Taking tomorrow off to do some Labor Day preparation stuff for Monday...
Will get it all done on Friday, and Saturday will get back to posting in this blog.
Hope all my readers have a good Labor Day weekend!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Korea to Propose Mediating Body in 'Comfort Women' Row
From Chisun Ibo: Korea to Propose Mediating Body in 'Comfort Women' Row
Thursday marks one year since the Constitutional Court ruled that the government has been remiss in resolving the grievances of Korean women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during the World War II. The Korean government has now decided to propose a mediating body between the two countries to resolve the issue.
A Foreign Ministry official on Sunday said, "After the Constitutional Court's last ruling, we sent diplomatic documents to Japan in September and November last year proposing bilateral talks to resolve the dispute in accordance with the treaty on settlement of claims, but we've heard noting back." The next step specified in the treaty is setting up a mediating body.
There will need to be some consultation with civic groups before the timing can be decided.
The official said the proposal is completely unrelated to the current disputes between the two over Dokdo. The issue of sexual slavery is "about women's rights and humanitarianism."
Japan says the claims of the victims were settled with the 1965 Korea-Japan normalization treaty, which stipulated massive one-off aid in return for a waiver.
Thursday marks one year since the Constitutional Court ruled that the government has been remiss in resolving the grievances of Korean women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during the World War II. The Korean government has now decided to propose a mediating body between the two countries to resolve the issue.
A Foreign Ministry official on Sunday said, "After the Constitutional Court's last ruling, we sent diplomatic documents to Japan in September and November last year proposing bilateral talks to resolve the dispute in accordance with the treaty on settlement of claims, but we've heard noting back." The next step specified in the treaty is setting up a mediating body.
There will need to be some consultation with civic groups before the timing can be decided.
The official said the proposal is completely unrelated to the current disputes between the two over Dokdo. The issue of sexual slavery is "about women's rights and humanitarianism."
Japan says the claims of the victims were settled with the 1965 Korea-Japan normalization treaty, which stipulated massive one-off aid in return for a waiver.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Inter-Korean 'postman' reconnects split families
Bangkok Post: Inter-Korean 'postman' reconnects split families
In a cramped and tiny office in the South Korean capital, an 80-year-old man displays letters postmarked "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" in pale red ink.
The imprints with North Korea's official name testify to Kim Kyung-Jae's success in reconnecting some of the tens of thousands of family members separated for decades by the world's last Cold War frontier.
There are no civilian mail or phone connections across the closely guarded inter-Korean border, and many do not even know whether their loved ones are still alive.
Sporadic reunions arranged by the two sides since 2000 have brought together only a fraction of those seeking news, and have been halted because of political tensions.
Kim and his colleagues in a nine-member foundation called the Separated Family Union try to bridge the gap, using the postal systems of third countries or brokers.
Kim sends about 70 to 80 letters and packages every year to North Koreans at the request of families in the South. It takes roughly 30 days for letters to arrive and another 30 days for a reply to come back.
In the case of letters, Kim mails them from Japan, where he is based. But Tokyo restricts the contents of packages to the North to comply with UN sanctions, so those are sent through China.
Brokers handle their passage through the Chinese postal system and are also used to track down long-lost family members.
For the professional intermediaries who cross the border between China and North Korea, a home town is all that is necessary to discover whether relatives are still alive, and if so, their address.
"Most letters don't contain any secrets or criticism of the (North's) communist regime because they are all subject to screening," said Kim, speaking at the foundation's office in Seoul.
But sometimes letters cannot be sent by a public route, in which case Shim Goo-Seob, co-founder of the foundation, takes over and arranges for a broker to make a more unorthodox delivery.
The document could be tied to a rock and thrown over a narrow section of the Yalu river border with China, or sneaked through in a container truck.
Until a few years ago all postal traffic was one-way, with South Koreans looking for relatives in the North. But now many North Koreans are seeking family members across the border through the brokers, Kim said.
"The main reason is because they miss them, but partly it's also because the brokers leak information that South Koreans are rich and can send necessities and money," he said.
"Relatives in the North ask us to send anything from rubber to used clothes, but what they want most is medicine for disease, mostly tuberculosis, and food to combat malnutrition."
Basic household items are also in demand. "Things that we have, like scissors and knives? They don't have them," said Kim.
Brokers take about 30 percent commission if transferring money, and charge roughly 230,000 won ($203) to deliver a 20-kilogram (44-pound) package through the Chinese post.
Despite the high commission and the difficulties, families in the South keep sending packages because they make such a difference in the poverty-stricken North.
"They (Northerners) always send letters saying the small efforts and money we've put in here has made a big difference there," said Kim.
"Southerners think they know how bad the situation is there, but it's a whole lot worse than it appears. Things that are trivial to us here can be of great use there."
South Koreans who receive a letter from the North for the first time usually burst into tears out of pity at the plight of their relatives, he said.
Kim himself left the North in 1950, the first year of the Korean War, with all his brothers. But he had to leave his youngest sister behind. He was 19 and she was eight.
"That's the last time we saw or talked to each other until 1990, when I miraculously heard her address (through an acquaintance allowed to visit the North) and we started exchanging letters," said Kim.
The foundation's work is supported by donations from private companies and funds from the South's unification ministry.
Kim wants to send as many letters and packages to the North as he can, until his dying day.
"It's unrealistic to hope the two Koreas will be unified while I'm alive," he said. "But I long for freer communication between families because I want to help my sister and other families reunite.
In a cramped and tiny office in the South Korean capital, an 80-year-old man displays letters postmarked "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" in pale red ink.
The imprints with North Korea's official name testify to Kim Kyung-Jae's success in reconnecting some of the tens of thousands of family members separated for decades by the world's last Cold War frontier.
There are no civilian mail or phone connections across the closely guarded inter-Korean border, and many do not even know whether their loved ones are still alive.
Sporadic reunions arranged by the two sides since 2000 have brought together only a fraction of those seeking news, and have been halted because of political tensions.
Kim and his colleagues in a nine-member foundation called the Separated Family Union try to bridge the gap, using the postal systems of third countries or brokers.
Kim sends about 70 to 80 letters and packages every year to North Koreans at the request of families in the South. It takes roughly 30 days for letters to arrive and another 30 days for a reply to come back.
In the case of letters, Kim mails them from Japan, where he is based. But Tokyo restricts the contents of packages to the North to comply with UN sanctions, so those are sent through China.
Brokers handle their passage through the Chinese postal system and are also used to track down long-lost family members.
For the professional intermediaries who cross the border between China and North Korea, a home town is all that is necessary to discover whether relatives are still alive, and if so, their address.
"Most letters don't contain any secrets or criticism of the (North's) communist regime because they are all subject to screening," said Kim, speaking at the foundation's office in Seoul.
But sometimes letters cannot be sent by a public route, in which case Shim Goo-Seob, co-founder of the foundation, takes over and arranges for a broker to make a more unorthodox delivery.
The document could be tied to a rock and thrown over a narrow section of the Yalu river border with China, or sneaked through in a container truck.
Until a few years ago all postal traffic was one-way, with South Koreans looking for relatives in the North. But now many North Koreans are seeking family members across the border through the brokers, Kim said.
"The main reason is because they miss them, but partly it's also because the brokers leak information that South Koreans are rich and can send necessities and money," he said.
"Relatives in the North ask us to send anything from rubber to used clothes, but what they want most is medicine for disease, mostly tuberculosis, and food to combat malnutrition."
Basic household items are also in demand. "Things that we have, like scissors and knives? They don't have them," said Kim.
Brokers take about 30 percent commission if transferring money, and charge roughly 230,000 won ($203) to deliver a 20-kilogram (44-pound) package through the Chinese post.
Despite the high commission and the difficulties, families in the South keep sending packages because they make such a difference in the poverty-stricken North.
"They (Northerners) always send letters saying the small efforts and money we've put in here has made a big difference there," said Kim.
"Southerners think they know how bad the situation is there, but it's a whole lot worse than it appears. Things that are trivial to us here can be of great use there."
South Koreans who receive a letter from the North for the first time usually burst into tears out of pity at the plight of their relatives, he said.
Kim himself left the North in 1950, the first year of the Korean War, with all his brothers. But he had to leave his youngest sister behind. He was 19 and she was eight.
"That's the last time we saw or talked to each other until 1990, when I miraculously heard her address (through an acquaintance allowed to visit the North) and we started exchanging letters," said Kim.
The foundation's work is supported by donations from private companies and funds from the South's unification ministry.
Kim wants to send as many letters and packages to the North as he can, until his dying day.
"It's unrealistic to hope the two Koreas will be unified while I'm alive," he said. "But I long for freer communication between families because I want to help my sister and other families reunite.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Tribute slated for Korean War vets
From The Fayette Tribune: Tribute slated for Korean War vets
CHARLESTON — The West Virginia National Guard (WVNG) and the West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance (WVDVA) announced “A West Virginia Tribute to Korean War Veterans” will take place at the state Capitol Complex on Saturday, Sept. 15.
The event will include military vehicles, weapons and other displays as well as live entertainment reminiscent of the 1950s era. There will also be certificates of appreciation for Korean War veterans and a brief ceremony including guest speakers and a proclamation presentation.
Activities will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. inside the Culture Center with the ceremony to be held at 11 a.m. outside in front of the West Virginia Veterans Memorial.
If you are a Korean War veteran, or know of one, who would like to receive a certificate on the day of the event, please contact 1LT P.J. Coffey at 304-541-9603 or pj.coffey@us.army.mil.
Those who have not submitted their name in advance can sign up at the event to receive their certificate in the mail. This event is open to the public and the media.
