Here is a short video about the UNESCO listed World Heritage Area in Seoul, Changdeok Palace:

This video is actually a preview for the Global Treasures: Changdok-Kung DVD:

To learn more about Changdeokgung I highly recommend reading my prior posting about this historic and beautiful palace in Seoul.

Here is a great post-Korean War story via Spelunker over at the ROK Drop Forums:

With smoke, machine gun fire and debris all around him, North Korean military pilot No Kum-Sok gave little thought to his opponents who were trying to shoot down his MiG-15 during the Korean War.All he was thinking about was survival.

But 56 years later, No Kum-Sok and one of his former adversaries, Wes Tillis of Vero Beach, who flew B-29 fighter planes for the United States, have formed a strong friendship, reunited by a magazine article about the North Korean pilot’s defection to the west.

The pair shared their story at a lecture Wednesday afternoon at the Regency Park senior community in Vero Beach.

No Kum-Sok, who has changed his name to Ken Rowe and now lives in Daytona Beach, said he was pleased when Tillis contacted him about seven years ago regarding their shared war experiences. He said that even in wartime, he respected the American pilots and thought they were well-educated and civilized.

“It was so nice because I always wondered what we were fighting about,” said Rowe.  [TC Palm]

U.K. Ambassador to Korea Martin Uden (second from right) holds a reception to commemorate the British Armed Forces Day last Wednesday at his residence in Seoul. From left, Brigadier Matthew O’Hanlon, defense attache of the British Embassy; Lt. General Hwang Eui-don, director of the Korea Intelligence Defense Agency; Ambassador Uden and his wife, Fiona. By Park Sun-young

Via Joong Ang Ilbo.

By the way Ambassador Uden actually has his own blog, which he hasn’t updated in months.

I thought the Kang Nam I was being used as something to test the response of the Obama administration, the Chosun Ilbo on the other hand thinks it was some kind of trap:

Meanwhile, the New York Times, calling the Kangnam’s journey “the Cruise to Nowhere,” on Wednesday said there are calls within the White House to approach the ship with caution. White House officials are starting to believe that it may be out on “a fishing expedition” ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il “in hopes that the new American president will be his first catch.”

One high-ranking official in the Barack Obama administration said officials were cautious of the risks of the contents of the boat turning out to be sea bass, or ping-pong balls, following heightened tensions with the U.S. government as it seeks cooperation from various countries in searching the ship. “Members of Mr. Obama’s team who served in the Clinton administration remember past embarrassments, including the interception of a Chinese ship suspected of carrying chemical precursors in the early 1990s. When the ship was finally cornered, the cargo turned out to be benign,” the NYT said.

Officials ranging from Vice President Joe Biden to the deputy secretary of state, James Steinberg, have cautioned the administration to go slow lest the U.S. fall into North Korea’s trap.  [Chosun Ilbo]

If anyone cares, North Korea just fired off some short range missiles into the Yellow Sea:

North Korea test-fired four short-range missiles into the East Sea on Thursday.

The Defense Ministry said North Korea fired the first missile at around 5:20 p.m. and the second one at 6:00 p.m. from its launch base in Sinsang-ri, south of Hamheung City in Hamgyeong Province. They were followed by two more at 7:50 and 9:20 p.m.

A ministry official said the missiles are presumed to be KN-01 antiship missiles with a maximum range of 120 to 160 kilometers, and that they flew over 100 kilometers. The official says the KN-01 is presumed to be a modified version of the North’s Silkworm (CSS-C-2) missile with a range of 83 to 95 kilometers.

The ministry suspects the missile launches may be part of a routine military exercise, but did not rule out the possibility that they were a show of force amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.  [KBS Global]

Now does this mean that the North Koreans are conducting these missile tests in preparation for a larger missile test as reported on the 4th of July? It is important to keep in mind that the Silkworm missile is not a tactical ballistic missile that is a threat to strike North Korea’s neighbors.  You can see the specifications of the Silkworm missile here.

The Silkworm is mainly used as an anti-ship missile, which once again leads me to believe that North Korea is conducting training with these missiles in preparation for any naval engagement along the Northern Limit Line with the ROK Navy.  So I would not draw any connections with this test to a possible July 4th test.   Plus according to this report there is absolutely no signs that the North Koreans are preparing for a missile test over the holiday weekend anyway:

The South Korean military says there are no signs of an imminent North Korean missile launch.

