Thursday, July 06, 2006

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Crazy Kim - Either sooner or later he has to go...

Just for background, during my second and last tour of Korean in 1982-83 (the previous in 77-79, I married a Korean lady and we are still happily married 23 wonderful years later. What this means of course is that living with a Korean, and amongst many Korean family members and friends, I the developments in the "homeland", have been at the top of our family discussions.

Since the weekend when Kim shot his wad and failed, I have read a lot of commentary on just what we should do and not do with the despot.

However, I've read very little that shows that anyone truly knows how to deal with the eastern warrior mindset. One thing for sure, Kim isn't going to bargan, and if this report is true, then the time for bargaining is over.

It's time to go after Kim and now. But we'll never do that so long as we look at Kim through our western mindset. Let me explain.

As I mentioned, I served in the US Army for two years with the Republic of Korea Army (ROK), in combat situations (in case nobody told you the war is still going strong on the DMZ), and have watched first hand how they deal with enemies. Put it this way - it was not for the faint of heat. The South Korean Army is known for it's viciousness, tenacity and take no prisoneer mentality.

In fact this was witnessed first hand during the Korean war, where by far the most intense battle took place at the Battle for White Horse Mountain. Military History Online has this writeup.

""The Chinese are all over the f***ing place start shooting at my bunker!"

No other battle during 1952 in the Korean War could match the Battle for White Horse Mountain, otherwise known as Hill 395, either in voracity or intensity. This action goes largely unaccounted for in the annals of American military history from the Korean War. Why? Mainly because it was a battle between the Republic of Korea (ROK) Army and the CCF (Chinese Communist Forces). The extent of involvement by United Nations units was regulated to armor units, artillery battalions, and other support units. The defense of White Horse Mountain was in the hands of the commander of IX Corps, Lt. Gen. Reuben E. Jenkins. IX Corps was tipped off about an impending attack in the White Horse area when a Chinese Officer had surrendered to the ROKs in the area of Observation Post 'Roger', which was located on Hill 284, a small hill mass on the right of White Horse, and which overlooked a portion of the Chorwon Valley. The American artillery Forward Observer, 2nd Lt. Paul Braner of the 213th Field Artillery Battalion brought the prisoner to the attention of IX Corps after he discovered that the ROKs were torturing the prisoner not far from his bunker;

"On Hill 284 we were shelled and mortared regularly, but no one was injured. There were Chinese assaults on the position, but they did not succeed against the ROK infantry guarding the hill. I liked the ROKs and ate regularly with them. The ROK commander liked that and me. One day after an assault the previous night, I was invited by the ROK CO to pay him a visit to his HQ for some 'entertainment'. A Chinese officer after the night's action had been captured. Actually he surrendered because there was supposedly to be a big assault on White Horse that next night, and he did not want to become a casualty. I was appalled that they were 'sporting' with him, the bearer of such valuable information. I immediately went to my OP and encoded a message for the IX Corps Fire Direction Center. Within the hour a reinforcement team from IX Corps came to pick him up."

-- Lt Paul Braner"


In short, ROK's don't play, because such "mercy" does not exist in the mindset of a Korean soldier. I remember a specific incident where a group of North Korean Regulars were caught coming coming out of a tunnel. We were just a few clicks over, but by the time we arrived with the reaction force the ROK soldiers got their first. There was nothing left that was recognizable. The west would find that cruel, but the fact is that they simply don't play with their security. If you threaten, you're destroyed - period.

So what does this have to do with Kim? Everything.

Kim has NO military experience having been "given the job" of Chief of Armed Forces, by his Father - basically to give him somthing to do - but he knows next to nothing of the "military mind", as his father possessed, a fact that makes him even more dangerous, even though the MSM and the left try to present him as a military genius, he is anything but. However, he does possess the mindset of "despotism" and a sense of invisibility. He truly believes that he cannot be removed from office because he is in effect "deity" and thus cannot be "killed".

Kim is going to play games in any bargaining table negotiations we throw at him. He is constitutionally incapable of playing without cheating - thus Saddam redux. We can keep "coddling" him all we want, it's simply not going to have any effect and its a complete waste of time. You don't dance with a cockroach - you stomp on it.

We do well to understand Kim not from our western thinking but as it were "in his head". As Sun Tzu"Know thy enemy and know thyself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know thyself but not thy enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not thyself, wallow in defeat every time."

The solution to this problem isn't through negotiation but through surgery, as when you find a tumor that has failed to respond to lesser treatments, you surgically remove it. However, after Iraq it's not going to be easy to convince (even after seven missile launches) our numb-nut congress that we need to deal militarily with Kim. Not that I'm talking about all out war, although the South would be easily able to hold it's own such a scenario. To be sure our stationed forces in the ROK will ensure that 1950 doesn't repeat. Still Kim, not possessing a true military mind, but noneless out of frustration, would no doubt order a full scale attack - although I doubt he has absolute trust at all echelons of his apparatus - and thus not guarantee their total cooperation, still it's not the desired method.

Simply said, the desired method would be to take Kim out of the picture - period. Of course we have a law against political assasinations, but then again we don't have to do the deed. I have no doubt that the PRC would do this in a heartbeat as despite media babble, the Chinese are no fan of Kim - he is doing nothing but bringing unwanted attention to the region and the last thing the Chinese want is escalated western millitary activity next door, you know, snooping around. In fact, I'll bet they've considered the option at length already.

True a "sudden departure" of Kim could cause another despot rise in Kim's place, namely some chesty right hand General, but I got a feeling that is unlikely. Fact is that no one in-house is going to cry at his passing, and no one especially within his 'inner' circle where he is considered anything but "great". Which brings me to this point. While not at all reported in the press, all isn't calm in the North and there have been several attempts this year alone to 'help' Kim leave office, like back in 2004 when two trains colided at Ryongchon station, hours after Kim passed through.

Public dissent within North Korea is hugh, with underground resistance ready to "hit the streets" at any sign of Kim's 'passing'.

In short, and especially if he is planning more "experiments", we might just want to "nudge" the Chinese a bit to work to a 'Greater Good" in the long run.

In any case, sooner or later something must be done, Kim cannot be allowed to go on.




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