A new report, not yet available in English, claims that North Korea used the Fifth Columnists of the “Il Shim Hue” to help the ruling leftist Uri Party in local elections last May. The report, based on leaks from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, claims that North Korea used Il Shim Hue (rough translation: The One-Minded Hundred) to direct the Democratic Labor Party throw its votes and support to the Uri Party to prevent the GNP candidate, Oh Se Hoon, from winning. Oh won, defeating Uri Justice Minister Kang Kum-Sil.

North Korea also directed Il Shim Hue to assemble detailed dossiers on South Korean politics: politicians, civic groups, issues, parties, you name it. One particular issue that concerned them was how South Koreans reacted to North Korea’s recent nuke test. The NIS claims that Il Shim Hue members canvassed popular sentiment about the test throughout South Korean society. Recent polls show a substantial minority (but thankfully, still a minority) blamed America for North Korea’s nuke test, something the ruling party eagerly latched onto.

Another huge shocker: North Korea had plans to infiltrate environmental groups to use them to inspire more anti-American sentiment. You may recall the recent South Korean film, “The Host,“ a monster flick loosely based on a 2000 incident in which a civilian mortician on a U.S. Army post dumped a small amount of highly dilute formaldeyde into the Han River. The incident became a huge story in the South, and “The Host” inspired some icky and unhinged anti-American comments from one ruling party legislator, which neither the legislator nor his party have retracted, to my knowledge.

I and other K-bloggers have long chronicled the anti-US hate groups activities in Korea so really none of this is surprising to me. You can read more about my postings on the Camp Humphreys relocation issue here and the USFK pollution issue here.

The anti-US hate groups have been doing everything possible to stop the USFK relocation because the North Korean puppet masters do not want the US forces along the DMZ and in Seoul to be relocated further south on the peninsula and outside of North Korean artillery range. So they turned to their “activist” groups in the south to stop the relocation by playing towards Korean pride and trying to portray USFK as bullies because of the relocating of farmers to expand the base. The vast majority of the farmers took the compensation money and moved but the anti-US hate groups latched on to a handful of farmers as cover to launch their violent attacks on Camp Humphreys and have delayed the relocation.

The pollution issue is the second front in stopping the USFK relocation. These “activists” claimed that the vacated Second Infantry Division bases were heavily polluted and were a danger to the civilian population if USFK did not pay to clean the bases up. The estimated costs to clean the bases by the “activists” was a completely unrealistic number they knew USFK would never pay. For those who have never served in Korea, the USFK camps are literally an oasis of green in the middle of dense urban cities. The camps after the Korean war were located on the outskirts of Korean cities but the camps have now been swallowed up by the growing cities which are a sign of Korea’s amazing development since the war. It is partly because of this development that USFK wants to relocate the camps to the sparsely populated Camp Humphreys area. If anything the USFK camps are the cleanest piece of land in the surrounding communities and some have been designated to become parks when handed over; yet the anti-US hate groups have successfully used this issue to further delay the USFK relocation.

However, none of this is anything new. Even before the USFK relocation issue surfaced the anti-US hate groups jumped on other anti-US issues in order to create a wedge between the US and the general South Korean population to great success. In fact this spy scandal has to be the worst kept secret in South Korea. The real scandal is why didn’t the ruling government do anything about it a long time ago? How high up the political ladder does this spy ring extend? The authorities do allegedly have a list of more possible spies that they intend to investigate:

However, the progressive party cannot but concern the aftermath, as its several leaders are scheduled to visit Pyongyang next Tuesday. DLP spokesman Park Yong-jin said the visit plan would not change, but some political watchers say they wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the visit would be cancelled.

Politicians of the 386 generation are also keeping a close eye on the case, as the prosecution secured a list of some 386 generation figures’ names at Chang’s house.

The 386 generation refers to those who were born in the 1960s and participated in pro-democracy struggles in the 1980s, and many of them are regarded as core members of the Roh administration.

Chang’s list had six figures’ names, including Choi. Four figures among the five arrested are also in the 386 generation, all except Chang. Because he is acquainted with many other members of the 386 generation, the case may develop into the largest spy scandal since 1997.

How far is the Korean government going to allow investigators to dig? This may just be the tip of the iceberg.

Where before it read as follows:

Domain Name:APPEALFORREDRESS.ORG
Registrant Name:JE Glick
Registrant Organization:none
Registrant Street1:803 North Main Street
Registrant City:Goshen
Registrant State/Province:IN
Registrant Postal Code:46528

Domain Name:APPEALFORREDRESS.ORG
Last Updated On:27-Oct-2006 17:26:40 UTC
Registrant Name:Michael McPhearson
Registrant Organization:Veterans for Peace
Registrant Street1:216 S. Meramec Ave.
Registrant City:St Louis
Registrant State/Province:MO
Registrant Postal Code:63105

Meanwhile the Navy and Air Force are getting smaller and smaller chunks of that financial pie because we’re not on the front lines and aren’t getting all of our gear revamped. And since the Navy isn’t at the tip of that proverbial spear, do you know who’s suffering the most?

Navy medicine.

While the Army medics who are doing basically the same job as we do are getting huge bonuses, us corpsman aren’t getting squat (at least the Fleet Marine Force corpsman), even the Marines we go with getting good bonuses. On paper our numbers look good, in some cases we’re above what’s required but there doesn’t seem to be a change in actual numbers from no to the numbers used before the war. In reality we’re sending close to one in a half times the medical people forward per unit then they get in peace time. Where are these extra people coming from? We’re borrowing people from the hospitals and the non deployed units to fill in those deployed holes and leaving their coworkers to take up the slack. Which tasks us as individuals to be deployed forward more then the people we actually cover.

This sticks out more when you get a large group of sailors an Marines in the same room in the post deployment briefs. When the chaplain asked who had been over 3 times or more, most of the medical people raised their hands with a handful of Marines in a group of 200 or so. The Corpsman who replaced me? It’s his forth time.

Of course you could say, “Hey, why don’t you cross over and go green?”

That’s not the answer either; I’ve hung out with some of those Striker guys who have been extended. They’re not happy campers, there’s a reason why they’re getting the huge bonuses and there are some things that money can’t buy, that is if you’re smart.

What I’m saying is that there is something broke in the system that I’m working for. Navy Medicine is goes everywhere the Marines go and we’re going forward and getting shot up as much as our brothers. We’re doing a extra large workload with fewer bodies. Our piece time numbers are being used for a wartime mission and we’re hurting. When we come back to the states, we’re working harder then ever, there’s more training taskers and we’re losing corpsman who only have a few years to retire because they can’t handle the high Op tempo and having such a high work load. I’m not one of them because I actually like my job (most of the time) but I see the signs all around me. Work isn't fun anymore.

The medical department is scarred and I think there are going to have to make some huge changes before we’re back in shape.

Cross posted at Doc in the Box