Responding to foreign media reports suggesting North Korea may launch ballistic missiles early this month, a military official in Seoul said it did not see any signs of an imminent launch at the North’s launch base in Gitdaeryeong, Anbyeon County where the North has been preparing for a mid-range missile launch.

The official said the North is holding regular military drills at Gitdaeryeong and other missile bases and the South Korean military it is keeping close watch on the North’s missile bases as short-range missiles can be fired without preparation.

Japan’s Kyodo News Agency said earlier that North Korea may fire another missile on the fourth or eighth of this month as Japan’s Coast Guard announced it has received an e-mail from Pyongyang banning ships from entering ten ocean areas in the East Sea until July eleventh.  [KBS Global]

It could be the North Koreans are still trying to fix the technical mistakes from the last missile launch and need more time to correct them.  Who knows except for the North Koreans.  All we can do is wait and watch and see what happens.

It is good that the soldier was acquitted if he was innocent, but this case should serve as a reminder that if you hang out at the King Club don’t be surprised when trouble happens:

A 20-year-old soldier was acquitted Tuesday of attempted murder in the stabbing of a Camp Casey soldier and former gang member after his attorney argued investigators had arrested the wrong person.

The Feb. 1 stabbing outside an Itaewon nightclub was the most high-profile in an escalating number of what U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Walter Sharp called “incidents of indiscipline” since last summer, when he shortened the weekend curfew to 3 a.m. to 5 a.m.

Pfc. Carlton J. Lyles Jr., of the 19th Adjutant General Company, had been charged with attempted murder and obstruction of justice for the stabbing at the King Club, where a melee started on the dance floor and continued on the street.

Investigators never closed the case, and fliers are still posted at Yongsan offering a $5,000 reward for tips leading to the recovery of a knife and clothes worn by the attacker, possibly in a plastic bag near the base.

Defense attorney Capt. Tim Bilecki said the continuing reward offer showed that investigators and prosecutors had rushed to judgment in a high-profile case by trying Lyles, who was arrested Feb. 2. The attorney said testimony and DNA evidence pointed to two other soldiers who are charged with aggravated assault for their role in the brawl.

“They had to solve the case. It’s pretty difficult for the government and CID (Criminal Investigation Command) to say they’ve got the wrong guy in jail, so they put the blinders on,” he said.

Prosecutors, however, said testimony from one of Lyles’ friends, a CID agent and a video of the fight outside the club pointed to Lyles.

Witnesses said a brawl started inside the club shortly after 2 a.m., possibly over racial slurs or comments made about a woman.  [Stars & Stripes]

8 May 1919 – Jail Korean Agitators

Thirty-eight Korean agitators at Pyongyang have been sentenced to prison for periods ranging from six months to two years…  About 2,400 agitators arrested at Seoul and its suburbs have been released by the police after admonition.  A great many public market places in the country have been closed because it was found that disturbances arose on market days.

11 May 1919 – Causes of the Korean Uprising

Long “analysis” article from a professor at Yale.  It is well worth reading in total, and I’ll just quote from the beginning to wet the appetite:

But in none of the other cases [of peoples struggling against colonial rule] is the political ignorance quite so dense, or the long-continued submission to a Government intrinsically corrupt and disregardful of all the interests of its own subjects, and so really dominated by the lowest foreign influences (emanating from that inexhaustible fountain of political corruption, China,) as had been the case in Korea for 500 years prior to its occupation by the Japanese Protectorate under Prince Ito.

And yet the Korean patriots are boasting the departed glories of their past “freedom,” and, like all the others likewise affected, are calling loudly for the application of them of more or less of the “Fourteen Points” of President Wilson.

If I had continued on in my college work, I planned to focus on the issue of Chinese influence on Korea in the Chosun Dynasty.  What this author just said has been echoed by some in Korea going back to the end of the 19th Century, but I have my doubts, and the second paragraph above hits directly on my core doubt:  

What I doubt is that China’s historical relationship can be placed in the same category as Japan’s 20th Century colonization.   There is no doubt Korean society incorporated many of what I call “technologies” it took from Chinese civilization – like the structure of the Korean government or Buddhism or Confucianism and so on…

…but that doesn’t mean China “controlled” Korea.   I don’t think you can support that claim through the vast majority of Korean history.

