Usfk: Fill & Download for Free

According to a 2016 survey, 62% of South Koreans think USFK should stay in the long term.[1]However, note that this number tend to vary from time to time. For example, the number was as low as ~40% when an USFK armed vehicle killed two girls in an accident and USFK denied the soldiers’ trial at the South Korean court in 2002.Footnotes[1] “주한미군 장기주둔 필요” 美70%＞韓62%

I’m not sure if the OP knew when they asked this question, but you’ve hit on what’s currently a raging debate in the military right now. I swear to god if you think I’m shitting you, just look on #miltwitter or get the t-shirt:As David Kleemann notes in his answer, AR 670–1 for the Army, and similar regulations in other services, govern the wear and appearance of uniforms and personal grooming standards. What are soldiers to do, when barber shops are being closed because of HPCON on base? What are commanders and senior enlisted leaders to do when they’re being faced with questions from all sides on how to apply these regs under the current situation?The answers have been utterly all over the place, unfortunately. For instance, the Marine Corps is keeping barber shops open amid the COVID-19 pandemic, defying common sense; though the Commandant has allowed for *some* commanders to relax grooming standards if they can “articulate the why” (I guess if you eat enough crayons to become Commandant, “not killing Marines over haircuts” is a reason you need to articulate.) This, of course, despite the Commandant and other Marine leaders being similarly unable to “articulate the why” of their own policy. From a Q&A session with the Commandant’s spokesman:“Q. Can Gen. Berger assure Marine commanders that they will not get into trouble if they decide to waive requirements for their Marines to get haircuts during the COVID-19 pandemic?Gen. Berger has spoken with commanders, and made it clear in a white letter that commanders act with the preservation of the force at the forefront of their decision-making. Given these unprecedented times, commanders who “articulated the why” and taken steps to relax grooming standards have not faced negative consequences.”So, turns out, that commanders concerned with preservation of the force can waive this requirement without harming readiness afterall! Thus completely undercutting the logic behind the policy in the first place! The inconsistencies abound of course, as the Corps did not have any issues cancelling physical fitness test requirements over COVID-19 which of course has a far more direct impact on readiness than haircuts. And these inconsistencies are leading to situations like COVID-19 sweeping through Marine Corps boot camp at San Diego, sickening dozens of recruits.Meanwhile in the Army, barber shops are closed but different units are offering different guidance on how to apply or relax the grooming standards. For instance, in US Forces Korea, General Abrams has been leading at the forefront of the COVID-19 response, proactively taking force protection measures, communicating them widely and directly through both official and social media, and empowering his commanders to prioritize safety and innovative measures for combating the spread of the virus. As a result, US Forces Korea and Eighth Army have had extremely few infections. And morale is extremely high around Camp Humphreys.USFK has succeeded, Abrams said, mostly due to the swift action leadership took as soon as the virus began picking up speed in China. That action included a partnership with the Korean government, which Abrams praised for being transparent and professional in working with the U.S. military.One of the keys to success that Abrams mentioned has been treating USFK's efforts to combat the virus as a military operation.“This is not an administrative task, this is not a medical task, and it’s not a routine event,” he said on Friday. “It’s an operation. We are conducting 24/7, around-the-clock operations, and have been since [January 27] ... We’ve approached it similarly to how we operate in combat.”That operation was kicked into high gear the moment it was confirmed that a 23-year-old male soldier in Korea had tested positive for the virus.Immediately, travel off-post was limited to official business only; visitor access to the installations was made official business only; and off-post activities like dining out, going to movie theaters, going to bars or clubs, and large social gatherings were made off-limits, Abrams explained. At USFK HQ, personnel saw more space between seats, an increased use in video conferences and overflow rooms, and frequent cleaning of equipment like chairs, podiums, and microphones.“I’ve told everyone: If you want to kill this virus, it requires a fundamental change in lifestyle," Abrams said. "And we are all living this fundamental change — there are no exceptions for rank or position.”And they mean business. USFK levels 2-year ban on civilian violating coronavirus measures in off-base bar.It was the second such action against a civilian since USFK commander Gen. Robert Abrams declared a public health emergency in late March. The declaration gave him authority to punish civilians as well as service members who violate measures aimed at preventing the spread of the virus. Abrams has since extended the public health emergency to May 23.But because Abrams took prompt action very early in the crisis, and had the benefit of being able to coordinate with generally well prepared partners in the Korean government, there have only been a small handful of infections in the theater. This combined with ready availability of test kits on base has allowed for limited, controlled openings of barbershops and gyms at Camp Humphreys.On the other hand the Army also demanded cadets fly back to West Point for graduation, claiming in dead seriousness that the physicals *had* to be done on site. (Their real argument, after digging down into it, that cadets need to learn to deal with COVID-19 operationally, is at least a logical one — though callous and poorly considered.) So it’s not like we’re batting 1.000 as a service either.As for the Navy they’ve relaxed grooming standards to limit exposure to COVID-19 but have obviously not had as much success dealing with the problem of how to manage COVID aboard underway vessels, with the virus rampaging the Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Kidd, and other ships.So yeah, kind of all over the place. Confusing, right? “Why can’t leaders just figure it out and say “yeah, haircuts just aren’t a priority right now, don’t be stupid?” And now you know why it’s been the raging debate online for the past two months. A justifiable question, with insufficient answers inconsistently applied, and no centralized leadership taking charge of the situation.

