The Korean government is looking into sending at least 10 policemen to help train the Afghan police, after informing the US that it will be difficult to resend troops to Afghanistan. The cops will be stationed at the Afghan police academy and will not take part in any activities other than the training of Afghan [...]
Turkey has launched a “cross-border land offensive” — what the old folk used to call an “invasion” — into northern Iraq:
Turkey’s military said on Friday it had launched a cross-border land offensive backed by fighter jets into northern Iraq on Thursday evening to hunt down Kurdish PKK guerrillas.
Turkish television reported, without citing sources, that 10,000 [...]
The Korean military is studying plans to create a specialized unit that would be responsible for carrying out rescue operation of Korean citizens held hostage overseas.
The Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA) has apparently been studying four plans since November on order from Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo.
The plan being most considered is one that would [...]
The four Korean crewmen who were held hostage by Somali pirates for 174 days say they were treated harshly by their captors.
Discussing the Iraq War in a radio interview, President Roh pulled off the nearly impossible feat of making Paris Hilton look smart. (HT to Lost Nomad)
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It seems that the Korean government is not the only one pumping money into Afghanistan’s underground economy. The Germans are at it also (Speigel Online):
The German engineer who was kidnapped in Afghanistan, Rudolf Blechschmidt, has been released, but at a high price: The crisis team was forced to pay ransom money to murderers and [...]
In an exclusive report, the Seoul Shinmun (Korean) reports that “radical Korean Christian groups” have secretly restarted missionary work in Afghanistan.
The paper, following a tip from some Christian official, talked with Afghan officials, Christian missionary groups and the Foreign Ministry. It learned that despite a travel ban put on Afghanistan in August, some missionary [...]
(For folks reading the comment section, the original title of this post was Americans avenge murdered Koreans in Afghanistan.)
From the Chosun:
Mullah Abdullah Jan, the Taliban commander who led the kidnappings of 23 Korean hostages in Afghanistan, was killed in an air strike by U.S. forces…
…According to the Afghan government, at least four other Taliban leaders [...]
This should come as no surprise (International Herald-Tribune):
South Korea’s foreign minister dismissed allegations that North Korea was cooperating with Syria on a nuclear weapons program, a news report said Monday.
“Now, no one is talking about the suspicions regarding North Korea and Syria with a clear basis,” Yonhap news agency quoted South Korean Foreign Minister Song [...]
There is speculation that Korea will not pull out its Zaytun unit from Irbil by December as expected but might extend the deployment albeit with fewer(around 400) troops.
Why the about face? The recent summit between Bush and Roh, according to the Korean media;
In his talks with Bush on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, [...]
OK, I lied. I am doing one more post on the recent Korean hostage situation in Afghanistan.
Earlier this week I got an email under the name of Daun Khan in reply to a piece I had written on the recent hostage situation in Afghanistan. As usual in this kind of situation, I can’t be 100% certain about the [...]
Well, if you’re interested, some anti-Christian Internet community is planning to hold rallies in front of the Saemmul Presbyterian Church (i.e., the church that sent the missionaries to Afghanistan) on Oct 9—15 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. The rally will condemn “Christian arrogance and its narrow-minded propagating methods” and call on church leaders to [...]
NIS chief Kim Man-bok testified in the National Assembly, in regards to the recent hostage negotiations. During the testimony, he opposed the current government policy of charging the Saemmul Church and the hostages for the cost of their release, saying that there is no legal basis.
As for the ransom issue;
Meanwhile, Kim said he could not [...]
I wrote earlier this week that perhaps some Canadian troops could avenge the deaths of the two Koreans recently murdered by the Taliban.
Turns out that is was the Afghans (backed by coalition troops) who did the job (Korea Times):
A dozen Taliban militants, including a leader allegedly involved in the kidnapping of Korean citizens last month, have [...]
Yes, it is yet another post on the Taliban hostage situation.
My latest KTimes piece is on the fallout from the crisis. The editors changed the opening a bit (and I did not put anything in bold), but it is still mostly reflects my views.
I realize that some of it may sound cold-hearted:
The harsh reality is that missionaries and [...]
Assuming that the politicians have given the go ahead, the answer is No, according to an article (Korean) in Seoul Kyungjae.
The reasons given are as follows;
1. Lack of intelligence gathering assets.
2. Lack of transport assets that can enable the rapid and covert deployment of special forces, especially long-range high capacity transport planes such as the [...]
Korea paid a ransom via a third country? Meanwhile, one blogger blogging from Kabul writes that four of the female hostages may have been raped while in captivity. Hard to know what to believe any more…
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Still believe the hostages weren’t missionaries? Read this Chosun Ilbo (English) piece. And I’ll assume that you’ve already seen this.
The Seoul Shinmun (Korean) discusses some of the diplomatic fallout from the Afghan hostage deal, while the Chosun Ilbo (Korean) notes that Korea is being blasted by the international community.
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According to Taliban spokesperson Ahmadi, the Korean government has not pulled out all of the Korean NGOs from Afghanistan by the end of August as per the agreement that resulted in the release of the 19 Korean hostages. In retaliation, he has threatened to attack Korean targets in Afghanistan, including the Korean embassy in Kabul.
Why am [...]
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