Archive for May, 2006
Posted by joshua on May 31, 2006 at 11:13 pm · Filed under Media Criticism, History
I am continuing to struggle with technical problems relating to spam attacks and our countermeasures against those. We hope to have those resolved soon.
It’s fitting that we should have begin this as a discussion about infiltration and collateral damage, because I’m giving an abbrevated version of a much longer post on the “shocking new revelations” about No Gun Ri. That’s probably for the best, because if you examine the reports in light of the deeper historical record, there’s nothing new in them.
I remember when No Gun Ri was first reported during my first tour in Korea. It began with an AP report that won a Pulitzer Prize before it emerged that several of the alleged witnesses weren’t even there, and that one of them, Ed Daily, was mentally hard to place anywhere. The Pentagon commissioned a very detailed and well researched (but poorly written) report, which was completed in January 2001, and which has been publicly available ever since. Here’s what the report found:
Finding: Although the U.S. Review Team cannot determine what happened near No Gun Ri with certainty, it is clear, based upon all available evidence, that an unknown number of Korean civilians were killed or injured by the effects of small-arms fire, artillery and mortar fire, and strafing that preceded or coincided with the NKPA’s advance and the withdrawal of U.S. forces in the vicinity of No Gun Ri during the last week of July 1950. These Korean deaths and injuries occurred at different locations in the vicinity of No Gun RI and were not concentrated exclusively at the double railroad overpass.
Some U.S. veterans describe fire that lasted for a few to fifteen minutes. Some Korean witnesses describe fire day and night on the tunnel for as long as four days. Because Korean estimates of the length of time they spent in the tunnel are so inconsistent, the U.S. Review Team drew no conclusion about the amount of time they spent in the tunnel.
The firing was a result of hostile fire seen or received from civilian positions or fire directed over their heads or near them to control their movement. The deaths and injuries of civilians, wherever they occurred, were an unfortunate tragedy inherent to war and not a deliberate killing.
Beyond the fact that some civilians died throughout that area that day, the report concluded little else about why, who, how, when, or how many. Although no one was able to sort out all the inconsistencies to figure out what exactly happened at No Gun Ri on July 26, 1950, the report did find much detailed evidence about U.S. policies toward the hundreds of thousands of fleeing refugees. Some of that stuff makes for disturbing reading, particularly some of the orders given by individual units, but often not communicated widely, to treat all persons in certain areas as the enemy. I won’t hesitate to call orders like that unlawful, but it was the Pentagon — not the AP — that reported those facts, which are far more damaging than anything in Muccio’s letter. Here’s the full text of Amb. Muccio’s letter:
PERSONAL-CONFIDENTIAL
The Foreign Service of the United States of America
American Embassy
July 26, 1950
Dear Dean: The refugee problem has developed aspects of a serious and even critical military nature, aside from the welfare aspects. Necessarily, decisions are being made by the military in regard to it, and in view of the possibility of repercussions in the United States from the effectuation of these decisions, I have thought it desirable to inform you of them.
The enemy has used the refugees to his advantage in many ways: by forcing them south and so clogging the roads as to interfere with military movements; by using them as a channel for infiltration of agents; and most dangerous of all by disguising their own troops as refugees, who after passing through our lines proceed, after dark, to produce hidden weapons, and then attack our units from the rear. Too often such attacks have been devastatingly successful. Such infiltrations had a considerable part in the defeat of the 24th Division at Taejon.
Naturally, the Army is determined to end this threat. Yesterday evening a meeting was arranged, by 8th Army HQ request, at the office of the Home Minister at the temporary Capitol. G-1, G-2, Provost Marshall, CIC, the Embassy, the Home and Social Affairs Ministries, and the Director National Police. The following decisions were made:
1. Leaflet drops will be made north of US lines banning the people not to proceed south, that they risk being fired upon if they do so. If refugees do appear from north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot.