Edit, late 2017: Yes, they are. Either their capacity to launch nuclear weapons considered alone or their capacity through nuclear weapons development / use to destabilize East Asia, entangle the unstable United States in a spiraling conflict, draw into conflict the US, China, and / or Russia is adequate to characterize them as “a threat to the world” in various ways.Original answer, early 2014: Yes, absolutely. Many answers on this page address North Korea's fledgling nuclear capabilities and its ability to support terrorism; these are serious threats, but they aren't fully imminent and perhaps therefore fail to arrest attention.However: North Korea could within about one day kill one million South Koreans, and maybe many more. Seoul is a city of about 25M people located 50 miles away from the North Korean border, well within artillery range. North Korea has wisely distributed and hidden artillery throughout the mountains and terrain along the DMZ, and as such has a constant, immediate ability to attack what's known as "the kill box": a city of civilians larger than New York.If a conflict did escalate, most analysts agreed, North Korea almost certainly would lose to the better-armed, better-equipped and better-trained U.S. forces — but not before it wreaked havoc.U.S. Forces Korea and others estimate massive casualties in and around Seoul — up to 1 million in the first 24 hours alone — even calling South Korea’s capital “the kill box.”…North Korea has a vast arsenal of chemical and other mass-killer weapons, report Korea analysts, including Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.“Even 24 hours of war on the Korean peninsula would be tremendously costly in civilian deaths,” said Donald P. Gregg, former CIA station chief in South Korea from 1973-75 and U.S. ambassador to Seoul from 1989-93, in an interview with Stripes.“We believe that the North Koreans will open an attack with a large artillery barrage — massive artillery to try to penetrate our defenses,” Brig. Gen. John DeFreitas, USFK senior intelligence officer, told Stripes.Within the first hours of an attack, an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 artillery rounds could rain down on Seoul, Stephen Oertwig, a USFK spokesman, told Stripes.It’s believed the North has more than 13,000 cannons, rocket launchers and other artillery systems. More than 4,000 are ranged along the DMZ, many nestled inside hardened underground shelters like reinforced bunkers and tunnel networks, making it “nearly impossible” for U.S.-South Korean forces to hit them, according to unclassified USFK documents. [1]In addition to the destruction a maelstrom of artillery fire from targets not easily eliminated, South Koreans could expect to face the nastiest sorts of weaponry, including at least gas shells.This is why the United States has never seriously considered action against North Korea, despite incredible, repeated, and aggressive provocations from the nation over the years. It's simply not possible to attack them without jeopardizing millions and millions of innocent civilians; it's not possible to evacuate Seoul in secret either.So: given that North Korea has a permanently deployed military structure designed to quickly annihilate a civilian city of twenty five million people and intend to do so if attacked —I believe their threats are credible— they're a threat to the world.1. N. Korea attack on South would be lethal.