Search Results for “"Kim Dong Shik"”

November 16, 2009

Obama’s China Visit a Setback for American Values, Interests

After denying that he has soft-peddled human rights issues with China, President Obama not only did exactly what he denied doing, he even managed to package his message in yet another cringe-inducing apology: Obama acknowledged that the United States has struggled with race relations over the course of its history, but he said America would “always speak out” in favor of free expression, worship, political participation and access to information — which he termed “universal rights.” “They should be available...

China/Human Rights

September 4, 2009

China: Ling and Lee Weren’t Seized on Our Territory

But they don’t say how the know, what they’re basing that conclusion on, or offer any further details to support that conclusion. The journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee said in an article in the Los Angeles Times (http:/link.reuters.com/cug44d) that they strayed into North Korean territory in March when visiting a frozen river that marked the border with China. They said they rushed back to the Chinese side but North Korean guards chased them and dragged them into North Korea....

Ling/Lee Incident

August 24, 2009

Lisa Ling’s Husband Expresses Concern for Refugees; Mitch Koss, Laura Ling, and Euna Lee Remain Silent

The Wall Street Journal has published its own report on the scandal that is becoming a serious threat to (among other things) Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s public image as newsworthy victims. The Journal’s story adds fuel to suspicions that Ling, Lee, and producer Mitch Koss recklessly endangered the lives of refugees and activists by carrying video of them into North Korean territory, or otherwise failed to take measures to prevent that video from falling into Chinese and North Korean...

China & Korea/Ling/Lee Incident/Media Criticism

June 8, 2009

North Korea Sentences American Journalists to Twelve Years of Hard Labor

[Update: Twelve years is also the maximum sentence. Obviously, the North Koreans are sending a message. The message is, “This one is going to cost you.”] North Korea on Monday sentenced two American journalists to 12 years of hard labor in a case widely seen as a test of how far the isolated Communist state was willing to take its confrontational stance toward the United States. The Central Court, the highest court of North Korea, held the trial of the...

Ling/Lee Incident

April 17, 2009

Christopher Hill: Deep Kimchee for Iraq

Of the many things that will be written about North Korea this week, the least likely of these is, “Now there’s the kind of diplomacy we need more of.” Consider just the events of the last few days: the missile test itself, which may have hit closer to home than originally thought; the failure of the United Nations to enforce two of its violated resolutions; the broader failure of deterrence and counter-proliferation; and North Korea’s final repudiation of a February...

Appeasement/Diplomacy/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics

March 30, 2009

One Man’s “Bargaining Chip” Is Another Man’s Hostage

Update: Uh oh: Two American journalists detained at North Korea’s border with China two weeks ago will be indicted and tried, “their suspected hostile acts” already confirmed, Pyongyang’s state-run news agency said Tuesday. The Korean Central News Agency report did not say when a trial might take place, but said preparations to indict the Americans were under way as the investigation continues. “The illegal entry of U.S. reporters into the DPRK and their suspected hostile acts have been confirmed by...

Media Criticism/Refugees/Terrorism (NK)

March 20, 2009

20 March 2009

WHEREVER THEY ARE NOW, LAURA LING AND EUNA LEE are having a rough day, and that’s about all we know for certain. Although it’s not much more than speculation, the L.A. Times’s Barbara Demick suggests that Ling and Lee might have strayed into North Korean territory. Underground railroad hero Chun Ki Won doesn’t think the North Koreans would have crossed into China: “They must have gone in too close, where it was dangerous. I don’t think the North Koreans would...

Anju Links

February 8, 2009

Christopher Hill, Obama’s Choice to Be Iraq Ambassador, Showed Poor Judgment and Dishonesty as N. Korea Negotiator

I guess we can add another name to the list of those who have little use for Christopher Hill, the front-runner to be President Obama’s next ambassador to Iraq: General Anthony Zinni, the former top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said the Obama administration offered him the Baghdad job late last month but withdrew the appointment without explanation, apparently in favor of a veteran diplomat, Christopher Hill. With Zinni fuming in undiplomatic fashion about the way he was treated,...

Diplomacy/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics/Washington Views

July 9, 2008

Obama ‘Pivots’ Positions on N. Korea Terror De-Listing

The New York Sun picks up the story of Kim Dong Shik and Barack Obama’s first broken promise: In an interview yesterday, the executive director of the Korean Church Coalition for North Korean Freedom, Sam Kim, said he traveled to Congress in early June to remind Illinois legislators of a 2005 letter signed by Senator Obama, among others, that called on the North Korean regime to provide details about the case of the Reverend Kim Dong-Shik. Rev. Kim, who helped...

