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Quotes of the Day:
"More than 5.7 million American troops were engaged, resulting in more than 33,000 combat deaths and another 92,000 injuries. It marked the first armed, global conflict between democracy and communism in what would be known as the Cold War. The war technically never ended, as North and South Korea maintain an uneasy truce along the 38th parallel on the Korean Peninsula. Yet the conflict has gone largely ignored in American pop culture. Aside from M*A*S*H and a handful of books and films, the war remains in a narrative haze, particularly compared with stories from World War II, Vietnam and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Strangely, the Korean War has not functioned as the wellspring of Hollywood's approach to reconfirming" American heroism,"
- Steven Alford, film lecturer and professor of humanities at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale
"It will begin with its President taking a simple, firm resolution. The resolution will be: To forego the diversions of politics and to concentrate on the job of ending the Korean war–until that job is honorably done. That job requires a personal trip to Korea. I shall make that trip. Only in that way could I learn how best to serve the American people in the cause of peace. I shall go to Korea."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, "I Shall Go to Korea", October 25, 1952
"Our soldiers fought in the Korean War to push back communism. As a result of their effort and the effort of our allies, South Korea is free today."
-Pierre Poilievre
1. A Proclamation on National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, 2022
2. State Department Press Briefing – July 26, 2022 (Korea Except)
3. U.S. will react appropriately to any N. Korean nuclear test: Kirby
4.. N. Korea holds national conference of war veterans without leader Kim's attendance
5. South Korea Needs a Wake-Up Call On Its Reservist Crisis
6. Wall of Remembrance is reminder of Korean War legacy
7. Former unification minister to be summoned after return to Korea
8. NASA 'impressed' by technical astuteness, dedication of S. Korea's 1st lunar orbiter project: cooperation manager
9. The repatriation dilemma
10. KATUSA veteran's son attends memorial ceremony
11. Seoul mayor seeks to develop Yongsan into business hub
12. US military reveals last week's combined Marine drills with South Korea
13. Remarks by President Biden in Meeting with the SK Group on Investments in American Manufacturing and Jobs
14. Biden calls on all Americans to pay respect to Korean War veterans
15. Ji-Yeon Yuh: It’s time to remember the civilian survivors of the unresolved Korean War
16. Biden given commemorative Korean name of ‘Bae Ji-sung’
1. A Proclamation on National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, 2022
A Proclamation on National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, 2022 | The White House
whitehouse.gov · by The White House · July 26, 2022
In June of 1950, the United States answered the call to defend freedom abroad by joining the Republic of Korea in its fight against the communist regime in North Korea and eventually the People’s Republic of China. After 3 years of violent combat across the Korean peninsula, an armistice was signed by representatives of the United States as head of the United Nations Command, the People’s Republic of China, and North Korea. For nearly 70 years, the ensuing peace and the abiding relationship between the Korean and American people has been the foundation for the thriving democracy and incredible economic progress of the Republic of Korea. During my recent visit to the Republic of Korea, I paid tribute to those Korean troops who fought and sacrificed shoulder‑to-shoulder with Americans, along with our United Nations counterparts, to defend their country. Today, our Nation honors those selfless American service members whose courage and sacrifice helped forge the armistice, the enduring Alliance between our two nations, and a lasting legacy of freedom in the Republic of Korea.
Today, the Republic of Korea is our strong ally, a global center of innovation, and a vibrant democracy. In Seoul, I affirmed with President Yoon that the U.S.-ROK Alliance is stronger than ever, evolving to maintain its role as a linchpin of peace and stability in the region and increasingly expanding to the global stage. At Osan Air Base, I met with some of the brave American troops and their families who are stationed in the Republic of Korea, still serving side-by-side with our South Korean allies and strengthening the bonds between our people.
During the Korean War, nearly 1.8 million Americans answered the call to serve and defend the freedoms and universal values that the people of South Korea enjoy today. They faced enormous challenges — often outnumbered by the enemy, facing extreme heat and cold while fighting in the mountains and valleys and in the rice paddies and rocky terrain of the Korean Peninsula. More than 36,000 of those American service members were killed in action, along with more than 7,000 Korean Augmentation to the United States Army soldiers that fought with the United States Armed Forces — sacrificing everything to defend freedom and democracy on the Peninsula. Thousands were held in brutal captivity. Thousands remain unaccounted for to this day. Many more service members returned home with wounds of war, both visible and invisible. The First Lady and I are committed to fully accounting for all of our Prisoners of War and Missing in Action and fulfilling our sacred obligation to care for our veterans and their families, caregivers, and survivors, making sure they receive the benefits and services they have earned.
Today and every day, we continue to remember our Nation’s Korean War Veterans and honor all that they made possible through service to our Nation and our highest ideals.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim July 27, 2022, as National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day. On this day, I encourage all Americans to reflect on the strength, sacrifices, and sense of duty of our Korean War Veterans and bestow upon them the high honor they deserve. I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities that honor and give thanks to our distinguished Korean War Veterans.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-seventh.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
whitehouse.gov · by The White House · July 26, 2022
2. State Department Press Briefing – July 26, 2022 (Korea Except)
Department Press Briefing – July 26, 2022
NED PRICE, DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON
WASHINGTON, DC
JULY 26, 2022
https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-july-26-2022/#post-363017-NORTHKOREASOUTHKOREA
QUESTION: North Korea. South Korean Government official said that there is a possibility North Korea will conduct its seventh nuclear test on the occasion of Korean War Armistice Day, which is tomorrow, the 27th of this month. So is the State Department concerned – sharing this concern or discussing about this matter with South Korean Government? And does the U.S. still assess that North Korea will conduct its nuclear test soon?
MR PRICE: Our concerns regarding the potential for a seventh North Korean nuclear test have not abated. We have spoken publicly to these concerns for a couple of months now. You have heard assessments that our ROK counterparts have made public that the DPRK regime has conducted all necessary preparations for a potential nuclear test. That has not changed. We have continued to be very clear in our public statements, but also working closely with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific and well beyond, to make clear that any additional nuclear test that the DPRK conducts would carry tremendous costs. And we’ve been working with allies and partners in New York, capitals in the Indo-Pacific, and around the world to send a very clear message to the DPRK regarding this.
Yes.
QUESTION: If I could ask you on the same topic – is the State Department reviewing to update the U.S. North Korea policy as South Korea is crafting its roadmap for their own North Korean policy that is known as the “audacious plan,” which is including the measures to implement economic cooperation with North Korea and provide security guarantees for the country?
MR PRICE: When this administration first came into office, we spent several months conducting our own policy review, taking a look at what the prior administration had done vis-à-vis the DPRK, what previous administrations had done vis-à-vis the DPRK, what had worked but, unfortunately, more of what has not worked over the course of decades when it comes to the DPRK and specifically its WMD program.
So we undertook a comprehensive review. The policy that resulted from that is the policy that we have articulated publicly and the one that we’ve pursued for the better part of almost two years now. It is a policy that believes that dialogue and diplomacy and engagement are the best courses by which we can achieve the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We’ve made clear as a result of that policy review that we harbor no hostile intent towards the DPRK. In fact, we have made clear our willingness to engage in dialogue with the DPRK to determine how we might be able to move forward with that diplomacy. Unfortunately, those requests, those invitations have gone substantively unanswered.
3. U.S. will react appropriately to any N. Korean nuclear test: Kirby
The appropriate response is to ensure that Kim Jong Un knows that his political warfare, blackmail diplomacy and war fighting strategies cannot succeed. This is the type of pressure he must feel. Every action he takes must move him a step closer to failure.
(LEAD) U.S. will react appropriately to any N. Korean nuclear test: Kirby | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · July 27, 2022
(ATTN: UPDATES with remarks from a state department spokesperson, more information in paras 8-11; ADDS photo)
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, July 26 (Yonhap) -- The United States and its allies will take appropriate steps to hold North Korea accountable should the recalcitrant country conduct a nuclear test, a National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson said Tuesday.