CHARLESTON — The West Virginia National Guard (WVNG) and the West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance (WVDVA) announced “A West Virginia Tribute to Korean War Veterans” will take place at the state Capitol Complex on Saturday, Sept. 15.
The event will include military vehicles, weapons and other displays as well as live entertainment reminiscent of the 1950s era. There will also be certificates of appreciation for Korean War veterans and a brief ceremony including guest speakers and a proclamation presentation.
Activities will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. inside the Culture Center with the ceremony to be held at 11 a.m. outside in front of the West Virginia Veterans Memorial.
If you are a Korean War veteran, or know of one, who would like to receive a certificate on the day of the event, please contact 1LT P.J. Coffey at 304-541-9603 or pj.coffey@us.army.mil.
Those who have not submitted their name in advance can sign up at the event to receive their certificate in the mail. This event is open to the public and the media.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
S. Korea, US in major annual military drill
From Google Newws: S. Korea, US in major annual military drill
SEOUL — The South Korean and US militaries have begun a major annual joint exercise to test defences against North Korea, with Pyongyang denouncing the drill and vowing to strengthen its nuclear deterrent.
Washington played down the North's threats.
More than 30,000 US troops, including most of those based in the South plus 3,000 from overseas, are taking part in the exercise known as Ulchi Freedom Guardian, which began Monday, US forces said in a statement.
Seoul's defence ministry could not say how many South Korean troops were taking part but Yonhap news agency put the number at 56,000.
The drill, which runs until August 31, does not involve field training and is largely a computer-simulated exercise, with troops staying at their normal bases.
US and South Korean forces insist it is defensive while the North called it a drill for a preemptive nuclear attack.
"The prevailing situation requires (North Korea) to bolster up the war deterrent physically and goes to prove that it was entirely just when it determined to fully reexamine the nuclear issue," the North's foreign ministry said.
Its atomic ability "serves as a just means for retaliation", it said in a statement published by state media.
"This is an all-powerful treasured sword for protecting the sovereignty of the country and a powerful means for deterring the war on the Korean peninsula," the ministry said.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the joint exercise was "routine" and "well understood".
"These kinds of North Korean threats are not uncommon," she told reporters. "Obviously we would call on them to refrain from those kinds of bellicose statements."
General James Thurman, commander of the 28,500 US troops based in the South, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian "a key exercise in strengthening the readiness of Republic of Korea (South Korean) and US forces".
On the eve of the drill, the North's leader Kim Jong-Un visited a frontline artillery unit that carried out the deadly 2010 bombardment of a South Korean island near the disputed western sea border.
Kim praised its personnel as heroes and told them never to tolerate enemy aggression, the North's official news agency reported Saturday.
The two Koreas have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, without a subsequent peace treaty.
Cross-border tensions have been high since the South accused the North of torpedoing one of its warships with the loss of 46 lives in March 2010.
The North denied the charge but shelled the border island in November that year, killing four South Koreans.
About 20 activists gathered outside the biggest US army base in Seoul's Yongsan district to protest at the exercise, displaying banners reading "Stop UFG (Ulchi Freedom Guardian)!" and "Sign Peace Treaty".
"This is a war game and a physical threat to the North," they said in a statement, adding that the drill heightens tensions on the peninsula.
SEOUL — The South Korean and US militaries have begun a major annual joint exercise to test defences against North Korea, with Pyongyang denouncing the drill and vowing to strengthen its nuclear deterrent.
Washington played down the North's threats.
More than 30,000 US troops, including most of those based in the South plus 3,000 from overseas, are taking part in the exercise known as Ulchi Freedom Guardian, which began Monday, US forces said in a statement.
Seoul's defence ministry could not say how many South Korean troops were taking part but Yonhap news agency put the number at 56,000.
The drill, which runs until August 31, does not involve field training and is largely a computer-simulated exercise, with troops staying at their normal bases.
US and South Korean forces insist it is defensive while the North called it a drill for a preemptive nuclear attack.
"The prevailing situation requires (North Korea) to bolster up the war deterrent physically and goes to prove that it was entirely just when it determined to fully reexamine the nuclear issue," the North's foreign ministry said.
Its atomic ability "serves as a just means for retaliation", it said in a statement published by state media.
"This is an all-powerful treasured sword for protecting the sovereignty of the country and a powerful means for deterring the war on the Korean peninsula," the ministry said.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the joint exercise was "routine" and "well understood".
"These kinds of North Korean threats are not uncommon," she told reporters. "Obviously we would call on them to refrain from those kinds of bellicose statements."
General James Thurman, commander of the 28,500 US troops based in the South, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian "a key exercise in strengthening the readiness of Republic of Korea (South Korean) and US forces".
On the eve of the drill, the North's leader Kim Jong-Un visited a frontline artillery unit that carried out the deadly 2010 bombardment of a South Korean island near the disputed western sea border.
Kim praised its personnel as heroes and told them never to tolerate enemy aggression, the North's official news agency reported Saturday.
The two Koreas have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, without a subsequent peace treaty.
Cross-border tensions have been high since the South accused the North of torpedoing one of its warships with the loss of 46 lives in March 2010.
The North denied the charge but shelled the border island in November that year, killing four South Koreans.
About 20 activists gathered outside the biggest US army base in Seoul's Yongsan district to protest at the exercise, displaying banners reading "Stop UFG (Ulchi Freedom Guardian)!" and "Sign Peace Treaty".
"This is a war game and a physical threat to the North," they said in a statement, adding that the drill heightens tensions on the peninsula.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Korea-Japan diplomatic war
The Korea Times, an op ed piece: Korea-Japan diplomatic war
The two geographically close neighbors ― South Korea and Japan ― are about to embark on a diplomatic warfare that could be a disturbing development to Washington’s Asia policy. It all began with President Lee Myung-bak’s visit to the Dokdo Islets on Aug. 10, to which the Japanese government waged a strong protest, threatening to take the territorial issue to the International Court of Justice.
There is an assumption in international relations theory that foreign policy often reflects the pressure of domestic politics. The latest eruption of a renewed territorial dispute over the sovereignty of Dokdo appears to support such an assumption. Both governments in Seoul and Tokyo are facing plenty of public discontent from respective sources of political trouble.
Based on strong historic evidence and international law, Korea treats Dokdo as part of its territory and effectively occupies them with security guards. However, Japan also claims its territorial rights over the islets, calling them ``Takeshima.” In defiance of Seoul’s protest, Japan has printed its claims to the islets in government documents and textbooks.
Even if Japan takes the issue to the international court, it would not be docketed unless South Korea agrees. Seoul has already made it clear it will not respond to Tokyo’s moves pertaining to the international court whose arbitration would have no binding effect. Korea’s position has been consistent whenever Japan has raised the issue.
At home, Lee’s visit to the Dokdo Islets was hailed by the ruling Saenuri Party as a legitimate exercise of presidential duty to protect Korea’s sovereignty over the Dokdo Islets. His approval rate went up to 66 percent after his trip. He also made tough statements on other unsettled issues like Japan’s practice of sex slavery during World War II.
The same visit was criticized by the opposition Democratic United Party as ``an abrupt political show by the President who revealed the limits of his diplomatic leadership.” Only in June, the Lee administration was pushing for an ROK-Japan agreement on intelligence sharing, which was blocked by the results of clumsy handling and anti-Japanese sentiment arising from issues like Dokdo and sex slavery.
Lee said he planned the Dokdo visit two or three years ago, while he was still pursuing a quiet, pragmatic policy toward Japan. While the trip itself is justified and it was generally supported by the public in Korea, some of his statements afterwards were considered unwise.
For example, he said, ``The Japanese emperor must apologize to Korean independence fighters before he visits Korea.” It is true that the Japanese emperor, as the figurehead of Japan, has never made a clear apology for his nation’s misdeeds during its colonial rule over Korea. However, there has been no recent discussion of him visiting Korea. Lee also said he would not go to Japan on a state visit, as he would not be able to freely speak what is on his mind before the Japanese parliament. Japanese leaders called Lee statement ``lacking in courtesy.”
The Korean President also said, ``Japan no longer has influence as it used to in the international community.” This was an unnecessary, improper statement. It is one thing that he talks about the positive aspects of Korea’s growing stature and increasing influence in the international arena. However, it does not accomplish anything to speak of Japan’s influence, with whom Korea will have to cooperate more closely for its own interest.
Perhaps belatedly, Lee seemed to de-escalate tensions by avoiding mentioning the Dokdo issue in his Aug. 15 speech, which celebrated Korean liberation from Japan and the establishment of the Republic of Korea. Instead, he criticized Japan for lacking an interest in resolving the issue of sex slavery which used to be called ``the issue of comfort women” until U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rephrased the term.
Japan should have no defense against Lee’s charges that Japan’s practice of sex slavery was ``an issue of women’s rights in a time of war and an act in violation of the universal value of humans and against the evolution of history.” The President previously pointed out Japanese reluctance to the resolution of these issues was largely because of its domestic politics.
There were 234 victims of sex slavery who registered with the authorities, but only 61 of them, now in their 80s, are still alive. Supporters of these victims erected a statute of a girl as a symbol of victimization in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. This became an irritant that in a bilateral summit meeting, the Japanese prime minister demanded its removal.
A private group of Japanese women came to Korea to apologize to the victims on behalf of their government. On the Dokdo issue, a poll reported only 20 percent of Japanese high school students thought Takeshima was their territory while 60 percent of them had no interest in the issue. Unfortunately, these issues are still hot potatoes for Japanese politics among adults.
