Search Results for: kerry brownback

July 22, 2009

John Kerry Tries, Fails to Stop Amendment Calling for N. Korea to be Re-Listed as Terror Sponsor (Update: Dems Defeat Amendment, 54-43)

Progress on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is always tenuous and remains incomplete. But the regime’s nuclear declaration is the latest reminder that, despite President Bush’s once bellicose rhetoric, engaging our enemies can pay dividends…. Now the president must not prematurely close the books on North Korea’s alleged uranium enrichment activities and nuclear exports. We must ensure there are credible verification and monitoring procedures to ensure North Korea is out of the nuclear business for the long term. —...

Categories Appeasement/Ling/Lee Incident/Sanctions/Terrorism (NK)/U.S. Politics
July 10, 2009

Brownback Introduces Sanctions Bill in the Senate

Thomas still doesn’t have the text for S.1416, though it summarizes the bill as follows: Title: A bill require [sic] the redesignation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, to impose sanctions with respect to North Korea, to require reports on the status of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and counterproliferation efforts, and for other purposes. The bill has two co-sponsors, Kyl and Gregg, both Republicans, although it’s not clear how Democrats will react, given the administration’s mood:...

Categories Ling/Lee Incident/Sanctions/U.S. Politics
June 28, 2009

Sam Brownback Strikes Again

Now, he’s holding the nomination of Kurt Campbell to replace Chris Hill as Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.  Recently, Brownback has used the power of the nomination hold to become the congressional oversight over State’s spectacularly unsuccessful North Korea policy that no one on the Foreign Relations Committee is willing to be.  He’s brought a degree of public scrutiny to some of State’s dumbest decisions, and has managed to slow down — but not stop — the...

Categories Diplomacy/Sanctions/U.S. Politics/Washington Views
March 26, 2009

Chris Hill Lies to Entire Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Sam Brownback’s Finest Hour

[Updated below.] [A]s the current assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, [Christopher Hill] presided over negotiations with North Korea that deliberately minimized focus on the bleak human rights record of that country, ignored its nuclear proliferation, and had the practical effect of affirming its nuclear weapons capability. Hill also has a troubling hotdog tendency to play by his own rules, to the detriment of U.S. diplomacy…. Hill’s brand of cowboy diplomacy might be justified if it...

Categories Human Rights/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics
April 25, 2008

Sen. Sam Brownback Puts Hold on Kathleen Stephens Nomination

Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.  — The Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:8 (37a) Let me be first nice Jewish boy to say it:   “G-d bless Sam Brownback.”  One of the Senate’s oldest traditions  is the nomination  “hold.”  For judicial appointments,  holds are the exclusive prerogrative of home-state senators.  For ambassadors, senate custom allows  any senator  to place a...

Categories Appeasement/Six-Party Talks/U.S. Politics
January 30, 2013

The Whole World Is Watching

Since I started this blog nearly ten years ago, I’ve had one primary objective — to do my small part to make it impossible for people with more influence than me to ignore North Korea’s crimes against humanity.  This week, for the first time, this quixotic campaign does not seem like such an exercise in futility.  Today, everyone on earth seems to be talking about Google maps and satellite imagery of concentration camps in North Korea, even posting fake “reviews”...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/The Camps
December 5, 2012

Ed Royce to become Chairman of House Foreign Affairs

No single member of Congress of either party, in either chamber, is a more persistent advocate of the human rights of the North Korean people than Representative Ed Royce.  Royce represents California’s 40 District in Orange County, which contains a large Korean-American constituency.  Just as the situation in Cuba seemed to inspire outgoing Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen the most, the situation in North Korea has always seemed to inspire Royce the most. Yesterday, I learned that Royce has been selected to...

Categories Anju Links
September 16, 2012

Open Sources, 17 September 2012

NORTH KOREAN REFORM WATCH, PART I: Marcus Noland writes that inflation has risen sharply, and that “macroeconomic instability” has returned to North Korea: Recent anecdotal reports of price changes conveyed in both press reports and in private communications from travelers returning from North Korea suggest a surge in inflation. Simple calculations suggest that the value of the won may have depreciated at an annualized rate of 200 percent or more over the past 6 months, with some evidence of an...

Categories Anju Links
June 11, 2009

House Dems Block Bill Demanding Release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, Re-Listing N. Korea as a Terror-Sponsor

Almost everywhere in Washington, one can sense a seismic shift in the consensus about dealing with North Korea.  Gone are the gauzy fantasies that North Korea’s disarmament is just one more (American) concession away.  You can see this in the Obama Administration’s emerging policy, and you can see it in the think tanks that supply the media much of their analysis.  At an event yesterday, I heard Victor Cha and Jack Pritchard broadly agree on the need for tough sanctions...

Categories Appeasement/U.S. Politics
May 26, 2009

And Now, the Fallout

Kim Jong Il has followed yesterday’s nuke test by firing two more short-range missiles, as a rudderless world tries to decide how to respond.  When you consider each of these developments, ask yourself whether Kim Jong Il could reasonably have anticipated that it would happen.  So far, everything I see happening fits within the range of Kim Jong Il’s calculation of “acceptable consequences.” FOR ONE THING, KIM JONG IL IS PROBABLY BETTING that John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi don’t possess...

Categories "United" Nations/Diplomacy/Proliferation/WMD
April 3, 2009

Hill’s Nomination Held, But Senate Could Override the Hold Today (Update: Hill Still Not Confirmed!)

[Update: The gods of the Senate calendar were not kind to Chris Hill today. Harry Reid and John Kerry tried to bully him into it, but Brownback stood his ground and did not lift his hold. Hill was not confirmed. It may be a short-lived moral victory. After the recess, it will be in the hands of the Senate leadership to get the nomination to the full Senate floor. In any event, North Korea’s missile test will have happened by...

Categories Appeasement/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics
December 14, 2001

Keynote Address by Suzanne Scholte, North Korean Human Rights Conference, Seoul, December 2005

I’d like to thank my friend Suzanne Scholte for forwarding the full text of her keynote address at Freedom House’s North Korean Human Rights Conference in Seoul. Keynote Speech for Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea Remarks by Suzanne Scholte . . . December 8, 2005 I am deeply honored to be a part of this Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea and thank the Organizing Committee and Freedom House for asking me to be one...

Categories Uncategorized