Comments on: 17 March 2010

By: Glans

Glans — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:17:11 +0000

You do Kremlinology? Check this out: The NY Times says that Reuters says that KCNA says that the People’s Assembly will meet in Pyongyang on April 9. That might be a good time to see who’s in and who’s out. Maybe they’ll even confirm the execution of Pak Nam-ki.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/03/20/world/international-uk-korea-north-parliament.html?_r=1

By: kushibo

kushibo — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:43:07 +0000

The Pax Americana has kept Northeast Asia and Europe â€”Â two areas where major wars tended to rage every few years â€”Â very, very calm and problem-free.

Prudent countries tend not to think their formerly aggressive neighbor simply saying “oh, we’re different from the past” is a good enough reason not to arm themselves if that past enemy re-arms in its current form. And therein lies the problem.

Imperial Japan may be gone, but Japan has several outstanding territorial disputes from the pre-1945 era which neither they nor the others in the disputes are willing to give up. Minus the Pax Americana, Northeast Asia would quickly turn into a powder keg, and it could easily be lit by any spark.

And that would likely drag the US right back into it. The cost of Pax Americana is money well-spent on preventative medicine.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:03:03 +0000

I’m all for the re-militarization of regional allies like Japan and Germany. Why waste American defense dollars on trying to man all of these cold war outposts? They’re not Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan anymore. The peace treaties preventing re-armament have become totally archaic. Plus, who will they buy all the defense technology from, and who will they hire to train all the new officers? Economic beneift and military exposure reduction.

By: Joshua Stanton

Joshua Stanton — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:23:43 +0000

James, I suppose it’s possible that the North Koreans flagged and crewed the tanker, but that someone else owned it. Good point.

By: kushibo

kushibo — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:52:28 +0000

North Korea executes their scapegoat for the Great Currency Obliteration/Confiscation.

By: kushibo

kushibo — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:17:47 +0000

I wondered the same thing. And how does a North Korean ship end up getting named Theresa?

By: james

james — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:22:36 +0000

joshua, just curious about that ransom thing.

are you sure the NKs paid it? or was it the owner of the ship?

like KJI cares about 28 NKs being held.