John Kirby, NSC coordinator for strategic communications, also noted the North may continue to be ready to conduct a test.
"We have been very clear that North Korea could be ready to conduct a nuclear test. That is something we said very, very openly," Kirby said in a press briefing, held virtually.
"These tests have in the past and if they test in the future will in the future just add to the insecurity and instability on the Korean Peninsula," he added. "Again, we would react appropriately along with allies and partners."
Seoul and Washington have both said the North appears to have completed all preparations for what will be its seventh nuclear test, with U.S. officials earlier anticipating Pyongyang to conduct a test as early as in May.
Earlier reports have suggested Pyongyang may have been forced to postpone its test due to its ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and economic difficulties.
North Korea began reporting its COVID-19 cases in May. It claims its daily new infection cases have since dwindled to below 50 as of this week.
South Korea's Unification Minister Kwon Young-se on Monday hinted at the possibility of North Korea conducting a nuclear test this week to mark the end of the 1950-53 Korean War 69 years ago, which it calls "Victory Day."
State department spokesperson Ned Price said U.S. concerns over a potential North Korea nuclear test "have not abated" when asked if Washington shared Seoul's assessment.
"You have heard assessments that our ROK counterparts have made public that the DPRK regime has conducted all necessary preparations for a potential nuclear test. That has not changed," he said in a department press briefing, referring to South and North Korea by their official names, respectively the Republic of Korea and the People's Democratic Republic of Korea.
"We have continued to be very clear in our public statements but also working closely with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific and well beyond to make clear that any additional nuclear tests that the DPRK conducts would carry tremendous costs," added Price.
Kirby said the U.S. will continue to closely monitor the reclusive state for any signs of a nuclear test.
"I won't speculate about the timing here, or what that can look like," he said.
"We are obviously going to watch this very, very closely for any possibility of a nuclear test," added Kirby.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · July 27, 2022
4. N. Korea holds national conference of war veterans without leader Kim's attendance
Photo at link: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220727000700325?section=nk/nk
One thing the NKPA veterans one is the medal war. They certainly have more medals than any ROK or US veteran.
N. Korea holds national conference of war veterans without leader Kim's attendance | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · July 27, 2022
By Yi Wonju
SEOUL, July 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea held a national conference of war veterans to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, state media said Wednesday.
The 8th National Conference of War Veterans took place in Pyongyang the previous day without leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The North celebrates the anniversary of the Korean War armistice that was signed on July 27, 1953. The North calls the conflict the Great Fatherland Liberation War and designated the armistice signing date as "Victory Day."
The KCNA said members of the presidium of the political bureau, including Jo Yong-won, and other senior party officials attended the conference but made no mention of leader Kim. Kim has stayed out of public view for over two weeks.
It marked the third consecutive year for the North to hold the conference on the national holiday.
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · July 27, 2022
5. South Korea Needs a Wake-Up Call On Its Reservist Crisis
Some very good and important arguments here. It is time that South Korea must invest in its reserve component. I think it is a strategic imperative.
As the population of South Korea continues to decline, the use of symbolic and material rewards to attract quality talent into the military will become increasingly important. This is especially true if South Korea goes down the path of embracing a large all-volunteer army at the expense of conscription, much like Taiwan. A good first step might be to bring back the 1999 points rewards system. While previously deemed unconstitutional since it gave military men an advantage in the civilian workplace, it has recently gained support from several conservative lawmakers and retired army generals.
Although some writing exists on how South Korea can learn from the U.S. Army Reserve, a more broad-based approach might be beneficial. The example of Singapore with its cadre-conscript model produces good results and might be something South Korea can adopt in order to strike a balance between its rising socio-economic status and military readiness. South Korea may even want to explore the creation of territorial forces, an approach some advocate for Taiwanese defense.
In addition, maybe it is time for the South Korean Army Reserve to become a serious conversation for the South Korean-U.S. alliance in terms of combined training events and use of American forces to help with training South Korean reserve units. For example, the addition of a rotational light infantry brigade in a “train, advise, assist” capacity to the South Korean army reserve’s homeland divisions might help improve the morale of reservists through visible interaction with the American military and by learning valuable skills on combating asymmetric threats.
If done right, and if the political-military leadership of South Korea has the will, the South Korean army reserve can potentially serve as a vehicle for creating a value proposition with the South Korean public on the importance of national security and national service. Of greater impact, it may even help reverse declining levels of public support for military service.
South Korea Needs a Wake-Up Call On Its Reservist Crisis - War on the Rocks
BRENDAN BALESTRIERI AND WON-GEUN KOO
warontherocks.com · by Brendan Balestrieri · July 26, 2022
As the war in Ukraine unfolds, some countries have started to take a closer look at the readiness of their military reserve forces, and what they are finding under the hood has given some a cause for concern. In the case of South Korea, recent budget allocation trends that emphasize fourth industrial revolution initiatives and omnidirectional national defense strategies coincide with low levels of funding for military reserve forces, canceled or substandard training events, rising rates of dissatisfaction for military service, and declining levels of support and respect for military service among the South Korean public. This is a recipe for disaster should South Korea enter a conventional conflict with North Korea.
Although efforts to improve South Korea’s military reserve forces have come in fits and starts, as seen with the creation of Mobilization Forces Command in 2018, South Korea continues to emphasize fourth-generation defense initiatives at the expense of training and equipping its mostly conscript army. While new fleets of warships and aircraft may create the illusion of readiness and require little sacrifice from the public other than a tax burden, nurturing an effective reserve force takes years and requires sacrifices both from the public and from individual reservists that for some leaders has become politically unpalatable.
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The Threat
While North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests garner the most attention these days, one of the lesser publicized threats posed by North Korea are its asymmetric warfare capabilities, and the potential that still exists for a “blitzkrieg” of South Korea using hybrid and guerrilla warfare. Although North Korea has always employed asymmetric capabilities against the South Korean-U.S. alliance, the past two decades have seen a dramatic increase in the level of importance accorded to those capabilities. For example, shortly after his rise to power, Kim Jong-un directed his military to develop a new war plan to seize the entire peninsula in seven days using asymmetric warfare. It is a strategy partly created out of necessity. As North Korea’s conventional force capability deteriorated over the past two decades, the North Korean regime increasingly emphasized asymmetric warfare capabilities such as nuclear weapons, short-range ballistic missiles, special operations forces, and the development of insertion platforms such as hovercraft and submarines.
How ready South Korea is to face this sort of threat leaves room for debate, but if history is any guide, the results are not reassuring.
Born out of near disaster, the historical impetus for the creation of a large South Korean military reserve force came in the wake of 1968 Blue House raid when North Korean commandos successfully infiltrated deep into South Korea and were able to launch an attack on the president’s residence in the center of Seoul. Despite not achieving their goal of assassinating President Park Chung-hee, the attackers killed 26 — including four American soldiers who died attempting to block the North Koreans from escaping back to North Korea — and wounded another 66. One North Korean commando escaped.
Following the incident, Park stated, “About 2.5 million reservists across the country will be fully armed so that the whole nation can be prepared for possible attacks by armed communist guerillas.” Mass sign-ups took place across the country, including 10,000 women who volunteered to serve in the local reserve forces. The fact that North Korean forces were able to so adeptly infiltrate South Korea alarmed both Seoul and Washington and helped galvanize support for a large and responsive South Korean reserve force.
Since then, South Korean defense strategy has employed its reserve forces in two ways. The first is through mobilization divisions and individual reservists who support the active-duty divisions. The second function calls for homeland reserve divisions to support rear-area operations and homeland defense. These are the forces most likely to be used to counter North Korean special forces or asymmetric threats throughout the rear area.
Is the South Korean Army Reserve Ready?