2. Leaflet drops and oral warning by police within US combat zone will be made to the effect that no one can move south unless ordered, and then only under police control, that all movement of Korean civilians must end at sunset or those moving will risk being shot when dark comes.
3. Should the local tactical commander consider it essential to evacuate a given sector he will notify the police liaison officers attached to his HQ, who through the area Korean National Police will notify the inhabitants, and start them southward under police control on specified minor roads. No one will be permitted to move unless police notify them, and those further south not notified will be required to stay put.
4. Refugee groups must stop at sunset, and not move again until daylight. Police will establish check points to catch enemy agents; subsequently Social Ministry will be prepared to care for, and direct refugees to camps or other areas.
5. No mass movements unless police controlled will be permitted. Individual movements will be subject to police checks at numerous points.
6. In all cities, towns curfew will be at 9 p.m., with effective enforcement at 10 p.m. Any unauthorized person on streets after 10 p.m. is to be arrested, and carefully examined. The last item is already in effect.
Sincerely,
John J. Muccio
Several inaccurate lines of reporting emerge from this report, including suggestions that it blows apart a Pentagon whitewash. Yet those same terms were specifically spelled out or can easily be inferred from the policy I quote below, agreed the same day between Muccio, the Army, the U.N., and the Korean government. This policy was published in the original Pentagon report:
Part I: Effective immediately the following procedure will be adhered to by all commands relative to the flow or movement of all refugees in battle areas and rear areas. No refugees will be permitted to cross battle lines at any time. Movement of all Koreans in groups will cease immediately. No areas will be evacuated by Koreans without a direct order from Commanding General EUSAK or upon order of Division Commanders. Each division will be assigned three National Police liaison officers to assist in clearing any area of the civilian populace that will interfere with the successful accomplishment of his mission.
. . . .
Part III: Movement of Korean civilians during hours of darkness. There will be absolutely no movement of Korean civilians, as individuals or groups in battle areas or rear areas, after the hours of darkness. Uniformed Korean police will rigidly
enforce this directive.
Part IV: To accomplish the procedure, as outlined in this directive, leaflets will be prepared and dropped in all areas forward and rear of the battle line to effectively disseminate this information. National Police will further disseminate this information
to all Korean civilians by means of radio, messenger, and the press.
All you really need to infer is that Amb. Muccio cabled his boss about it, and how exactly an Army at war was suppose to enforce it.
Another line of bad reporting is that this proves that No Gun Ri was not an accident, as the Pentagon claimed. To the extent that the Pentagon really claimed anything, this letter refutes nothing, because it says absolutely nothing about what happened in No Gun Ri, which took place on the same day the policy was formulated and the letter sent to Rusk.
Most eggregiously, the reports lose track of two essential facts: (1) who started the damn war to begin with; and (2) numerous documented occasions on which the North Koreans dressed combatants in civilian clothes, mingled among civilians, or drove civilians ahead of their advancing forces. The Pentagon report documents twenty such specific incidents, including these:
A message from Headquarters Eighth United States Army (EUSA) dated July 11, 1950 — “Reports from Korean sources state North Korean soldiers are changing into civilian clothes and coming through lines in American sector with rifles concealed under clothing. Refugees moving from front and flank must be searched to apprehend any such personnel.”
Message No. 1 from 24th Infantry Division G-2, 122200 July 1950 — “reports confirmed by reliable sources indicate that North Korean troops in small groups enter homes along line of advance, reappear in civilian clothing concealing small arms and infiltrate to our flanks and rear for the purpose of harassing our troops.”
. . . .
Message from Commanding General, EUSAK, dated 191435K July 1950 — “One report in west sector NK troops entered our lines posing as peasant refugees carrying unassembled firearms and uniforms in bundles.”
. . . .
A message from S-2, 35th RCT to G-2, 25th Infantry Division, 301100 July 1950 — “Soldiers from 1/35 which has just returned from 27 RCT mentioned that two women had been caught in their area — one woman carrying a bag of hand grenades, the other carrying a radio of the SCR 300 type.”
