October 15, 2009
Where These Fish Are Jumpin’, Arrows Are Aimed
New York Times
October 13, 2009
Watch the aerial bowfishing companion video produced by Mark Scheffler.
BARTONVILLE, Ill. — The sound and vibration of a boat engine make the fish fly.
The Illinois River and other waterways flowing into the Mississippi have become infested with invasive Asian fish species, commonly called silver carp, which can turn a leisurely ride on a johnboat into the aquatic version of the running of the bulls. The carp jump out of the water by the hundreds, sometimes soaring 10 feet in the air and often landing in the boat. They have loosened fishermen’s teeth, broken their jaws and left them scarred.
Read the rest at the New York Times.
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May 27, 2009
The Fish are Biting, and the Room Is Hopping
New York Times
May 26, 2009
SEOUL, South Korea — Like any good fishing spot, this place is obscure and off the beaten path. I go through the urban wilderness of Seoul, past neon glades of takeout joints, mechanic shops and massage parlors, and through a gulch of high-rise apartments and emerge through a side canyon of two-, three- and four-story buildings emblazoned with fluorescent-lit signs advertising everything from grilled pork ribs to English lessons.
If “Blade Runner” were turned into a fishing program, this would be the filming location.
On a side street, a building entrance leads to a basement, and the blackened door opens to Gold Indoor Fishing Spot, a dark room with a black ceiling. Centered in the room is a rectangular pool with murky, thigh-deep water.
Read the rest at the New York Times.
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May 08, 2009
One Hour Out: Seoul
One Man's Dream of a World-Class Arboretum
Wall Street Journal
May 8, 2009
The drive south out of Seoul runs through a man-made muddle I call a "nonplace," a fractured landscape that is neither town, nor village, nor countryside. High-rise apartments are surrounded by rice paddies that are next to small factories next to rows of greenhouses next to furniture outlets and gas stations. The unzoned exurban dissonance goes on like this kilometer after kilometer on west coast expressway 15, making me press on the accelerator and watch out for police speed cameras.
But in less than an hour, I've crossed the bridge over Asan Bay and arrived someplace: the Taean Peninsula, a jagged nub jutting into the Yellow Sea that is a mix of farm country, craggy mountains and sandy beaches. The migrating Baikal teal winter in the Seosan wetlands here. Each day the ducks rise by the thousands at sunset, putting on a spectacular sky dance. I leave the expressway at the Seosan interchange, in the center of the peninsula, and take Highway 32 west, the main road leading to the peninsula's beaches.
Read the rest at the Wall Street Journal.
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March 04, 2009
Fishing in Singapore for an Anti-Singapore Fish
New York Times
March 3, 2009
SINGAPORE — “Singapore has to be the worst place in the world for fishing,” said Jerry Tay, minutes after he introduced himself on the fishing dock. He then pulled out his digital camera and proceeded to show me a slide show of huge peacock bass caught in the Singapore reservoirs.
Tay approached me as I was making my first few casts at the government-approved fishing spot on Bedok Reservoir. Fishing is permitted from only one place, a long wooden dock. The water was as clear as the Tiger Beer I had been drinking all week, and two boys were already tossing out hooks baited with shrimp on a cheap spinning rod.
Read the rest at the New York Times.
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June 25, 2008
Teachers band together in South Korea
Guardian Weekly
June 19, 2008
More than 17,000 foreign teachers are working in South Korea but many have had to put up with poor working conditions in silence. Now a newly formed association has been set up by teachers to lobby government for a better protection and to raise the profile of this marginalised workforce. James Card investigates the challenges that lie ahead.
Angry union workers wearing red headbands and banging gongs, surrounded by riot police armed with plastic kendo swords and Plexiglas shields are a common sight in South Korea. From bank employees to illegal migrant workers and even prostitutes, workers have banded together to defend their livelihoods, taking to the streets to make their voices heard.
However one group of workers, currently numbering about 17,500, has so far kept out of Korea’s highly charged industrial relations, although they have reason to be militant. They are English language teachers from Britain, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Some now feel that the time has come to speak with a unified voice against poor working conditions.