Although the South Korean army reserve is currently made up of reserve divisions for rear-area operations and mobilization divisions in support of the active-duty force, the bulk of Korea’s 2.7 million army reservists are individual riflemen who serve as replacements. During peacetime, the South Korean army’s divisions include around 20 percent reservists at the squad level and are only authorized three days of training per year. Considering the time required by the U.S. Army Reserve to mobilize and train-up for deployment, three days is barely enough time to get through all administrative tasks, let alone respond to a unanticipated North Korean rear-area incursion.
Based on the authors’ discussions with numerous retired South Korean army officers, Seoul doesn’t value its reserve forces, and in some cases, reserve units are still using World War II-era equipment. With only three training days per year for reservists, very little is accomplished other than accountability, administrative tasks, and basic qualification. Ultimately, a lack of funding and focus drives a minimalist approach to training and equipping the army reserve. Coupled with a decrease in South Korean-U.S. combined training exercises since mid-2018, overall reserve and active-duty capabilities have degraded.
As of 2021, the South Korean reserve forces received approximately 0.44 percent of the national defense budget. Although this was an increase from 0.31 percent in 2018, it is still far short of the increase to 1 percent promised by the administration of President Moon Jae-in. According to one analyst, poor manning and few resources have led to a situation in which South Korean Mobilization Forces Command “cannot effectively fulfill the task as a control tower.”
A lack of funding and the limited number of training days per year result in an inability to train on fundamental soldier skills such as “shoot, move, communicate” — let alone find opportunities to conduct large-scale training events that might prepare the reserve divisions to counter North Korea’s 200,000+ special forces that are expected to flood South Korea’s rear area during contingency. Unlike most modern reserve systems employed by militaries around the world that have embraced interoperability between their reserve and active components, South Korea still sees them as separate and distinct. Lack of training, and the effect it has on unit cohesion, is compounded by a post-industrial South Korean society that is not only shrinking, but increasingly concentrated in the capital city of Seoul, which now accounts for over 50 percent of South Korea’s population.
This has implications on mobilization reaction times for individual reservists who may hail from a rural area and be assigned to that region’s mobilization center, but who live and work on the other side of the country. Considering the likely use of cyber operations to disrupt information technology networks to delay mobilization notification and reaction times, the likelihood of reservists having the inclination and means to report within the needed timeframe is highly questionable, and in turn impacts the ability to effectively counter North Korean special-forces activities in the more rural and underpopulated regions south of Seoul. With nearly all South Korea’s active-duty formations and over half of its population located either in or north of Seoul, the rear area is increasingly looking vulnerable to just such an incursion. The impact of just such an incursion could be devastating, especially if those reservists assigned to homeland reserve divisions are unable — or unwilling — to report for duty. This is exactly what happened in 1996 during the Gangneung submarine infiltration incident.
On Sept. 18, 1996, a North Korean Sang-O-class submarine ran aground off the coast of South Korea while returning to pick up several spies inserted to gather intelligence on a nearby airbase. Upon abandoning the submarine, the North Korean reconnaissance bureau soldiers executed the crew of the ship and went ashore to make their way home via land routes. Over the course of the operation, approximately 13,000 South Korean reserve troops were used in conjunction with South Korean active-duty forces. By the end of a manhunt that lasted nearly two months, 12 South Korean military and four civilian personnel had been killed, with another 27 wounded. Among these were one reserve soldier and a police officer. Of the 26 North Koreans, 11 of the submarine crew were likely executed by one of their own as punishment for the accidental grounding, , 13 by the South Korean army, and one was captured. As in the 1968 Blue House raid, one North Korean commando is believed to have escaped.
The lessons from the Gangneung incident should give pause to military planners in Seoul as to the readiness of South Korea’s reserve forces. An after-action review with 700 reserve soldiers showed that 84 percent of respondents didn’t know their mobilization procedures, and 81 percent said that they didn’t know which unit they should go to after receiving the call-up order. In addition, only 28 percent said that they would respond immediately upon receipt of another call-up order. According to one report by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1997, only 34 percent of reserve forces responded and mobilized on the first day of their call-up, and there were reports of fratricide, instances of soldiers going AWOL, and consumption of alcohol while on duty. Some units went so far as to not even distribute ammunition to their reservists. The North Korean soldiers took note of the poor tactics and training of the South Korean military during the operation: Throughout their escape, they maintained detailed journal entries in which they made fun of the South Korean military, their training, and how easy it was to escape.
While the 1968 Blue House raid galvanized support for the creation of a responsive and broad-based South Korean army reserve, the 1996 submarine infiltration embarrassment appears to have done the exact opposite. Instead, South Korea’s defense strategy went down the path of high-tech acquisitions and a focus on its navy and air force, with the nation now on track to be the largest spender on military research and development as proportion of its overall defense budget.
Korea has changed a lot since 1996, and not in the ways that would have led to significant improvements to its large reserve force or the readiness of its homeland reserve divisions. How South Korea’s reserves would fare in 2022 is a matter of conjecture, and assessing readiness is always tricky, but the declining levels of public support for military service, coupled with historical precedent and current low levels of budget apportionment for training and equipping the reserves, would likely result in similar, if not worse, results. Looming over these fundamental concerns for readiness is South Korea’s demographic time bomb, which is expected to dramatically impact the size of the military. One report from the South Korean Ministry of National Defense estimates that the pool of draftees will likely “decline by half over the next two decades” and has led the military to explore the possibility of expanding the draft to include women.
Ultimately, the impact of insufficient funding impacts individual reserve soldier efficacy. This creates a vicious cycle that negatively impacts perceptions of military service among South Korea’s post-industrial population.
Declining Levels of Public Support
Recent polling done in Korea gives some insight into how South Korean society views military service, and the results are not reassuring. According to the Korean Woman’s Development Institute, 82 percent of men in their 20s agree with the statement that military service should be avoided, while a poll of high-school students in Busan found that only 27 percent said that military service was “natural and honorable.” These sentiments are also reflected in a 2015 Military Manpower Administration study of over 4,000 servicemen, in which in 57 percent of respondents said that “their pride has not grown” or that “they take not much pride” in military service. These negative perceptions manifest in such tragedies as the South Korean reserve training incident at a shooting range in 2015, when a soldier killed two reservists and wounded two others before taking his own life. These numbers should alarm the political-military leadership of South Korea, especially as research into the importance of the will to fight as a critical component of military capability continues to evolve. Regrettably, declining levels of support among young South Koreans for public service is beginning to extend beyond the military, as evidenced by declining competition ratios for South Korea’s much-feared civil service exam.
The studies above address the increasingly negative trend among South Korean perceptions of military service, and now public service writ large. For a nation that faces such a potent and proximate enemy in North Korea, these sentiments impact overall military readiness. Constituting nearly 2.7 million personnel in South Korea, the South Korean army reserve is uniquely positioned to influence these perceptions, and potentially reverse them if South Korean defense policy supports it sufficiently. Scholars from Israel have correctly pointed out that reserve forces serve as a bridge between a nation’s military and its civil society and help transmit values between the two communities and limit undesirable divergences. Research in Israel has also shown that despite criticism from their active-duty peers, reserve forces serve as a critical component of a legitimate military due to the connection reserve-force personnel have with the wider civilian population.
Symbolic and Material Rewards
As the population of South Korea continues to decline, the use of symbolic and material rewards to attract quality talent into the military will become increasingly important. This is especially true if South Korea goes down the path of embracing a large all-volunteer army at the expense of conscription, much like Taiwan. A good first step might be to bring back the 1999 points rewards system. While previously deemed unconstitutional since it gave military men an advantage in the civilian workplace, it has recently gained support from several conservative lawmakers and retired army generals.
