- A US barracks? On Baengnyeongdo? Are you effing serious?
South Korea’s military plans to build a barracks on a front-line island in the Yellow Sea near North Korea to house U.S. troops in case of emergency or military drills, a government source said Sunday, as the allies beef up their guard to thwart potential attacks by the North.
The South’s military will start building the new barracks, which can accommodate some 160 soldiers, from next year on Baengnyeong Island and construction will be completed by 2013, the source said on the condition of anonymity.
“As part of efforts to strengthen defense on the Yellow Sea islands, the new barracks will be used by U.S. troops during joint military drills or in case of emergency,” the source said.
Who came up with this idea? And should we expect a statement from USFK denying anything is afoot?
- Speaking of USFK, Hani 21 tries to find out what Kenneth Markle is doing today. Unfortunately, they can’t seem to find him, and use the opportunity mostly to rehash the Markle story. They do add a new wrinkle, though—when GIs are paroled, nobody keeps track of them.
- So, are hundreds of North Koreans working at Iran’s nuclear facilities?
- The Foreign Ministry has dispatched the special ambassador for overseas Koreans and consular affairs to Hojustan to help handle the issue of young women abusing their working-holiday visas to engage in certain entrepreneurial activities:
The Korean Embassy in Canberra and Consulate General in Sydney asked Seoul to act based on the reports that foreigners account recently for about 25 percent of the 23,000 sex workers in Australia and some 16.9 percent of them are Koreans.
The ministry believes that some are working illegally in the sex industry while on working holiday visas. Some 35,000 young Koreans are staying in Australia under the working holiday visa program between Australia and Korea which allows travelers to work a cerain number of hours while studying or traveling.
“The local press has continuously raised the problem of Korean prostitutes in Australia, and now there are more than 1,000 of them,” a senior Korean government official said. “It seems likely that criminal organizations are systematically sending young women to Australia or recruiting them locally by taking advantage of the working holiday visas.”
- Porn stars never read to me when I was in first grade. Apparently, I had a deprived childhood.
- Actress Oh In-hye doesn’t regret her choice of dress for the Busan Film Festival. OK, I link this mostly as an excuse to show those photos again.
- And in the WSJ, we have Battlefield 3 vs Modern Combat 3. Picked up Modern Combat 3—single player campaign was, as expected, solid. Multiplayer seemed improved, too. Sure, it’s still guys running around shooting each other in the face, but there seems to be a bit more teamwork going on. Still prefer Battlefield 3, though.
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
Is the left one longer than the right or is that an optical illusion?
Regarding the US barracks construction plan, everything old is new again. Baengnyong-do has been home to US forces before — when I was on active duty it was known as “PY-Do” or “Paeng Yong Do”, and was a DF station with maybe a dozen ELINT types from the Army, Air Force, and Marines. Don’t know about Navy.
Don’t know about that, but for Sonagi’s benefit, I include a link to a story on the “controversy” regarding her bounty, namely over whether it’s natural or not, with video footage that may shed new light on the question:
http://blog.donga.com/lee1379/archives/7537
Always thinking of your readers’ benefit, RK, and that’s why we love you.
The SK establishment – too cheap, lazy and cowardly to start defending its own land.
Look real to me. And if they do look like that, I don’t care if they are natural or not. Glorious.
Sasha Grey is overrated. If I had been in that classroom, I would’ve demanded Nicole Aniston or Jenna Haze.
Re: Barracks for US troops on PY-do. The article specifically says: “”As part of efforts to strengthen defense on the Yellow Sea islands, the new barracks will be used by U.S. troops during joint military drills or in case of emergency,”……
The article does NOT say that the barracks are or will be constructed for the US military, or for exclusive use by the US military. That it may imply such a thing (if purposely) is simply the result of the K-Times trying to elicit some sort of controversy out of the otherwise benign reality. No one needs to listen to me, but I have it from a reliable source that the facilities constructed on PY-do are NOT for US forces. (foot stomp, foot stomp, foot stomp, here).
In the past year, South Korea has moved a fairly robust deterrent-reactionary force of its own military there to PY-do to counter North Korean provocations. Lots of people seem to be unaware of the fact that the US and ROK militaries form a combined command (in layman’s terms, a command comprised of forces from two or more nations designed to pursue a common purpose). This command is called Combined Forces Command-Korea (CFC, for short). ROK and US forces frequently conduct exercises together in this combined command construct, to include operations on PY-do. If, during such training, the barracks built to house permanently stationed Korean servicemembers are also used to accommodate US military performing in the same exercise environment or in reaction to real-world provocations by North Korea as part of that combined command, should that in any way raise an eyebrow? No, it shouldn’t, but in this era, it seems the news media will throw it out there, not explain things fully, and prey on the ignorance of the layman to react in a way that feeds controversy.
Oh In-hye’s breasts are definitely real – no one opting for breast augmentation would purposely have implants that sag so much. One of my co-workers was watching the video and was looking for some nip-slippage, but I assured him that there was no chance of that – they are facing so far south, she has them almost tucked into her waistline.
The Hani: all the fiction they can make up.
Under the UCMJ, military parolees are assigned a federal probation officer. Unless Markle’s done a runner, his parole officer knows where he is, but is probably not under any obligation to reveal his whereabouts to the Hani.
I recently found out that one of my most poorly behaved ex-students is now living in Australia. When her classmate told me I first thought, wow, that’s amazing – I never thought she’d go overseas to study. And then it occured to me, what the hell else to Korean women with no job skills or English do over there? Maybe (hopefully) she has relatives down there or something.
@7 Sasha Grey? You wouldn’t kick her out of bed, but she’s certainly not plump enough to get Tilly to gum up yet another keyboard.
Same things that low-skill immigrants from any other country do in Australia: Pick fruit, process chicken carcasses, clean hotel rooms, and other manual-type labor.
@13
You forget one of the oldest professions in the world, prostitution.
In regards to the barracks, we’ll see how they turn out. If they are red bricked have ondol type floors with no beds, then they are for Korean troops. If they are beige colored have individual rooms with all the ameneties afforded to US servicemen then they are for US troops.
Of course I can’t imagine beige colored barracks popping up in Baeknyung-do.
#5
Hey, getting others to do all the work defending the country worked once or twice before. Why not keep doing it for the next millenium?
theotherkorean, if they’re that close wouldn’t they be underground or in some kind of reenforced structure?
Clever move, make sure those ruined girls can’t go back to Korea.
BTW Don’t soppose the minister will be taking in a korean room salon in Sydney this trip
How do you know?
How is Sasha Grey any different from any other company using schools for their own promotional efforts? But, I disagree with some of the porn choices expressed here. I think the kids deserve Viv Thomas – let’s not just teach them to be entrepreneurs. Let’s teach them how to make movies, too.
On Baengyong and the barracks, yes, it might be a joint forces effort now. Still, with President Obama doing TPP and visiting Australia, it might be 2011 on a calendar, but it still seems like the 1960s in Korea. After all these decades, there are far too many half-sovereign states in the region.
Does anyone know if the old US barracks on PY do still stand? If yes, what are they used for?
Actually, as I understand things, PY-Do is a place that tourists can visit, if they want. So you could check it out if you want.
How so? I enjoy her stuff.
Those two are okay. I would’ve preferred Amy Ried myself.
Korean government should never give passports to these women at first place. Btw, why Seoul is importing tens of thousands of foreign prostitutes?
it isn’t
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