The Association for Teachers of English (Atek), co-founded in March by Tom Rainey-Smith of New Zealand and the Canadian Jason Thomas, aims to provide that voice. Described as a union in the Korean press, Atek is careful to avoid that label, preferring to characterise itself as a professional association.
According to Atek’s mission statement, it aims to represent the opinions of teachers, to advance English language education as a profession through ethics and best practices and to improve living and working conditions. It will represent its members across the wide spectrum of Korea’s education industry and provide a community for teachers to advance shared goals.
Rest the rest at the Guardian Weekly.
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February 14, 2008
Shock education tactics split South Korea
Guardian Weekly
February 8, 2008
The incoming president wants all school subjects to be taught in English and to bring back emigrants to help take a nation to fluency by 2013. James Card reports on a bold plan that has already hit trouble
A far-reaching overhaul of South Korea's English education system announced last week by Lee Myung-bak, the country's newly elected president, has caused consternation among teachers and provoked a major political challenge even before his official inauguration.
The five-year plan to radically change the way English is taught in schools, including a call for all subjects to be taught in English, is being backed by a $4.2bn budget. But even the offer to shift the cost of teaching children from increasingly burdened families to the state-school system has been met with scepticism from parents who see it as increasing competitiveness in the education system.
A month after winning December's election with a comfortable majority, Lee, a former mayor of Seoul and a Hyundai Construction executive, raised the issue of English education to an equal footing with national priorities, such as economic prosperity and peace with North Korea. Announcing his plan, Lee and his transition team said that it was a key to achieving international competitiveness.
Read the rest at the Guardian Weekly
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December 20, 2007
Proof of character demanded before entry: South Korea responds to fears about bogus foreign teachers with draconian visa rules
Guardian Weekly
December 14, 2007
Are you HIV positive? Do you have a criminal record? Is your bachelor's degree real? Are you a drug abuser? New visa laws to be implemented by South Korea next week have set foreign English language teachers scrambling to prove they do not have Aids nor are coke-snorting felons.
Native speakers of English who intend to teach English in South Korea will be required to provide an affidavit of any criminal convictions, undergo a medical and drug test, provide sealed academic transcripts and have their university diplomas inspected. The rules will affect an estimated 17,000 foreign English instructors that hold an E-2 visa specifically for EFL teachers.
Read the rest at
Guardian Weekly
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December 13, 2007
When Korea's Yellow Sea Turned Black: Scenes from the Taean Oil Spill Disaster
Asia Sentinel
December 12, 2007
Notes on the seashore of Taean County: It's a place of fine-sand beaches backed by stands of seaside pines. Small restaurants in the fishing villages serve up oysters on the half shell, abalone soup and sashimi platters at fair prices. Stylish young women from Seoul come down here on summer weekends to show off their bikinis and the shopkeepers keep their coolers stocked with plenty of beer. It's the best fly-fishing locale for Japanese sea bass on Korea's western coastline and great migrations of ducks, teal and shorebirds arrive in the fall from Siberia.
It's one of the better getaways in South Korea.
On Friday morning, December 7th, the Hebei Spirit, a Hong Kong-registered single-hulled oil tanker was at anchor when it was struck by a tugboat powering a barge that held a massive crane atop its deck. It punched three holes in the tanker's hull and the result would be the worst oil spill in South Korean history.
View the photographs and text at Asia Sentinel.
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January 10, 2007
Gun Club Hunts City Crows in Singapore--By Official Request
National Geographic News
January 8, 2007
Ripping apart garbage bags, rummaging through leftovers, scavenging cafés and food stands, crows have earned the enmity of sanitation-obsessed Singaporeans. The tiny Asian island nation is infamous for its stict rules to promote cleanliness, including a ban on most chewing gum in public places.
And when it comes to crows, neatness isn't the only concern, as dive-bombings have been known to leave Singaporeans smarting.
But the birds aren't the ones drawing blood.
In 2006, at the invitation of the government, volunteers from the Singapore Gun Club culled approximately 1,025 crows—down slightly from 2005's tally of 1,650. The club's highest annual tally was 14,370 in 2001.
The official culling program began in 1973. When traps and poison failed to work, shooting became the preferred method for controlling the crow population. At first military marksmen were used, but in 1982 the Ministry of the Environment invited Singapore Gun Club members to take their best shots at the birds.
