March 7, 2008

Can Kim Jong Il Outlive “Military First?”

In the last two months, I’ve come to believe that the decay of Kim Jong Il’s control of North Korea is accelerating. I’m not quite on board with Jane’s, which predicts imminent collapse, because regime collapse is not proceeding at equal rates in all areas of North Korea, and history tells us that there’s been plenty of dissent in North Korea that the regime was able to contain, localize, and suppress. There are, however, clear signs that chaos is taking...

Kremlinology/Regime Change

March 7, 2008

Another Bleak Report on North Korea’s Food Crisis

In a recent newsletter, the Good Friends, a South Korean aid group, said that only those people in North Korea with relatively good living conditions have managed to live on daily meals, while poorer people have been on the verge of starvation in advance of spring, typically a season in which food shortages are at their most severe. [Hankyoreh] The Hanky, overlooking the impact of the North Korean regime’s own rejection of most international food aid, cites three factors in...

Famine & Food Aid

March 7, 2008

State Dep’t Airbrushes Its N. Korea Human Rights Report

Back during law school, I took the Foreign Service exam, passed on the first try, and interviewed for a job in the State Department. Today, I’d be less ashamed if I’d auditioned for La Cage Aux Folles, so this isn’t easy for me to admit. I flew all the way down to Dallas for the interview phase, only to come face-to-face with a bunch of pony-tailed hippies in suits. If there’s one thing I cannot pretend not to despise, it’s...

Appeasement/Human Rights

Daily Archive: March 7, 2008

Can Kim Jong Il Outlive “Military First?”

Another Bleak Report on North Korea’s Food Crisis

State Dep’t Airbrushes Its N. Korea Human Rights Report