Archive for November 2006

Dreaming of Kwangju

November 26, 2006 Anti-Americanism, Korean Politics, The Fifth Column 5 comments

Writing in the International Herald Tribune last March, Choe Sang Hun observed that both the number of protests in South Korea and the violence of those protests is rising: ”from 6,857 in 1995 to an average 11,000 a year in the past five years. The number of police officers hurt by demonstrators increased from 331 in 2,000 to 893 last year.” You would not expect this explosion of grievance under a government that pursues redistribution and appeasement all the way to an 11% approval rating, but anarchy loves a vacuum.  Look how much anarchy we saw last week over a Free Trade Agreement that was a dead letter by last spring:

[S]ome 12,000 protestor[s] massed in front of the city government in Gwangju at 4:30 p.m. Some 300 anti-globalization activists among them, who want Korea to end free-trade negotiations with the U.S., attempted to break into the government building, brandishing bamboo and wooden sticks and hurling paving stones they had torn out of the square in front of the building. Dozens of windows shattered and riot police shields were burnt. Protestors also set fire to the city flag above the main gate. The demonstration caused an estimated W420 million (US41=W930) in losses.

Even allowing for the fact that this is, after all, the Chosun Ilbo, hurling stones and attempting to occupy a government building suggests escalation.  The same article follows the trends Ms. Choe had tracked last March:

A total of 11,036 rallies were held between the beginning of this year and the end of October, some 30 a day on average. The total number of protestors stood at 2.92 million during the same period, or some 6,700 taking to the streets every day. Over the whole of last year, the figure was 8,023 a day. 

Violent illegal protests numbered 41, less than 0.1 percent of the total. But the problem is that they are getting more violent. Molotov cocktails, paint and stones were the weapons of choice in the 80s, but today there are homemade guns (a protest in Seoul in November 2003) and flamethrowers (Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province this July). Some blew up a barrel of liquefied petroleum gas in a protest in North Jeolla Province in November 2003. 

In fairness, the left has no monopoly on the use of flammables and other nasty implements for protesting, but two groups on the far left are probably responsible for most of the violence:  Hanchongryon and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, both of which are now beyond the point of denying the substantial influence North Korea exercises over them.  If I’m right, we will soon say goodbye to an interlude in which South Korea’s protest culture, whatever its other faults, seldom got anyone seriously hurt or killed.  Things will get worse, because Korea’s radical left probably knows that another Kwangju is one of the few things that can reenergize it before the next election, or prevent the election of a conservative government with both the will and the means to outlast Kim Jong Il’s.  This would represent more than an ordinary electoral setback.  If the North Korean regime thinks it might cease to exist without South Korean aid money, there’s no telling what levers it would pull to prevent such a development. 

It’s scary to consider the circumstances:  South Korea’s Fifth Column is in danger of being exposed, although the government has managed to quiet down the Il Shim Hue scandal for now.  But if I were one of its agents, I wouldn’t patiently wait another year for an election that would bring the GNP to power, uproot my network from its positions of hard-won influence, and very possibly land me in a jail cell.  First, I’d spend some quality time with my shredder.  Then, I’d make as much trouble as I possibly could.

Raking Muck in Pyongyang

November 23, 2006 Famine & Food Aid, Inside NK 3 comments

The DailyNK strips off the emerald goggles to show us a much grittier view of life in Pyongyang. Â Â 

It also has another update on the food situation.  It’s not good.

Betraying Sergeant Chang

November 23, 2006 Abductions, Appeasement, Korean War 2 comments

What else can be said about something like this?  It’s easy enough to blame the girl on the phone, but in light of past events like this, the more salient questions are (1) whether she was just following orders.

More on how ROK POW’s lived in North Korean captivity here and here.  And Staff Sergeant Chang’s pain didn’t end when he escaped, either:

Chang Moo-hwan, 79, a third POW who returned to South Korea after the defection of Cho, said that due to worries over the lives of his wife and five children he left in North Korea, he suffers serious pain now.

 

Chang, who returned in October 1998, heard one year after his return that his family was taken somewhere.

 

Chang said yesterday, “I feel guilty because my family might have been suffering great pain because of me. I want our government to just let me know whether or not they are alive.