That doesn’t mean the Korean peasants weren’t downtrodden or that the power of the elites and government over them was not based on thought-systems taken from China.  It simply means Peking wasn’t controlling Korea from afar.

  One cause of the present, and of all previous demonstrations, is the propagandism of a certain secret society in foreign lands, (“patriots” in their own eyes, but “dangerous conspirators” in the eyes of the Japanese Government,) who procured the assassination of Prince Ito, of our countrymen, Durham White Stevens, and of  some of their most influential countrymen, supposed to be too friendly to the Japanese… 

12 May 1919 – Korea Asks Big Four For Full Sovereignty

A petition from the Korean people asking for liberation from Japan was submitted to the Peace Conference [in Paris] today by representatives of Korea. 

Article continues but changes the dateline from Paris to Washington:

Continue Reading »

Just imagine what the headlines would be and what would happen if this club was filled with low quality foreign English teachers with Korean women?:

The owner of a club in Seoul, which made the headlines Tuesday for its free-sex atmosphere, was booked, not for the business itself but for the violation of some construction rules, Wednesday.

Gangnam Police Station said the owner expanded the restaurant without permission and provided pub-like services after identifying his business as restaurant, which are both illegal.

Police and Gangnam ward office officials took the owner, identified as Na, to a police station at 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Na said, “I’ve never allowed guests to engage in such lewd behaviors as reported. But I have no idea what happened after I left the club around midnight.’’

The club has been causing a stir for its laissez-faire attitude to sex ? members purportedly engage in group sex and swap partners, while others enjoy drinks and watch them.

Despite growing calls to punish him for indecency, police and legal experts are not sure whether such a business is breaking the law.  [Korea Times]

The Marmot’s Hole has a whole lot more on this to include how the police cannot close this club because everything is happening behind closed doors with consenting adults.

I have actually known quite a few people as well that followed in the footsteps of parents and grandparents while serving in USFK:

Grandfathers and fathers of over 70 USFK servicemembers participated in the Korean War 60 years ago to protect freedom and democracy of South Korea, the country utterly unknown for them at the time.

The father of CFC Commander GEN Walter Sharp participated in the Korean War April, 1952 and stayed for a year. A CFC official mentioned, “In my knowledge GEN Walter Sharp was born in the US while his father was fighting in the Korean War.”

EUSA G3 Maintenance Officer CW5 Geraldine Bowers carried on doing the same job as her 79 year-old father Bernard Siegel’s during the Korean War. CW5 Bowers, who has the highest rank among the five warrant officer ranks, spent 33 years on helicopter maintenance. She is the sole CW5 officer among EUSA maintenance officers.

Enlisted in the Army 1977 and then commissioned as an officer 1981, CW5 Bowers made her first ties to South Korea during the Team Spirit Exercise in 1986. This time being her fourth time serving in the peninsula, she said, “South Korea has great people, weather, and nature. Due to the fact that my father had participated in the Korean War, I have this natural affection toward the country. I even extended my service in the peninsula to 2011.”

In case of Osan Air Base, which is home to the 7th Air Force Headquarters, there were 35 US servicemembers (including five female servicemembers) with their great grandfather, grandfather, father and uncles who had served in the USFK. Grandfathers of TSgt. Annie Allen and SSgt. Hibbler Ammana from the 8th Fighter Wing Mission Support Group, SSgt. Crystal Davenport from the 607th Air Support Operations Group, SrA. Jennifer Durham from the 51st Medical Group, and SrA. Rachel Martin from the 303rd Intelligence Squadron had participated in the Korean War.

Deputy CFC Public Affairs Officer LTC Kim Jai-eul commented, “Those families of US servicemembers who are serving in the peninsula generation after generation tends to have stronger responsibility and devotion for their duties in South Korea.”  [Chosun Ilbo via USFK]

Good luck getting the Chinese to help you with this:

A U.S. official in charge of coordinating sanctions on North Korea is expected to inform the Chinese government of Pyongyang’s illicit activities and Washington’s plan to implement the U.N. sanctions resolution, officials here said Wednesday.

The aim is to get Beijing to review the information and subsequently help enforce the U.N. sanctions, they said.

The U.S. interagency team led by Philip Goldberg, coordinator for the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, left Washington earlier in the day for related consultations in Beijing, according to the State Department.

