Monthly Archive: December, 2004

Another day, another PR disaster for North Korea. Yesterday, we failed to learn the fate of Megumi Yokota, kidnapped in 1977 at age 13; DNA tests proved that the remains Pyongyang handed over and said were Megumi’s weren’t. North Korea also gave President Koizumi a set of remains it claimed belonged to Kaoru Matsuki, who was kidnapped in 1980 at the age of 26. North Korea claimed that Kaoru was killed in a car accident in 1986. DNA tests released...

Reading the Chosun‘s Washington correspondent’s columns is usually a lot like knitting a sweater out of concertina wire, but this time, he has enough to say on Roh’s appeasement offensive and the direction of U.S. policy to merit reading: The first point that needs to be clarified is that the collapse of North Korea and a regime change are by no means one and the same thing. Collapse signifies ruination on a national, economic and administrative scale, while regime change...

The Chosun quotes a senior Chinese academic as stating that defections of senior North Korean generals and officials are accelerating. The report contains few specifics, so consider it at face value.

Where could such a theory–“impenetrably dense” as it may be–have a better proving ground than a nation governed with all of the meritocratic efficiency of Maoism and the compassion of a Mandarin landlord. The Chinese people are awakening to the Communist Party’s transformation from jailer and executioner to jailer, executioner, and exploiter, with party bosses often ending up with controlling interests in the state-owned enterprises in their districts. Those bosses, without accountability to either voters or unions, are free to...

Two more North Korean diplomats have been caught smuggling drugs–this time from Bulgaria to Turkey. It’s a sad commentary that time in a Turkish prison might be a better fate than being sent home.

Reading the Chosun‘s Washington correspondent’s columns is usually a lot like knitting a sweater out of concertina wire, but this time, he has enough to say on Roh’s appeasement offensive and the direction of U.S. policy to merit reading: The first point that needs to be clarified is that the collapse of North Korea and a regime change are by no means one and the same thing. Collapse signifies ruination on a national, economic and administrative scale, while regime change...

The Chosun quotes a senior Chinese academic as stating that defections of senior North Korean generals and officials are accelerating. The report contains few specifics, so consider it at face value.

Where could such a theory–“impenetrably dense” as it may be–have a better proving ground than a nation governed with all of the meritocratic efficiency of Maoism and the compassion of a Mandarin landlord. The Chinese people are awakening to the Communist Party’s transformation from jailer and executioner to jailer, executioner, and exploiter, with party bosses often ending up with controlling interests in the state-owned enterprises in their districts. Those bosses, without accountability to either voters or unions, are free to...

Where could such a theory–“impenetrably dense” as it may be–have a better proving ground than a nation governed with all of the meritocratic efficiency of Maoism and the compassion of a Mandarin landlord. The Chinese people are awakening to the Communist Party’s transformation from jailer and executioner to jailer, executioner, and exploiter, with party bosses often ending up with controlling interests in the state-owned enterprises in their districts. Those bosses, without accountability to either voters or unions, are free to...

Two more North Korean diplomats have been caught smuggling drugs–this time from Bulgaria to Turkey. It’s a sad commentary that time in a Turkish prison might be a better fate than being sent home.

Specifically, GNP reps have accused an Uri rep of secretly joining the (North) Korean Workers’ Party. Nothing I saw here looked like especially compelling evidence, although if this were true, I’d be about as shocked as Claude Raines discovering gambling in that Moroccan casino.

Specifically, GNP reps have accused an Uri rep of secretly joining the (North) Korean Workers’ Party. Nothing I saw here looked like especially compelling evidence, although if this were true, I’d be about as shocked as Claude Raines discovering gambling in that Moroccan casino.

How does a progressive young South Korean reporter react to a crackdown on dissent? You call it a reform, even if the spin is laughably transparent. Most of the alleged changes in the law–always suspect in a system that’s so arbitrary and (probably) corrupt–have to do with increasing punishments for dissent, public disturbances, and receiving foreign broadcasts. The North Koreans did criminalize some certain property crimes, such as copyright infringement. Those who will see this as proof that North Korea...

How does a progressive young South Korean reporter react to a crackdown on dissent? You call it a reform, even if the spin is laughably transparent. Most of the alleged changes in the law–always suspect in a system that’s so arbitrary and (probably) corrupt–have to do with increasing punishments for dissent, public disturbances, and receiving foreign broadcasts. The North Koreans did criminalize some certain property crimes, such as copyright infringement. Those who will see this as proof that North Korea...

Japan has been understandably insistent on getting a good explanation about the fate of its citizens who were kidnapped by North Korea, to the point of a near-fever pitch among the Japanese public. Political pressure for sanctions had already been building. Get ready for that pressure to reach critical mass now. Last month, North Korea handed Japan what it claimed were the remains of abductee Megumi Yokota. Well, the tests are back, and they’re not Megumi’s remains. Let’s see them...

Japan has been understandably insistent on getting a good explanation about the fate of its citizens who were kidnapped by North Korea, to the point of a near-fever pitch among the Japanese public. Political pressure for sanctions had already been building. Get ready for that pressure to reach critical mass now. Last month, North Korea handed Japan what it claimed were the remains of abductee Megumi Yokota. Well, the tests are back, and they’re not Megumi’s remains. Let’s see them...

It sounds a lot like a belated disavowal of regime change in Bush’s second term. Ominous, if true. The bright spot is the discussion of referring the matter to the U.N., although that will also prove fruitless in the long run, as it has with Iran. Indeed, Roh’s attempt to align himself with France shows just what he is seeking–a toothless deal that sidelines the U.S., along the EU-three model. Note to North Korea–get some oil, and put the U.N....

Well, this really blows. I’m having one of the busiest weeks ever at my job and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center will come to the Dirksen Senate Office Building Thursday to report on his trip to Seoul and the evidence for the North Korean gas chambers. I’d obviously prefer to attend and blog this, but I just can’t. Can anyone else? Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004, 10 a.m. ““ 11 a.m., Dirksen-106. R.S.V.P. required to: erin_mccormick@wilberforce.org.