Comments on: Happy New Year (With Updates)

By: Tashin

Tashin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:17:29 +0000

Actually, “the man with the greatest insights into North Korean culture” might be a better description, on second thought. It’s just that the view is so often misrepresented it puts him into the “leading experts” conversation.

By: Tashin

Tashin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:10:54 +0000

Just ordered “Nothing to Envy” for my Dad’s birthday. He’s been throwing a few too many “capitalism is to blame” comments around for my liking these days. He needs an upheaval, like the one I underwent when I read “Aquariums of Pyeongyang.”

But as I ordered the book I found that B.R. Myers has a book coming out later this month. I had no idea. Very exciting news. Finally a book from who I consider to be the world’s leading NK expert. Here’s a review by Andrei Lankov.

By: lollabrats

lollabrats — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:50:13 +0000

Ah! Thank you.

By: Joshua Stanton

Joshua Stanton — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:21:07 +0000

You know, KCJ, a more nuanced reading of my comment on Obama wouldn’t necessarily view it as a compliment. I apologize if I’m not inflexibly partisan enough for your tastes, but that isn’t my style. He’s done some things wrong (Iran) and some things right (Afghanistan), but the things I tend to blog about here are things that he’s done, if not quite well, at least much better than I’d expected.

By: lollabrats

lollabrats — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:09:15 +0000

Mr. Stanton, Would you please re-post the file: "StaffordEngJanFeb08.pdf?" Your link seems to have become corrupted. I was able to download "180 2009 Nov_Dec.pdf" fine. I found Captain Stafford's paper for the Aussies informative and well-reasoned and I would like to know more about his thoughts on a post-DPRK world. Thank you.

[OFK: Ask and ye shall receive.]

By: moon over namsan

moon over namsan — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 09:06:38 +0000

The woman on the right is said to be a female fighter pilot.
The man on the left is the current prime minister.
Obviously, the PM has been exhausted from putting out the political fire in Chungchong Province, where local interests are up in arms over government reneging on the promise of relocating part of government institutions.

By: KCJ

KCJ — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 06:23:13 +0000

Kaplan’s article is excellent, as is Bob Collins’ analysis. We are most certainly in Phase V now and the Robert Park situation could help to galvanize the coalition between the underground church and the anti-Juche forces. SEE: collapse of Ceaucescu’s Romania.

By: KCJ

KCJ — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 06:12:41 +0000

The art of politics â€” and no one has mastered this more than Barack Obama â€”

How is it that such an erstwhile intelligent and witty analyst always manages to weave in adulation of America’s least-qualified-in-history POTUS? If Obama was so politically savvy, why did his job approval rate drop from the 70s to the 40s in less than 12 months? If he is so politically astute, why is his mammoth government take over of the world’s most advanced health care system opposed by 61% of Americans? If he is so politically smart, why have zero republicans voted for this socialist ponzi scheme? And finally, if he is so politically above it all, why has the Tea Party Movement propelled the sleeping Right to storm the town halls and send books by Mark Levin, Dick Morris and Sarah Palin to the top of the best seller lists?

Obama is governing against the will of the American people. We will see the results of that in November 2010 with the bloodletting of democrats saddled with Obama’s big government tax-spend-borrow-and apologize for American Exceptionalism overseas record.

Joshua, you are the best analyst out there when it comes to peninsular politics. But you keep laying eggs about Obama in trying to portray him as a competent leader with a traditional American policy vision. He’s a radical, and he is introducing policies that portend to what we say we hate about the DPRK.

By: Joshua Stanton

Joshua Stanton — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:52:33 +0000

No, that’s my own. Thanks.

By: Horace Jeffery Hodges

Horace Jeffery Hodges — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:04:48 +0000

“The art of politics . . . is to promise them just enough so that their hopes can fill in the rest of what you didn’t say.”

Excellent! Is this your own insight? Or are you paraphrasing someone? Anyway, happy new year.

Jeffery Hodges

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