The North Korean Army used these tactics systematically and deliberately, in direct and grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. Given the condition of its armor and artillery, North Korea clearly could afford to dress its troops in uniforms, as required by the laws of armed conflict. The North Koreans’ employment of such tactics is of inestimable legal significance, because the legal duty the U.S. Army allegedly violated here was the requirement to discriminate between combatants and noncombatants. Under those circumstances, this appears to have been an impossible task much of the time.
The news for the Army is thus pretty mixed, but this week’s report — based on a document that was declassified in 1982 — adds nothing to it. The hellish circumstances of July 1950 had caused some U.S. commanders to issue orders I wouldn’t hestitate to call unlawful: orders to consider all persons in certain areas to be enemy (something the new reports don’t even broach). Fortunately, the worst of these orders were either not distributed or were quickly countermanded by the July 26th policy, which, ugly as it reads, it legally defensible. The 26 July documents call for the Army’s best efforts to avoid civilian casualties, including the evacuation of civilans from the battlefield, leaflet drops to warn them away from U.S. positions, radio broadasts to the same effect, and as a last resort, warning shots.
Now, if you fire warning shots at someone during a war and they keep coming, you are reasonably entitled to infer something called “hostile intent,” which makes it legal — if agonizing — to fire on those persons. You and I weren’t there, but of course, this is a sterile post-hoc discussion of legalities. Still, I can’t help thinking how glad I am that I wasn’t there. Mind you, “fog of war” isn’t, and shouldn’t be, a defense for rules designed to control an inherently foggy condition in which refugees tend to figure prominently. While incompetence is no defense for some of the U.S. Army’s ruthless responses to North Korea’s use of refugees as human shields, Amb. Muccio’s letter and his discussions during those days suggest only that he was attempting to bring a panicked, desperate Army back into conformity with the Geneva Conventions.
Posted by joshua on May 30, 2006 at 5:47 am · Filed under NK Economics, Appeasement
You may recall the
enthusiasm of some over LivingArt’s Kaesong-made “peace pots.” The Chosun Ilbo is now reporting that LivingArt went bankrupt last December. Read just to see the picture.
Posted by joshua on May 29, 2006 at 11:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Posted by joshua on May 29, 2006 at 10:57 pm · Filed under NK Economics, Korean Politics, Human Rights, Korean Society, China & Korea, Refugees, Diplomacy, U.S. Military, U.S. & Korea
A Cold Wind in the North: North Korea has cancelled its visa waiver program for some Chinese visitors, and China has reciprocated. Like every other effort to explain what the North Koreans are up to, it’s speculative. The Joongang Ilbo’s writer speculates that it’s about North Korean fears of excessive Chinese economic influence, which makes sense, whether or not it’s the reason for this move. Another possible explanation — purely speculation and entirely my own — is that North Korea is reacting to increased Chinese pressure over its counterfeiting and proliferation.
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Freedom for the Shenyang Four: America is doing the right thing:
China and the U.S. have reportedly agreed that four North Korean defectors who barged into the U.S. Consulate in Shenyang after making their way into the South Korean legation will be permitted to leave the country. It is understood that the U.S. has decided to give them asylum.
Sources said Thursday’s secret negotiations were favorable to the defectors, adding Washington would accept the group’s request for asylum.
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Exit the Eighth Air Force? Or a portion thereof? That’s reportedly what Don Rumsfeld threatened to do recently over the lack of bombing ranges in Korea.
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Pre-Election Nordpolitik Failed to move the Peace Train to Pyongyang. Now the South Koreans are making noises about withholding some of their aid to the North. The aid consists of “material for the North’s clothing, shoe and soap industries.” and “railroad construction materials.” Unrestricted, unmonitored humanitarian aid will be unaffected.
