Some U.S. marines stationed in Okinawa will likely move to South Korea under a plan whereby the U.S. redeploys some 3,300 of the 18,000 marines on the Japanese island to other countries on a rotating basis.

A South Korean government source said Monday the U.S. “has long wanted to redeploy some of its marines from Okinawa to Korea. Once Washington and Tokyo reach agreement on the status of the U.S. marines in Okinawa, the U.S. will consider redeploying some of them here.”

Originally, the U.S. had planned to move 8,000 marines and their families from Okinawa to Guam, but under a recent tentative agreement with Tokyo it will send 4,700 to Guam and rotate 3,300 to other overseas bases, including Australia and the Philippines.

The U.S. has been trying to sound South Korea out since 2006 about sending some marines here.

The Lee Myung-bak administration is apparently worried about opposition from China and North Korea as well as from some South Koreans, even though it believes that the U.S. marines could play a positive role in an emergency.  [Chosun Ilbo]

I wonder how long a rotation will be?  One year like most other servicemembers in Korea perhaps?  If so that is not exactly what I would call a rotation.  Also I wonder if Camp Mujuk will be the place where they are housed?  If so it is good that the camp has been upgraded over the years.

 The 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command will being interviewing all South Koreans who have been granted base access passes, following allegations that a long-time employee illegally sold the passes.

In a press release issued Monday, the command said it has made “internal changes” to the process for issuing passes through the Good Neighbor Program and will require all current pass holders to be interviewed by March 2. If applicants are unwilling or unable to attend an interview, “those pass holders will undergo further review and possible suspension,” the press release said.

The interviews, which will be conducted by the Criminal Investigation Command, or CID, will allow officials to determine the pass holder’s participation in the Good Neighbor Program — a U.S. Forces Korea community outreach group that sponsors activities such as an annual summer English camp for South Korean students and tours of Seoul for the military.  [Stars & Stripes]

Dear USFK Soldiers,

USFK Korean national guard force are on strike since 1st Dec 2011.

We have conducted guard mission faithfully ever since US Forces first came to Korea late 1940′s. Also we dare say that we also have been your friend and guide or sometimes mentor. We know the hard time being away from home that US soldiers have gone through and sometimes that have been smoothed by us.  We are part of the US Army not ordinary Korean civlilians.

Lately a company called G4S started to take over USFK installations security service. We were glad a new company came and expected better working conditions. But this company forces us to work at 5 dollars per hour. We normally work 243 hours a month which totals $1,215 monthly salary.

They (G4S) also require us to take English test called TOEIC, PT Test, 9mm weapon qualification, and mental evaluation and even submit medial examination and crime history check.  These qualification virtually means they want to hire 4 year university graduate, but they want to pay $1,215 with no extra bonus or official leave.

We have been wondering and want to ask US soldiers who are on guard duty instead of us.  Why do you have to do this abandoning your own job and unit mission? You (US military) already paid a great amount of money to the contract company (G4S) but it proves that the company doesn’t have capabilities of properly managing security services, which are directly related to protecting your lives and properties.

We kindly ask dearest US soldiers to rethink the situation we are in and cooperate to eliminate the malignant company out of USFK security business.

The head of the U.S. Pacific Command said Friday that there will be no “significant” change in the scale and role of American troops in Korea despite the Pentagon’s plan to cut budgets and slash the number of ground troops.

Adm. Robert Willard, however, left open the possibility for some adjustment, based on annual consultations between the allies, given regional security conditions.

The agreement to station roughly 30,000 soldiers in Korea is generally to face North Korea but also “with an understanding that those troops are there with the region in mind,” he told reporters at a press conference organized by the Washington Foreign Press Center.

“I don’t anticipate that there will be changes that are significant associated with this strategic rollout,” he said. “But the dialogue between the United States and Seoul — that has always been ongoing.”

The yearly discussions are to ensure that the U.S. has “the number of troops there and the conditions under which they’re being employed correct,” he added.

On Thursday, the U.S. Defense Department announced a plan to reduce its troops by 100,000 by 2017 in a bid to chip away at the country’s budget deficit. [Korea Times]

 Bars and restaurants at some U.S. Army bases in South Korea will remain open until 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, beginning this weekend, as a result of the 1 a.m. off-base curfew imposed by the military earlier this month.

“With the curfew, soldiers come back before 1 a.m. and want to do something,” said David Roudybush, business operations chief for Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation in Area I. “We’re trying to give them a safe option, a safe location to spend their evening.”

In Area I, the extended hours will affect Mitchell’s Club at Camp Red Cloud, Gateway Club and Warrior’s Club at Camp Casey, and Reggie’s Club at Camp Stanley. Most of those facilities previously closed at 2 a.m., Roudybush said.

At U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys, Tommy D’s will remain open until 2 a.m. on Thursdays and 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, with post shuttle hours from the bar being extended until 3:15 a.m. on those nights.