Score One for the ‘Barrel of a Gun’ Theory

November 23, 2006 Inside NK, Kremlinology 2 comments

Look what the Partei is telling the proles:

At a people’s meeting in Hoiryeong, citizens were educated on the justice of North Korea’s nuke experiment and the economic aftereffects of the nuke experiment. An organizer of the people’s meeting in Hoiryeong said “The nuclear experiment has broken all of U.S. North Korea pressure policies and we have successfully shown the whole world that our socialism is good. Now, beginning from the nations of the six-party talks, countries around the world are in fear of our nuclear armaments.

Background here; the general idea is that Kim Jong Il’s otherwise inexplicable missile and nuke tests, for which he paid a severe diplomatic and economic price, were done to show his own people and military that his weapons programs were an effective way to extort goodies from the rest of the world — to disguise the world’s charity as protection money.
I suspect that the North Korean people will buy about half of this.  Deprived of much individual pride or self-esteem, they might be tempted to affix themselves to national pride.  People have an inexhaustible appetite for nationalism; it just never goes out of style.  Ditto anti-Americanism, which is based on something else that has timeless appeal:  envy.  But I also think that they simultaneously blame their government for their suffering, and many of those who would valiantly resist a U.S. invasion (as if) under some circumstances would just as valiantly resist their own government if given a chance, and that many or most would leap at the opportunity to live in America.  And dissent is obviously spreading, or the regime would not make this tacit admission:

Furthermore, on two occasions Sept 29th and Oct 4th, the leader of the unit announced a declaration in accordance to the “General (Kim Jong Il)’s policy” around the districts of the border to “abolish anti-socialist trends” such as aiding undercover border-crossing, smuggling, secretly listening or importing radios and circulating illegal recorded materials.

Not to be missed:  the loyalty oaths that include preemptive acceptance of punishment for the aforementioned.

Minutes of the U.N. Debate on Human Rights in North Korea, With Comments

November 21, 2006 "United" Nations, Human Rights One comment

Background:  The North Korean government government has plunged the world into crisis with a weapons buildup paid for at the cost of two million North Koreans who were starved to death.  The world’s most repressive and belligerent regime has finally and narrowly drawn the diffident and non-binding disapproval of the U.N. General Assembly.  And even this was highly controversial to some.  The quality of the debate is so depressing as to overpower the quality of the result, such as it is.

If you wonder why the U.N. can’t articulate consistent moral standards or unite the nations, read on.  As you do, consider a few simple arguments.  If you presume that all innocent life has equal value, then it follows that the U.N. should focus on where the most innocent lives are in danger.  If you believe that there are moral gradations in cruelty and the suffering that it causes, then it follows that the U.N. should focus where suffering is greatest.  If you believe that Article 51 of the U.N. Charter remains in effect, then it follows that the U.N. should also draw moral distinctions between the deliberate mass murder of innocents and defense against the deliberate mass murder of civilians.  If you believe that the U.N. has a role as a global lawgiver, then it follows that it must give its laws with some consistency.  Now, ask yourself if this moral and legal logic has swayed the proctors of the Global Test: Read more

The Case for Starving the People

November 21, 2006 "United" Nations, Famine & Food Aid, Kim Jong Il, Korean Education, Washington Views No comments

I noticed this interesting graf in a story about the effect of the luxury items sanctions in UNSCR 1718.  For reasons that escape me entirely, some people believe that it’s counterproductive to bar Kim Jong Il from buying sashimi, S-Class sedans, and Omega watches while his people are starving – to – death, some seem so quick to forget.

Over past years, U.S. leaders have described the North Korean regime as an axis of evil, an outpost of tyranny, an outlaw regime, and most recently a kleptocracy. Bush released a statement on it on Aug. 10 that said it was a U.S. objective to muster international cooperation to defeat kleptocracies.

His statement did not pinpoint North Korean leaders as the target of this new maneuver, but his undersecretary for economics, business and agricultural affairs, Josette Sheeran Shiner, told reporters in Washington, D.C., on the same day that the Stalinist state is “something very central” in Bush’s new scheme.

That’s an encouraging statement, considering where Ms. Sheeran is headed in the near future.  Let’s hope that the talk will translate to effective action.  Now listen to what a pro-appeasement academic draws from this:

“It means the United States has no willingness to negotiate with Kim Jong-il, because Washington thinks he is not a leader to talk with but a bandit who should be expelled,” Paik said. “So the United States and Japan are joining forces to use all kinds of measures to pressure the Kim Jong-il regime.”