In domestic calculations, President Lee may have recovered leverage in demonstrating his urgent economic policy for the remainder of his term. On a diplomatic front, his government has isolated itself with a series of policy failures on North Korea, China and now Japan. Washington stands neutral on the sensitive territorial issue between Seoul and Tokyo.
In diplomatic calculation, neither South Korea nor Japan can afford a diplomatic warfare from which neither side can gain in the long term. The two should seek a constructive exit strategy from this nagging trap, maybe with Washington’s intermediation. What’s your take?
Friday, August 17, 2012
A revived spat between Japan and South Korea unsettles the United States
From the Economist: A revived spat between Japan and South Korea unsettles the United States
IT IS that time of year again: the anniversary of the end of the
second world war in North-East Asia, when wound-opening patriots take
the sticking-plaster laid over historical grievances and give it a hard
tug. This year the top prize goes to the president of South Korea, Lee
Myung-bak.
On August 10th Mr Lee visited Dokdo, a group of islets in the Sea of Japan. Here the welfare of fragile marine and bird life comes second to nationalist sensitivities in the face of a rival claim to the rocks by Japan, which relinquished control of Korea after its defeat in 1945. The islets’ two permanent residents, an octopus fisherman and his wife, are joined by a supporting cast of coastguards, installers of mobile-phone masts, South Korean tourists and planters of exotic trees—which for the purposes of territorial claims help distinguish an island from a mere rock.
Back on the mainland, Mr Lee berated Japan for not redressing the grievances of Korean women forced into military prostitution during the war. He also declared that the Japanese emperor, Akihito, “did not need to come” to South Korea unless he apologised deeply for colonial rule (this after extending the emperor an invitation in 2008). So much for the “forward-looking” diplomacy Mr Lee once said would help the region to end its historical rows. Since then, the president’s popularity has slumped, and his party faces a tricky presidential election in December. Tub-thumping over Dokdo cuts across party lines.
Japan has often displayed a tin ear to South Korean sensitivities over the island, which it calls Takeshima, having acquired it in the process of annexing Korea. Yet since the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) came to power in 2009 Japanese policy had been conciliatory. One DPJ prime minister, Naoto Kan, offered a fulsome apology on the centenary of the Korean annexation. The emperor has long been in the admirable habit of apologising for Japanese aggression. More substantively, Japan’s new defence white paper talks up the importance of regional security and co-operation. It identifies South Korea as the country “that shares the closest relationship with Japan historically and in areas such as economy and culture”.
Yet few senior South Koreans have the courage to acknowledge this in public. Mr Lee’s unprecedented stunt—no South Korean president had ever visited the rocks—means that much of the DPJ’s good work risks unravelling. On August 15th, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender, two Japanese cabinet ministers visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, where war dead, including condemned war criminals, are revered. These were the first visits by high-ranking officials in three years. In protest at the Dokdo visit, Japan recalled its ambassador to Seoul. Its foreign minister, Koichiro Gemba, said Mr Lee’s provocation gave Japan little choice but to take the case to the International Court of Justice.
The threat is hollow. The court will not adjudicate unless two sides agree that a dispute exists. South Korea does not, just as Japan says its claim over some other rocks, the Senkakus, claimed by China (which calls them the Diaoyu Islands) is not in dispute. This week 14 hyperventilating patriots from China, Hong Kong and Macau steamed to the Senkakus, where Japan’s coastguard promptly arrested them.
Through all this, America watches on. Even as it wants a revamped presence in Asia, it despairs that its chief regional allies cannot get on. It says the Dokdo dispute is for the two countries to sort out. But that is to wash its hands of its own part in the saga. The 1951 San Francisco peace treaty with Japan deliberately overlooked the matter of Dokdo’s sovereignty, for fear the islands might fall into the hands of the Communist north in the Korean war. Acknowledging its role in the history wars, Alexis Dudden of the University of Connecticut argues, might persuade all the protagonists that America really wants to foster a greater sense of Asian regionalism.
On August 10th Mr Lee visited Dokdo, a group of islets in the Sea of Japan. Here the welfare of fragile marine and bird life comes second to nationalist sensitivities in the face of a rival claim to the rocks by Japan, which relinquished control of Korea after its defeat in 1945. The islets’ two permanent residents, an octopus fisherman and his wife, are joined by a supporting cast of coastguards, installers of mobile-phone masts, South Korean tourists and planters of exotic trees—which for the purposes of territorial claims help distinguish an island from a mere rock.
Back on the mainland, Mr Lee berated Japan for not redressing the grievances of Korean women forced into military prostitution during the war. He also declared that the Japanese emperor, Akihito, “did not need to come” to South Korea unless he apologised deeply for colonial rule (this after extending the emperor an invitation in 2008). So much for the “forward-looking” diplomacy Mr Lee once said would help the region to end its historical rows. Since then, the president’s popularity has slumped, and his party faces a tricky presidential election in December. Tub-thumping over Dokdo cuts across party lines.
Japan has often displayed a tin ear to South Korean sensitivities over the island, which it calls Takeshima, having acquired it in the process of annexing Korea. Yet since the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) came to power in 2009 Japanese policy had been conciliatory. One DPJ prime minister, Naoto Kan, offered a fulsome apology on the centenary of the Korean annexation. The emperor has long been in the admirable habit of apologising for Japanese aggression. More substantively, Japan’s new defence white paper talks up the importance of regional security and co-operation. It identifies South Korea as the country “that shares the closest relationship with Japan historically and in areas such as economy and culture”.
Yet few senior South Koreans have the courage to acknowledge this in public. Mr Lee’s unprecedented stunt—no South Korean president had ever visited the rocks—means that much of the DPJ’s good work risks unravelling. On August 15th, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender, two Japanese cabinet ministers visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, where war dead, including condemned war criminals, are revered. These were the first visits by high-ranking officials in three years. In protest at the Dokdo visit, Japan recalled its ambassador to Seoul. Its foreign minister, Koichiro Gemba, said Mr Lee’s provocation gave Japan little choice but to take the case to the International Court of Justice.
The threat is hollow. The court will not adjudicate unless two sides agree that a dispute exists. South Korea does not, just as Japan says its claim over some other rocks, the Senkakus, claimed by China (which calls them the Diaoyu Islands) is not in dispute. This week 14 hyperventilating patriots from China, Hong Kong and Macau steamed to the Senkakus, where Japan’s coastguard promptly arrested them.
Through all this, America watches on. Even as it wants a revamped presence in Asia, it despairs that its chief regional allies cannot get on. It says the Dokdo dispute is for the two countries to sort out. But that is to wash its hands of its own part in the saga. The 1951 San Francisco peace treaty with Japan deliberately overlooked the matter of Dokdo’s sovereignty, for fear the islands might fall into the hands of the Communist north in the Korean war. Acknowledging its role in the history wars, Alexis Dudden of the University of Connecticut argues, might persuade all the protagonists that America really wants to foster a greater sense of Asian regionalism.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
CT: Korean War veterans appreciate donations
From Danbury News: Korean War veterans appreciate donations
The Korean War Veterans Association of the Greater Danbury Area would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who donated to our Rose of Sharon drive this year.
The Rose of Sharon fundraiser is traditionally held each year during the month of July to mark the cease-fire of July 27, 1953 and to enable us to continue our work in aiding homeless vets, providing scholarships and in various veteran community projects.
It is gratifying to see the generosity of the community during these difficult economic times.
Thanks again to all who gave, and took the time out of their busy scheduled to pass the time of day with us.
The Korean War Veterans Association of the Greater Danbury Area would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who donated to our Rose of Sharon drive this year.
The Rose of Sharon fundraiser is traditionally held each year during the month of July to mark the cease-fire of July 27, 1953 and to enable us to continue our work in aiding homeless vets, providing scholarships and in various veteran community projects.
It is gratifying to see the generosity of the community during these difficult economic times.
Thanks again to all who gave, and took the time out of their busy scheduled to pass the time of day with us.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
GI killed in Korea in 1951 coming home
From KXANcom: GI killed in Korea in 1951 coming home
AUSTIN (KXAN) - A soldier who was captured by the North Korean army nearly 60 years ago was returning to Texas on Monday for burial in the veterans' cemetery near Fort Hood.
According to the veterans support group, Honor Flight, the U.S. Defense Department had reclassified the status of Army Sgt. 1st Class William Travis Barker from missing in action to killed in action. His body was due to arrived at Austin Bergstrom International Airport at 9 a.m.
Barker's name is listed in the "finding families" section of the online database, Korean War Project. It lists his hometown as Rockwall.
The organization said Barker was taken prison while tending his wounded comrades during the battle of the Chong Ch’on river in North Korea on Dec. 1, 1950. He died on Feb. 18 1951 at age 22.
His remains were not identified until June 30, 2012 using DNA provided by his family. Barker was born June 2, 1929.
"He was captured in December of 1950. He died as a result of hostile action in February of 1951," says Terry Ayers, a captain with the Patriot Guard riders, "His remains were identified through DNA provided by family in June of this year. We're bringing this POW home."
According to the Korean war Project, in the three years of the Korean War, 8,177 United States servicemen were designated as missing In action.
"Over the years, tensions in Korea have cooled and re-heated, but many of the MIA's now resting in North Korea and the DMZ are expected to be repatriated to the United States," the organization said. "It is with great hope that many of these remains may be identified in the future through DNA analysis."
AUSTIN (KXAN) - A soldier who was captured by the North Korean army nearly 60 years ago was returning to Texas on Monday for burial in the veterans' cemetery near Fort Hood.
According to the veterans support group, Honor Flight, the U.S. Defense Department had reclassified the status of Army Sgt. 1st Class William Travis Barker from missing in action to killed in action. His body was due to arrived at Austin Bergstrom International Airport at 9 a.m.