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If I had known that the Superbowl would have had this kind of effect on South Korea society, I’d have paid more attention (as might more Koreans). Hines Ward is returning to Korea with $1 million to start “Hines Ward Helping Hands Korea.” Maybe an informed reader will let me know if there’s any connection to the Helping Hands Korea that helps North Koreans escape to the South. Meanwhile, South Korea continues to toy with the idea of giving more civil rights to non-Koreans. Just in case you lost track, it’s 2006. With a “2.”
Posted by joshua on May 29, 2006 at 12:37 pm · Filed under Korean Politics
If my math is any good — and if it were, I suppose I’d have found another line of work — Koreans are already voting in local elections. Here are a few last-minute posts before exit polls and results come in:
Park Geun Hye is already up and out of her hospital bed campaigning in the wake a failed throat-slashing attack.
Also yesterday, the Seoul West District Court dismissed an appeal by her admitted attacker, Ji Chung-ho, against his detention. He probably did not help his case by repeating his contention that his target was not Ms. Park but the party’s candidate for mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-hoon, who was with Ms. Park on the night of the attack.
“Mr. Oh moved too fast to the campaign platform, so I changed the target to Ms. Park,” Mr. Ji said, contending that he was aiming for her arm.
You know, it was just last week that I told my wife that the most important words in a lawyer’s vocabulary are “shut up and let me do the talking.”
Ms. Park is no doubt buoyed by the final round of polls, which shows that her party continued to gain in local elections.
Personally, my only dog in this fight is that I’m hoping for a big win for Kim Moon Soo, probably the only major candidate in this election with a demonstrated commitment to liberal democracy as we know it. First, the good news. A major Uri defeat is apparently imminent, and that’s likely to mean that Uri will cease to exist as a major political force. The vultures are already circling:
Senior Uri Party official Kim Du-kwan attacked his own chairman yesterday, saying those who push for a coalition should leave the party. Uri Party Chairman Chung Dong-young has been proposing to form a coalition with the Democratic Party.
Referring to Mr. Chung, Mr. Kim said the idea of a coalition should not be used in a bid to hang onto one’s own political career.
Mr. Chung’s proposal came amid growing concerns inside the party that the party could face a landslide defeat in upcoming local elections.
Analysts have speculated a major defeat by the ruling party could become a catalyst to alter the political landscape in Korea.
Now the bad news — by default or otherwise, the GNP is headed for a big win. That will likely lead the GNP to believe that its platform has the voters’ support and that all is hunky-dory for the presidential race in ‘07. It will also strengthen Park Geun-Hye to an even greater extent than last week’s failed attack, which I do in fact believe to have been attempted murder. Whether this really signals strong GNP support depends on the GNP actually having a defined agenda, its success in communicating it to the voters, and that agenda’s appeal with them. On all three points, I’m skeptical.
Posted by joshua on May 29, 2006 at 12:13 pm · Filed under Korean Politics, Appeasement, NK Military, ROK Military
The Peace Train has been cancelled. Collect your refunds. I know, you were soooo stoked for this.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by joshua on May 29, 2006 at 11:56 am · Filed under Korean Politics, Human Rights, Korean Society, Activism, Korean Education
LiNK is asking for your help to shame South Korea’s government into showing some concern for the 23 million Korean citizens living North of the DMZ:
LiNK is amassing a giant collection of “messages to the president” which we shall put on a banner to be delivered to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to show him that the people of Korea and the world are watching how he deals with the North Korean human rights crisis.
Here’s how it works:
1) write a message to President Roh about North Korea on a piece of paper. Write in Korean, English, Chinese, Swahili…the language doesn’t matter, it’s the message!
2) Take a picture of you holding the message. You can cover your eyes, mouth, or even your whole face, whatever you prefer. [example and much more here]
3) Send the picture to korea@linkglobal.org
4) Pat yourself on the back for making a difference!
