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March 25, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 35

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld adds the second hint in about a week that more troops cuts are coming for South Korea.  U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on March 23 that South Korea and the United States have agreed on the transfer of wartime command of South Korean forces to South Korea, and that the two nations are discussing a timetable. Rumsfeld confirmed this in a Pentagon news briefing yesterday and commented on the timing of the turnover, saying, “The...

Categories An Alliance?/China/China & Korea/Diplomacy/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Uncategorized/Washington Views
February 27, 2006

Supernotes Scandal to Hit Bank of China; NK Gov’t in Talks with U.S. on Counterfeiting

Via the Chosun Ilbo: The U.S. is preparing to seize more than US$2.67 million from three frozen bank accounts with Chiyu Banking, a subsidiary of Bank of China Hong Kong. The South China Morning Post reported the funds are believed to be the first known link between a Hong Kong bank and North Korea’s underground trade in “supernotes,” or high-quality fake US$100 bills. The accounts belong to an unemployed mainland Chinese woman named Kwok Hiu Ha. The Bank of China...

Categories China/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Defectors/Diplomacy/NK Economics/Uncategorized
February 26, 2006

What Ban Would Bring to the U.N., and to His Party

The U.N.: No Values Necessary What could say more about what’s wrong with the United Nations when a candidate for its top post – an experienced diplomat – would say this publicly? “I don’t think a specific issue like North Korean human rights has a direct connection to the bid for the UN secretary-general’s seat,” Ban told reporters. Asked by a CBS reporter whether the way the South Korean government handles human rights conditions in North Korea could hurt his...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Asia/China/China & Korea/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Uncategorized
February 22, 2006

Congress Criticizes State Dep’t on NK Refugees

[Updated; scroll down] Thanks to a dedicated group of Congressional staffers who forwarded me a scanned copy, which is signed by members of both parties and both houses. I’m going through WordPress hell trying to publish the entire text, but in the meantime, here’s a scanned copy on the Committee’s site.The executive summary is that Congress believes that State is turning away refugees, thus flouting its unanimous will and throwing away America’s credibility on this issue. Update: OK, full scanned...

Categories Activism/Appeasement/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Refugees/Southeast Asia/Uncategorized/Washington Views
February 22, 2006

LiNK Benefit March 1st; Win Cool Stuff!

Update and Correction:   I’m officially a bonehead.   I originally and  incorrectly gave today as the date for the event below; in fact, tonight’s event was at  LiNK’s new office.  The event  described below will take place March 1st.  My deepest, most sincere apologies and a cup of coffee on me to anyone who went to the wrong place!   To make matters worse, I dashed this post off before a day of meetings without  Internet access,  so I had...

Categories Activism/China/Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees
February 19, 2006

When Power Comes from the Wire of a Modem

The Washington Post has a fascinating look at how the Internet forced the Chinese government to retreat – partially – in its censorship of the journal “Freezing Point” (previous posts here). Why didn’t Beijing simply follow Mao’s old “barrel of a gun” formula this time? Because the Chinese economy must sustain sufficiently high growth to absorb a flood of excess laborers from rural areas to preserve social stability, which places China between the Scylla of rising dissent and the Charibdis...

Categories Censorship/China/Geopolitics/Human Rights/NK Economics/WTF?
February 18, 2006

A ‘Freezing Point’ Thaw?

The backlash against Beijing’s closure of the journal “Freezing Point” is growing in both the number and the bravery of those supporting that backlash. The reaction – in no small part due to the focused attention of the New York Times – initially forced Beijing to allow the paper to reopen, but without its two fired editors. Now, those editors have published a scathing and fearless response to the censors in the Forbidden City:

Categories Censorship/China
February 17, 2006

Will U.S. Finally Let in N.K. Refugees?

It’s long past time we did this.  The U.S. government plans to break with long-established policy and start giving asylum to refugees from North Korea. Wording in the 2004 North Korean Human Rights Act that allows it to admit defectors from the Stalinist country has not yet been put into practice due to failure to confirm identities and objections from countries where the refugees were staying. Prominent  activists for human rights in the North – Suzanne Scholte, Jae Ku, and...