Barker's name is listed in the "finding families" section of the online database, Korean War Project. It lists his hometown as Rockwall.
The organization said Barker was taken prison while tending his wounded comrades during the battle of the Chong Ch’on river in North Korea on Dec. 1, 1950. He died on Feb. 18 1951 at age 22.
His remains were not identified until June 30, 2012 using DNA provided by his family. Barker was born June 2, 1929.
"He was captured in December of 1950. He died as a result of hostile action in February of 1951," says Terry Ayers, a captain with the Patriot Guard riders, "His remains were identified through DNA provided by family in June of this year. We're bringing this POW home."
According to the Korean war Project, in the three years of the Korean War, 8,177 United States servicemen were designated as missing In action.
"Over the years, tensions in Korea have cooled and re-heated, but many of the MIA's now resting in North Korea and the DMZ are expected to be repatriated to the United States," the organization said. "It is with great hope that many of these remains may be identified in the future through DNA analysis."
Sunday, August 12, 2012
60 is the new 40
On August 10, 2012, the Cheyenne chapter of the AARP hosted a seminar
called Gray Matters - which was free and provided a free lunch -
unfortunately fish and cheesecake, blech - from 4 to 6 was a reception
for all travelers who had come in for the AARP National Spelling Bee to
be held on the 11th.
I attended that and it was a lot of fun. The emcee introduced a few folks, we talked about words, there was a "mock" spelling bee (which only consisted of about 20 people getting up and being questioned on one word...._ and so on. And there were finger foods there - Chinese food to be precise. Don't know where they got it from or if they cooked it on site (Little America is a hotel and resort where people come to play golf among other things) but it was delish.
The spelling bee started at the ungodly hour of 8:30 am (Well...8:30 is not so ungodly but I had to get up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 to get there in time for registration, etc.) It started with 4 rounds of 25 words each - which was a Written Test.
The first 25 words were extremely easy. They asked words like "Greetings" and "Navel" and "Mince." I suppose a few might have been considered difficult... "Animus" and "Lacuna."
The second 25 words were equally easy, but I did miss MUGWUMP.
I assume they did this just to help everyone settle the nerves and get new people used to what was going on. People had trouble hearing some of the words (hey, they were all over 50 and most over 60) and the Pronouncer would come down and tell them the word face to face and have them say it back, etc. Indeed, the Pronouncer did an excellent job.
Third round was where they started asking the difficult words.
I missed:
QUESTIONARY INERCALATE
TUATARA
SKOSH
VIRIDITY
WIMBLE
The fourth round was the real killer. I only got 12 out of 25 right. I missed:
FELICIFIC
DOVEKIE
FLYTING
NAPERY
COTYLEDONARY
WELTSCHMERRZ
OPPUGNER
AECIOSPORE
SYNCYTIAL
KNUR
IRIDIUM
TUYERE
HYOSCYAMINE
I then stayed for the Oral rounds and was joined by one of my friends from my Scrabble Club. (I think an audience could have assembled for the Written rounds, too. There were chairs there and family were in them...but I think most people only wanted to come see the Oral rounds where you actually saw the speller's faces as opposed to their backs, etc.)
Two of the people I met last night at the reception made it to the Orals. One of them it was his first trip to the Bee and he was successful his first time out. Made it through about 10 rounds. (In the Orals, you miss two words and you're out.) Another one was an elderly woman from Minnesota who also got through about 10 rounds before being knocked out.
There were three sisters and a brother who had come as a sort of family reunion. The eldest sister made it to the Oral rounds but was bounced after only two rounds. This was too bad and it was because she was a bit unlucky - she got two 6-syllable words in a row while some of the others were getting much easier ones (but still, not ones I could have spelled). But she was disqualified along with several other people in the same round, so hopefully she didn't feel too bad.
The words in the Oral Rounds were extremely difficult. Several times more difficult than the toughest words in the final round of the Written.
But, had I studied for a year, I think I could have handled them.
And it is my intention to study for a year and get into the Orals next year.
So, why is the title of this blog entry 60 is thenew 40?
Because it is.
People are living longer. You don't want to outlive your money and more importantly you don't want to outlive your sense of enjoyment of life. And learning new things every day is enjoyment and keeps the mind active.
The AARP Spelling Bee is held every year, and it gives you an excellent reason to travel to Cheyenne and see The Cowboy State. You'll meet lots of interesting people.
You do have to study.
I studied very desultorily for about a month...combine all the time I studied and it was about 10 hours. Not nearly enough, but then, I'm a good speller so the Written Rounds were relatively easy - except for that killer last round.
Why learn words that you'll never, ever say in real life?Well, because they're interesting. And the concepts of what you'll learn, you can apply in other areas. So it's a win win.
So start planning to live a long, healthy, active, intellectual life, and do it now, however old you might be!
I attended that and it was a lot of fun. The emcee introduced a few folks, we talked about words, there was a "mock" spelling bee (which only consisted of about 20 people getting up and being questioned on one word...._ and so on. And there were finger foods there - Chinese food to be precise. Don't know where they got it from or if they cooked it on site (Little America is a hotel and resort where people come to play golf among other things) but it was delish.
The spelling bee started at the ungodly hour of 8:30 am (Well...8:30 is not so ungodly but I had to get up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 to get there in time for registration, etc.) It started with 4 rounds of 25 words each - which was a Written Test.
The first 25 words were extremely easy. They asked words like "Greetings" and "Navel" and "Mince." I suppose a few might have been considered difficult... "Animus" and "Lacuna."
The second 25 words were equally easy, but I did miss MUGWUMP.
I assume they did this just to help everyone settle the nerves and get new people used to what was going on. People had trouble hearing some of the words (hey, they were all over 50 and most over 60) and the Pronouncer would come down and tell them the word face to face and have them say it back, etc. Indeed, the Pronouncer did an excellent job.
Third round was where they started asking the difficult words.
I missed:
QUESTIONARY INERCALATE
TUATARA
SKOSH
VIRIDITY
WIMBLE
The fourth round was the real killer. I only got 12 out of 25 right. I missed:
FELICIFIC
DOVEKIE
FLYTING
NAPERY
COTYLEDONARY
WELTSCHMERRZ
OPPUGNER
AECIOSPORE
SYNCYTIAL
KNUR
IRIDIUM
TUYERE
HYOSCYAMINE
I then stayed for the Oral rounds and was joined by one of my friends from my Scrabble Club. (I think an audience could have assembled for the Written rounds, too. There were chairs there and family were in them...but I think most people only wanted to come see the Oral rounds where you actually saw the speller's faces as opposed to their backs, etc.)
Two of the people I met last night at the reception made it to the Orals. One of them it was his first trip to the Bee and he was successful his first time out. Made it through about 10 rounds. (In the Orals, you miss two words and you're out.) Another one was an elderly woman from Minnesota who also got through about 10 rounds before being knocked out.
There were three sisters and a brother who had come as a sort of family reunion. The eldest sister made it to the Oral rounds but was bounced after only two rounds. This was too bad and it was because she was a bit unlucky - she got two 6-syllable words in a row while some of the others were getting much easier ones (but still, not ones I could have spelled). But she was disqualified along with several other people in the same round, so hopefully she didn't feel too bad.
The words in the Oral Rounds were extremely difficult. Several times more difficult than the toughest words in the final round of the Written.
But, had I studied for a year, I think I could have handled them.
And it is my intention to study for a year and get into the Orals next year.
So, why is the title of this blog entry 60 is thenew 40?
Because it is.
People are living longer. You don't want to outlive your money and more importantly you don't want to outlive your sense of enjoyment of life. And learning new things every day is enjoyment and keeps the mind active.
The AARP Spelling Bee is held every year, and it gives you an excellent reason to travel to Cheyenne and see The Cowboy State. You'll meet lots of interesting people.
You do have to study.
I studied very desultorily for about a month...combine all the time I studied and it was about 10 hours. Not nearly enough, but then, I'm a good speller so the Written Rounds were relatively easy - except for that killer last round.
Why learn words that you'll never, ever say in real life?Well, because they're interesting. And the concepts of what you'll learn, you can apply in other areas. So it's a win win.
So start planning to live a long, healthy, active, intellectual life, and do it now, however old you might be!
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Posts resume Monday
I'm participating in the AARP Cheyenne Spelling Bee today, Saturday, and need to recover Sunday....
So Monday, posts resumes.
So Monday, posts resumes.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
The Long History of (Wrongly) Predicting North Korea's Collapse
From the Atlantic: The Long History of (Wrongly) Predicting North Korea's Collapse
Since the early 1990s, Pyongyang-watchers have insisted the country's demise was just around the corner. That they've been so consistently wrong might say as much about the outside world as it does about North Korea.
It turns out that Kim Jong Un, the doughy ex-playboy and Disney enthusiast-turned hereditary neo-Stalinist overlord, is hardly as feckless or as cartoonish as he may appear, according to a new report from the International Crisis Group. "When it comes to institutions usable for social control, the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] is a hyperdeveloped state," announcesNorth Korean Succession and the Risks of Regime Stability. "Kim is young and inexperienced, but the instruments of control have been established by his grandfather [Kim il Sung] and father [Kim Jong Il], and he has pledged to adhere to their policy line. This means reform prospects are dim. He could well be around for decades -- and with a growing nuclear arsenal."
There's no immediate way of knowing whether the report will turn out to be right or wrong, but it breaks with a decades-old tradition of predicting or at least assuming North Korea's impending demise. Since the early '90s, around the time of both the fall of the pro-North Korean Soviet bloc and Kim Jong Il's 1994 takeover, scholars and commentators have braced themselves for the coming collapse of the DRPK's political and economic system, if not the collapse of the country itself.