There’s much more to see at LiNK’s site, including their confrontation of former UniFiction Minister Park Jae-Kyu at a posh hotel:
LiNK members asked him simply: “Our banners read that 6.5 million North Koreans are now without regular rations. That more than 200,000 North Koreans suffer in a network of over 12 political prison camps. That thousands of North Koreans in China are in hiding and in danger of repatriation. Can you at least tell us that these statistics are true?”
Mr. Park responded, “I have never seen these things with my own eyes.”
Mr. Park is today President of Kyungnam University, which features one of the leading schools on North Korean studies in Korea. The fact that he would not even confirm the very existence of concentration camps which have been attested to by survivors, former guards, thousands of refugees and satellite pictures was enormously disappointing, but not surprising.
LiNK has also unsheathed the protest babes and brought them directly to the enemy territory of South Korean campuses. The tide does appear to be turning even there, although the excesses of the pro-North Korean Hanchongryon probably have more to do with that than these initial efforts. This is probably just a start. LiNK may have started some people thinking about the issues it’s raising, but they will have to do more like this to seed the barren soil of Korea and start building an activist base there. Many of those LiNK has reached thus far will have to be prodded further before they attend a meeting.
If you want to support those efforts, you can donate here.
Posted by joshua on May 28, 2006 at 1:44 pm · Filed under WTF?, Unintended Humor, Humor/Satire
Continuing with our Nazi theme, a member of the Korean “Friendship” Association has registered his disagreement with my criticism of that group by illustrating the ease with which the extreme left and the extreme right accomodate to each other’s ideas (as if Mussolini’s conversion from Communism to Fascism weren’t evidence enough). For extra fun, there’s a photo lineup! I must say that the KFA has great potential for more material like this.
Posted by joshua on May 28, 2006 at 1:06 pm · Filed under WTF?, Unintended Humor, Anti-Americanism, Korean Society, Censorship, Korean Education, Democracy, History
Two recent news stories again raise the one of the most difficult questions free societies face: what role should governments play in limiting the expression of views that are tasteless, offensive, or which might even be lies designed to strip that society of its freedom?
Let’s begin with some context. If the first casualty of prosperity is taste, a corollary to this rule is that the depth of affliction is proportional to the speed with which a society achieves prosperity. No society has achieved prosperity as quickly as South Korea, with one exception we’ll get to later. Let’s begin our exploration of this principle in application with Korea, which ended 40 years of brutal Fascist occupation in 1945, stripped of its little innate wealth. Fifty years later, having achieved full employment, advanced industrialization, and a powerful consumer economy, it had not forgotten the agonies of its own past. This was no impediment to its sudden discovery of the marketing appeal of a different group of Fascists.
The “Hitler Techno Bar and Cocktail Show,” located in a main shopping and entertainment area in the southern port city of Pusan, displays photographs of Adolf Hitler as well as a flag, napkins and matchboxes with the swastika symbol.
The “Gestapo” pool hall is in a suburb of Taegu, southeast of Seoul and has similar decor, the Simon Wiesenthal center said. It demanded “intervention by the (South Korean) government in this matter.”
There were also the Hitler bakery ads and the bar in Jeonju called “Nazi,” complete with polished-steel swastika emblem, which I personally saw near the city’s train station. This was in the spring of 2002, just before throngs of Poles arrived in that city to watch their team play in the World Cup. One Korean proprietor was more a victim of ignorance and tastelessness than malice, at least to hear his apologia after the fact. Customers’ ideas about the Nazis were even more superficial: “I don’t hate them, I don’t like them, [b]ut at least they dressed well.” Let’s give him that one. They had good designers.
Inevitably, this ill-considered fad drew unpleasant reactions from abroad. The initial response to it was a typically, and sadly, Korean one:
The owner admitted that some customers, especially Western students from nearby universities, occasionally come to protest. “They’ve sometimes made scenes. So, I decided not to take foreign customers anymore,” he said.