Categories Activism/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Diplomacy/Human Rights/North Korea/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Law/Uncategorized/Washington Views
February 16, 2006

Banco Delta Sanctions ‘Severe Blow’ to NK Economy

The Chosun Ilbo, relaying an AWSJ story, reports that the Treasury Department’s action against the Macau-based bank “dealt a severe blow to the secretive country,” “dried up its financial system,” and “brought foreign trade virtually to an end.” In December, I noted reports that North Korean front companies and spies were fleeing Macau en masse. According to today’s story, Banco Delta has now announced that it’s ending its financial ties with North Korea in an effort to prevent a run...

Categories Appeasement/Asia/China/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/NK Economics/U.S. Law/Uncategorized
February 15, 2006

Members of China’s Elite Denounce Censorship

[Updated 2/16; scroll down]   This looks like very good news for China: A dozen former Communist Party officials and senior scholars, including a onetime secretary to Mao, a party propaganda chief and the retired bosses of some of the country’s most powerful newspapers, have denounced the recent closing of a prominent news journal, helping to fuel a growing backlash against censorship. The trigger for the protest letter, which was leaked to journalists, was the closing of a Chinese newspaper...

Categories Censorship/China
February 15, 2006

Stranger Than Fiction: The Pyongyang Charm School

Everyone is ashamed of something in his past.  High on my own list is the time my brother persuaded me to read “The Charm School,” a Nelson Demille spy novel.  The plot premise was that  Moscow took custody American MIA’s from North Viet Nam to create a “charm school,” an exact replica of an  American  neighborhood, complete with American residents.  The idea was to immerse Soviet sleeper agents into their next work assignments. Unlike some other aspects of life in...

Categories Abductions/Activism/Appeasement/Asia/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Japan/Japan & Korea/North Korea/Southeast Asia/WTF?
February 14, 2006

For Now, An Uncensored Portal for China

If you’ve been bummed about both Yahoo and Google helping China censor their Chinese-language internet portals, there’s good news (via Rebecca MacKinnon):  AOL has launched its own Chinese-language portal. Rebecca reports: I can confirm: the search engine on this portal is uncensored. Searches for “Falun Gong” and “Tiananmen Square Massacre” turn up the full range of results from dissident and human rights websites. I can also report that according to my friends in China, so far the AOL Chinese portal...

Categories Asia/Censorship/China
February 13, 2006

‘He Doth Protest Too Much’

Would a statement like this have been uttered by a Korean diplomat ten years ago? Responding to a question about giving greater “strategic flexibility” to the U.S. Forces Korea, Kim said, “Even though I am an ambassador to China, I would say that it is certain that Korea and the U.S. are allies, and as such the bilateral relationship is far stronger than other relationships, which allows us to agree on strategic flexibility. He said China has not so far...

Categories An Alliance?/China & Korea/Uncategorized
February 12, 2006

Has George Bush Finally Put the Fear of God in Kim Jong Il?

Via Kyodo news: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il thinks his government could collapse if the United States continues to impose financial sanctions against the country, diplomatic sources close to the six-way talks on North Korea’s nuclear program told Kyodo News on Saturday. The sources said Kim made the remarks when Chinese President Hu Jintao asked him at their meeting in Beijing last month to drop the lifting of the sanctions as a condition for Pyongyang to return to the...

Categories China/China & Korea/NK Economics/Six-Party Talks/Uncategorized
June 24, 2005

U.S. CALLING CHINA TO THE COURT – WILL IT DO ANY GOOD?

Today’s Washington Post has the story, “U.S. Says China Should Prod N. Korea on Talks,” which does report the president’s position, even if trying to blame him at the same time; The Bush administration blamed China yesterday for not doing enough to cajole North Korea back to nuclear talks… Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph, who recently replaced John R. Bolton… said China, which is a close ally of North Korea and which supplies the impoverished state with oil and food,...

Categories China/Six-Party Talks