Due to strict gun regulations, few Singaporeans own firearms, so club members were the only private citizens in the country that authorities could turn to for help.
Read the rest at National Geographic News
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December 16, 2006
Appetite for Language Costs South Korea Dear
Guardian Weekly
December 15, 2006
Massive spending is failing to raise standards, reports James Card
South Koreans are spending $15.3bn a year on private English lessons, according to a new report by the country's leading economic thinktank. But while Koreans appears to have an insatiable appetite for education, they remain hampered by low self-esteem as linguists.
The Economics of English report was published by the Samsung Economic Research Institute (Seri) last month. It claims that total expenditure on language learning accounts for 1.9% of South Korea's GDP.
The report also assesses the potential value of the English language to South Korea and how teaching can be improved. However, the starkest figures expose the shortfall between expenditure and achievement.
Each year Koreans spend $752m on tests of English, with a large proportion of this being spent on the Toefl assessment test produced by the US company ETS. Currently South Korea is the world's largest market for Toefl, yet, according to a 2004 report by the Korea Government Information Agency, South Koreans ranked a dismal 110th on ETS's global Toefl rankings.
More than 1,000 expatriate managers of multinational companies polled by Hong Kong's Political and Economic Risk Consultancy rated South Koreans as the worst English speakers in Asia in a 2005 survey.
Read the rest at the Guardian Weekly.
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November 23, 2006
Cold War Trout: Fly Fishing The Korean DMZ Borderlands
MidCurrent
November 2006
Welcome to the border between North and South Korea, where stunningly beautiful trout live in the most militarized strip of real estate in the world.
THE DMZ of the Korean peninsula has the world’s highest density of landmines. They are estimated to be every 2.3 square meters for a total of 1.2 million, and there is a yearly average of twenty lives claimed by landmines. In April last year, the Donga Daily News ran a photo of soldiers sweeping the Namdae River in South Korea for landmines that were washed away from the annual monsoon season. Between 1996 and 2001, the military removed 1,407 landmines from the riverbanks — something to think about when you are fly fishing in this region.
Most of the landmine victims are either soldiers or farmers. The farmers work inside the Civilian Control Line (CCL), a place where the fieldwork starts at sunrise and the farmers must sign out at checkpoints before dark. Last summer, I received permission to venture into the CCL with a tour group sponsored by the Yanggu County government. The general premise was visiting a scenic waterfall called Dutayeon; my intention was to lay eyes on the headwaters of the Sooip, an untouched stream that holds the highest population of Manchurian trout in the country.
We drove past soldiers clearing brush with rifles slung across their backs and a few farmers worked the terraced rice paddies with small crotch rocket tractors. Mandatory military service is required in South Korea and is a rite of passage for all young men. Holes in the roadside cliffs are spray painted and numbered to show where to insert the dynamite charges to blow a rockslide over the road. In the gravel parking area, we were warned not to wander off the dirt road or path but that was obvious enough since both road and trail were fenced tree to tree with landmine signs. The valley walls were near vertical and thick with pine, fir and Mongolian oak.
At the Dutyeon waterfall, the tourist group nodded approval at the pretty scene and snapped pictures with their cell phone cameras even though they were warned photography was prohibited within the CCL. The small waterfall shot down between a narrow gap and formed a massive pool. I, a trout bum in the most heavily militarized strip of real estate in the world, scanned for any riseforms, but it was midday and nothing appeared.
The Manchurian trout, scientifically known as Brachymystax lenok, or just lenok, reaches its southernmost distribution in South Korea. They do not have any migratory characteristics other than descending into deeper water downstream in the dry winters and heading upstream for their spring spawn. On a different and unrestricted stream I scouted last year, I watched them during the spawn and they splashed around like otters, slapping the sides of their body on the surface.
Read the rest at MidCurrent
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November 18, 2006
Forensics, Archaeology Techniques Used in MIA Search
National Geographic News
November 17, 2006
During his first-ever visit to Vietnam, U.S. President George W. Bush met this week with the country's leaders to discuss how lessons learned during the Vietnam War could be applied to the current conflict in Iraq.
