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Category: WMD

May 6, 2006

Why We Signed

I grow weary of sounding the death knell of the U.S.-Korea alliance now that it’s just a question of being how fast and how ugly. If anyone is smart and honest enough to offer a cogent defense of it, it’s U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, who has made plenty of enemies in Korea by speaking his country’s views plainly. Now we know that the best justification he can offer is as light, flavorless, and indigestable as styrofoam, and just as easily...

Categories An Alliance?/China & Korea/Diplomacy/Geopolitics/North Korea/Proliferation/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views/WMD
April 30, 2006

‘Barrel of a Gun’

During my recent trip to Korea, I was fortunate to have dinner and moderate quantities of alcohol with several other K-bloggers, including The Marmot, The Flying Yangban, Oranckay, The Drambuie Man (also a S. Dakota native), and Professor Andrei Lankov, who is working on a book on the Korean War, based on material from old Soviet archives. Oranckay picked a restaurant where I had some of the best kalbi I’ve ever eaten, and Robert knew of a beautifully restored old...

Categories Diplomacy/Inside NK/Korean Society/North Korea/Six-Party Talks/WMD
April 4, 2006

Treasury Official: NK Sanctions Are Leaving a Mark

Last week, we heard that Kim Jong Il was trying to wait out President Bush. This week, a new report suggests that the converse may also be true: The U.S. Treasury Department says its ongoing financial sanctions against North Korea put “huge pressure” on the regime that could have a “snowballing … avalanche effect.” Under Secretary Stuart Levy was quoted in the latest edition of Newsweek, which analyzed the possible effect on the regime from Washington’s identification of the Banco...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/China/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/NK Economics/Six-Party Talks/Uncategorized/WMD
April 3, 2006

Lefkowitz Denounces Kaesong Slave Labor; U.S. Continues to Squeeze NK’s Finances

It’s like they’re reading this blog . . . or perhaps great minds just think alike. You may recall that recently, I blogged about a media visit to the Kaesong Industrial Park. Piecing together several excellent reports allowed one to gather: (1) the extraordinary degree of control over the North Korean workers; (2) the extraordinary degree of supervision of the South Korean visitors; (3) the fact that the North Korean workers actually receive just $8 a month, not the widely-reported...

Categories "United" Nations/Activism/An Alliance?/Appeasement/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Diplomacy/Human Rights/NK Economics/North Korea/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views/WMD
March 30, 2006

Congress (Again) Considers Asylum for WMD Witnesses

The provision is similar to one that was a part of the failed North Korean Freedom Act, and was inserted into the Immigration Bill by Senator Sam Brownback, the greatest champion of the North Korean people in that body. Unless you’ve been in a secluded location, you may realize that the House and Senate have yet to bridge major difference in that bill. Still, this quote encouraged me: One Washington source said, “Last year, the North Korea policy was much...

Categories Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees/Washington Views/WMD
March 28, 2006

N. Korean Trade Official Defects

This guy no doubt can tell us where a few bodies are buried (not literally, one hopes): A North Korean employee of a state-run company defected to the South with three family members recently, sources in the Foreign Ministry confirmed yesterday, correcting some media reports that the man was a diplomat. He worked at a trading company run by the government, the ministry sources said. They gave few other details of the matter, citing its sensitivity. Unfortunately, it’s almost a...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Censorship/Defectors/NK Economics/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/WMD
February 15, 2006

U.S. Moves Toward Regime Change Policy in Iran

No, the State Department isn’t using those words, but it’s asking for $85M for broadcasts and for unnamed dissident groups: “We are going to begin a new effort to support the aspirations of the Iranian people,” Ms. Rice said at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We will use this money to develop support networks for Iranian reformers, political dissidents and human rights activists.” . . . . The American aid announced by Ms. Rice is to include $25 million to...

Categories Iran/Resistance/Uncategorized/WMD