Glancing at the News
- The US has asked Korea to keep its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan [Yonhap, Korean]. Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Shim Yoon-joe, who received the request in a meeting with US Under Secretary of State Nickolas Burns on Oct 11, said his government would respect a parliamentary resolution on the matter, and that a decision would be made after comprehensively considering the expectations of the international community and national interests pertaining to corporate market entries. Asked to clarify whether that meant Korea might stay in Afghanistan, Shim said Korea had already announced it would withdraw, there have been no moves to change that position, and that an extension of only the Iraq deployment would be considered.
- Today’s “Kachi Kapshida” Moment — the Hankyoreh Shinmun (Korean) reports that USFK asked Korea to pay twice as much for the RSOI and UFL joint training exercises this year, but when the ROK military refused, USFK reduced the number of workstations alloted to the ROK for the exercises. Since the exercises are primarily computer wargames, reducing the number of workstations in fact means reducing the participation of the ROK military in the exercises. Reportedly, the demand that Korea double its contribution for the exercises was made at talks earlier this year. The USFK side noted during talks that Korea accounted for 47$ of the user cost of the exercises, but paid only 24%. Korea refused to boost its contribution to the desired level, and USFK notified the ROK military it would be getting fewer computers this year.
- Shin Jeong-ah and her rumored paramour Byeon Yang-kyoon have finally been arrested [Korea Times] on charges of degree forgery and embezzlement (Shin) and influence peddling (Byeon). Now, if only they can find that John Tracy fellow… [Marmot's Hole]
- The US is considering
sending hostages opening a “representative office” in Pyongyang [Korea Times].
- Dr. Lankov looks at the Korea’s colonial-era governor-generals [Korea Times].
- Sohn Hak-kyu has won the second mobile phone primary [Chosun Ilbo, English] of the United New Democratic Party. Zzzzzz….
- Yep, Seoul’s expensive [Chosun Ilbo, English].
- Bye, bye, pressrooms [Dong-A Ilbo, English].
2 Comments
In regards, to the second news item, the MND gets like 26 billion USD per year and they have to bicker with the US over a measley USD 7 million? I mean those workstations are US government property and if it has been agreed that the MND should pay for its use, the MND should pay its fair share instead of bickering over money that can be considered as spare change in terms of the MND budget, and making a fool out of itself to boot.
If they don’t like it, I guess they can build their own system, of course that would be more expensive than the USD 7 million that the USFK wants the MND to pay, and take two ~ three years to develop. Which is not exactly a good situation, considering the ROK’s operational command transfer on 2012. That’s probably why the MND is meeting the USFK halfway by increasing the funds allocated for computer use from the current 3.5 million USD to 5.1 million USD.
As for the third news item, how come no stories about banging?
Of course they are strapped for cash considering the promises Roh made to KJI.