One of the many topics under discussion was how U.S. and Vietnamese officials could better cooperate on retrieving information about the approximately 1,300 military personnel who are still considered missing in action (MIA) after the war ended in 1975.
As part of this effort, President Bush's agenda included a visit with a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC).
JPAC teams work at sites around the world, searching for clues about the fates of the nearly 88,000 U.S. soldiers who have been listed as MIA since the end of World War II.
JPAC's motto is "Until they are home," and it is responsible for recovering the remains of MIA soldiers, whether they died during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania or the early 1990s Gulf War in the Middle East.
Read the rest at National Geographic News
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November 05, 2006
S. Korean Salmon Festival Highlights Dwindling Fish Populations
National Geographic News
November 3, 2006
At the sound of a whistle, participants armed with hand nets, work gloves, or simply their bare hands charged into the ankle-deep water along South Korea's Namdae River.
Their goal: to snatch the hundreds of chum salmon caught at sea and stuffed into a 50-yard (45.7-meter) netted stretch of the waterway for the annual Yangyang Salmon Festival, held this year on October 21 and 22.
The fish scattered as people splashed into the river, but the animals couldn't go far, held in pools by long blue nets.
Eventually each salmon was caught, brought to the gravelly banks, and dumped into plastic shopping bags bearing the official festival logo.
"I can't catch one," cried a small girl who was having a hard time. So three volunteers wrestled a salmon into her arms and gave her another leftover fish for good measure.
In Yangyang, near the northeastern city of Sokcho (South Korea map), festivalgoers pay the equivalent of U.S. $20 to take part in the fishing frenzy, and tickets sell out fast.
Choi Jin-hwa, a Yangyang county official, says 1,900 tickets were sold this year.
But for those who miss the fishing, the festival also offers a salmon race, where competitors team up with a salmon and try to coax their fishy partner across the finish line.
In tents along the riverbank, K-pop—South Korean pop music—blares from loudspeakers for a hip-hop dance contest.
Hungry visitors can buy fresh, dried, or fried salmon. Those who catch their own can have vendors fillet and wrap the fish. Or it can be left whole and used to make an ink print on rice paper—a 2-D trophy.
Read the rest at National Geographic News
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March 22, 2006
Environmentalists decry Korean sea wall
Christian Science Monitor
March 21, 2006
South Korea's Supreme Court ruled Thursday in favor of continuing construction.
By James Card | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
BYEONSAN PENINSULA, SOUTH KOREA – South Korea's biggest conservation battle ended Thursday as the Supreme Court ruled in favor of continuing construction on the controversial Saemangeum sea wall, which when completed will become the longest in the world.
The massive $3.58 billion project aims to convert some 99,000 acres of tidal wetlands into landfill and a reservoir by putting the area behind a 20-mile wall that will block the tide and dam the Dongjin and Mangyeung Rivers that flow into the shallow estuary.
Environmental groups have decried the wall as one of Asia's greatest ecological catastrophes. Saemangeum Bay serves as a key staging site for shore birds and is a crucial feeding area for migratory birds of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. The destruction of this habitat, environmentalists warn, will affect bird populations from Mongolia to New Zealand.
Part of the controversy is how the land will be used once the tidal flats are filled. Originally it was to increase arable land for rice paddies. But as South Korea produced a massive rice surplus, in spite of an archaic and inefficient agricultural sector, providing more farmland wasn't an essential need. Critics lambasted the scheme as pork-barrel politics for South Korea's powerful construction cartel and as a "make-work" project on an enormous scale.
Read the rest at the Monitor
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February 18, 2005
Greenpeace Flagship Sails Into South Korean Ecopolis
Environment News Service
April 6, 2005
ABOARD THE RAINBOW WARRIOR II, Ulsan Bay, South Korea(ENS) - Docked at Busan Maritime University, the Rainbow Warrior II was the headquarters for a team of Korean Federation for Environment Movement (KFEM) and Greenpeace activists.
They issued a joint statement calling for a national ban on the trade of whale meat and are campaigning to raise public awareness about the state of Korea’s whale population before the 57th meeting of the International Whaling Commission that will be held in Ulsan from May 27 to June 24.