This is precisely the point that Paik and those of like mind do not grasp:  pressure is not inconsistent with effective negotiation.  Sometimes, it is impossible to have effective negotiations without putting pressure on your interlocutor.  It’s also an odd point for any Korean to forget, when you consider that in Korea, you can hardly buy a fish for your dinner without at least a medium-pressure negotiation.  And this:

“It is tantamount to define Kim Jong-il as a bandit who extorts money from the poor,” Paik said.

The horror.  ht:  Richardson, who has more comment, and don’t miss the quote from Adrian Hong, which I hope isn’t wishful thinking.

The Horse Is Dead, Already

November 21, 2006 Anti-Americanism, NK Economics, U.S. & Korea One comment

Update:  And remember, kids, they’re not anti-American.  No, this is not Pyongyang.  Sadly, it’s the very building where I got married.  Until today, I never knew that the road back to the Third World passed it.

Original Post:  There can’t possibly be more than a 10% chance that there will be a U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement before 2010, and that assumes that the Democrats lose control of Congress in 2008.  The window has closed.  So why on earth must we be subjected to this?  Answer:  it obviously makes some people feel good to do it.

South Korean activist groups said Tuesday that nationwide mass rallies against a free trade agreement (FTA) between South Korea and the United States are scheduled for late Wednesday.

More than 300,000 people are to participate in the street rallies, which will take place in 13 cities in South Korea, the Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. FTA said.

It added that major protest rallies are expected in Seoul and Kwangju, where about 50,000 people are expected to participate.

While the alliance said they will stage peaceful protests, police worry they may turn violent.

If ever there was a case of people getting precisely what they deserve, this is it.  Korea is the big loser in the failure of the FTA.

OhMyLosingMoney

November 21, 2006 Blogs & Blogging, Media Criticism 3 comments

This despite free money from a friendly Blue House.  I echo GI Korea’s objections to this statement:

OhmyNews execs say the biggest difference between blogs and their service is the role of professional journalists. Blogs don’t have the credibility of OhmyNews, where professionals screen, edit, and fact-check stories from ordinary folks to filter out inaccuracies and potentially libelous claims, the company argues. Whether that kind of quality control will differentiate OhmyNews from competing sources of news and commentary remains to be seen. For the moment, though, the company remains long on idealism but short on a workable business strategy.

Simply laughable.  I wonder how long OMN would last if it were to suddenly fall under the jurisdiction of U.S. (or British!) libel laws.  What has always astonished me is that this online “news” service doesn’t do what blogs do — actually link to reliable sources to prove the facts it cites.  As a result, you get some real whoppers, to say nothing of the general absence of balance or logic.  I’m all for a diversity of views, but I don’t think the quality of public debate is improved by shoddy reporting and bad logic.  Let the marketplace be heard.

To be fair, OMN gets credit for this piece of good reporting, a few good interviews, and plenty of great demonstration pics.  What is the common denominator?  Well, with the exception of the first piece, OMN can report competently as long as it plays no role in writing or editing the final product. 

Read the rest here.

Kumgang Revenues Continue to Decline

November 20, 2006 "United" Nations, Appeasement, Korean Politics, NK Economics 3 comments

Whether it’s because of the diminishing appeal of tyranny tourism or North Korea’s sheer belligerence, South Koreans have never been less enthusiastic about the Kumgang tourist resort:

Tour organizer Hyundai Asan on Sunday said fewer than 300 tourists now visit Mt. Kumgang over the weekend. During the same period last year, weekend visitors to Mt. Kumgang numbered 400-500. The number of ordinary tourists has dwindled to fewer than 2,000 bookings for December tours, but activist groups have booked the tours in an effort to support the inter-Korean business project, boosting numbers to 4,000, Hyundai Asan said.

Would Kumgang survive without South Korean subsidies?  Would South Korea be able to afford them without if American taxpayers did not subsidize its defense against a common enemy?  Does anyone have any idea where that money goes?

Actually, we do.

So Much for North Korean Perestroika

November 20, 2006 Appeasement One comment

The North Koreans have been spying at Kaesong, at least according to an opposition lawmaker.  I’m shocked, shocked to see Big Brother at work in North Korea.

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