Europaische Gotterdammerung: Last week, it was Gerhard Schroeder. This week, it looks like Jacques Chirac’s turn to meet with a fateful disaster at the polls.

Japanese diplomats are in the Philippines investigating whether loggers found two World War II soldiers hiding out in the jungle.

Japan’s Kyodo News agency said the two may be Yoshio Yamakawa, 87, and Tsuzuki Nakauchi, 83. But the health ministry declined to confirm the report, saying they could not disclose any information until officials have identified them.

There are rumors of 40 more of them who are still hiding. You wonder how many years ago the people who loved them gave up on a scenario like this one. Before you tell me how misplaced my sympathy is, I realize the kind of things they may well have done during the war. These are old men; as with Charles Jenkins, I’m inclined to think that the circumstances of their survival ought to have been punishment enough.

Japanese diplomats are in the Philippines investigating whether loggers found two World War II soldiers hiding out in the jungle.

Japan’s Kyodo News agency said the two may be Yoshio Yamakawa, 87, and Tsuzuki Nakauchi, 83. But the health ministry declined to confirm the report, saying they could not disclose any information until officials have identified them.

There are rumors of 40 more of them who are still hiding. You wonder how many years ago the people who loved them gave up on a scenario like this one. Before you tell me how misplaced my sympathy is, I realize the kind of things they may well have done during the war. These are old men; as with Charles Jenkins, I’m inclined to think that the circumstances of their survival ought to have been punishment enough.

From today’s New York Times, via the AP:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea dismissed reports it is preparing for a nuclear test as a U.S. ”fabrication,” raising hopes that the reclusive communist nation may be ready to return to the nuclear bargaining table.

With the statement late Thursday on Korean Central Television Station, the North’s only nationwide network, Pyongyang appeared to be inching back from the stalemate over its nuclear program that has taken on increasingly ominous tones.

So we dreamed all of this, apparently. Since it’s all a transparent “fabrication,” naturally the North wouldn’t mind letting a team of inspectors, including a competent mine geologist, tour the place and confirm that. And of course, it doesn’t exactly reassure us on the broader issue of the North’s nuclear ambitions, given this very recent statement:

“It is very natural for us to strengthen self-defensive nuclear deterrence to protect our people’s dignity and security.”

I’d actually been hoping they’d set the damned thing off. Still, I think the NYT’s gratuitous speculation that this foreshadows a return to the talks, much less any real progress there, is unjustified. It seems just as likely that the regime decided that continued intransigence was a much better idea than doing anything as hazardous as poking G.W. Bush with a sharp stick.

Nicholas Eberstadt has told South Korea exactly what it needs to hear, except the date on which the removal of our ground forces will be complete. A selection of the most interesting quotations and my thoughts here, on NKZone.

I’m not sure I have the words or the energy to express my revulsion at this.

Meet the next U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea.

I’m not sure I have the words or the energy to express my revulsion at this.

Meet the next U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher “The Bad Cop” Hill appears to be moving away from a constraint on our previous diplomacy with North Korea–the idea that the nuclear question should be discussed in strict isolation from the more fundamental problem of North Korea’s closed society. And while the North Korean Human Rights Act threw human rights into the mix by force of law, the State Department hasn’t exactly shown enthusiasm for that. This, then, is a hopeful sign:

WASHINGTON – A top State Department official predicted on Thursday that North Korea’s decision to remain isolated internationally will eventually lead to the collapse of its communist government. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said North Korea is showing no interest in taking lessons from the successes neighboring China has enjoyed from its reform program. “It’s a real problem,” Hill said, alluding to North Korea’s self-imposed isolation. “And it’s a problem that will ultimately be their undoing.” He said chronic food production problems along with a dysfunctional health care system are raising doubts about the sustainability of North Korea’s rigid communist system.

Hill testified before the House International Relations subcommittee on Asia and
the Pacific.

Of course, you can’t have effective arms control without effective verification, and you can’t have effective verification without access to secret places. Given that some of North Korea’s most threatening weapons are closely associated with its concentration camps and use of forced labor, it’s hard to believe that there can be meaningful arms control with the North without the North being willing to fundamentally open its society–including its prisons–to the eyes of the outside world.

Secretary Hill didn’t go that far, but this statement is a hopeful sign for those who believe that the answer to both problems–humanitarian and weapons–is lifting North Korea’s the cloak of secrecy. Many will no doubt criticize Hill for having been so direct, but then again, these results are certainly nothing to brag about. Hill also made this pointed statement, reference China:

Hill also said that China, given its close ties with North Korea, shoulders the major responsibility for persuading North Korea to return to six-party talks on the North’s nuclear program. “If China fails to get their good friend North Korea to the table, the six-party process will fail,” Hill said.

To this I’d add something from a conversation with a well-known Korea-watcher at this event, which means I can’t tell you who–but there’s a growing school of thought in Washington that China wants North Korea to be a nuclear power. Aside from China’s studied diplomatic intransigence so far, there is some intelligence to support suspicions about this. Another view that seems to be gaining currency is that China’s leadership is split on whether to take firm action.

My own (recycled) thoughts on why mass starvation alone is unlikely to destabilize the regime here. I’m increasingly of the opinion that North Korea’s power elite will remain unaffected by it as long as they have sources of hard currency.