South Korea is bleating now

Arthur

I envy your plane spotting experiences. I hope you manage to stay out of jail if you venture into hostile territory in the future.

My exposure to military aircraft has been limited to the local annual airshow involving US, Canadian and a few European visitors from the UK, Germany, Holland, etc and occasional refuel stops from units going to and from Maple Flag, etc. Last year the shows were mostly cancelled. Hopefully 2003 will be better.

Getting back to Korea, it seems that the North Korean leaders are very sensitive types who can dish out the insults but can’t deal with the truth when they hear it. If there ever was an evil regime, it’s NK. It would appear that many others around the world also have difficuilty dealing with a a little straight talk about the nature of places like NK but have no problem insulting the US president for called a spade a spade. Reminds me of the little rhyme about “sticks and stones will break my bones, but names…… Oh well.

What I find interesting about the current Korean issue, is how many put the blame on the US. Oh I know, Bush shouldn’t have called a leader who only spends millions on his birthday party evil, even if thousands of people starved to death as a result. After all, Kim is a sensitive guy and we can all understand how he already feels about having to take food handouts from the US, poor fellow.

As far a the South is concerned, they will not own up to their responsibilities until the US gets out. Apparently none of the neighbours feel they should get involved in settling the Korean issue either.

Its strange how Russia and China are among the countries complainting how the US is ignoring the dangers of regional problems, attitudes, issues and interests in the Mid-east, at the same time they refuse to support a multi-national approach in Korea. I guess they don’t view the fact that the local madman may have an atomic bomb, a regional issue.

Regards

Sauron

Sauron,

I have absolutely no clue why the South hasn’t signed the armistice in the last decade – especially during the detente which started in 1996 and during which quite a few positive moves were made by both sides. From 1953 till the late 1980s, the South had been a rather opressive military (and, from about 1980 on, semi-military) dictatorship which refused to sign the armistice as it negated their one-Korea dogma.

It’s an interesting country (well, both are 😀 ). A few acquaintances of mine were planespotting in the South last fall (and a few friends are going next month), and they said it was a rather relaxed country to do some planespotting, not unlike Taiwan or Germany and certainly less hostile than France (it has to be said, they are improving!) and Greece. Despite the fact that 113 is the national emergency phonenumber to report spies…

Arthur

South Korea can sign whatever paper, pact, agreement or treaty it wants. I agee with you about the USAF situation and so does Rumsfeld and that was the one of the points he made.

Regards

Sauron

Well, before the US can actively withdraw from the region, South Korea should sign the 1953 armistice pact. Until that time, there is no way the South can communicate with the North on the same level as the US can. It’s unfortunate that the current crisis broke out thanks to a lack of diplomacy on Bush’s conto – i doubt North Korea would have acted like the insulted kid it is now if they weren’t all of a sudden put into the Axis of Evil just because a few disgruntled Arabs flew a few airplane in American buildings. ******* as Kim Jong Il might be, he had nothing to do with that.

It’s not that the South Koreans actually need the US presence anyway. Three squadrons of F-16s (two of them Wild Weasels, the other IIRC still flying long-in-the-tooth Block 30s) and a few A-10s together, a batallion of helos and a bunch of tanks (in total some 40.000 men) are negligable when compared to the South Korean military.