President Park Geun-hye hugs a female noncommissioned officer at a port in Abu Dhabi on March 6, 2015. Park toured the South Korean destroyer Daejoyeong, which is docked at the port as part of its multinational anti-piracy operations. (Yonhap)
This is not good for the ROK Navy:
Prosecutors on Tuesday indicted former Navy Chief of Staff Jung Ok-keun over accusations that he took 770 million won ($700,000) in bribes from a local shipbuilding conglomerate when he held the position in 2008.
The 63-year-old was arrested late last month on suspicions that he received kickbacks from two subsidiaries under the now financially crippled STX Corporation through a yachting company, whose majority stakeholder was his 38-year-old son.
Jung’s son was detained a day earlier on charges that he allegedly pocketed money from STX Offshore and Shipbuilding and STX Engine by recording them as sponsors for his yachting event, which was organized in Busan to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Navy’s establishment.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office has since been narrowing its investigation into whether Jung could have benefited from his eldest son’s business dealings.
Jung’s son and his business partner at the time, a former Navy colonel surnamed Yoo, were also indicted on Tuesday for contributing to the bribery, as was a former Navy operations commander surnamed Yoon, who is the non-executive director of STX. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but it makes you wonder how many other people have been getting these huge bribes?
The construction of a military residential complex resumes near the site of a new naval base on Jeju Island on Feb. 2, 2015. (Yonhap)
Just another example of the growing military capabilities of the ROK Navy:
The South Korean Navy on Sunday inaugurated a submarine command as part of efforts to bolster its underwater capabilities and combat readiness against North Korea.
The fleet of the command, based in the southern port city of Jinhae and led by a rear admiral, is composed of 13 submarines under the Ninth Submarine Flotilla, the Navy said in a statement.
The Navy operates nine 1,200-ton submarines and four 1,800-ton subs, while planning to add five more 1,800-ton submarines to be built by 2019. In addition, it plans to deploy nine 3,000-ton submarines capable of launching ballistic missiles, starting in 2020.
The launch made South Korea, which commissioned its first submarine from Germany in 1992, the sixth nation in the world with a submarine command after the United States, Japan, France, Britain and India. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link.
I wonder if there is more to this story that just went down to the bottom of the Han River:
A former Navy rear admiral under investigation over his alleged involvement in a defense industry graft case jumped off a bridge in a Seoul suburb on Wednesday, police said.
The Gyeonggi Goyang Police Station said an unidentified person called at 8:10 a.m. to say the 61-year-old man, identified only by his surname Ham, plunged off the bridge over the Han River that flows through Seoul into the Yellow Sea.
Ham, also a former executive member of a defense firm, was scheduled to face questioning this morning. Prosecutors said they considered him a witness, rather than a suspect.
The details of the case he was involved in were not immediately clear. He was once in charge of the Navy’s shipbuilding division.
“We send our condolences to the bereaved family for this tragedy,” an official investigating the case said, asking not to be named. “Ham never complained about the interrogation process and we’re confident we’ve followed the proper protocol.”
Police said they discovered a car, a suicide note and a pair of shoes near the scene. Professional divers have been deployed to search for the body, they said.
In November, South Korea launched a task force comprised of prosecutors, military officers and government officials to root out corruption in the defense industry.
The move came after an expensive homegrown salvage ship was proved defective at the peak of efforts to save those missing from a ferry disaster last year. The sinking claimed more than 300 lives. [Yonhap]
The US and ROK militaries have begun a naval exercise that has got the North Koreans predictably pissed off about:
The U.S. and South Korea on Tuesday kicked off a two-day joint naval drill that includes two U.S. destroyers and several South Korean vessels.
The USS Mustin and the USS John McCain, each with about 280 personnel, are participating off South Korea’s eastern coast. Commander Naval Forces Korea spokesman Lt. Arlo Abrahamson said the exercise includes anti-submarine warfare training, communication drills, ship maneuvers and liaison officer exchanges.
“Some of it they’ve done ashore, and some of it they do at sea,” he said.
The South Korean destroyer Gwanggaeto, a submarine, anti-submarine aircraft and two helicopters are also taking part, according to a South Korean navy spokesman, who said the exercise is meant to reinforce the allies’ readiness posture against North Korea, which is believed to have some 70 submarines. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link.
The Aegis destroyer “King Sejong the Great” patrols seas off South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo on Jan. 1, 2015. (Yonhap)
This just goes to show that anyone that had anything remotely to do with what went wrong with the Sewol tragedy is coming under fire:
The state auditor will request the Ministry of National Defense to take disciplinary action against Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Hwang Ki-chul and hold him responsible for a case of defense industry corruption involving a faulty Navy ship, insiders said Tuesday.
The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) concluded that Hwang was deeply engaged in the process of selecting a supplier of an outdated sonar system for the first domestic-made rescue and salvage ship, the 3,500-ton Tongyeong, in January 2009. At that time he was serving as head of the department in charge of the vessel project at the military procurement agency.
Launched in September 2012, the ship failed to take part in the rescue operation after the Sewol ferry sank in April because of the malfunctioning sonar system. It sparked a huge controversy over deep-rooted corruption in the nation’s defense industry.
According to the BAI, Hwang pushed for a purchase agreement with the supplier even before the Defense Acquisition Program Administration secured the proper evaluation data. He also gave the company preference by postponing the deadline twice for submitting a plan for the project. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link.
The Korean authorities should have stopped these people at the gate of the airport and sent them home because it is illegal for foreigners to conduct political activity while visiting South Korea:
The Rev. Bill Bichsel, an 86-year-old Tacoma priest known for his acts of civil disobedience, has returned from a trip to South Korea to protest construction of a naval base there.
Just three months ago, Bichsel was seriously ill and in the hospital in Tacoma. But his health —while still frail due to a heart condition—improved to the point he was able to make the trip using a wheelchair.
He said his doctors didn’t try to stop him from traveling.
“They just shake their heads,” Bichsel said. “They know I’m going so they don’t make a big fuss.”
For nearly 40 years, the Jesuit priest known as “Bix” has protested against U.S. military programs and weapons. He’s been arrested dozens of times for trespassing during protests and jailed more than a half-dozen times.
He wasn’t arrested in South Korea, but he realized the 12-day trip could set his health back.
“I know I could go anytime,” Bichsel said.
He was weak upon returning Nov. 20, but has gotten stronger since then. And he was inspired by the trip.
Bichsel and nine other people —nearly all from the Puget Sound area—traveled to Jeju Island to commits acts of civil resistance against construction of a base by the South Korean Navy. The base has been under construction on the island off the southern tip of Korea for eight years. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but what gets me about the whole Cheju Naval Base issue is that the leftists complain about the base provoking China when the Chinese is busy making claims against Korean territory and the territory of other countries in the region and have constructed an aircraft carrier to help enforce those claims. If the Chinese were not making aggressive territorial claims this base would have never been built in the first place and the leftists have the nerve to condemn the ROK government for provoking China?
Chey Min-jung (R), the daughter of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, salutes to her mother at the Korea Naval Academy in Changwon City, South Gyeongsang Province, on Nov. 26, 2014. The 23-year-old was commissioned as second lieutenant after an 11-week training. She became the first woman from a chaebol family to enlist in the military in a country where all able-bodied South Korean men are subject to compulsory military service for about two years. The mother of the younger Chey is the daughter of a general-turned-president Roh Tae-woo who served from 1988 to 1993. (Yonhap)