Although South Korea observes the International Whaling Commission’s moratorium on commercial whaling, and has also prohibited the hunting of dolphins and porpoises, there is a legal loophole that allows for whales to be taken and sold as an incidental by-catch of regular commercial fishing. If a whale is ensnared in a fisherman’s net, then he has the legal right to sell the meat of the dead whale for local consumption.
Since the capture of a whale is an uncommon occurrence, such scarcity drives up the prices of the meat and catching a whale is nicknamed as a “lottery of the sea.” A dead whale can be sold for $50,000 to $100,000. Some whales may be “accidentally” caught when such large amounts of money can be made.
Sources indicate that approximately 100 whales are caught as by-catch each year. The whale and dolphin meat is sold though restaurants scattered throughout the country, many of which are located in the southeastern city of Ulsan.
Whale and dolphin meat is also distributed through a nationwide network of food vendors that set up tent eateries at regional festivals. Although whale meat was not a traditional food of Koreans in ancient times, recently it has developed into a faddish delicacy.
Ulsan City has released a report stating that South Korea consumes 150 tons of whale meat annually, with 80 percent being consumed in Ulsan.
The Rainbow Warrior crew and KFEM members recently completed an 11 day survey of whales and dolphins in Korean waters. They departed from Incheon and sailed down the west coast, circumnavigated Jeju Island and worked their way to the eastern port city of Pohang.
Common and bottlenose dolphins were sighted, along with finless and Dall’s porpoise and one minke whale, the most populous of whales near the Korean peninsula. Libby Eyre, an Australian marine biologist leading the survey, said she had expected to see more marine mammals.
In the middle of the night, the Rainbow Warrior departed Busan for Ulsan. Although it is one of Korea’s largest cities with a population of approximately one million people, it isn’t even included in the Lonely Planet 5th edition travel guide to Korea.
Massive industrialization has transformed the Ulsan area into a bleak landscape plagued with air pollution and water and soil contamination. It is home to hundreds of chemical companies including the big players like Dupont, BASF, SK, LG, and Samsung. The area is the country’s largest supplier of non-ferrous metals, and dotting the industrial zone are other factories specializing in electronics, machinery, cement and steel processing.
That evening among the crew, there was concern about news that a group of pro-whaling fishermen planned to mobilize a flotilla of boats. They would attempt to blockade the port and prevent the Greenpeace flagship from entering Ulsan Bay. The Korean fishermen contended that whales were depleting the local fisheries and consuming squid stocks. One member of the pro-whaling faction said Greenpeace was disrespecting his hometown, the historical epicenter of the Korean whaling industry.
Petroglyphs at the Bangu-dae archaeological site near Ulsan depict 46 images of whales and of human figures hunting them with harpoons, lines and boats. These rock carvings are estimated to have been created between 6,000 and 1,000 BC. Other than those early engravings, there are few historical footnotes of Korea’s whaling history.
Russian and Japanese whalers based themselves out of Ulsan in the late 1800s. Korea’s modern whaling industry was short-lived, starting in 1946 and lasting until the IWC commercial whaling moratorium was imposed in 1986.
Jim Wickens, Greenpeace oceans campaigner, emphasized that Greenpeace/KFEM and South Korea fishermen share the same concerns in protecting the sea ecosystem to insure healthy fisheries.
“We have spoken to fishermen along the south and west coast and they feel the dolphins and whales are disappearing and they want them to come back. We feel very strongly that there is no scientific evidence that whales are destroying the fish population," said Wickens. "It’s more of a matter of overfishing, pollution, and toxic threats that are destroying the fisheries and the whales and dolphins are being made as scapegoats.”
By eight o’clock the next morning the Rainbow Warrior was along South Korea’s most industrialized coast. Crew members stood on deck with steaming cups of coffee and observed the hazy shoreline covered with squat petrochemical tanks, pulp mills, numerous smokestacks and nonferrous metal refineries. Although we sailed a mile offshore, a pungent chemical stench wafted in the sea breeze and everyone noticed the foul smell emanating from the coastal industrial complex.
