Tag: USFK

Here is the latest on the Yongsan Garrison cat crisis:

U.S. military officials plan to launch a program aimed at slowing the growth of the stray cat population on this Army installation in the heart of Seoul.
The program — known as trap, neuter, release, or TNR — was deemed necessary after the number of cats spiked as the military prepares to close Yongsan. Last year, U.S. Forces Korea moved its main headquarters from Yongsan south to Camp Humphreys.
“TNR is the humane and potentially effective approach for stray and feral cats by which community cats are humanely trapped … brought to a veterinarian to be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, ear tipped, and then returned to the outdoor location where they were found,” according to the new policy issued this month.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Key Resolve is going to happen this spring, just don’t call it Key Resolve:

South Korea and the United States will rename their springtime combined Key Resolve exercise and desist from using the Foal Eagle name for their annual field training, a government source in Seoul said Wednesday.
The move appears to be part of efforts to prevent tensions with North Korea amid ongoing peace efforts with the communist state. Pyongyang has long denounced allied exercises as rehearsals for invasion.
The Key Resolve command post exercise will be renamed the “19-1 Exercise,” and focus on bolstering defensive capabilities, the source said on condition of anonymity. This year’s edition is expected to kick off its two-week schedule on March 4.

The name of the Foal Eagle field training exercise, usually scheduled to occur between March and April, will no longer be used. But battalion-level portions of the exercise are expected to proceed as they have been in the past, according to the source.

Yonhap News

You can read more at the link, but USFK definitely found the most boring exercise name ever to replace Key Resolve with. I would love to know if North Korea has stopped or changed the names of any of their exercises?

Anyway does anyone have any better ideas of what to rename Key Resolve as?

USFK should expect that every incident involving US soldiers that the Korean media becomes aware of will be publicized:

Two female U.S. army soldiers have been questioned for allegedly assaulting a Korean man and a police officer in Dongducheon, police said Monday.

According to Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency, a private, 20, from the U.S. Eighth Army and a private first class, 19, from the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division were questioned in the early hours of the day after allegedly kicking and punching a man, 58, and a police officer.

This came after an altercation between the soldiers and the man at around midnight. How the trouble started is still unclear.

Police said the soldiers refused to say anything and returned to their units later.

Police plan to summon them again for questioning after checking surveillance cameras in the area.

We are not at the point that the Korean media will sensationalize these incidents yet. They will just matter of factly report every little incident to keep the GI crime narrative simmering with the public.

I suspect that after a peace treaty is signed and the Korean left mobilizes surrogates to push for US troop withdrawals that is when they will sensationalize every little incident that happens like they did in the late 90’s to early 2000’s timeframe.

If this report is accurate it appears the ROK government has once again gotten what they wanted from the US-ROK cost sharing negotiations with the caveat that it is only a one year deal:

South Korea and the United States are expected to strike a deal this week on splitting the cost for the stationing of American troops here as the allies consider the need to work closely together to denuclearize North Korea, a diplomatic source said Sunday.

The U.S. will likely accept South Korea’s request for a contribution of less than US$1 billion (1.1 trillion won) in 2019.

Seoul plans to sign a one-year contract as Washington demands, according to the source.

Last year, South Korea paid around 960 billion won for the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) under a five-year deal signed in 2014.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but since this is a one year deal I would expect the Trump administration to ratchet up the pressure again for the ROK to pay $1.2 billion when negotiations begin again later this year.

For people moving to or visiting Camp Humphreys here are the gates and the hours they are open:

Pedestrian Gate: 24-Hours for Pedestrians, Escorts, and Bicycles.

Anjeong-ri Gate: 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. entry is limited to one lane. Exiting the installation is all lanes for privately owned vehicles, contract vehicles, bicycles and motor bikes. (CLOSED on Weekends and Holidays)

CPX Gate — CLOSED

Dongchang‐ri 020 Gate: 24-Hours for privately owned vehicles, pedestrians, buses, contract type utility vehicles, motor bikes and bicycles. 

Hamjeong‐ri 021 Gate: 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday (CLOSED on Weekends and Holidays) for privately owned vehicles, pedestrians, contract type utility vehicles, buses, small commercial vehicles, motor bikes, bicycles, and pedestrians.