The fact that the Kim regime is still alive and thriving doesn't mean that these commentators were wrong, exactly -- much of their logic appeared sound at the time, and their work responded to the seemingly imminent crisis of North Korea's dissolution. But the fact that so many close observers could misread the country's future so widely speaks to both North Korea's unknowability and its uniqueness. It seems that the experiences of post-communist or reform-minded countries Romania or China don't actually tell us as much as we might think about the trajectory of North Korea, a place that plays by its own bizarre and totalitarian rules. The world has treated North Korea's coming collapse as an inevitability for years. "In North Korea, the possibilities run the gamut from an implosion and collapse along the lines of Romania to an explosion," wrote Robert A. Manning, now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in the Fall 1993 issue of World Policy Journal. Twenty years later, respected North Korea scholar Andrei Lankov argued that an "inexperienced" Kim Jong Un might be unable to stave off his government's eventual downfall. To be fair, Lavrov hasn't been proven wrong yet, and his predictions about the first months of Kim Jong Un's rule have been remarkably accurate. Still, the Kims have proven the naysayers wrong many times before.
In the early 1990s, North Korea faced a series of existential crises -- or what looked like existential crises from the outside, anyway. Global communism had fallen, along with the Soviet-led anti-capitalist, and anti-democratic political bloc. China and Russia opened up diplomatic relations with South Korea in the early 1990s, around the same time they halted subsidies for North Korea's once-formidable export economy. Kim Il Sung, the nation's founder and "eternal leader," died in 1994. Famine, economic crisis, and international sanctions in response to North Korea's nuclear weapons program wracked the country for most of the decade. The world foresaw doom.
"While North Koran military action can never be ruled out, a more likely scenario these days is a North Korean economic and political collapse," Leif Rosenberger, who is currently the chief economist at U.S. Central Command, wrote in the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies' journal in 1994, shortly after Kim Il Sung's death. In a 1997 article for Foreign Policy entitled "Promoting a Soft Landing in Korea," Selig Harrison, now a project director at the Center for International Policy, was somewhat less definitive in predicting the country's fall. "While the North Korean system is unlikely to implode or explode in the foreseeable future," Harrison wrote, "it could well erode over a period of five to ten years if the United States and its allies remain wedded to policies that exacerbate the economic problems facing the Kim Jong Il regime." That was in 1997, 15 years ago. That same year, the CIA determined that North Korea was likely to collapse within the next five years.
While some experts took North Korea's failure as a foregone conclusion, others argued that the country would be unable to survive as long as it remained an oppressive and self-contained pariah state. They argued that a reformist wing of the governing clique was acutely aware of this, and could attempt to transform the country. The consensus of the early '90s seems to have been that the North Korean system was destined for major, imminent changes, whether it wanted them or not.
A 1993article in the Asian Survey by John Merill examined North Korea's coming liberalization, predicting a "more flexible" and "cosmopolitan" leadership, which either never gained much power or never existed at all:
North Korea has not imploded, and it has not reformed. There has been no "soft landing," no quick collapse, no confederation with the South. There has been no successful food-for-peace program with the U.S., as Seligson implied there could be, and no rapid, Iraq-like disintegration of the Korean peninsula, a possibility that The Atlantic's own Robert Kaplan discussed in a 2006 print article. To be fair, it's entirely possible that any number of these things could still happen, and these predictions have had plenty of evidence to support them: the 1994 nuclear agreement, the North-South peace process, and the somewhat-recent collapse of global communism, among many others. Everything from domestic Pyongyang politics to the political and historical arc of the 20th century informed against North Korea's survival.
So how, apparently against all the odds and so many theories and understandings of how the world is supposed to work, has North Korea continued to hang on? According to Jay Ulfelder, a Washington, DC-based political scientist and blogger who studies regime stability, North Korean-style one-party dictatorships are adept at insulating and perpetuating themselves. "These really closed authoritarian regimes that don't have a history of recent coup activity stick around for a long time," Ulfelder told me.
For such a unique system like North Korea's, the recent history of apparently similar countries (remember Manning's reference to Romania?) has little predictive power. Take, for instance, the belief that North Korean reformists were capable of changing the character of the regime. "The whole body of theorizing about democratic transitions from the late '80s and early '90s made the claim that those transitions always began because of splits between hardliners and soft-liners," says Ulfelder. "People took that as a predictor when in fact it really was just descriptive." Even the most authoritarian governments have reformists somewhere in their ranks. But, for Ulfelder, "the question is what are the conditions under which that reform-minded group becomes powerful enough to win the eternal fights and enact reform-minded changes?"
The consequences of North Korea's collapse would be incredibly messy, possibly even catastrophic. As Kaplan explained, it would mean integrating 25 million very poor North Koreans into much richer South Korea, winding down decades of propaganda that told North Koreans to hate and fear the world, dismantling one of the largest political prison systems in the world, and liquidating an enormous, nuclear-armed military. Perhaps, Ulfelder suggests, analysts might be unintentionally inflating the chances of North Korea's collapse precisely because its consequences would be so severe -- a feedback loop that psychologists refer to as an "affect heuristic."
"With North Korea, we're so scared of the country falling apart that this 'affect heuristic' drives people away from a more data-based forecast," Ulfelder says. "They make the mistake of treating their level of uncertainty as the level of probability of the event happening ... we have a tendency to substitute how scared we are of that happening with an estimate for how likely it is of that happening."
If this is in fact what's happening, then couldn't that actually be a good thing? Had the worst-case happened and North Korea actually fallen in the mid-'90s, the world would have been that much more prepared, thanks to the scholarly literature and expertise fueled by the the world's fears. The "effect heuristic" might partially explain the many false (or maybe just premature) predictions of North Korea's doom, but it also means we'll all be a lot readier if and when it actually happens.
But this is North Korea, and there isn't really such thing as a best-case scenario. For now, those 25 million North Koreans are still living in an impoverished totalitarian state, and the millions more in South Korea and Japan have still got a twitchy, nuclear-argued rogue state next door. As the Crisis Group report makes clear, North Korea is a regional and domestic catastrophe whether it changes or not.
Since the early 1990s, Pyongyang-watchers have insisted the country's demise was just around the corner. That they've been so consistently wrong might say as much about the outside world as it does about North Korea.
It turns out that Kim Jong Un, the doughy ex-playboy and Disney enthusiast-turned hereditary neo-Stalinist overlord, is hardly as feckless or as cartoonish as he may appear, according to a new report from the International Crisis Group. "When it comes to institutions usable for social control, the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] is a hyperdeveloped state," announcesNorth Korean Succession and the Risks of Regime Stability. "Kim is young and inexperienced, but the instruments of control have been established by his grandfather [Kim il Sung] and father [Kim Jong Il], and he has pledged to adhere to their policy line. This means reform prospects are dim. He could well be around for decades -- and with a growing nuclear arsenal."
There's no immediate way of knowing whether the report will turn out to be right or wrong, but it breaks with a decades-old tradition of predicting or at least assuming North Korea's impending demise. Since the early '90s, around the time of both the fall of the pro-North Korean Soviet bloc and Kim Jong Il's 1994 takeover, scholars and commentators have braced themselves for the coming collapse of the DRPK's political and economic system, if not the collapse of the country itself.
The fact that the Kim regime is still alive and thriving doesn't mean that these commentators were wrong, exactly -- much of their logic appeared sound at the time, and their work responded to the seemingly imminent crisis of North Korea's dissolution. But the fact that so many close observers could misread the country's future so widely speaks to both North Korea's unknowability and its uniqueness. It seems that the experiences of post-communist or reform-minded countries Romania or China don't actually tell us as much as we might think about the trajectory of North Korea, a place that plays by its own bizarre and totalitarian rules. The world has treated North Korea's coming collapse as an inevitability for years. "In North Korea, the possibilities run the gamut from an implosion and collapse along the lines of Romania to an explosion," wrote Robert A. Manning, now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in the Fall 1993 issue of World Policy Journal. Twenty years later, respected North Korea scholar Andrei Lankov argued that an "inexperienced" Kim Jong Un might be unable to stave off his government's eventual downfall. To be fair, Lavrov hasn't been proven wrong yet, and his predictions about the first months of Kim Jong Un's rule have been remarkably accurate. Still, the Kims have proven the naysayers wrong many times before.
In the early 1990s, North Korea faced a series of existential crises -- or what looked like existential crises from the outside, anyway. Global communism had fallen, along with the Soviet-led anti-capitalist, and anti-democratic political bloc. China and Russia opened up diplomatic relations with South Korea in the early 1990s, around the same time they halted subsidies for North Korea's once-formidable export economy. Kim Il Sung, the nation's founder and "eternal leader," died in 1994. Famine, economic crisis, and international sanctions in response to North Korea's nuclear weapons program wracked the country for most of the decade. The world foresaw doom.
"While North Koran military action can never be ruled out, a more likely scenario these days is a North Korean economic and political collapse," Leif Rosenberger, who is currently the chief economist at U.S. Central Command, wrote in the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies' journal in 1994, shortly after Kim Il Sung's death. In a 1997 article for Foreign Policy entitled "Promoting a Soft Landing in Korea," Selig Harrison, now a project director at the Center for International Policy, was somewhat less definitive in predicting the country's fall. "While the North Korean system is unlikely to implode or explode in the foreseeable future," Harrison wrote, "it could well erode over a period of five to ten years if the United States and its allies remain wedded to policies that exacerbate the economic problems facing the Kim Jong Il regime." That was in 1997, 15 years ago. That same year, the CIA determined that North Korea was likely to collapse within the next five years.