Although some writing exists on how South Korea can learn from the U.S. Army Reserve, a more broad-based approach might be beneficial. The example of Singapore with its cadre-conscript model produces good results and might be something South Korea can adopt in order to strike a balance between its rising socio-economic status and military readiness. South Korea may even want to explore the creation of territorial forces, an approach some advocate for Taiwanese defense.
In addition, maybe it is time for the South Korean Army Reserve to become a serious conversation for the South Korean-U.S. alliance in terms of combined training events and use of American forces to help with training South Korean reserve units. For example, the addition of a rotational light infantry brigade in a “train, advise, assist” capacity to the South Korean army reserve’s homeland divisions might help improve the morale of reservists through visible interaction with the American military and by learning valuable skills on combating asymmetric threats.
If done right, and if the political-military leadership of South Korea has the will, the South Korean army reserve can potentially serve as a vehicle for creating a value proposition with the South Korean public on the importance of national security and national service. Of greater impact, it may even help reverse declining levels of public support for military service.
If the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now Ukraine, taught us anything, it’s that a nation’s capacity to fight and win wars is predicated on the quality of its soldiers, not simply the gear they carry or the alliance partner they have in their corner. For large, modern militaries such as South Korea and Taiwan, this capability resides with the quality of available national manpower they can draw upon in times of war — namely, their military reserves.
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Brendan Balestrieri holds a bachelor’s from The Citadel, an MA from Korea University, and an MA from Johns Hopkins University. A lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserve, he has over 17 years of experience serving with the United States military in South Korea and Iraq. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in international relations at Korea University Graduate School of International Studies.
Maj. Gen. (ret.) Won-geun Koo is a graduate of the Korea Military Academy and former commander of South Korea’s Army Mobilization Forces Command. He holds a Ph.D. in public administration and is currently the head of the Department of Counseling Psychology and Leadership for the Military at Open Cyber University of Korea.
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense, the U.S. government, or the South Korean government.
Commentary
warontherocks.com · by Brendan Balestrieri · July 26, 2022
6. Wall of Remembrance is reminder of Korean War legacy
Excerpts:
The Wall of Remembrance, which was constructed with the fund of 28.7 billion won offered by the Korean government, is engraved with the names of 43,000 American soldiers who fought in the Korean War, including the KATUSA soldiers.
Wall of Remembrance is reminder of Korean War legacy
donga.com
Posted July. 27, 2022 07:57,
Updated July. 27, 2022 07:57
Wall of Remembrance is reminder of Korean War legacy. July. 27, 2022 07:57. by Min Kim kimmin@donga.com.
“We can forever leave the legacy of the Korean War, where more than 36,000 U.S. soldiers lost their lives to protect the freedom and democracy of South Korea,” said Larry Kinard, chairman of the Korean War Legacy Foundation (KWKF), in an interview with The Dong-A Ilbo, crediting the Korean War Memorial Wall of Remembrance in Washington, D.C. as the “proud” work. Mr. Kinard took the lead in the construction of the Wall of Remembrance with Colonel William Weber, who is known for his “left-handed salute,” due to the loss of his right arm and right leg in a battle during the Korean War.
“I was worried that the legacy of war might be lost, as many Korean War veterans have passed away,” said Mr. Kinard, in a deeply moved voice. “The Wall of Remembrance is a pinnacle of the efforts to remember the legacy of the Korean War.”
Larry Kinard, who studied mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the field artillery in 1950. After having made requests to be deployed to the battlefield, Kinard was sent to the 3rd Infantry Division located at the 38th parallel in 1952 as the artillery officer and fought the Imjingang River Battle. On his first night at the battlefield, Kinard ran into the Chinese army. “While I was at the guard post, the sound of the trumpet and drum blared,” he said. “I looked ahead and there I saw countless Chinese troops climbing up the trench. I was terrified but fought with the enemy. Many of our soldiers died.”
After retiring from a telecommunications company in 2011, Kinard dedicated himself to “Tell America Project” for five years, visiting schools around the country and keeping children informed of the Korean War. The project also included sending 25,000 copies of the Korean War digest to elementary and secondary schools nationwide. “It is wrong to call the Korean War a ‘forgotten war.’ The Korean War was a victorious,” Kinard said. “South Korea’s democracy, freedom, and remarkable economic growth.”
The Wall of Remembrance, which was constructed with the fund of 28.7 billion won offered by the Korean government, is engraved with the names of 43,000 American soldiers who fought in the Korean War, including the KATUSA soldiers.
한국어
donga.com
7. Former unification minister to be summoned after return to Korea
This could get ugly. A terrible scandal on too many levels.
Former unification minister to be summoned after return to Korea
donga.com
Posted July. 27, 2022 07:56,
Updated July. 27, 2022 07:56
Former unification minister to be summoned after return to Korea. July. 27, 2022 07:56. jej@donga.com,blick@donga.com.
Former Unification Minister Kim Yeon-cheol (photo), who was charged for forcefully returning North Korean fishermen who defected to the South, is expected to return to Korea this week.
According to sources from the legal and ministry community on Tuesday, former Unification Minister Kim is planning to return to Korea after visiting his children studying in the U.S. The Public Investigation Department 3 of the Seoul Prosecution Office is planning to summon Kim in early August to investigate the background in which Kim had announced that the "North Korean defectors' will to defect to South Korea did not appear to be sincere."
Former National Intelligence Service head Seo Hoon, who was also charged on account of early termination of the joint media investigation prior to the return, has also said that he would return at the request of the Prosecution Service. "Seo, who is currently residing in the U.S. as research professor, has said that he will return to Korea at any time if necessary," said sources close to Seo.
Unification Minister Kwon Yeong-se said in a CBS radio interview that the United Nations Command had approved of the Panmunjeom transfer not knowing that the return was forced. "The UN had not been aware of the forced return and must have been taken by the sight of the fishermen who were tied and blindfolded. The ties and blindfolds were immediately removed at the request of the UN, and the UN had made a strong protest to the Unification Ministry afterwards, which made things awkward for a while," he said.
The Public Investigation Department o1 of the Seoul Prosecution Office, which is investigating the shooting behind the death of a civil official in the West Sea, summoned Marine Police A around 9 a.m. on Tuesday. The Public Prosecution has reportedly inquired on how the investigation results and briefing memos announced by Incheon Coast Guard Chief Shin Dong-sam on Sept. 24, 2020 had been drafted.
한국어
donga.com
8. NASA 'impressed' by technical astuteness, dedication of S. Korea's 1st lunar orbiter project: cooperation manager
Another indication of the technical superiority of South Korea versus north Korea.
(Yonhap Interview) NASA 'impressed' by technical astuteness, dedication of S. Korea's 1st lunar orbiter project: cooperation manager | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 장동우 · July 27, 2022
By Chang Dong-woo
SEOUL, July 27 (Yonhap) -- A senior official of the U.S. space agency has said he was "very impressed" by South Korea's technical astuteness, as aerospace engineers of the two countries were working together to launch South Korea's first lunar orbiter mission next month.
The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) -- also known as Danuri -- is set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at around 8:20 a.m. on Aug. 3 (Korean Time).
The 678-kilogram Danuri is currently at the Florida space center, and is undergoing maintenance and other pre-launch preparations ahead of next week's launch. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) plans for the orbiter to reach and start its circle of the moon in December for a yearlong observation mission.
John Guidi, agreement manager in charge of bilateral cooperation on the project of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), said his agency regards highly the South Korean team's ability to comprehensibly develop the related ground systems, build the Korea Deep Space Antenna, and design and develop the orbiter on a tight schedule and budget.
"I was very impressed with the KARI team's professionalism and technical astuteness, as well as their dedication toward pursuing mission success as the normal engineering challenges arise throughout a project's development cycle," John said in an exclusive e-mail interview with Yonhap News Agency.
Guidi, who also serves as manager of program integration at NASA's Artemis Campaign Development Division, said he was particularly impressed with the KARI team during two recent joint operation rehearsals at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"Their operations team is professional, technically savvy and ready to execute the KPLO mission," Guidi noted.