Dodu-ri Gate: 24-Hours for privately owned vehicles, pedestrians, contract type utility vehicles, buses, military vehicles, commercial vehicles, motor bikes, bicycles, and escorts. 

Army.mil

I think President Moon is telling the truth here because President Trump is likely letting his surrogates negotiate the ultimate price for him. Trump though must have given his surrogates guidance on the lowest cost he is willing to accept:

 South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday dismissed recent reports that U.S. President Donald Trump has named a specific price for keeping U.S. troops in South Korea, saying the leaders simply do not speak in such a manner.
“Not just President Trump but no leader of any country in the world speaks in such a manner,” the president was quoted as saying.
“Such reports can be an insult to President Trump,” he added, according to his spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.
Moon’s remarks follow news reports that claimed the U.S. president may have asked South Korea to pay US$1.2 billion as part of costs to maintain U.S. Forces in Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

You would think someone would have studied how to best handle vehicle access into Camp Humphreys during rush hour periods. It appears that was not the case:

Traffic jams are posing a major headache for the growing population on Camp Humphreys, the U.S. military’s new headquarters in South Korea, with many complaining about a dearth of access gates and guards to man them.
Lines of cars are frequently backed up for several blocks on the roads outside and inside the Army’s largest overseas base as drivers wait to file through sometimes a single lane during rush hours. Scanners used by the guards to check IDs often don’t work promptly, causing even more frustration.
One man was injured when the grab barriers deployed as he was driving through one of the access points in November.
“It is out of control,” said Elyse Hendriksen-Bannon, who must battle traffic twice in the morning to get on post – first when she takes her husband to work and later to take her 13-year-old son to the middle school.

Stars & Stripes

You can read the rest at the link.

It will be interesting to see if the USFK cost sharing issue is in fact used to drawdown troops from South Korea:

While the United States and North Korea try to revive nuclear talks, another dispute is simmering on the southern half of the peninsula over funding for U.S. forces.
Seoul and Washington failed to agree on a new cost-sharing deal for the 28,500 U.S. servicemembers stationed in South Korea before the latest five-year contract expired on Dec. 31.
That has raised fears that President Donald Trump may threaten to draw down forces as he prepares for a possible second summit with North Korea.
The longtime allies held 10 rounds of talks since March but remained deadlocked as the new year began over Washington’s reported demand that South Korea increase its contribution by as much as 150 percent.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but analysts do have a point that if troops levels are reduced the Trump administration can blame South Korea for not increasing their contributions to the funding of the US-ROK alliance instead of saying it is a concession to North Korea.

If troops levels were to be cut it seems the easiest thing to do would be to stop the rotational brigade from deploying to South Korea.

This is all an attempt by the Moon administration to deflect criticism from conservative critics in South Korea and the US:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is well aware that the United States Forces Korea (USFK) will continue to be stationed in the South despite his ongoing efforts for the regime’s denuclearization, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a televised New Year’s press conference, Thursday.

“Kim Jong-un clearly understands the North’s denuclearization has nothing to do with the presence of the USFK in the South, viewing its existence as part of the security alliance between Seoul and Washington,” Moon said.

The remark came amid lingering concerns that North Korea may demand the withdrawal of the USFK in the future, as it will be difficult for the South to justify U.S. troops’ continuing presence here after the possible declaration of the end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the rhetoric of ending the Korean War has been going on for months because the Kim regime wants the peace treaty in order to challenge the legitimacy of the military presence in South Korea.  If there is peace why is USFK needed?

President Moon is saying all the right things that USFK will remain after any peace treaty is signed, to include claiming Kim Jong-un understands this as well. However, this is likely just rhetoric to prevent energizing South Korean conservatives against a peace treaty.

Remember Moon is a very skilled politician that needs to keep the Korean right at bay and public anxiety down.  If he openly advocated for a USFK withdrawal, that would give the South Korean right an issue to strongly attack him with and cause much public anxiety after decades of security guarantees provided by US forces.  That is why I think the Moon administration will publicly say they support USFK staying, but will then have surrogates do things to make life difficult for USFK.

Possibly the future of USFK after a peace treaty could look a lot like the current THAAD site in Seongju.  President Moon will say all the right things that he supports USFK, just like he supposedly supports the THAAD site, but will set conditions to make it difficult for its continued existence and cause the US to withdraw troops on its own accord.