, is expected to return to the State Department in September. As for Lippert’s credentials, the 41-year-old is currently Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s chief of staff. At the age of 32, he became the foreign policy advisor to then-Senator Barack Obama.

Four years later he was appointed as National Security Council chief of staff, and in 2012 as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs.  [Arirang News]

You can read more at the link, but reading Lippert’s biography of note is the fact he joined the Naval reserve in 2005 and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as an intelligence officer.  Something that caused some controversy was that while serving on active duty he was accused of still receiving his $147,500 White House salary.  He is also accused of having a history of leaking information to the media to discredit rivals.  This is supposedly why former Defense Secretary Robert Gates did not want him in the Pentagon and he was moved over there after Chuck Hagel took over:

We’re also told that former Defense Secretary Robert Gates was opposed to Lippert’s appointment at the Pentagon and the White House was waiting until Gates was gone. Gates was a staunch defender of Jones and might have held a grudge against Lippert. Also, Gates might have been wary of having someone who is so close to the White House embedded in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, especially one with a history of leaking and insubordination. Republican critics also say he lacks the qualifications for the job of being the Pentagon’s top Asia policy official.

“Lippert is a guy who has no experience working in the Pentagon, no qualifications for leading defense policy on East Asia, and who is super close to the White House,” said one Bush administration Asia official. “Other than that, he’s perfect for the job.” [Foreign Policy]

 

His East Asia experience is studying Mandarin at Peking University as part of his graduate school program at Stanford and then in 2012 when he became the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs at the Pentagon when Secretary Hagel took over.  As far as specific experience with South Korea I have not seen anything.  Overall though if you read about him he is a major insider within the Obama administration, which should mean the Korean government will have someone at the US embassy with ready access to the White House.

It is expected that one of Lippert’s biggest tasks will be to try and get South Korea and Japan to better cooperate with each other politically and militarily.  Good luck with that.

CNN Report Criticizes US Military’s Patronizing of Juicy Bars In Korea

| December 27, 2013

Via a reader tip comes this CNN video about the alleged sexual slavery of ‘juicy girls’ in Korea:

Anyone who has spent time in Korea knows that this video report does not describe the whole issue with the juicy girls in Korea.  I am not going to speak to whether or not the woman in the video knew what she was getting herself into, but I am willing to bet the vast majority of the girls in the Philippines do know what they were getting themselves into coming to Korea.  Just Google “Philippines hostess Korea” and a number of articles about juicy girls comes up.  Additionally CNN made no mention of the fact that most of these girls go to work in Korean bars.  This is hardly just a US military issue that CNN chose to focus on.  Heck trafficking Filipinas is not even just a Korea issue.  So why did CNN focus on just the US military?  Could it be because just as I suspected they would the special interests using the juicy girls to push the military sexual assault issue?  That is why I believe USFK officials have been especially proactive about trying to change the juicy bar system this year.  However, I continue to maintain that USFK should just put clubs that hire third country nationals off limits which would largely end the criticism.

US and South Korea To Revise SOFA to Better Specify Town Patrol Duties

| December 17, 2013

Here we go again with the Korean media claiming that the Status of Forces Agreement allows US soldiers to commit crimes and not be held accountable in Korean courts:


(Image from Stars & Stripes)

South Korea and the United States are set to revise their joint guidelines on U.S. Forces Korea’s patrol activities, sources said Monday, following a controversial incident last year in which a group of American military officers handcuffed three local civilians using force.

South Korea’s prosecution is seeking to indict seven U.S. military police officers on charges of violence for handcuffing three South Korean citizens last July in Pyeongtaek, a provincial city 70 kilometers south of Seoul. (……….)

Despite continuing crimes by U.S. soldiers here, South Korean authorities have often fallen short of taking proper legal actions due to the SOFA regulation that helps the accused soldiers end up in the hands of U.S. authorities.  [Yonhap via reader tip]

Many ROK Heads may remember the incident the article is referring to which is the Osan Handcuff Scandal.  There is no doubt that those SP’s acted unprofessionally and handled the incident very poorly.  However, they were clearly on duty which falls under USFK jurisdiction which gives them the authority on whether to hand them over for Korean criminal prosecution.  USFK handled the incident themselves by punishing two of the town patrol members.

Anyway the Yonhap article pushes many of the myths about the US-ROK SOFA.  First of all in the article it claims this is the first change to the SOFA which is not true.  The SOFA has been updated many times over the years.  Also the article claims that the SOFA is preventing ROK authorities from taking legal action against criminal GIs.  I have challenged people over and over again on this topic to name one GI that committed a crime while off duty and USFK hid behind the SOFA to allow him to get away with the crime?  Maybe someone should first provide an answer to this question before bashing the SOFA.

Anyway with all that said I do agree with this effort to change the SOFA to better specify what the town patrols should be doing in order to prevent another Osan Handcuff Scandal like incident from happening.