The two agencies first discussed cooperation of the project in 2015 and signed a "no-funds-exchanged" formal agreement to work together on the KLPO in December of 2016.
According to Guidi, the U.S. agency's role in the project was centered on sharing experience in designing lunar missions and allowing the use of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas across the world to track the orbiter.
NASA also provided additional scientists to pursue additional science investigations under the leadership of the KPLO's five principal investigators. Guidi explained that the overall mission scenario creation and integration of all science activities were handled by KARI.
In return for the support, KARI offered to install NASA's ShadowCam, a highly-sensitive camera, along with five pieces of South Korean equipment -- a lunar terrain imager, a wide-angle polarimetric camera, a magnetometer, a gamma-ray spectrometer and a delay/disruption tolerant network equipment -- on Danuri.
ShadowCam is expected to monitor the permanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles of the moon to search for evidence of frost or ice deposits.
Guidi stressed that the U.S. space agency was "honored" to be part of the project, describing it as a "national achievement as Korea's first lunar mission." He added the addition of ShadowCam on Danuri would help NASA gain "a better understanding of the lunar poles" and assist with future lunar surface missions.
The Danuri project comes on the heels of South Korea's successful launch of the country's first homegrown space rocket, Nuri, last month, which made it the seventh country in the world to develop a space vehicle that can carry a satellite of more than 1 ton.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has pledged to "boldly invest in opening a 'space economy' era in earnest" and to systematically support the aerospace industry through the establishment of an aerospace agency.
The country also launched a preliminary feasibility study for the successor to the Nuri rocket, with the goal of sending a lunar landing module to the moon in 2031 under a budget of 1.93 trillion won (US$1.48 billion).
As a lifelong veteran in the space industry, Guidi underscored the importance of "active testing, development and execution of missions" in the advancement of space exploration capacities for relative newcomers to space, such as South Korea.
"A motto that has served NASA well across the decades is: Plan, Train, Fly," Guidi said.
odissy@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 장동우 · July 27, 2022
9. The repatriation dilemma
Tuesday
July 26, 2022
The repatriation dilemma
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/07/26/opinion/columns/North-Korea-fishermen-repatriation/20220726195017762.html
Yeh Young-june
The author is an editorial writer at the JoongAng Ilbo.
A North Korean defector, who identifies herself as “Pyongyang resident Kim Ryon-hui,” has lived in South Korea for 12 years. She claims she was deceived by a middleman who had told her that she would earn a handsome wage by working in the South for just two months after she was smuggled on a boat and that she would be able to return to Pyongyang. Kim repeatedly demanded Seoul send her back to Pyongyang, where her family lives, because she has no intention to live in South Korea.
In 2016, she entered the Vietnamese Embassy in Seoul and requested asylum. As her request was rejected, she was arrested by the police. For that incident, she was indicted on charges of violating the National Security Act, which punishes the acts of infiltration and escape. Later, she was convicted of the charges, but received a suspended sentence.
Rep. Thae Yong-ho — a former North Korean diplomat and currently a lawmaker of the governing People Power Party (PPP) — contends that defectors wishing to go back to the North, just like Kim, should be sent back in return for South Korean prisoners of war and other detainees.
Another North Korean defector, only identified as Kim, was a former gymnast. He crossed the eastern border early this year to return to North Korea. But his case is extremely unfortunate. In November 2020, he jumped over the 3-meter-high barbed wire fence along the border to defect to South Korea. But this year, he returned to North Korea through the same route. According to his friends in the South, he failed to adapt to the life here and apparently decided to go back to the North.
Actually, some defectors returned to North Korea through China after failing to adjust to the life in South Korea. For North Koreans not accustomed to a competitive society, South Korea must have been a tough place to live in.
But Kim’s case is very unfortunate because a North Korean source said he had failed to accomplish the goal of living in North Korea again. It is unclear if he was executed for having defected to South Korea or if he was shot to death by North Korean soldiers while crossing the tense border due to North Korean’s draconian public health measures of shooting and killing all living organisms crossing the border from Covid-19-striken areas. But no matter what the reason was, Kim was unable to live in the North. The case shows that Rep. Thae’s proposal to send North Korean defectors back to North Korea if they wish cannot be realized easily.
Certainly, it is not a simple matter to send back such defectors to North Korea. But the act of repatriating North Koreans against their will cannot be justified for any reasons.
A North Korean defector, right, and a former fisheries official in the North testify at a meeting, July 20, organized by a People Power Party (PPP) task force set up to find the truth behind the Moon Jae-in administration’s suspicious repatriation of two North Korean fishermen in November, 2019. [NEWS1]
Asked why two North Korean fishermen were sent back to North Korea in November 2019, the Moon Jae-in administration said it made the decision because they had no “genuine intention” to defect to South Korea. The argument remains unchanged. As former National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong said, they might not have the intention to defect to South Korea at the moment when they were captured by South Korean Navy.
But clearly, the two North Koreans had no intention to return home either. Photos and a video recording of their repatriation shows it. A person’s tongue may speak insincere words to avoid a crisis, but in a desperate moment, a person’s body cannot lie. When their blindfolds were removed, they struggled to stay away from the border. It was an expression of their survival instinct, and that was genuine.
The public was able to see the video clip 20 months after the repatriation. Back then, the Moon administration officials must have already known that they did not want to be sent back to North Korea. The fact that their eyes were blindfolded and their hands were tied is the proof. And yet, they lie to the public that they had no choice but to send them back because there was no “genuineness” in their wish to defect. That is not possible unless they were confident that they could deceive people. If the Moon administration had told citizens that it had to ignore their wish to defect to protect South Korean people because the two fishermen were criminals, it would at least avoid criticism that it deceived the people.
Media reported that South Korean intelligence authorities had learned that the two North Koreans were executed within a few days of their repatriation. I do not want to believe it. But it is highly likely given the North’s track record of killing and burning a South Korean fisheries official who had drifted in the Yellow Sea in September 2020.
Even a heinous criminal has the right for a trial and assistance from an attorney. That is what differentiates a country with the rule of law from those without it and a civilized country from savage countries. The related officials of the Moon administration should be additionally accused of having denied the rule of law of South Korea.
10. KATUSA veteran's son attends memorial ceremony
It is good there will be a KATUSA descendant to celebrate the historic Remembrance Wall.
Excerpt:
The wall, which will be officially dedicated on Wednesday, will include the names of 36,574 American service members and more than 7,200 members of the Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army who gave their lives defending the people of South Korea.
KATUSA veteran's son attends memorial ceremony
The Korea Times · July 27, 2022
Flowers left by family and friends of the fallen are seen at the new Wall of Remembrance during a special ceremony ahead of the official dedication of the wall at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, U.S., Tuesday (local time). Reuters-Yonhap By Nam Hyun-woo
In this photo, deceased Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) veteran Han Sang-sun, holds his son, Han Shin-hee. Courtesy of Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs Han Shin-hee, the son of deceased Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) veteran Han Sang-sun, attended a memorial ceremony for Korean War veterans in Washington D.C., Tuesday (local time), a day before the two countries commemorate the completion of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall of Remembrance in the U.S. capital.
According to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, Han, 72, and 800 other bereaved family members of Korean War veterans attended the memorial ceremony at Korean War Veterans Memorial, where the Wall of Remembrance was first revealed before its official completion ceremony.
Han was the only bereaved family member of a KATUSA soldier who attended the ceremony.
"My father joined the war about one-and-a-half years after I was born, and the last photo of me and him was taken in January 1953, when he went on leave to come home," Han was quoted as saying by the ministry. "I don't have memories of him because I was very young, but I've lived to this day thinking about him by looking at the photo."
