Comments on: 6 March 2010

By: Alec

Alec — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:37:09 +0000

Hearsay ain’t necessarily bad, but the inherent flaw in blogging is that it tends towards opinion pieces rather than genuine reporting; hence my looking for said primary resources.

I detected a past history between you and the Hankyoreh but maybe, as Orwell said of the Daily Telegraph, what appears there doesn’t have to be false. Two thousand dead in six months sounds quite plausible considering the death toll in the 1990s.

I only have recently started looking for resources on North Korea, so this was an opening question. I don’t know who is whom, and what is what, so can see it’s going to need a great deal of kreminology.

By: Joshua Stanton

Joshua Stanton — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:21:42 +0000

‘Fraid it’s all hearsay, and if I understand your question, my doubts are on open display. That’s the nature of North Korea, and what makes it such a challenge to make sense of what’s going on there.

By: Alec

Alec — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:04:28 +0000

Come now! I said I didn't doubt you, and I had followed the link to comments attributed to Monk Beopryun. Even if this is true (and I have no doubt it is), it is still hearsay. I am genuinely interested in this - as a check of a recent piece on my blog should indicate. The difficulty *is* the paucity in resources on North Korea, hence my visit here.

By: Alec

Alec — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:27:03 +0000

>> cites him as saying that two thousand people have starved to death in North Korea since The Great Confiscation I don't doubt this, but d'you have a primary reference?

[OFK: Read the linked article again. It's in there. Now, as to whether you believe the Hanky's reporting, you're on your own there.]

By: GI Korea

GI Korea — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:40:06 +0000

In response to Glans, I am not an imagery analyst but using the Google Earth imagery I could not make out any obvious similarities. I assume Jane’s has actual imagery analysts that looked at the imagery and saw similarities. However, whatever those similarities are they are obviously not enough to where the launch site is a complete copy of a North Korean launch site.

If I had to guess the NK personnel at the site were probably more advisers to the Iranian construction personnel who made the site instead of the NK personnel actually designing the site themselves.

By: Joshua Stanton

Joshua Stanton — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:14:24 +0000

I disagree with that those companies are doing and think we should sic Treasury on them under Executive Orders 13224 and 13338 if the links to the IRGC can be proven, but that would still be a pretty far cry from directly assisting their nuclear or missile programs.

By: Glans

Glans — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:32:30 +0000

Not sure about missiles. But 49 companies do business with both the US government and Iran. They’re active in Iran’s energy sector, “a huge source of revenue for the Iranian government and a stronghold of the … Islamic Revolutionary Guards”. They’re also involved with “auto manufacturing and distribution … with links to the Revolutionary Guards”. And one supplied motors for IRISL, a “shipping line … subsequentyl blacklisted by the United States for concealing military cargo.”
I don’t want to risk exceeding fair use. Anybody that wants to see what the Times has should visit the Times.

By: Joshua Stanton

Joshua Stanton — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:00:53 +0000

And which of those companies is selling them missiles? I favor effective sanctions on Iran and oppose companies enriching its regime, though I question whether sanctions would be as effective against Iran as they are against North Korea.

By: Glans

Glans — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:27:08 +0000

Axis shmaxis. The NY Times says, “U.S. Enriches Companies Defying Its Policy on Iran.” The article mentions: Daelim Industrial, Royal Dutch Shell, Inpex, Petrobras, Honeywell, Ingersoll Rand, and Halliburton.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/world/middleeast/07sanctions.html?pagewanted=1&ref=global-home

By: Glans

Glans — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:57:10 +0000

The Iranian launch sites don’t resemble North Korean sites, says GI Korea at rokdrop.