Hours for FMWR establishments in other areas of South Korea will not change, though under longstanding policies, one club at Camp Carroll normally stays open until 3 a.m. and another at Camp Walker has the option to remain open past its normal 1 a.m. closing time based on customer demand.  [Stars & Stripes]

 Nearly four months after the high-profile rape of a South Korean teenager by a U.S. soldier, local business owners say an off-installation curfew in effect since then and recently tightened is hurting their bottom line.

“The 1 a.m. curfew is killing Itaewon,” the bar district outside U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan, said Kim Sam-sook, owner of the Grand Ole Opry bar.

“Soldiers are too nervous to drink, because the MPs have been chasing them and pushing them to leave,” she said. “(U.S. Forces Korea) should have told us in advance that they were going to do this.”

Earlier this month, USFK commander Gen. James Thurman indefinitely imposed a 1 a.m. nightly curfew, which he said he plans to review quarterly. Thurman initially set a curfew in October that began at 3 a.m. on weekends and holidays and midnight on weekdays, following public outcry over the Sept. 24 rape of a teenager in her boarding house. Pvt. Kevin Lee Flippin was convicted of the crime and sentenced to 10 years in prison.  A South Korea appeals court Thursday rejected his plea for a reduced sentence.

Several bar owners said they want to see the weekend curfew reset to 3 a.m.

“The curfew doesn’t hurt us on weekdays,” said Cho Yongseok, owner of Xanadu bar in Dongducheon. “But on Fridays and Saturdays, that’s the problem.” He said the number of military customers has dropped by two-thirds since the 1 a.m. curfew was enforced.

Cho said troops leave his bar by 12:30 a.m., if not earlier, so they can return to base without breaking the curfew. He said he thinks some choose not to leave their installations at all because they feel it’s not worth it to go out for only a few hours.

Others said the new curfew is pushing servicemembers to go far from the bases, to areas where military police do not conduct patrols, such as ritzy Gangnam and the popular university area of Hongdae in Seoul.  [Stars & Stripes]

Whoever uploaded the video on YouTube calls this a rampage in the police station which is not accurate.  It is more like they were being uncooperative and stupid in the police station.  As pointed out before, at least they were wearing their reflective belts.

South Korea’s foreign minister visited one of the U.S. military’s northernmost bases here Friday to thank the 2nd Infantry Division for being “the spearhead of our combined defense posture” against North Korea.

During his brief remarks to an audience that included U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Sung Y. Kim, U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. James Thurman and about 30 2ID leaders, Kim Sung-hwan also praised the Obama administration for last week making it “clear that the U.S. will be strengthening its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, including the Korean peninsula, despite fiscal constraints.”

President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced last week that despite pending cuts in the overall size of America’s fighting force, the U.S. is committed to beefing up its strength in the Pacific.

“As allies, our two countries stand side by side at all levels,” Kim Sung-hwan said. “We have successfully overcome various issues involving our combined defense, from responding to North Korea’s provocations to base relocations.

“However, the most important foundation of our rock-solid combined defense is the hard work and dedication of front-line servicemembers like you. I’m counting on you to be ready to ‘fight tonight,’ ” he said, invoking an oft-used slogan used by 2ID, a division with almost 10,000 troops based almost entirely in the region north of Seoul.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

Police said yesterday it caught two brokers who illegally issued passes to the U.S. Army’s military base to unauthorized people.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, it has booked two brokers – a former Korean military officer and a former employee of the U.S. army – without detention for issuing 81 illegal passes over the last six years.

The police said that the officer surnamed Lee, 55, who is a retired lieutenant colonel from the Korean military, allegedly pocketed more than 50 million won ($43,100) from 69 people in exchange for passes to the U.S. Army’s Yongsan base in central Seoul until last June.

The suspect testified during questioning by police that he was paid from 200,000 won to 3.3 million won per pass, depending on his relationship with the buyer.

The other suspect, also surnamed Lee, 54, separately issued a dozen passes to his acquaintances in order to strengthen his personal relationships with privileged people and his business clients.

The retired military officer cooperated with one Korean employee who was working on the U.S. military base in Yongsan until last October, getting him to fabricate necessary documents that were needed to make the passes. The police said it is trying to track down the veteran’s accomplice.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

Really these guys are amateurs compared to this ajumma who made over a million dollars running this same scam years ago.

Six weeks after a new contractor failed to hire enough security guards, U.S. soldiers continue to staff a number of entry gates at military installations in South Korea.

Military officials, however, say they have no plans to sever ties with security firm G4S, even though the company is in violation of its contract.

“G4S has a realistic plan to ensure full performance, and they are meeting their milestones leading up to full performance,” military officials said in a statement. However, they would not release details of that performance plan, including when G4S would be required to fully staff gates, saying that information was “proprietary to G4S.”

Facing stiff opposition from Korean labor unions, G4S has had problems hiring enough guards to fulfill the contract. Spokesman Steven Chon did not say when the company would be able to fulfill its contract requirements, though he said that G4S expects to have the gates more than 70 percent staffed by the end of the week.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but I would be surprised if the milestones for full performance in this contract included having gates shut down and others manned by US servicemembers.