Han's father, born in 1931, began his service in May 1952 with the U.S. 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He died on July 10, 1953, while fighting in the Battle of Pork Chop Hill, in which the U.S. 7th Infantry Division and Chinese 67th Division fought for three months across Mount Cheondeok in Gyeonggi Province. Han's father died just 17 days before the fighting ended with an armistice on July 27.
During the memorial ceremony, bereaved family members dedicated white roses to the fallen soldiers and took rubbings of the soldiers' names inscribed on the Wall of Remembrance.
"I believe the Wall of Remembrance will be a monument that will commemorate the war veterans and it will be visited by tourists across the world," Han said, adding he appreciates how the South Korean government shared the construction cost.
The wall, which will be officially dedicated on Wednesday, will include the names of 36,574 American service members and more than 7,200 members of the Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army who gave their lives defending the people of South Korea.
The Korea Times · July 27, 2022
11. Seoul mayor seeks to develop Yongsan into business hub
Seoul mayor seeks to develop Yongsan into business hub
The Korea Times · July 26, 2022
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon explains during a press briefing at the Seoul Metropolitan Government's office, Tuesday, his plan to develop an abandoned patch of land in Seoul's Yongsan District as a new business hub. Yonhap
By Ko Dong-hwan
An empty former rail yard in Yongsan District will be transformed into an urban business hub of Seoul, making the underdeveloped area near the country's presidential office into one of the city's future business spots.
The 493,000-square-meter piece of land near Yongsan Station will usher in office buildings for over 70 percent of its total area so that it can be designated a non-residential zone. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, in a press briefing at city hall, Tuesday, said the planned area will become "Asia's Silicon Valley."
According to the mayor, at least 50 percent of the land will be covered with green space, with roads directed underground.
The development project will also see a new metro transportation and transfer platform, trains and urban air mobility rides, connecting Yongsan to downtown Seoul as well as Gangnam District, Incheon International Airport and other cities across the region.
The plan will complete delineating the precise lots for different purposes on the so-called Yongsan International Business Zone by the end of the first half of 2023. Construction will begin the following year.
Oh said the new land will be one of the city's three hubs ― including the financial district of Yeouido and the cultural facilities at Nodeul Island on the Han River ― to boost the city's global competitiveness.
The vacant land, which is 70 percent owned by the country's state-run railway operator Korail, has remained derelict since 2013 when a previous development plan for the area fizzled out. The site has been considered one of the city's last patches of land available when it comes to new major development opportunities.
"Yongsan, due to its geographical condition, has long been considered a potential hub of the city connecting to Gangnam and Yeouido as well as an ideal stopover for the country's rail lines," Oh said during the briefing. "Development of the district has been delayed until now. I want to get to it before it's too late."
The Korea Times · July 26, 2022
12. US military reveals last week's combined Marine drills with South Korea
Sustained, realistic training at levels not seen in the last 4 years.
The message of this training to Kim Jong Un: Your political warfare, blackmail diplomacy, and war fighting strategies are on a path to failure.
US military reveals last week's combined Marine drills with South Korea
The Korea Times · July 27, 2022
U.S. Marine troops refuel a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter during the Korea Marine Exercise Program in Pohang, 374 kilometers south of Seoul, July 20. Courtesy of the U.S. 1st Marine Aircraft Wing
The U.S. military has disclosed photos of last week's combined Marine drills with South Korean troops in an apparent move to highlight their readiness amid North Korea's evolving military threats.
Posted on the Pentagon's Defense Visual Information Distribution Service last Wednesday, the photos depicted U.S. troops from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361 engaging in the Korean Marine Exercise Program (KMEP) drills in Pohang, 374 kilometers south of Seoul.
The disclosure marked a shift from the allies' low-key stance on the drills that had continued over the last several years amid the preceding Moon Jae-in administration's drive for lasting peace with the North.
Seoul officials said the drills, known to be the 10th of its kind this year, took place from July 19-22. Various Marine assets were mobilized, including C-130J transport planes, CH-47 choppers, and CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters, as well as about 30 South Korean troops and 90 U.S. troops.
"KMEP is a bilateral training exercise that increases interoperability and strengthens the combined capabilities of Republic of Korea Marines and U.S. Marines," the U.S. military said.
A South Korean official said the drills were aimed at training the combined forces for an operation to replenish military supplies at front-line units.
The KEMP exercises are usually held around 20 times a year, although the number fell to 11 in 2018 amid the Moon administration's peace drive. The allies conducted the KMEP drills seven times in 2020 and 16 times last year due partly to COVID-19. (Yonhap)
The Korea Times · July 27, 2022
13. Remarks by President Biden in Meeting with the SK Group on Investments in American Manufacturing and Jobs
A significant indication of the strength of the alliance (and probably the strength of the American Chamber of Commerce which probably helped to arrange this). But how many foreing business leaders have meetings with POTUS? A powerful signal I think.
Remarks by President Biden in Meeting with the SK Group on Investments in American Manufacturing and Jobs | The White House
whitehouse.gov · by The White House · July 26, 2022
Roosevelt Room
Via Teleconference
2:19 P.M. EDT
MR. DEESE: Hi, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: How are you?
Hey, Tony. How are you, pal?
MR. CHEY: Hello. Yes, really good to see you.
MR. DEESE: So, Mr. President —
THE PRESIDENT: I should be sitting immediately to your right. I’m only a couple hundred yards away. I apologize I’m not there. (Laughter.)
MR. DEESE: Yeah, Mr. — Mr. President, thank you for — thank you for joining us.
And as you know, we have the — we have the delegation from SK here. We’re — we’re thrilled to have you here at the White House and to discuss this very significant announcement of investments that SK is making today.
With your permission, Mr. President, I will just turn the floor to Chairman Chey to brief you and update you directly on the announcement that they’re making today. And then we can get into the conversation.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s a big announcement. Take as long as you need, Tony. (Laughter.)
MR. CHEY: Thank you. Yes, good afternoon, Mr. Biden — yeah, President Biden. I know I speak for the people of the South Korea in wishing you the speedy recovery.
And I would like to express that my sincere gratitude for this opportunity to discuss our current and future cooperation in manufacturing critical technologies in the U.S.
Thank you also, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese, for your support of our investment in United States.
We are also grateful for the strong partnerships we have formed across your — the administration, in Congress, and in many state government — yeah — that have helped make our investment happen.
So, tomorrow we will commemorate 69 years since the end of the Korean War. So, the American and Korean relationship is deep and longstanding. Our countries fought side-by-side during the terrible conflict, and now we have worked side-by-side to build the technologies and infrastructures that will power the 21st century economy around the world.
So, SK’s commitment to grow and invest in Korea is enduring. But today, though, we are here to talk about the investment in U.S. So our cooperation will make the supply chain in both our countries more resilient in critical technologies. And the SK Group commitment to the United States runs deep, and we have backed that commitment with $22 billion of investment in U.S. in recent years.
Today, we are announcing another $22 billion in new investment in the U.S., so including the major investment in semiconductor EV batteries and biotechnology.
All this means that SK will invest in nearly $30 billion going forward, expanding on our recent announcement of $7 billion investment in EV batteries.
And so, SK will invest the half of our total investment amount in the U.S. in semiconductor ecosystem. Well, this money will fund R&D programs in partnership with the leading American universities and restoration advanced packaging (inaudible) in the U.S.
Well, this initiatives will contribute to developing the next generation of memory chips, which will benefit the entire U.S. high-tech industry.
So, President Biden, we share your commitment to green energy. In addition to our new EV battery factories in Georgia, we will — we will be investing more — $7 billion more out of the total, our JV investment amount — up to $14 billion — to build two new gigafactory in Tennessee and Kentucky as a part of our joint venture with the Ford Motor Company.
So we will invest an additional $5 billion in other green energy businesses, including the ultra-fast EV charging system, the green hydrogen, and battery materials, recycling, and also small modular reactors.
