The Chosun’s headline was “Public Turns Against Deployment after Kidnapping.” The factual evidence? An “emergency internet vote” by a Korean search engine, which is compared to another unscientific e-poll on Yahoo Korea.

The “conservative” Chosun Ilbo managed to fit both of the following statements into a single editorial: The most serious barrier in saving Kim is the urgency of time. The government must begin convincing the terrorist group at once through Iraq’s religious leaders and, if necessary, engage in off-the-record negotiations. . . . . However, no matter how precise the plan would be, it may be difficult to totally block out threats of terrorism. Therefore, an important factor would be how...

Just got a note from Norbert Vollertsen, in case you’re in Washington next week: “Faces of Children” conference: Human rights in North Korea Time : June 23 – 24, 2004 Place: The National Presbyterian Church 4101 Nebraska Ave., N.W., Washington D.C. 20016 Organizer: First Presbyterian Church of Midland,Texas Participants: Senator Sam Brownback and other US-politicians,human right activists, Christian leaders and international journalists

If anyone knows who said, “revolution is impossible until it is inevitable,” tell me. I vaguely recall that it was a one of the bloody-minded litter of Bolshevists, but I’m tired of googling for it. In any event, it’s true. Even after all the astonishing events of Europe in 1989, even after we had to catch our breath when the Berlin Wall, none of us expected that seismic shift as a crowd in Bucharest, Romania suddenly broke its silence and...

Vaclav Havel has been one of my two favorite Europeans of my lifetime (along with Margaret Thatcher) since I was a high school kid in who foresaw that the discontent of the oppressed would bring down the Iron Curtain. In 1990, with the few dollars I had earned working in a mine in South Africa (another land that was then enjoying its liberation) I went to Prague to see the aftermath of the revolution. The country had been free for...

The Palestinians, who reacted to 9/11 by dancing in the streets, tore up multiple proposals that would have brought them peace, a viable state, and half of Jerusalem. In their nihilistic and self-destructive fury (about which I blogged here a few days ago) they chose bus-bombings and the cold-blooded machine-gunning of civilians. Where did it get them? According to a column by Charles Krauthammer today, their terror campaign has been suffocated by the Israelis’ targeted killing of the terrorist leaders...

Just got a note from Norbert Vollertsen, in case you’re in Washington next week: “Faces of Children” conference: Human rights in North Korea Time : June 23 – 24, 2004 Place: The National Presbyterian Church 4101 Nebraska Ave., N.W., Washington D.C. 20016 Organizer: First Presbyterian Church of Midland,Texas Participants: Senator Sam Brownback and other US-politicians,human right activists, Christian leaders and international journalists

If anyone knows who said, “revolution is impossible until it is inevitable,” tell me. I vaguely recall that it was a one of the bloody-minded litter of Bolshevists, but I’m tired of googling for it. In any event, it’s true. Even after all the astonishing events of Europe in 1989, even after we had to catch our breath when the Berlin Wall, none of us expected that seismic shift as a crowd in Bucharest, Romania suddenly broke its silence and...

Vaclav Havel has been one of my two favorite Europeans of my lifetime (along with Margaret Thatcher) since I was a high school kid in who foresaw that the discontent of the oppressed would bring down the Iron Curtain. In 1990, with the few dollars I had earned working in a mine in South Africa (another land that was then enjoying its liberation) I went to Prague to see the aftermath of the revolution. The country had been free for...

The Palestinians, who reacted to 9/11 by dancing in the streets, tore up multiple proposals that would have brought them peace, a viable state, and half of Jerusalem. In their nihilistic and self-destructive fury (about which I blogged here a few days ago) they chose bus-bombings and the cold-blooded machine-gunning of civilians. Where did it get them? According to a column by Charles Krauthammer today, their terror campaign has been suffocated by the Israelis’ targeted killing of the terrorist leaders...

The Palestinians, who reacted to 9/11 by dancing in the streets, tore up multiple proposals that would have brought them peace, a viable state, and half of Jerusalem. In their nihilistic and self-destructive fury (about which I blogged here a few days ago) they chose bus-bombings and the cold-blooded machine-gunning of civilians. Where did it get them? According to a column by Charles Krauthammer today, their terror campaign has been suffocated by the Israelis’ targeted killing of the terrorist leaders...

It’s fair to notice that China is taking a modest beating in the Korean press today, a day after it announced the return of seven North Korean refugees to the loving arms of the rehabilitative labor directorate. Here’s the Chosun Ilbo version, and here’s the Korea Herald version. Both suggest that the seven who were repatriated were among the hunger strikers at the Tumen Camp, which brings us back to China’s statement on the subject yesterday: We learned that North...

Look what’s cookin’ in North Korea. You know you’re living in the land of suspended reality when they tell you that pine needles are yummy. Not that the Dear Leader himself would ever eat that stuff. Hat tip: James Taranto. Somehow, I don’t expect to see pine needles as the featured ingredient on Iron Chef any time soon.

It’s emotionally tempting and probably in America’s long-term political interests to pronounce the alliance over and draw up plans to withdraw everyone. For military and economic reasons, however, that’s probably unlikely, and I suspect that the current round of troop reductions (I’ll go out on a limb and predict another one this fall) is likely to remind everyone that a vastly reduced U.S. presence in Korea serves the interests of both countries as long as China continues its military buildup....

Norbert Vollertsen recently e-mailed from Rumor Control in Seoul and added a few splashes of 98 octane to the grill. Here are some unedited excerpts: – increasing talkings from North Korean intelligence officials about an surprise US preemptive attack… Yeah, as well as that come-from-behind win for Kucinich at the Democratic convention, swiftly followed by his surpise marriage to Angelina Jolie. Judgment: Not bloody likely. – There are some rumours among South Korean NIS-officilas here that even a surprise little...

Yesterday’s headlines about the 9/11 Commission hit the whole spectrum of awful journalism, but better reporting is starting to set the record straight. This AP report corrects the record about both President Bush’s pre-war claims and the Commission’s conclusions, and gives one the sense that the commissioners are backpedaling. Today, Kean and Hamilton are both saying that they don’t disagree with the administration’s view (there were contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda) which makes sense, given that the Commission concluded that...

It’s fair to notice that China is taking a modest beating in the Korean press today, a day after it announced the return of seven North Korean refugees to the loving arms of the rehabilitative labor directorate. Here’s the Chosun Ilbo version, and here’s the Korea Herald version. Both suggest that the seven who were repatriated were among the hunger strikers at the Tumen Camp, which brings us back to China’s statement on the subject yesterday: We learned that North...

Look what’s cookin’ in North Korea. You know you’re living in the land of suspended reality when they tell you that pine needles are yummy. Not that the Dear Leader himself would ever eat that stuff. Hat tip: James Taranto. Somehow, I don’t expect to see pine needles as the featured ingredient on Iron Chef any time soon.