Only in Korea would the owner of a business bar all non-members of his non-white race to silence their denunciation of his trading on the symbols of a reviled white supremacist ideology. Still, the word eventually got out that the neighbors would complain about “Nazi chic,” and the government forced those establishments to either redecorate or close down. Whether the word got out about the historical basis for those complaints remains an open question, and this is the first occasion for us to ask whether that chance was lost to the easy answer of the state stepping in to enforce standards of taste. I submit that a society where mass murderers have mass appeal has failed to teach its citizens the objective facts of history, or how to think about those facts critically. That’s not a criticism Americans should fail to be sufficiently introspective about.
This brings us to the first present-day permutation of this debate, the sentencing of Professor Kang Jeong-Koo, who is a lying Stalinist media whore and failed petty tyrant:
In a lecture in Incheon last year, Kang said, “Had the United States not intervened, the Korean War would have ended in a month with the death toll in both South and North less than 10,000. But 3.99 million more people died additionally because of the American intervention. The U.S. is the main culprit in the war and Douglas MacArthur its advance guard.” Kang’s regret that a North Korea-led communist unification failed is evident in every line of his remarks. At the time, he was already being tried for groveling in the visitor’s book at Kim Il-sung’s birthplace of Mansudae, “Let’s achieve unification by succeeding to the spirit” of the great leader’s hometown.
Happy Memorial Day to you, too, Professor Kang.
First, let’s begin with how many people died in the war that Professor Kang’s idol launched on June 25, 1950. The actual figure is much closer to 2.5. million. We can only speculate about the millions of South Koreans whom Kim Il Sung’s regime and its successor might have starved/frozen/tortured/shot to death. Its modus operandi was to liquidate those associated with past regimes, but its occupation of the South was cut short when General MacArthur, whom Kang called a “war criminal,” landed at Incheon (you take the good with the not-as-good; the Incheon landing saved the lives of both Kim Dae Jung and the “Reverend” Sung Myung Moon). Estimates of the number of North Koreans killed this way vary anywhere from 700,000 to 3.5 million, not including victims of the engineered famine of the 90’s. These, Kang conveniently excludes from his numerator, even as he leaves the civilians massacred by the North’s forces — around 130,000 — in his denominator. Kang’s prescription would have plunged Korea into a dark age that would have made Pol Pot’s Year Zero look like an episode of “Survivor: Peoples’ Kampuchea!” Instead, South Korea has gigantic digital TV screens mounted on skyscrapers that overlook gridlocked rivers of shiny, domestically built sedans, and Prof. Kang has tenure.
See how easy that was? The logical flaws are fairly obvious. Yet after 40 years of state control over historical debate, far too many South Koreans seem to think that Nogun Ri was the only massacre of the whole Korean War, with Kwangju and Cheju being the only others of recent historical significance. It’s a conversation South Korea needs to have, but won’t:
The Seoul Central District Court on Friday handed down a suspended two-year jail term to Prof. Kang Jeong-koo of Dongguk University, who famously asserted the Korean War was North Korea’s “war of unification.” Kang was found guilty of
violating the national security law with remarks that, the court said, are capable of substantively harming the existence and safety of the Republic of Korea and its liberal democracy.
When a war of ideas becomes one of state vs. dissident, the dissident always emerges as a martyr with a gathering of followers. In other words, the “dissident” wins, regardless of how wrong he may be. Kang, intoxicated with undeserved fame, will assuredly spout more of this blather, and his sentence will be swiftly unsuspended, meaning he will become even more famous. If the world were just, his instant of fame would consist of a New York Times story about his “Juche Noraebang.” Instead, that honor goes to a member of the only group to have achieved prosperity faster than the South Koreans — North Korean defectors. One of them, incredibly, has opened a bar in Seoul that seems to glorify the very system he risked his life to flee. And the South Koreans can’t get enough of it.
At the Pyongyang Moran Bar on a recent Friday evening, a large video screen showed uplifting images of rocky mountains and an open blue sky. A slogan appeared at the bottom: “Kim Jong Il, a man who comes along only once in a thousand years.”
….