Also, our investment will expand our facility in the U.S. in bioscience and biopharmaceutical sectors. We believe our initiatives will contribute to strengthen the U.S. supply chain resilience and to address the climate change.
So we are sincerely grateful to your administration’s continued support in our shared prosperity.
Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Tony, and to your delegation. This is — as someone once said in a similar circumstance, this the big deal. (Laughter.) This is really, really consequential.
And, you know, I’m sorry, as I said, I’m not with you in person, but I wanted to make sure that — to personally thank you for this historic announcement.
You know, this pathbreaking announcement represents clear evidence that the United States, Korea, and its allies are back and winning the technology competition of the 21st century.
For folks at home, the SK Group is the second-largest conglomerate in South Korea. And since I’ve been President, it has made significant investments in United States.
SK has already committed $30 billion in investment here, and today they’re announcing another $22 billion in addition. That’ll grow their U.S. workforce from 4,000 to 20,000 workers by 2025, investing in a range of advanced technologies, some of which Tony already mentioned, from semiconductors to large-capacity batteries, to electric vehicle chargers, and to pharmaceuticals.
And partnering with iconic American company, like Ford and Intel, it’s just incredible. Further proof that America is open for business. Proof that we’re meeting the emergency and the climate crisis with urgency and opportunity and innovation to save the planet and create good-paying jobs to benefit both our countries.
We’re investing more than $1 trillion in the United States to modernize our infrastructure, including 500,000 electric charging stations across America.
Since I came to office, we’ve seen more than $200 billion in private sector energy investments in electric vehicles, advanced batteries, and semiconductors. Construction of overall manufacturing facilities in America has increased by 116 percent. And this is only going to add to that, Tony. Thank you.
And the construction in America means jobs for Americans. Since I’ve been in office, the economy has created 613,000 overall manufacturing jobs — just manufacturing jobs.
Today’s announcement is also proof that America is back to working with our allies.
By uniting our skills and innovation, we will be able to manufacture the technologies that create the critical changes that are needed both for our — for both our countries.
During my visit to South Korea in May, when I got to sit at the table across from Tony — and it was a crowded room — I toured Samsung’s campus with President Yoon, and I saw how the factory there is manufacturing advanced semiconductor chips and is committing $17 billion to build a similar factory here in America.
In Seoul, I met with the Chairman of Hyundai, and we announced — as we announced $10 billion in new investments in America — American manufacturing, including a $5.5 billion investment for an advanced automotive factory near Savannah, Georgia, where — where SK is also going to be investing and create — creating more than 8,000 jobs.
In the past, these kinds of technology investments went to China. Today, under my administration, these technology investments are coming to the United States. We’re talking about some of the most significant investments we’ve ever seen in our country.
America is the key destination for advanced technologies, and it’s the kind of — it’s that kind of proactive engagement that reminds me one of the benefits of investing in the United States, and that is the opportunity to partner with some of the most highly skilled, dedicated, and engaged workers in the world: American union members.
Now, look, just yesterday, I met with members of my economic and national security teams and CEOs and labor leaders to highlight the urgency of getting the bipartisan CHIPS Act to my desk.
And today, the Senate took a very important bipartisan step to get us closer. They, in fact — they, in fact, met the cloture requirement, and getting that bill to my desk is much closer now. Because this really matters.
Let me — let me close with this: You know, Tony, you and your team, I want to thank you for being here at the White House. And again, I feel so badly — I’m so close to you, but because I’m in the last day of having been diagnosed with COVID — I’m feeling great; I hope it comes across that way as well. I hope I look as great as I feel here.
But you know — and you’re — (laughter) — well, you know what I mean. That sounded off a bit. (Laughter.) I never look that good. I hope I look as good as I usually do, which is not that good. (Laughter.)
Hey, look, but — (laughs) — but I want to thank you again for being at the White House and for your investment in American workers, our greatest resource.
And, Tony, as you begin the rest of the meeting today, what more do you think we can do to keep this momentum going?
MR. CHEY: Thank you, Mr. President. And it is really my pleasure being here even though you’re not in person with me, but close enough. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: I can walk out on the balcony and holler to you. (Laughter.)
MR. CHEY: But you certainly don’t have to sell us on investing in the U.S. because we already committed about $30 billion and $22 billion in a pipeline.
THE PRESIDENT: Yep.
MR. CHEY: Well, we created tens of thousands of highly paid and highly skilled jobs. But we believe — our view is the United States is our most important business partner. But one thing we can work together is building a skillful workforce. That would be the crucial for ensuring that America has a type of worker necessary to lead the next generation — the manufacturing economy.
So, we will work closely with the state and community colleges to help ensure that workers know what they need to know to lead jobs in our facility. The federal, state, and the local coordination, and the deep investment in job training, would help other companies to find the skillset they need and invest more in — here in U.S. as well.
So we look forward to working with you, Mr. President, and — on advancing the workforce, the training in the coming years.
That’s one thing. But here is another things that I want to mention to you as well: I’d like to actually emphasizing some partnerships among the company and the nonprofit organization in U.S. and Korea. So we believe the collaboration among the organization of the two countries will motivate them to invest more across the border.
So, for example — I will give you some — some examples that SK worked closely with Novavax as a — the pharma — U.S. pharmaceutical company to develop the produ- — produce the COVID-19 vaccine.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. CHEY: So, as a result of the co-investing in R&D and the production capacity.
One other example is, as a recent matter, is SK is also partnering with the Gates Foundation and the University of Washington to develop the new COVID vaccine. This is a new one.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. CHEY: So this is a kind of proven collaboration model that can booster the investing in the U.S.
So, Mr. President, and we look forward to working with you — this fostering such a kind of partnership with you.
Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it is a partnership. And we’ve been partners a long time. And — and as we — I think about it, I can remember the pictures of my uncle — anyway, from people being sent from Korea back home when I was a kid, about (inaudible) partners a long time.
And, look, one of the things that I promise you we’re going to do is we’re going to continue to invest in the education side of this to have — so you have the best trained, the best equipped workers in the world. I really mean it. And particularly with regard to our community colleges, which have great assets to bring to the — bring to bear.
And I think that — I just see this as the beginning of — of so many more things we can do. And I can see that — that the Secretary is smiling, and she thinks it’s the beginning too. And I’m going to leave it to you guys to talk about.
But anyway, thank you, all three of you. And again, I apologize for not being with you. Next time you come, I’m going to force you to have lunch with me in the Oval Office so you can see what we — what I don’t do. You know? I mean, the Oval Office is lovely, but we — I got — I’m all the way over here; I can’t even be near you.
So at any rate, thanks again for everything. I look forw- — I really mean this: The way you treated our delegation when we’ve gone to Korea, to the Republic; the way you’ve — we’ve hung together on foreign policy as a matter of domestic and economic policy — I know that’s not your responsibility. But your — but your country has stepped up as an enormous, enormous asset and ally.
So thank you, thank you, thank you.
2:36 P.M. EDT
whitehouse.gov · by The White House · July 26, 2022
14. Biden calls on all Americans to pay respect to Korean War veterans
Thank you President Biden for reminding Americans of the sacrifices of the Forgotten War.
Biden calls on all Americans to pay respect to Korean War veterans
The Korea Times · by 2022-07-26 17:00 | Defense · July 27, 2022
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Chairman of SK Group Chey Tae-Won, right, react during a virtual meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden (on screen) in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., July 26. EPA-Yonhap
U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on all Americans to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Korean War.
The call came in a proclamation, declaring the day of Korean War armistice.
"On this day, I encourage all Americans to reflect on the strength, sacrifices, and sense of duty of our Korean War Veterans and bestow upon them the high honor they deserve," said the proclamation, released by the White House.
"I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities that honor and give thanks to our distinguished Korean War Veterans," it added.