While some experts took North Korea's failure as a foregone conclusion, others argued that the country would be unable to survive as long as it remained an oppressive and self-contained pariah state. They argued that a reformist wing of the governing clique was acutely aware of this, and could attempt to transform the country. The consensus of the early '90s seems to have been that the North Korean system was destined for major, imminent changes, whether it wanted them or not.
A 1993article in the Asian Survey by John Merill examined North Korea's coming liberalization, predicting a "more flexible" and "cosmopolitan" leadership, which either never gained much power or never existed at all:
As the younger Kim has come into his own, he has put his stamp on North Korea's (DPRK) policies. Pyongyang's recent moves are not just random responses to outside pressure but a more carefully thought-out strategy for regime survival. The new style is that of a second-generation revolutionary leadership that is more technocratic, better educated, more cosmopolitan, and tactically more flexible than its predecessor.China-style liberalization was seen as such an inevitability that Rosenberger's 1994 journal article even cited the need for "bankruptcy laws and anti-trust legislation" -- as if North Korea were already on its way to a quasi-capitalist economy. The Asian Survey's 1993 article even detected a new sensitivity towards human rights by Kim Jong Il's regime. "There were hints that Pyongyang itself realized a need to improve its human rights situation," Merill wrote, foreseeing a decreased emphasis on songbun (the hereditary North Korean caste system based on perceived loyalty to the regime) and a new openness towards citizens with family in South Korea or Japan. Needless to say, if Kim Jong Il was ever headed in that direction, he didn't get there. His rule was just as cruel as his father's or perhaps even crueler. Today, the North Korean gulag system has over 150,000 inmates.
North Korea has not imploded, and it has not reformed. There has been no "soft landing," no quick collapse, no confederation with the South. There has been no successful food-for-peace program with the U.S., as Seligson implied there could be, and no rapid, Iraq-like disintegration of the Korean peninsula, a possibility that The Atlantic's own Robert Kaplan discussed in a 2006 print article. To be fair, it's entirely possible that any number of these things could still happen, and these predictions have had plenty of evidence to support them: the 1994 nuclear agreement, the North-South peace process, and the somewhat-recent collapse of global communism, among many others. Everything from domestic Pyongyang politics to the political and historical arc of the 20th century informed against North Korea's survival.
So how, apparently against all the odds and so many theories and understandings of how the world is supposed to work, has North Korea continued to hang on? According to Jay Ulfelder, a Washington, DC-based political scientist and blogger who studies regime stability, North Korean-style one-party dictatorships are adept at insulating and perpetuating themselves. "These really closed authoritarian regimes that don't have a history of recent coup activity stick around for a long time," Ulfelder told me.
For such a unique system like North Korea's, the recent history of apparently similar countries (remember Manning's reference to Romania?) has little predictive power. Take, for instance, the belief that North Korean reformists were capable of changing the character of the regime. "The whole body of theorizing about democratic transitions from the late '80s and early '90s made the claim that those transitions always began because of splits between hardliners and soft-liners," says Ulfelder. "People took that as a predictor when in fact it really was just descriptive." Even the most authoritarian governments have reformists somewhere in their ranks. But, for Ulfelder, "the question is what are the conditions under which that reform-minded group becomes powerful enough to win the eternal fights and enact reform-minded changes?"
The consequences of North Korea's collapse would be incredibly messy, possibly even catastrophic. As Kaplan explained, it would mean integrating 25 million very poor North Koreans into much richer South Korea, winding down decades of propaganda that told North Koreans to hate and fear the world, dismantling one of the largest political prison systems in the world, and liquidating an enormous, nuclear-armed military. Perhaps, Ulfelder suggests, analysts might be unintentionally inflating the chances of North Korea's collapse precisely because its consequences would be so severe -- a feedback loop that psychologists refer to as an "affect heuristic."
"With North Korea, we're so scared of the country falling apart that this 'affect heuristic' drives people away from a more data-based forecast," Ulfelder says. "They make the mistake of treating their level of uncertainty as the level of probability of the event happening ... we have a tendency to substitute how scared we are of that happening with an estimate for how likely it is of that happening."
If this is in fact what's happening, then couldn't that actually be a good thing? Had the worst-case happened and North Korea actually fallen in the mid-'90s, the world would have been that much more prepared, thanks to the scholarly literature and expertise fueled by the the world's fears. The "effect heuristic" might partially explain the many false (or maybe just premature) predictions of North Korea's doom, but it also means we'll all be a lot readier if and when it actually happens.
But this is North Korea, and there isn't really such thing as a best-case scenario. For now, those 25 million North Koreans are still living in an impoverished totalitarian state, and the millions more in South Korea and Japan have still got a twitchy, nuclear-argued rogue state next door. As the Crisis Group report makes clear, North Korea is a regional and domestic catastrophe whether it changes or not.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Columbus County ties mined to identify Korean War soldier's remains
From FayObserver: Columbus County ties mined to identify Korean War soldier's remains
TABOR CITY - Pfc. Clarence Erskin Lane went missing more than 60 years ago in the Korean War.
Finding a living relative of the Columbus County native may be key to identifying his remains, said Harold Davis, an American Legion representative from Wilmington.
Davis is looking for a blood relative of Lane to compare DNA with remains of unidentified Americans recovered from Korea. About 8,000 Americans remain unaccounted for from the war.
Born Aug. 29, 1929, Lane would be 83 this month. Lane was assigned to the Army's 7th Infantry Division, 32nd Infantry Regiment, C Company when he was lost early in the Korean War. He is believed to have been killed Nov. 30, 1950, Davis said.
Working on the eastern side of North Korea in brutally cold weather, Lane's regiment was overrun "by a superior number of Chinese soldiers" during the battle of Chosin Reservoir, David said.
More than 30 operations have been carried out in Korea to recover the remains of servicemen. The remains are sent to Hawaii for DNA collection. Efforts are under way to compare the samples with living relatives.
"Once remains are identified, they are returned to the family for proper burial," according to the website for the American Legion in North Carolina.
With so much time passed, the military has lost contact with many of the family members of missing servicemen from Korea, which has prompted the American Legion's effort.
That's what brings Davis into the search. A combat veteran of the Korean War who lives in Wilmington, he's made it his mission to help bring closure to families who don't know what happened to their loved ones on the battlefield.
"I know how the conditions were when these men were lost," Davis said in an email. "My God for some reason brought me home to live a life and have a family. I am truly grateful. I cannot bring back one POW/MIA but I can locate family members to provide DNA to identify remains. That is what I have done for the past nine years."
Davis has limited information about Lane's family history. He believes Lane was a son of Nora Erskin Todd Lane, who was born Oct. 15, 1889, in South Carolina and whose parents were Ellis Todd and Mary Jane Todd. The mother was married to John G. Lane.
Lane apparently had a half sister who married Elmer Lee Wright, who died in 1972 and is buried at Mt. Sinai Cemetery near Sidney. Children of Wright included Bobby Dale Wright; Martha Ann Wright, who married Robert Lawrence Blackmon; and Lillian Mable Wright, who married David Alan Jackson.
Lane also had a half brother, James C. Brown.
Anyone with information about Lane's family can contact Davis at 910-791-2333 or hgdavis@bellsouth.net.
TABOR CITY - Pfc. Clarence Erskin Lane went missing more than 60 years ago in the Korean War.
Finding a living relative of the Columbus County native may be key to identifying his remains, said Harold Davis, an American Legion representative from Wilmington.
Davis is looking for a blood relative of Lane to compare DNA with remains of unidentified Americans recovered from Korea. About 8,000 Americans remain unaccounted for from the war.
Born Aug. 29, 1929, Lane would be 83 this month. Lane was assigned to the Army's 7th Infantry Division, 32nd Infantry Regiment, C Company when he was lost early in the Korean War. He is believed to have been killed Nov. 30, 1950, Davis said.
Working on the eastern side of North Korea in brutally cold weather, Lane's regiment was overrun "by a superior number of Chinese soldiers" during the battle of Chosin Reservoir, David said.
More than 30 operations have been carried out in Korea to recover the remains of servicemen. The remains are sent to Hawaii for DNA collection. Efforts are under way to compare the samples with living relatives.
"Once remains are identified, they are returned to the family for proper burial," according to the website for the American Legion in North Carolina.
With so much time passed, the military has lost contact with many of the family members of missing servicemen from Korea, which has prompted the American Legion's effort.
That's what brings Davis into the search. A combat veteran of the Korean War who lives in Wilmington, he's made it his mission to help bring closure to families who don't know what happened to their loved ones on the battlefield.
"I know how the conditions were when these men were lost," Davis said in an email. "My God for some reason brought me home to live a life and have a family. I am truly grateful. I cannot bring back one POW/MIA but I can locate family members to provide DNA to identify remains. That is what I have done for the past nine years."
Davis has limited information about Lane's family history. He believes Lane was a son of Nora Erskin Todd Lane, who was born Oct. 15, 1889, in South Carolina and whose parents were Ellis Todd and Mary Jane Todd. The mother was married to John G. Lane.
Lane apparently had a half sister who married Elmer Lee Wright, who died in 1972 and is buried at Mt. Sinai Cemetery near Sidney. Children of Wright included Bobby Dale Wright; Martha Ann Wright, who married Robert Lawrence Blackmon; and Lillian Mable Wright, who married David Alan Jackson.
Lane also had a half brother, James C. Brown.
Anyone with information about Lane's family can contact Davis at 910-791-2333 or hgdavis@bellsouth.net.