The North Korean waitresses wore traditional dresses in the bright colors that were fashionable in the South some years back. The singer’s interpretation of “Whistle,” a North Korean standard of the 1980’s, was shaky and off-key. Service was bad and included at least one mild threat. Drinks were spilled, beer bottles left unopened and unpoured.
But the South Korean customers could not get enough of the Pyongyang Moran Bar.
“Encore!” cried Bae Seong Wan, 44, at the end of “Whistle.”
I’ve archived this story for the day, twenty years from now, when a bar in Hanoi draws protests from the government of a free and united Korea over its Kim Il Sung-themed full-touch massage parlor. Incidentally, I believe Mr. Jung, the owner, when he says he’s apolitical about it all:
Everything has fallen into place now for Mr. Jong, who came to South Korea in 2000 and earned a living writing pornography before plunging into food. He has even secured a supply of the North’s coveted Taedong River beer.
Like I say: the first casualty. One thing Mr. Jung did get right is that the government won’t be pressing him to redecorate any time soon. And in Jung’s defense, it’s not as if the money is going to Kim Jong Il, and at least the workers can quit when the fad passes. That’s the free market for you. You don’t always have to love it, but just try to do better.
Posted by joshua on May 27, 2006 at 1:32 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
See if you can name the political diagnosis of the person who posted this:
The hoaxes just do not match ! My “dear” Jewish-Americans …. i can’t tell you to stop writing bullshit because, actually, you are the Sons of Bullshit itself ! But may i please suggest to you that, at least, you should co-ordinate your hoaxes !! Ha ! Ha ! When you invent a hoax: make it credible !! Nevermind ! Adolf Hilter did not manage to teach you a lesson, let alone if i could ! But nowadays there is a new “teacher” named Nuclear Weapon (Mr Hitler was not lucky enough to have it !). I’m sure that this new teacher will finally teach you Jews a lesson !!
Now for the rest of the comment, which I publish in full, only reversing two portions of the text:
Stop the lies about Korea ! Yeah, I’ve been in the Kareoke hall mentioned in this web-site. Hyangsan Hotel is a gigantic building which was built by the Koreans exclusively. (Unlike Koreans, the Americans always cry for Japanese help when it comes to architecture!)Accompanied by Mr Pak Kwang Ung and Mr Pak Jang Sik, I went up to the top floor, where, yes, there is a kareoke hall hosted by a lady. But it is not true that that lady offers (or is forced to offer) sexual services ….. IT IS A LIE !!In the world, Korea is the only HIV-free country, and Koreans want it to stay that way. Thus it can’t be true that there are slave-like ladies who are having sex with foreigners … I mean, such a thought does not even follow logic … Koreans would never engage in sexual contact with foreigners … … and if, for the sake of the argument, there are such ladies, then how is it that a particular Jewish-American web-site says that Generalissimo Kim’s son went to Japan (secretly) to visit a brothel ?
Jean-Pierre Sammut
Official Delegate: Malta - Korea
Here is the post to which the commenter refers. Yes, there really is a Jean-Pierre Sammut. Bonus points if you can pick his picture out of this lineup (click pics for answers):
.His e-mail address and more, here.
Posted by joshua on May 27, 2006 at 12:57 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Let’s just be clear that Professor Kang Jeong-Koo is a lying Stalinist media whore and failed petty tyrant:
In a lecture in Incheon last year, Kang said, “Had the United States not
intervened, the Korean War would have ended in a month with the death toll in
both South and North less than 10,000. But 3.99 million more people died
additionally because of the American intervention. The U.S. is the main culprit
in the war and Douglas MacArthur its advance guard.” Kang’s regret that a North
Korea-led communist unification failed is evident in every line of his remarks.
At the time, he was already being tried for groveling in the visitor’s book at
Kim Il-sung’s birthplace of Mansudae, “Let’s achieve unification by succeeding
to the spirit” of the great leader’s hometown.