The 1950-53 Korean War ended 69 years ago on Wednesday. South and North Korea continue to be at war, technically, as the war ended with an armistice that has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty.
Will Biden attend Korean War monument event?
Biden noted more than 36,000 American soldiers, along with some 7,100 Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army (KATUSA) personnel were killed in action during the war, "sacrificing everything to defend freedom and democracy" on the Korean Peninsula.
"Today and every day, we continue to remember our nation's Korean War veterans and honor all that they made possible through service to our Nation and our highest ideals," he added.
On Wednesday, a brand new Wall of Remembrance with the names of 43,808 U.S. and KATUSA service members killed during the war will be dedicated, becoming the newest addition to the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington.
More than 137,000 South Korean soldiers were killed in action during the Korean War. They are commemorated accordingly in South Korea. (Yonhap)
The Korea Times · by 2022-07-26 17:00 | Defense · July 27, 2022
15. Ji-Yeon Yuh: It’s time to remember the civilian survivors of the unresolved Korean War
A powerful testimony for the Korean civilians who suffered during the Korean War and its aftermath. I do however disagree with her call fro HR 3446 calling for a declaration to the end of the Korean War. While we all want the war to end we need to understand the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime and how such a declaration will be exploited to support Kim Jong Un's political warfare strategy and to create the conditions to support his warfighting strategy (the main conditions being the withdrawal of US forces from the peninsula).
The way to meet Dr Yuh's plea is to seek resolution of the "Korea question" - the unnatural division of the peninsula. The only way we are going to see an end to the nuclear program and military threats as well as the human rights abuses and crimes against humanity being committed against the Korean people living in the north by the mafia-like crime family cult known as the Kim family regime is through achievement of unification and the establishment of a free and unified Korea that is secure and stable, non-nuclear, economically vibrant, and unified under a liberal constitutional form of government based on individual liberty, rule of law, and human rights as determined by the Korean people. A free and unified Korea or in short, a United Republic of Korea (UROK).
Ji-Yeon Yuh: It’s time to remember the civilian survivors of the unresolved Korean War
Chicago Tribune · by Ji-Yeon YuhChicago TribuneJul 25, 2022 at 2:42 pm
Few Americans know that the Korean War, often referred to in the United States as the “forgotten war,” never officially ended. Although the United States and North Korea stopped military battles when they signed the armistice on July 27, 1953, they never negotiated a peace agreement to formally end hostilities.
Korea remains divided, separated by one of the most militarized borders on earth, with South Korea and the U.S. on one side and North Korea on the other. Because there is no peace agreement, military attacks from either side can resume at any time.
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For our own future as Americans, we need stable, lasting peace in Korea. The United States can take the lead by negotiating a peace agreement and normalizing relations with North Korea. Once military attacks are no longer a constant threat, America, North Korea and South Korea can focus on the essential business of strengthening ties for mutual nuclear deterrence and economic prosperity.
On July 27, the 69th anniversary of the signing of the Korean War armistice, I will be among the hundreds of people traveling to Washington to attend the dedication ceremony of the new Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall of Remembrance. The remembrance wall honors the more than 36,000 Americans and 7,100 supporting Korean soldiers who died during the war.
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While I salute them, I am also remembering the millions of Korean civilians who survived the war, the estimated 3 million who died during the war, and the hundreds of thousands of separated family members. Memorializing them would go a long way toward helping to heal the wounds of this decades-old conflict that remains unresolved.
Recognizing civilian survivors in our midst — people like my parents — would also help everyone move toward the restorative closure necessary for peace to last. My parents emigrated from Korea to Chicago in 1970, and unlike so many of their generation, they talked about the war. I grew up hearing stories about their experiences was part of our daily family life. As an adult, I came to understand that telling me these stories was a form of therapy and a way to preserve family history.
When the war broke out, my father hid for days in a hole in the ground by the outhouses, listening to B-52s strafe his beloved hometown and surrounding farmland. He eventually fled the north with his parents, brother and sister. They left behind many family members, including my father’s two brothers and their families, his aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents.
His family was placed in a refugee camp, but he promptly left, seeking work that would help him feed them. He was only 15.
He found work in a soldiers’ lounge and survived for weeks eating the sugar that fell off their doughnuts. Doughnuts had to be accounted for, sugar did not. He also scrounged for odd jobs, doing laundry for the soldiers, fetching water and running errands, earning sometimes coins and sometimes food. After a few months, he returned to his family with a huge sack of American packaged goods: Kraft cheese, Vienna sausages, Spam.
He is 87 now, a retired Presbyterian minister, and still longing for his hometown, now in North Korea.
My mother and her family were among the many Koreans who fled Seoul and headed south for Busan. They walked most of the way. There, she nearly lost her mother, and it was pure luck that they ran into each other on the street.
After they returned to Seoul, shrapnel hit my mother’s arm, gouging out a long chunk of flesh. That gouge is still there, the scar white, sunken and puckered. Now 85, she is a retired pediatrician.
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One of the most tragic consequences of the ongoing Korean War and national division is the separation of families. Like my family, most Korean families have some connection to someone in the northern half of Korea. While North and South Korea have held reunions between separated families, the United States has never participated.
The ban on U.S. citizens traveling to North Korea imposed by the State Department in 2017 has obstructed Korean Americans like me and my parents from visiting family members on their own. With normalized relations and peace, Korean Americans can reunite with their long-lost loved ones.
In a hopeful sign, there has been increasing recognition of the need to end the Korean War once and for all. H.R.3446, the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act, calls for formally ending the Korean War and replacing the armistice with a peace agreement and is supported by 42 co-sponsors, including Illinois Reps. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Jan Schakowsky and Bobby Rush.
As we commemorate the sacrifice of soldiers, both U.S. soldiers and the minority of ROK South Korean soldiers who augmented U.S. troops, let us also remember the civilians, those who survived, those who died, and those who still mourn for families left behind. And let us prove that their sacrifice was not in vain by finally bringing an end to America’s longest war, the Korean War.
Ji-Yeon Yuh is an associate professor of history at Northwestern University.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
Chicago Tribune · by Ji-Yeon YuhChicago TribuneJul 25, 2022 at 2:42 pm
16. Biden given commemorative Korean name of ‘Bae Ji-sung’
"President Bae Ji Sung"
Note: Former US Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump were given names of Oh Han-ma and Woo Dae-il, respectively.
Biden given commemorative Korean name of ‘Bae Ji-sung’
bhaskarlive.in · by IANS News
Seoul, July 26 (IANS) US President Joe Biden was given an honorary Korean name, Bae Ji-sung, as part of a week-long commemoration to mark the end of the Korean War.
The President was given the name by the Republic of Korea (ROK)-US Alliance Friendship Association, Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday.
“We, the ROK-U. Alliance Friendship Association, are honoured to announce and grant US President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. a Korean name. His name will be Bae Ji-sung,” the association said in a statement.
The name was presented to Kurt Campbell, deputy assistant to the president and National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific.
The association said the Korean surname of Biden originates from Pyeongtaek, a city located some 60 km south of Seoul and home to a majority of the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea.
His first name, Ji-sung, means territory and star, respectively, it added.
“The deeper and significant meaning behind granting the name ‘Bae Ji-sung’ is to keep considering and maintaining peace on the Korean Peninsula as he continues to contribute to world peace,” the associated added.
The development comes as the two nations will mark the 69th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War on Wednesday.
Events to commemorate the war’s end will include the dedication of the Wall of Remembrance, the newest addition to the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington with the names of over 41,000 American and South Korean service personnel killed during the war.
Biden is one of dozens of top US officials who have been given a Korean name by the association.
Former US Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump were given names of Oh Han-ma and Woo Dae-il, respectively.
–IANS
ksk/
bhaskarlive.in · by IANS News
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Senior Advisor, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
VIDEO "WHEREBY" Link: https://whereby.com/david-maxwell
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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