Missing Korean War Soldier Comes Home
From GBP News: Missing Korean War Soldier Comes Home
MACON, Ga. — Sgt. Barksdale's first cousin Louise Butts speaks at memorial services in Macon (Adam Ragusea/GPB News)
Memorial services were held in Macon Friday for Sgt. Thomas Jefferson Barksdale, a Georgia soldier who died in Korea almost 62 years ago, but whose remains were only recently identified.
Motorcycle engines roared as more than 50 Patriot Guard Riders of Georgia stood at attention outside a mortuary in Fort Hill, the historically black neighborhood in east Macon where Sgt. Barksdale was born in 1929.
The young man was known by his friends and family as "Sugar Boy." During services inside, Barksdale’s first cousin and self-proclaimed keeper of the family secrets Louise Butts said the nickname came from the boy’s father.
“And since I know how their dad didn’t mind bragging about all of his kids, I have sort of thought that perhaps it was because he thought they were all pretty, sweet, and that Sugar Boy had a bigger dose of it than anybody,” Butts said, drawing chuckles from family members, veterans, and dignitaries in attendance.
At age 18, Barksdale volunteered for the Army. He served in Korea with the 503rd Field Artillery Battalion, along with future New York Congressman Charlie Rangel. At the ill-fated Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River near the Chinese border, Barksdale became one of nearly 700 American fatalities, in combat that Congressman Rangel would later describe as “a waking nightmare.” It was December 1st, 1950, and Sugar Boy was just 21.
“He sacrificed his life before Brown vs. Board of Education," Macon City Councilor the Rev. Dr. Henry C. Ficklin said, delivering Barksdale’s much-belated eulogy.
"[Barksdale died] before the streets were paved in Fort Hill, before the bus ran on the east side, before the lights were installed, before the first black was elected to anything," said Ficklin.
Barksdale’s body lingered on the battlefield for half a century, until a rare US expedition to North Korean in the summer of 2000 turned up the remains of many soldiers, including one unusually intact skeleton. But it wasn’t identified as Barksdale’s until recently, thanks to advances in DNA testing.
“When the bones of Sgt. Barksdale were unearthed, God had already put in them a computerized program that would tell who he was and bring out his story,” Ficklin said in his eulogy.
About 8,ooo American soldiers are still missing in action from the Korean War. Another mission to recover remains in North Korea was scrapped in March as diplomatic tensions flared with the regime in Pyongyang. But for her part, Louise Butts is thankful for her cousin’s homecoming.
“You cannot imagine how I feel, being probably one who knows more of the intimate stories of the family than anyone else, that finally we know what happened to Sugar Boy,” Butts said.
Following services, Sgt. Barksdale’s remains were interred at Georgia Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Milledgeville
MACON, Ga. — Sgt. Barksdale's first cousin Louise Butts speaks at memorial services in Macon (Adam Ragusea/GPB News)
Memorial services were held in Macon Friday for Sgt. Thomas Jefferson Barksdale, a Georgia soldier who died in Korea almost 62 years ago, but whose remains were only recently identified.
Motorcycle engines roared as more than 50 Patriot Guard Riders of Georgia stood at attention outside a mortuary in Fort Hill, the historically black neighborhood in east Macon where Sgt. Barksdale was born in 1929.
The young man was known by his friends and family as "Sugar Boy." During services inside, Barksdale’s first cousin and self-proclaimed keeper of the family secrets Louise Butts said the nickname came from the boy’s father.
“And since I know how their dad didn’t mind bragging about all of his kids, I have sort of thought that perhaps it was because he thought they were all pretty, sweet, and that Sugar Boy had a bigger dose of it than anybody,” Butts said, drawing chuckles from family members, veterans, and dignitaries in attendance.
At age 18, Barksdale volunteered for the Army. He served in Korea with the 503rd Field Artillery Battalion, along with future New York Congressman Charlie Rangel. At the ill-fated Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River near the Chinese border, Barksdale became one of nearly 700 American fatalities, in combat that Congressman Rangel would later describe as “a waking nightmare.” It was December 1st, 1950, and Sugar Boy was just 21.
“He sacrificed his life before Brown vs. Board of Education," Macon City Councilor the Rev. Dr. Henry C. Ficklin said, delivering Barksdale’s much-belated eulogy.
"[Barksdale died] before the streets were paved in Fort Hill, before the bus ran on the east side, before the lights were installed, before the first black was elected to anything," said Ficklin.
Barksdale’s body lingered on the battlefield for half a century, until a rare US expedition to North Korean in the summer of 2000 turned up the remains of many soldiers, including one unusually intact skeleton. But it wasn’t identified as Barksdale’s until recently, thanks to advances in DNA testing.
“When the bones of Sgt. Barksdale were unearthed, God had already put in them a computerized program that would tell who he was and bring out his story,” Ficklin said in his eulogy.
About 8,ooo American soldiers are still missing in action from the Korean War. Another mission to recover remains in North Korea was scrapped in March as diplomatic tensions flared with the regime in Pyongyang. But for her part, Louise Butts is thankful for her cousin’s homecoming.
“You cannot imagine how I feel, being probably one who knows more of the intimate stories of the family than anyone else, that finally we know what happened to Sugar Boy,” Butts said.
Following services, Sgt. Barksdale’s remains were interred at Georgia Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Milledgeville
Friday, August 3, 2012
Korean War vet’s remains are returned to Ga.
From Army Times: Korean War vet’s remains are returned to Ga.
MACON, Ga. — Sugar Boy came home Tuesday morning.
His flag-draped casket made the eight-hour flight from Honolulu. It arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport shortly after dawn. The black hearse was escorted down Interstate 75 by the Georgia State Patrol, Bibb County Sheriff's deputies, the Macon Police Department and 87 Georgia Patriot Guard Riders on motorcycles.
Sgt. Thomas Jefferson "Sugar Boy" Barksdale returned home in the arms of a half-mile long motorcade on an interstate that wasn't built when he died in a foxhole in Korea in 1950.
Low, gray clouds sunk across the morning sky. It was primary election day. At the city limits, cars, buses, trucks pulled over to pay their respects. The hearse climbed the hill on Gray Highway, then passed Boone Street in Fort Hill, where Sugar Boy grew up one of Ben and Vilena Barksdale's 11 children. The house is no longer there, only a vacant lot.
As the motorcade traveled down Shurling Drive, a man stopped his van in the far lane, got out and saluted.
By the time Sugar Boy reached the front door at Jones Brothers Mortuary on Millerfield Road, tears were falling like raindrops in the parking lot.
Seven members of the Georgia Army National Guard carried the casket inside, where his remains will be until Friday's memorial service at noon at the Jones Brothers Memorial Chapel.
He will be buried with full military honors at 2:30 p.m. at the Georgia Veterans Cemetery in Milledgeville.
Sixty-two American flags lined the driveway and street to represent the number of years since Barksdale left his last boot print in Macon.
"It was a beautiful welcome home," said Alfred McNair, who was Barksdale's cousin. He was 3 years old when Barksdale was sent to Korea. He was left with only a fleeting childhood memory — standing in the yard with his uncle on Boone Street.
McNair took his daughter, Chiquita Glover, and granddaughter, Ashlie Mack, to meet the plane in Atlanta. A great-great-niece, A'nia Wilson, also traveled from Macon. So did his niece Sonja Person, whose DNA sample helped officers positively identify Barksdale's skeletal remains.
"I never thought it would be anything like this," she said. "I thought there would be about six motorcycles. But this many? It was amazing."
She was 1 year old when her 21-year-old uncle was killed in combat while fighting with the Second Infantry in North Korea. He was listed as missing in action, but his remains were not among those returned by Communist forces after the war. He was left behind on a hill halfway around the world.
His family back in Macon held on to what hope they could, never pushing back from faith that the 21-year-old they called "Sugar Boy" would one day come walking through the door at 345 Boone St. Perhaps he had been captured and was planning his escape as a prisoner of war.
During the first week of August 2000, excavation teams from the U.S. and North Korea explored several old fighting positions about 50 miles above the capital of Pyongyang. Along a hilltop, they discovered an isolated human skeleton of a 5-foot-10, African-American male.
The skeletal remains were returned to the U.S. and assigned a case number. Four bone samples were sent to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory for testing.
It would take nine years before the remains could be positively identified.
At the airport Tuesday, Person and other family members spent a few quiet moments next to the coffin before it was carried to the waiting hearse at Cargo Gate 60. More than two dozen orange-shirted Delta Air Lines employees stood reverently nearby, many holding their hands over their hearts.
Person ran her fingers across the top of the casket. She knew it would be emotional. Her daughter, Kimberly McIntyre, died six years ago.
"She was only 36," Person said. "I can't imagine my grandparents losing a son who was 21 years old. I can't imagine not being able to bury him or visit his grave on his birthday or a holiday."
As the Georgia Patriot Guard Riders lined the cargo ramp holding American flags, Wynne Inya-Agha stood next to a banner made by her 15-year-old son, Jared, and 10-year-old daughter, Joy, on Monday night. The banner read: "WELCOME HOME SGT. BARKSDALE."
She drove her children from Fayetteville early Tuesday after she read the July 22 column on Barksdale on The Telegraph's website.
"Today is my 48th birthday, and this is how I choose to spend it," she said. "This is my gift to myself. I've never done anything like this in my life. I am grateful for people like Sgt. Barksdale who fought and died for our freedom. I have always been patriotic, but this one brought me to tears."
The homecoming was special for Freddie Jones, of Jones Brothers Mortuary. He has spent much of the past month planning and preparing to bring Barksdale back to Macon. His father, Norman Jones, was wounded in the Korean War and received a Purple Heart.