First, let’s begin with the dramatic overstatement of Korean War casualties, which are much closer to 2.5. million. The millions who would have been starved/frozen/tortured/shot to death under the reign of the Kim dynasty — anywhere from 700,000 to 3.5 million, not including victims of the engineered famine of the 90’s, are conveniently excluded from the numerator, even as those massacred by the North’s forces — around 130,000 — are left in the denominator. Kang’s prescription would have plunged Korea into a dark age that would have made Pol Pot’s Year Zero Kampuchea look like a tropical resort. Instead, South Korea has gigantic digital TV screens mounted on skyscrapers that overlook traffic jams, and Prof. Kang has tenure.
See how easy that was? The logical flaws are obvious enough. Now how about making the argument instead of answering idiocy with idiocy. Given that far too many South Koreans seem to think that Nogun Ri was the only massacre of the whole Korean War, with Kwangju and Cheju being the only others of recent historical significance, it’s an argument South Korea needs to have, but won’t:
The Seoul Central District Court on Friday handed down a suspended two-year
jail term to Prof. Kang Jeong-koo of Dongguk University, who famously asserted
the Korean War was North Korea’s “war of unification.” Kang was found guilty of
violating the national security law with remarks that, the court said, are
capable of substantively harming the existence and safety of the Republic of
Korea and its liberal democracy.
When a war of ideas becomes one of state vs. dissident, the dissident always emerges as a martyr with a gathering of followers. In other words, the “dissident” wins, regardless of how wrong he may be. Kang, intoxicated with undeserved fame, will assuredly spout more of this blather, and his sentence will be swiftly unsuspended, meaning he will become even more famous. If the world were just, he would be an unknown, frustrated transmission mechanic in a forgotten district near Tongdaemun.
Phrased more colloquially, two stupids don’t make smart. Kang’s university ought to impose some rational academic standards and protect its reputation by getting rid of him, but since when do free societies prosecute the insane for mere words?
Posted by joshua on May 27, 2006 at 12:54 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
America is doing the right thing:
China and the U.S. have reportedly agreed that four North Korean defectors who barged into the U.S. Consulate in Shenyang after making their way into the South Korean legation will be permitted to leave the country. It is understood that the U.S. has decided to give them asylum.
Sources said Thursday’s secret negotiations were favorable to the defectors, adding Washington would accept the group’s request for asylum.
Posted by joshua on May 27, 2006 at 12:47 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Could this have been a deliberate provocation, a defection attempt, or neither?
Two North Korean soldiers crossed a stream some 20-30 m into the South in
Hwacheon, Gangwon Province at around 12:47 p.m. on Friday but returned to the
North when South Korean troops fired warning shots. This is the first time in
five years the South Korean military has had to fire over the heads of North
Korean soldiers crossing the Military Demarcation Line (MDL). The last time was
in September 2001.
Yes, North Korean soldiers posted to the DMZ do defect. I actually met one of them recently.
Posted by joshua on May 27, 2006 at 12:41 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Move America Forward will have webcasts this weekend devoted to the memory of those who have fought and died fighting the terrorists who would destroy all of us and our families the moment they had the means to do so.
Part One Airs for Two Hours: 12:00 – 2:00 PM Pacific // 3:00 – 5:00 PM Eastern
Part Two Airs for Three Hours: 3:00 – 6:00 PM Pacific // 6:00 – 9:00 PM Eastern
What we owe these brave people and their families is simply incalculable.
Posted by joshua on May 27, 2006 at 12:38 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
You Don’t Say:
The head of U.S. private equity fund Lone Star says criticism of the firm’s
investment in Korea Exchange Bank is driven by an “anti-foreign political
climate” in Korea.
I don’t know enough to evaluate Korea’s accusations against Jay Grayken, but Grayken’s accusations against Korea certainly have a ring of truth to them. Meaning that even if Grayken is a complete scoundrel, he’s at least standing on firmer ground than Cynthia McKinney.
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