Pentagon relocates US Army HQ from Seoul after 70+ years

RT

The US Army's headquarters in South Korea, located in the capital Seoul since the end of WWII, has moved to a $11bn base in the rural south – away from mass protest rallies and the North’s guns.

 

The new United States Forces Korea (USFK) headquarters was opened on Friday at Camp Humphreys, a base near the town Pyeongtaek, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Seoul, where the HQ was stationed for more than 70 years.

USFK commander General Vincent Brooks said the relocation was “an historic and exciting event” during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Brooks, who also leads the UN forces stationed on the Korean Peninsula, added that it “represents the significant investment in the long-term presence of US Forces Korea.”

Transferring the army command center from the Yongsan Garrison in the nation’s capital was welcomed by South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in. The move “will ensure better conditions for USFK operations in a stable fashion,” he said in a statement. Painting a bright picture of the upcoming “Pyeongtaek era” in the US-South Korean partnership, Moon expressed hope that the two nations will upgrade their bond from a “military alliance” and a “comprehensive alliance” to a “great alliance.” 

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The Art of the Deal worked on Sentosa Island

M.K. Bhadrakumar
Asia Times

Some statesmen by their sheer force of personality and unorthodox ways of politicking arouse disdain among onlookers. US President Donald is perhaps the most famous figure of that kind in world politics today.

No matter what he does, Trump attracts criticism. He evokes strong feelings of antipathy among a large and voluble swathe of opinion within half of America. The making of history in a virtual solo act on his part, which is the rarest of efforts, on Sentosa Island in Singapore on Tuesday and which the world watched with awe and disbelief, will be instinctively stonewalled.

Half of America simply refuses to accept the positive tidings about him coming from Singapore. The skeptics are all over social media pouring scorn, voicing skepticism, unable to accept that if the man has done something sensible and good for his country and for world peace, it deserves at the very least patient, courteous attention.

The problem is about Trump – not so much the imperative need of North Korea’s denuclearization. But western detractors – ostensibly rooting for the “liberal international order” – will eventually lapse into silence because what emerges is that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has enough to “bite” here in the deal that Trump is offering – broadly, a security guarantee from the US and the offer of a full-bodied relationship with an incremental end to sanctions plus a peace treaty.

Succinctly put, Trump has offered a deal that Kim simply cannot afford to reject. The ending of the US-ROK military exercises forthwith; Trump’s agenda of eventual withdrawal of troops from ROK; the lure of possible withdrawal of sanctions once 20% of the denuclearization process gets underway, or once the process becomes irreversible; Trump’s hint that he has sought assurances from Japan and the ROK that they will be “generous” in offering economic assistance to the reconstruction of North Korea; China’s involvement in the crucial process – these are tangibles.

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Trump And Kim Sign Declaration of Peace in Singapore (Because The Alternative is Too Expensive)

Comment: Much to the intense frustration of the neocons...

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Niall Bradley
Sott.net

So Rocket Man and The Dotard have met. After last year's epic mud-slinging, US President Donald Trump now says he and Chairman Kim Jong-un of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have a "special bond". The 'optics' of the summit reflect well on both leaders, who were cordial and without any of the hysterics and tantrums that had 'analysts' forecasting nuclear conflagration just last year.

But that's all ancient history now. The signed document - a declaration, not a 'deal', 'roadmap' or anything more - is brief: 

Convinced that the establishment of new U.S.-DPRK relations will contribute to the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, and recognizing that mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un state the following:

1. The United States and the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] commit to establish new U.S.-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
2. The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
4. The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.

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Military Industrial Complex Stocks Crash as North and South Korea Reach Peace Deal

Activist Post

North and South Korea reached a historic peace deal this week, and as the leaders from the two nations met in person for the first time and agreed to pursue an end to the Korean War, it signaled an incredible breakthrough in diplomacy and sent the stocks of defense contractors in the United States crashing.

When North Korea’s Kim Jong-un shook hands with South Korea’s Moon Jae-in for the first time on Friday, they put thousands of people both at home and around the world at ease, as they agreed to a peace deal that has the power to break the tension that has been between the two countries for decades. [...]

However, while peace may seem like the best possible outcome to the average person who is aware of how the ongoing war has hurt both North and South Korea over the years, it is a resolution that hurts the United States military-industrial complex, as can be seen by the results from stocks following the meeting.

On Friday alone, the five largest defense contractors in the U.S. lost more than $10 billion in value.

Lockheed Martin (LMT) started the week at $352.79 per share and ended it at $321.95 per share, falling 2.5 percent to a valuation of about $92 billion.

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Korean War to be declared officially over after 65 years, following historic summit between North and South

The Independent

Countries have committed to turn their borders into a "peace zone". 

The Korean War will be formally declared over after 65 years, the North and South have said.
At a historic summit between leaders Kim Jong-Un and Moon Jae-in, the neighbouring countries agreed they would work towards peace on the peninsula with a formal end to the conflict set to be announced later this year.

The pair agreed to bring the two countries together and establish a "peace zone" on the contested border.

The war began in 1950 and most fighting came to an end with an armistice three years later. But peace was never officially declared and the two countries have been officially at war ever since.
At their first summit in more than a decade, the two sides announced they would seek an agreement to establish "permanent" and "solid" peace on the peninsula.

"The two leaders declare before our people of 80 million and the entire world there will be no more war on the Korean peninsula and a new age of peace has begun," the official declaration said.

The statement included promises to pursue military arms reduction, cease "hostile acts," turn their fortified border into a "peace zone," and seek multilateral talks with other countries, such as the United States.

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GMO Imports Causing Unapproved “Mystery GMO Plants” to Invade Ecosystems

Mike Barrett
Natural Society

Emerging as the world’s second largest importer of GMO crops, South Korea seems to be a big believer in feeding its citizens GMOs. Oddly enough, though, the country already has a government ban on their cultivation – likely as a means to protect its land from potential GMO dangers while still ‘benefiting’ from GMO foods. But despite an in-house ban and only accepting imports, GMO mystery plants have been taking root all over the country – providing hard evidence that GMO contamination is real and that even importing GMOs can disrupt a local ecosystem.

A National Institute of Ecology (NIE) monitoring report on the effects GMOs have on the natural environment showed GM corn and cotton discoveries across the country in 2013. Corn was found in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province; Gimje, North Jeolla Province; and Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province. Cotton was found in no fewer than fifteen locations.

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South Korea, China dust off contingency plans for North Korea’s sudden collapse

Special to WorldTribune.com
East-Asia-Intel.com 
 
South Korea is ready to execute a long-planned contingency measure, including options to send troops to exercise military control of the North, when and if a “sudden change” occurs there.

South and North Korean soliders at the DMZ.

With the summary execution of North Korea’s number 2 man Jang Song-Thaek, authorities in South Korea are further concerned about the potentially catastrophic aftermath of a sudden regime collapse in Pyongyang.

Urgent issues include: proliferation and loss of control of its nuclear and chemical arsenals, coup d’etat, mass famine, random executions of Koreans and violent revolution.

Known as OPLAN 5029, the contingency measure has been jointly worked out by the U.S. and South Korea and been in existence for over a decade. But until now, the U.S. has had the command authority over all joint U.S.-ROK military actions in a wartime scenario.

Several think tanks such as the U.S.-based Institute of Peace, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace have reported that China also has a contingency plan for N. Korea’s sudden collapse.

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