It was also deeply personal for David Blanton, of Gray, who coordinated the participation by the more than seven dozen Georgia Patriot Guard Riders. It included 40 from the Macon area who left at 4 a.m. Tuesday to meet the plane at the airport.
His father, the late Ernie Blanton of Valdosta, was assigned to the same 503rd Field Artillery Battalion.
"When I saw the information on Sgt. Barksdale, it sent a chill up my spine," Blanton said. "My father used to talk about how cold it was, and there were so many of (the Chinese), and (the U.S.) didn't have enough ammunition."
Blanton made the journey Tuesday and will return Friday for the memorial service to escort the funeral procession to the cemetery in Milledgeville at 2:30 p.m.
"We can't change what happened, but we can be there for the family to show our support," he said. "We got him home. We never want a fallen warrior to be left behind."
MACON, Ga. — Sugar Boy came home Tuesday morning.
His flag-draped casket made the eight-hour flight from Honolulu. It arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport shortly after dawn. The black hearse was escorted down Interstate 75 by the Georgia State Patrol, Bibb County Sheriff's deputies, the Macon Police Department and 87 Georgia Patriot Guard Riders on motorcycles.
Sgt. Thomas Jefferson "Sugar Boy" Barksdale returned home in the arms of a half-mile long motorcade on an interstate that wasn't built when he died in a foxhole in Korea in 1950.
Low, gray clouds sunk across the morning sky. It was primary election day. At the city limits, cars, buses, trucks pulled over to pay their respects. The hearse climbed the hill on Gray Highway, then passed Boone Street in Fort Hill, where Sugar Boy grew up one of Ben and Vilena Barksdale's 11 children. The house is no longer there, only a vacant lot.
As the motorcade traveled down Shurling Drive, a man stopped his van in the far lane, got out and saluted.
By the time Sugar Boy reached the front door at Jones Brothers Mortuary on Millerfield Road, tears were falling like raindrops in the parking lot.
Seven members of the Georgia Army National Guard carried the casket inside, where his remains will be until Friday's memorial service at noon at the Jones Brothers Memorial Chapel.
He will be buried with full military honors at 2:30 p.m. at the Georgia Veterans Cemetery in Milledgeville.
Sixty-two American flags lined the driveway and street to represent the number of years since Barksdale left his last boot print in Macon.
"It was a beautiful welcome home," said Alfred McNair, who was Barksdale's cousin. He was 3 years old when Barksdale was sent to Korea. He was left with only a fleeting childhood memory — standing in the yard with his uncle on Boone Street.
McNair took his daughter, Chiquita Glover, and granddaughter, Ashlie Mack, to meet the plane in Atlanta. A great-great-niece, A'nia Wilson, also traveled from Macon. So did his niece Sonja Person, whose DNA sample helped officers positively identify Barksdale's skeletal remains.
"I never thought it would be anything like this," she said. "I thought there would be about six motorcycles. But this many? It was amazing."
She was 1 year old when her 21-year-old uncle was killed in combat while fighting with the Second Infantry in North Korea. He was listed as missing in action, but his remains were not among those returned by Communist forces after the war. He was left behind on a hill halfway around the world.
His family back in Macon held on to what hope they could, never pushing back from faith that the 21-year-old they called "Sugar Boy" would one day come walking through the door at 345 Boone St. Perhaps he had been captured and was planning his escape as a prisoner of war.
During the first week of August 2000, excavation teams from the U.S. and North Korea explored several old fighting positions about 50 miles above the capital of Pyongyang. Along a hilltop, they discovered an isolated human skeleton of a 5-foot-10, African-American male.
The skeletal remains were returned to the U.S. and assigned a case number. Four bone samples were sent to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory for testing.
It would take nine years before the remains could be positively identified.
At the airport Tuesday, Person and other family members spent a few quiet moments next to the coffin before it was carried to the waiting hearse at Cargo Gate 60. More than two dozen orange-shirted Delta Air Lines employees stood reverently nearby, many holding their hands over their hearts.
Person ran her fingers across the top of the casket. She knew it would be emotional. Her daughter, Kimberly McIntyre, died six years ago.
"She was only 36," Person said. "I can't imagine my grandparents losing a son who was 21 years old. I can't imagine not being able to bury him or visit his grave on his birthday or a holiday."
As the Georgia Patriot Guard Riders lined the cargo ramp holding American flags, Wynne Inya-Agha stood next to a banner made by her 15-year-old son, Jared, and 10-year-old daughter, Joy, on Monday night. The banner read: "WELCOME HOME SGT. BARKSDALE."
She drove her children from Fayetteville early Tuesday after she read the July 22 column on Barksdale on The Telegraph's website.
"Today is my 48th birthday, and this is how I choose to spend it," she said. "This is my gift to myself. I've never done anything like this in my life. I am grateful for people like Sgt. Barksdale who fought and died for our freedom. I have always been patriotic, but this one brought me to tears."
The homecoming was special for Freddie Jones, of Jones Brothers Mortuary. He has spent much of the past month planning and preparing to bring Barksdale back to Macon. His father, Norman Jones, was wounded in the Korean War and received a Purple Heart.
It was also deeply personal for David Blanton, of Gray, who coordinated the participation by the more than seven dozen Georgia Patriot Guard Riders. It included 40 from the Macon area who left at 4 a.m. Tuesday to meet the plane at the airport.
His father, the late Ernie Blanton of Valdosta, was assigned to the same 503rd Field Artillery Battalion.
"When I saw the information on Sgt. Barksdale, it sent a chill up my spine," Blanton said. "My father used to talk about how cold it was, and there were so many of (the Chinese), and (the U.S.) didn't have enough ammunition."
Blanton made the journey Tuesday and will return Friday for the memorial service to escort the funeral procession to the cemetery in Milledgeville at 2:30 p.m.
"We can't change what happened, but we can be there for the family to show our support," he said. "We got him home. We never want a fallen warrior to be left behind."
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Korean War Anniversary
An OPINION piece From the Missourian: Korean War Anniversary
It passed unnoticed for the
most part. The Associated Press did do a story on the 59th anniversary
of the ending of the shooting in the Korean War, but that was about it
as far as we are aware.
The anniversary date is 10 p.m. July 27, 1953. That was last Friday when most attention was being paid to the opening ceremonies of the beginning of the Olympic games in London.
To our troops who were on the front lines, or on the
seas around Korea, or at air bases where air strikes originated, July
27, 1953, is a significant date. To relatives of loved ones who were
killed, wounded or reported as missing in action, the date has special
meaning, along with June 25, 1950, when the war began.
North Korea, aided by China and Russia, fought South Korean forces, aided by the United States and other members of the United Nations. We offer that because so many Americans don’t know when the war occurred and who the participants were. The U.S. carried the load for United Nations forces. The war began when communist North Korea invaded South Korea. The country had been divided after World War II as part of the treaty settlements by the victors.
North Korea apparently had a major observance of the anniversary of the armistice. Its observance was meant to kindle patriotism and loyalty in North Koreans, according to the AP story. U.S. and South Korean officials marked the anniversary at the village of Panmunjom, where peace talks were held during the war. Since no peace treaty has ever been signed, the Korean Peninsula remains technically in a state of war. The U.S. still is at war with North Korea, and we still have thousands of troops stationed in the south.
Our country has said repeatedly that normal ties will not come until after North Korea abandons its pursuit of nuclear weapons and takes other steps.
North Korea, naturally, says it won the war and called its celebration one of “victory in the Fatherland Liberation War.” Others call it a stalemate. We call it a victory for South Korea and the United Nations because the invading North Koreans were kicked back to their communist grounds, and South Korea was saved from communism.
If you want one of the best comparisons of life under a communistic government and under a democratic government where freedom reigns, take a look at Korea North and Korea South. Life is so different in the two nations that the difference is like night and day. It’s dark most of the time in North Korea while in South Korea the freedom rays have turned it into a powerful economic machine and the people have a high standard of living. The U.S. and the United Nations are the parents of South Korea freedoms.
The anniversary date is 10 p.m. July 27, 1953. That was last Friday when most attention was being paid to the opening ceremonies of the beginning of the Olympic games in London.
North Korea, aided by China and Russia, fought South Korean forces, aided by the United States and other members of the United Nations. We offer that because so many Americans don’t know when the war occurred and who the participants were. The U.S. carried the load for United Nations forces. The war began when communist North Korea invaded South Korea. The country had been divided after World War II as part of the treaty settlements by the victors.
North Korea apparently had a major observance of the anniversary of the armistice. Its observance was meant to kindle patriotism and loyalty in North Koreans, according to the AP story. U.S. and South Korean officials marked the anniversary at the village of Panmunjom, where peace talks were held during the war. Since no peace treaty has ever been signed, the Korean Peninsula remains technically in a state of war. The U.S. still is at war with North Korea, and we still have thousands of troops stationed in the south.
Our country has said repeatedly that normal ties will not come until after North Korea abandons its pursuit of nuclear weapons and takes other steps.
North Korea, naturally, says it won the war and called its celebration one of “victory in the Fatherland Liberation War.” Others call it a stalemate. We call it a victory for South Korea and the United Nations because the invading North Koreans were kicked back to their communist grounds, and South Korea was saved from communism.
If you want one of the best comparisons of life under a communistic government and under a democratic government where freedom reigns, take a look at Korea North and Korea South. Life is so different in the two nations that the difference is like night and day. It’s dark most of the time in North Korea while in South Korea the freedom rays have turned it into a powerful economic machine and the people have a high standard of living. The U.S. and the United Nations are the parents of South Korea freedoms.
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