The delegation, which includes officials from the National Security Council and Departments of Treasury and Defense, plans to meet with Chinese officials on Thursday and Friday, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said at a press briefing. He did not provide specifics, however.

The trip to Beijing comes just days after the Obama administration appointed Goldberg, a former ambassador to Bolivia, to oversee domestic and international consultations on sanctions against Pyongyang. Analysts say the move reflects Washington’s resolve to see that the sanctions are effectively enforced.

They are also in agreement that China’s cooperation is critical, as it is a main food and energy provider for the impoverished North.  [Yonhap]

The Chinese may give this group lip service, but they have no plans on squeezing the North Koreans financially.  I said before that this inter-agency team established by the Obama administration would only be of use if it pursued the financial sanctions that the US Treasury Department had implemented back during the Bush administration.  It is looking more and more like that is exactly what may happen.  If that is the case this team may end up being quite effective.

Curt Olson, chief executive of ING Life Insurance Korea, gets married at a traditional Korean wedding at Korea House last Saturday. The 55-year-old assumed his position in Korea in April 2008 after spending more than three decades in the company’s U.S. headquarters, where he met his bride, Eileen Taylor. The couple, who had another wedding ceremony in Miami earlier this month, said they would live in a hanok, a traditional house, in Seongbuk-dong, downtown Seoul, where Olson has been living since last year. Provided by the company

via Joong Ang Ilbo.

This is the month of the great sea battle that brought about the end of the war.  Much of the coverage of it will be below the fold and includes photos along with a link to a sight that extensively covers the fight.

The start of the month, however, is taken up by many articles about the diplomatic brouhaha between Japan, France, and England concerning the run up to the battle and France’s neutrality.

So far in the coverage of the war, I’ve avoided articles about diplomatic issues and chose to focus on the actual fighting.  But at this time in the war, we start touching on issues of international relations that are still felt today in regards to the US-Korea relationship.

This is a point of interest, because France was worried about its Asian possessions in the face of Japanese expansion, and that connects to the claim you hear everybody in South Korea make — that the US “gave” Korea to Japan in 1905 in exchange for the Philippines (seemingly in ignorance of the fact that in 1905, Japan had had major influence on Korea since at least the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 and the US was firmly in the Philippines thanks to the Spanish-American War.)

Here is GI Korea’s prior excellent coverage of the issue.

6 May – Anger in Japan Increases

The Baltic fleet’s continued open use of Indo-Chinese ports is producing a profound impression in Japan.  The wholesale license enjoyed by the Russian ships is considered by the newspapers as directly flouting Japan and indirectly insulting England by implied disregard for the efficacy of the Anglo-Japanese alliance.

Most of the talk is about the naval clash but there was some news about the war on land:

8 May – Japanese Army Advancing

Since April 29 the Japanese have been advancing slowly and intermittently, pushing forward their columns successively from right to left under cover of a screen of cavalry and Chinese bandits. 

The Japanese are said to have armed 25,000 or 30,000 Chinese bandits with captured Russian rifles.  The Chinese population has been drafted by the Japanese for road making and entrenching, and roads are being constructed to Sinminpu, Banchentze, and Nanga Pass.

8 May – France An Enemy, Japanese Declare

Even when this country was on the verge of war with Russia the Japanese press did not show greater excitement and indignation than now.  The most sober journals declare that France has virtually taken up arms against Japan.

References to the Anglo-Japanese alliance are assuming a tone of marked impatience.  It is plainly stated that it is England’s duty to prevent interference by third parties equally in the interests of her ally and for the world’s peace.

It’s easy to disregard quotes about world peace – but keep in mind, Europe was on the verge of devastating itself in the first World War (I) about a decade from this time…

The United Chambers of Commerce of Japan are concerting measures to cease all commercial transactions with French citizens.

The NY Times weighs in with an editorial on the 9th about French neutrality:

…for ten days made use of [the port] as  naval base for the complete reprovisioning and outfitting of its vessels.  The stores were forwarded from Saigon, the French capital, about 200 miles distant from Kamranh Bay.

The indignation and the vindictiveness expressed by the Japanese press are what might be expected from the representative organs of opinion of any belligerent country in like circumstances.

The editorial next gives what I’ll have to take as a definitive view of the actual law of the day on neutrality:

Continue Reading »