April 30th, 2013 at 6:45 pm » Comments (10)

What I do not understand about General Bell’s change of mind here is that when the transfer of operational control was decided the fact that the North Koreans would have nuclear weapons by then was obvious.  So there has to be something else that is causing this change of mind: A former U.S. Forces Korea commander who argued for transferring wartime operational control of allied forces to South Korea now says that North Korea poses too great a threat for that change in responsibility to take place. In a letter
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April 23rd, 2013 at 1:33 pm » Comments (3)

A tank boards a U.S. LCAC (landing craft air cushion) on a beach in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, on April 22, 2013, as part of a joint military drill involving South Korea and the U.S. (Yonhap)

March 28th, 2013 at 3:14 am » Comments (16)

I guess we should expect the North Koreans to release some more bellicose rhetoric today in response to this: The United States air force’s nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers carried out its first-ever firing drill over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday, the Combined Forces Command said, sending another strong warning to North Korea, which has threatened a preemptive nuclear attack on the U.S. and South Korea. The U.S. Strategic Command sent two B-2 Spirit Bombers for “a long-duration, round-trip training mission” from Whiteman Air Force Base in the U.S. state of
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February 27th, 2013 at 2:10 am » Comments (3)

From the USFK website: IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 105-13                                                                     February 22, 2013 The Department of Defense and Republic of Korea (ROK) Ministry of Defense held the Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue Feb. 21-22 in Washington, D.C. The biannual KIDD, which was formally established during the October 2011 Security Consultative Meeting in Seoul, is the umbrella framework for various U.S.-ROK bilateral initiatives, including the Extended Deterrence Policy Committee, the Strategic Alliance 2015 Working Group, and the Security Policy Initiative. Over the course of the two-day KIDD, ROK Deputy Minister Lim Kwan-bin met with Under
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January 17th, 2013 at 2:10 am » Comments (31)

It should no be surprising that the incoming President of Korea Park Geun-hye is a strong supporter of the US-ROK alliance, but that doesn’t mean that Washington is going to have an easy time getting the changes to the alliance that they may try and advocate for: South Korean President-elect Park Geun-hye said Wednesday she will work closely with the United States to further upgrade the traditional alliance with Washington and to smoothly resolve pending issues based on mutual trust. Park made the remark during a meeting with a delegation
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January 9th, 2013 at 7:57 am » Comments (13)

I am sure if they take this same survey after another North Korean provocation that the results will probably be different: Koreans place the least priority on the alliance with the U.S. when it comes to ensuring lasting peace on the peninsula, a survey shows. The survey was conducted by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs to mark the 60th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War. Bolstering awareness of national security was top of the list with 47.7 percent, followed by cooperation with North Korea with
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December 26th, 2012 at 8:25 am » Comments (2)

This has been a very long time coming but it appears that South Korea will finally be allowed to purchase the Global Hawks they have long wanted: The Obama administration formally proposed a controversial sale of advanced spy drones to help South Korea bear more of its defence from any attack by the heavily armed North. Seoul has requested a possible $1.2 billion sale of four Northrop Grumman Corp RQ-4 “Global Hawk” remotely piloted aircraft with enhanced surveillance capabilities, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement dated
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December 15th, 2012 at 7:39 am » Comments (13)

Due to the Osan Handcuff Scandal earlier this year changes have now been made to the US-ROK Status of Forces Agreement: Korean police will be able to conduct an initial investigation in all criminal cases involving U.S. military personnel in the future before handing them over to the U.S. Forces Korea. Currently U.S. servicemen here are immediately handed over to the U.S. side at the request of the USFK when they are charged with crimes, except in murder and rape cases. The National Police Agency said Sunday that it has
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November 19th, 2012 at 3:19 am » Comments (19)

If you ever wondered how much the Korean employees you seeing working on US bases make well here is your answer: A South Korean worker identified by his surname Kang, 57, who works for the US Armed Forces in Korea, was originally assigned chauffeur duties. In reality, he does whatever is asked of him. One day he is put to work cleaning out storage facilities, and the next, he is lugging bags around. Some days he fills sacks with sand for the entire day. “I’ve been working like a slave,”
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October 6th, 2012 at 11:30 pm » Comments (22)

It looks like the US and South Korea have decided to agree on a new missile range agreement:  South Korea and the United States have reached an agreement on extending the range of Seoul’s ballistic missiles to counter the threat from North Korea, local media reported on Saturday, citing unnamed government officials. Under an agreement signed in 1979 and then revised in 2001 between the two military allies, the range of South Korean missiles is limited to 300 kilometers (186 miles) and a payload of 500 kilograms (1,102 lbs). But Seoul has long urged Washington to amend
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