Approaching the harbor entrance was the sprawling Hyundai shipyard and farther in the horizon, the windshields of new cars glinted from the Hyundai auto plant. The Greenpeace crew was not greeted by a naval blockade of Korean whalers but by a police boat holding a gaggle of Korean journalists photographing the coming of the Rainbow Warrior. Local law enforcement authorities were alerted of a possible demonstration by the pro-waling group and three buses of riot police were stationed outside the harbor gates.
Currently the Ulsan metropolitan government is engaged in a ham-fisted public relations scheme to whitewash the city’s environmental image before the upcoming IWC annual meeting, the first international convention the city has hosted.
The city of Ulsan named itself as an “Ecopolis,” an ironic title for a city that once had to relocate residents and offer financial compensation for environment related diseases in 1986, particularly a degenerative disorder called “Onsan disease” that was linked to toxins from the nearby non-ferrous industries.
Coastal contamination is high around Ulsan and concentrations of lead and mercury are three times the legal level and copper is concentrated at 47 times the legal limit.
Currently under construction is a new whale museum near the strip of seafood restaurants that sell whale meat. Ulsan also hosts an annual whale festival June 18 to 21, in a bid to garner tourist dollars. According to the local government website, the purpose of the Ulsan Whale Festival is to “cherish the memories of regional whale fishing in Ulsan and Jangsengpo, which was the main whale fishing area in the past."
With the 1986 whaling moratorium came, the Ulsan economy suffered, and citizens began relocating to other areas.
When the Rainbow Warrior docked at Ulsan, a welcoming ceremony was organized that included brief statements from various public officials from the Ulsan government and the local KFEM chapter head. A class of kindergarteners arrived and presented the Greenpeace crew with crayon sketches of whales. A large inflatable whale was staked out on the dock as an attention-getting symbol and the ship was opened for tours.
Reporters gathered for a press conference in the hold below deck. Amid kayaks and coils of rope, Korean journalists viewed a presentation that indicated South Korea is second only to Japan in numbers of whales considered as accidental by-catch.
Greenpeace research shows that the ‘J’ stock of North Pacific minke whales, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, is in decline and that the Western Pacific gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus, is nearing extinction with only an estimated 100 individuals left alive, making it the most endangered whale population in the world.
KFEM activist Yoon Mi Sook ended her speech by stating, “Complaining that whales are depleting the fisheries is like complaining that woodpeckers are causing deforestation.”
Posted by jcard at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)
State's Legacy Continues At DMZ: Wisconsin Troops Serve At The Camp Named For Hatfield Hero
Wisconsin State Journal
September 12, 2004
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA--On Nov. 5, 1950, a soldier from Hatfield, Wisconsin, was guarding a ridge in South Korea, when Chinese forces emerged from the brush on a surprise raid. He sounded the alarm and engaged in a firefight to slow the assault, giving his company time to brace their defenses.
Badly shot, he pulled himself around a tree, and continued to fire until eight bullets finally brought him down. Corporal Mitchell Red Cloud Jr. was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the military's highest award. This is the legacy for Wisconsin soldiers defending what is nicknamed "Freedom's Frontier."
Since the end of the Korean War, the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separates communist North Korea from democratic South Korea. It is a no man's land that stretches across the peninsula for 151 miles from the east coast to the west coast. Barbed wire and razor wire mark this area that holds the world's largest concentration of land mines.
In honor of Corporal Red Cloud's bravery, an infantry camp was named after him. Camp Red Cloud is located in Uijongbu City, roughly between Seoul and the DMZ.
It is home to the Second Infantry Division, the strongest and most forward-deployed division of U.S. Forces Korea. From Camp Red Cloud, a short drive leads to Camp Bonifas, where the motto is "In Front of Them All." Camp Bonifas is the focal point of the entire DMZ and the global geopolitics that accompany such a significant place.
It is the base for the United Nations Command Security Force and the Joint Security Area (JSA) where armistice negotiations are held in the blue nondescript buildings. At each end of the buildings, North Korean soldiers face the allied South Korean and American soldiers in a daily stare-down.
No other American soldiers are closer to the enemy on a regular basis than those serving at Camp Bonifas. The American soldiers that serve at Camp Bonifas are hand picked for their excellent fitness and medical and weapons skills.