Abductions/Appeasement/Six-Party Talks/U.S. Politics

June 28, 2008

Chris Hill Busted Again

[Update 1 Jul 08: According to a reader tip, the day after I published this post and the photos below, a State Department desk officer contacted Mrs. Kim through supporters to talk about her letter. So Chris Hill can’t tell this particular lie again, but he’s still going to do what he wants to do. The next lie, I suspect, will be delivered directly to Mrs. Kim. It will consist of unenforceable promises to account, eventually, for the fate...

Appeasement/Six-Party Talks/U.S. Politics

June 20, 2008

Why Should We Believe Chris Hill?

Chris Hill is the man in whom Congress will have to invest its trust if it decides to throw away America’s leverage and let the State Department de-list North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism this summer. The terms of Hill’s deal with Kim Jong Il are so hopelessly vague and endlessly flexible that the viability of this whole process rests on two thin and brittle reeds: Kim Jong Il’s good faith and Chris Hill’s veracity. Enough said? If not,...

Abductions/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Refugees/Six-Party Talks/U.S. Politics/Washington Views

May 29, 2008

Barack Obama’s First Broken Promise

I’ve finally obtained a scan of the original letter in which Senator Barack Obama and 19 other members of the Illinois congressional delegation promised not to support de-listing North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism absent a full accounting for the fate of Reverend Kim Dong Shik. Rev. Kim, a U.S. lawful permanent resident, was kidnapped by North Korean agents in China in 2000, while trying to help North Korean refugees fleeing starvation and oppression in their homeland. The...

Appeasement/Terrorism (NK)/U.S. Politics

May 26, 2008

Of Hollow Men: Obama Flip-Flops on Removing N. Korea from Terror-Sponsor List

In March of 2005, I blogged about this letter from the Illinois congressional delegation to the North Korean government, in which all members of the delegation warned Kim Jong Il that they would firmly oppose removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism unless North Korea accounts for the fate of the Reverend Kim Dong Shik, a lawful permanent resident of the United States who had resided in Illinois. In 2002, Rev. Kim was in northeast China...

Japan/Terrorism (NK)/U.S. Politics

April 23, 2008

State Will Tell Congress that N. Korea Was Helping Syria Build a Reactor

Reuters and the Wall Street Journal are both reporting that State is about to give Congress that briefing that it’s long been demanding about what exactly the Israelis bombed in Syria last September. A senior congressional aide and a former Bush administration North Korea specialist said they believed the briefings were designed to persuade members of Congress that removing those sanctions was justified. Latest word, by the way, is that when State publishes its new list of state sponsors of...

Appeasement/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea

January 25, 2008

Kevin G. Hall’s Counterfeit Journalism (Updated)

[Update 28 Jan 08: I’m going to keep flogging this story until I’ve corrected the record. A reader (thank you) directs me to this Bloomberg story by none other than Bradley K. Martin and Hideko Takayama. This one is second only to Steven Mihm’s for the quality of its investigative reporting. If you’ve read Martin’s book, you’ll already know that he’s no neocon collapsist, to say the least. Takayama and Martin interviewed Yoshihide Matsumura, “whose Matsumura Technology Co....

Counterfeiting/Media Criticism/Money Laundering

January 22, 2008

Plan B: How to Disarm Kim Jong Il Without Bombing Him

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. — Albert Einstein Plan A, gentle diplomacy, has again failed to disarm Kim Jong Il. Whenever this happens (every time it’s tried) advocates of doing the same thing over and over again fall back on The False Choice, whether expressly or by implication: it’s their way or war. They know better, of course, which technically makes this a lie. And usually, this lie stands uncorrected: “People lambaste...

Diplomacy/Money Laundering/NK Economics/Six-Party Talks

December 13, 2007

Congressional Research Service issues report on the implications of removing North Korea from the terror sponsor list

Yesterday, a reader and friend was kind enough to forward the entire report to me (thanks!), which I’ve uploaded onto this blog, and which you can access here: crs-north-korea-terrorism-list-removal.pdf Since then, this has generated some press attention in South Korea. The report’s authors are the highly regarded Larry Niksch and Raphael Perl. There’s too much valuable information in there for me to graf and do it justice; this one is a must-read. I’ll limit my comments to a few...

Six-Party Talks/Terrorism (NK)/U.S. Politics/Washington Views

November 27, 2007

Terrorism, Plain and Simple

If you stick with me for a modest amount of law, I promise you that this post will end with a nice little adventure in participatory democracy. But to get there, we must begin with how the United States Code defines “international terrorism,” at section 2331 of Title 18: As used in this chapter – (1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that – (A) involve violent acts or...

Appeasement/Terrorism (NK)

Search Results for: "Kim Dong Shik"