Their South Korean counterparts are also selected with high scrutiny. Strong English speaking ability is required to minimize communication problems between U.S. and South Korean soldiers. Most of the South Korean soldiers have black belts in tae kwon do and are above average in physical and mental abilities.
Visitors in the JSA are warned not to make any gestures to the stone-faced North Korean soldiers. Sergeant Craig Lau from Whitefish has seen a more expressive side of the North Koreans during his nine months at Camp Bonifas.
"It gets pretty interesting when they flip you off," he said, imitating a throat-cutting gesture they make as an intimidation ploy. "They're pretty civil with the South Korean soldiers but they hate Americans," Lau said.
Recently, Lau received some time off from his duties at the DMZ for a quick wedding ceremony. His wife, Kristal Lau, flew to South Korea from her home in Madison. On his return to the United States, they plan to have a large wedding party for friends and family. He spends much of his free time keeping in touch with her via phone and e-mail.
Soldiers at Camp Bonifas pull 12-month unaccompanied tours that take them away from their families. At such an isolated post, most soldiers are limited to basic recreational activities. However, one notable feature of Camp Bonifas is the "World's Most Dangerous Golf Course." It is a one-hole course: 192 yards long and par three with a sign that warns, "Danger! Do not retrieve balls from the rough-live mine fields."
Private First Class Clinton Beguhn from Oconomowoc spends some of his free time exercising. Beguhn's duties as a military police officer allow him to gain insights not normally accessible to other soldiers at the DMZ.
Beguhn accompanies the Joint Duty Officer, who is the most forward-deployed American military officer in the world, and a U.N. representative. The officer receives and passes messages to the North Koreans, and has full access to all areas of the DMZ. While serving as his armed escort, Beguhn described coming across old pagodas on back roads that are accessible only to a few people in the world.
Surrounding the buildings and the military facilities is a landscape that has grown wild and untouched since the end of the Korean War. In recent years, the DMZ area has been noted by Korean ecologists as an accidental nature preserve. Since no human development is allowed in the area, the forests of mixed coniferous and deciduous trees are lush with vegetation and wildlife. Endangered red-crowned cranes and white-naped cranes stay in the DMZ during their migrations.
Private First Class David Mauk from Oshkosh serves as a scout at Camp Bonifas. One of his main duties includes patrolling the rugged terrain of the DMZ. "We're looking for evidence of anyone crossing into the area."
The patrols are pretty rough; the brush is thick. We have a kind of deer up here that has fangs and we spook them sometimes," said Mauk.
The American soldiers in the DMZ area and its vicinity may be the last of their kind to be deployed in this unique theater of operations. From a recent announcement, the U.S. Defense Department is planning a withdrawal of 70,000 service members across Europe and Asia. For South Korea, U.S. troops will be reduced by a third, and those that remain will relocate south of Seoul, roughly a two-hour drive from the DMZ.
The news of U.S. troop reductions produces different reactions among South Koreans. Some believe that the U.S. troops are necessary to maintain the nation's stability. The majority of Korean lawmakers hold the same view.
South Korea's younger generations believe otherwise. Anti-American protests are regular events in Seoul and the U.S. embassy is fortified with buses of riot police everyday of the week.
On the evening of December 15, 2002, Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan from Wausau left the Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul. He encountered three Korean men, who cursed him as a "G.I." They cornered Boylan and slashed him with a knife. Fighting defensively, he escaped without further injury.
Now serving in Iraq, Boylan completed 24 months of duty in Korea as the Chief of Public Affairs for the 8th United States Army. Even though he was attacked, he considers it one of the most rewarding experiences of his career.
"Actually it did not impact or change my views on serving in Korea or why were are there and why we need to be there. I don't consider the actions of three stupid individuals to be representative of the entire Korean public," said Boylan.
With the troop relocation and withdrawal, the uneasy friction between the presence of 34,000 American soldiers and the densely populated Korean public may be alleviated. "It is never easy to be a foreign military in the host nation. There is always some level of resentment and dislike.
"That is the wonderful aspects of a democracy. The ability to have one's views and opinions heard. In fact, those that serve in the military are sworn to defend those rights," said Boylan.
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