Monthly Archive: March, 2005

Uri Has Officially Lost Its Parliamentary Majority. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Lee Chul-woo, who was fined W2.5 million for making false claims during his campaign in the last general election. It also upheld a conviction and W3 million fine for lawmaker Kim Maeng-gon for abusing an official from the National Election Commission. With the decision, both lawmakers lose their seats in the National Assembly. In actual practice, it will continue to be able to count on enough...

Religious Oppression: While it may seem obvious enough that there’s no religious freedom in North Korea, a detailed new report by David Hawk, who has already documented the North’s gulag system, is certain to be illuminating.

An advisor to the U.S. Congress said Friday a resolution drafted in 2003 to commemorate 50 years of the Korea-U.S. alliance died a quiet death in the House over anger in Congress at anti-American demonstrations in Korea. Rest the rest here. The advisor, Dennis Halpin, works for Henry Hyde. His wife is Korean, and he met her as a young Peace Corps volunteer. He’s considered one of the House’s go-to men on Korea policy. It’s friends like these that Korea...

Uri Has Officially Lost Its Parliamentary Majority. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Lee Chul-woo, who was fined W2.5 million for making false claims during his campaign in the last general election. It also upheld a conviction and W3 million fine for lawmaker Kim Maeng-gon for abusing an official from the National Election Commission. With the decision, both lawmakers lose their seats in the National Assembly. In actual practice, it will continue to be able to count on enough...

Religious Oppression: While it may seem obvious enough that there’s no religious freedom in North Korea, a detailed new report by David Hawk, who has already documented the North’s gulag system, is certain to be illuminating.

The White House has added its say to the Washington Post’s sensational–and almost certainly false–claim that it “misled” U.S. allies about North Korean proliferation of uranium by “concealing” the fact that Pakistan acted as middleman in that transfer. “U.S. Misled Allies About Nuclear Export,” the March 20 front-page story about nuclear material exported to Libya, was flat wrong. Our allies were not “misled” by the United States about North Korea’s proliferation activities. We provided an accurate account of the intelligence...

Well, well . . . and what did I happen to see in today’s Letters to the Editor? A map included with the March 17 news story “Islands Come Between South Korea and Japan” used the terms “East Sea” and “Dokdo.” Regarding the term “East Sea”: Japan believes it is essential to refer to this body of water as the “Sea of Japan,” a name used widely by the global community since the early 19th century. Although South Korea asserts...

Why Do Red-Staters Despise the East Coast Media? Perhaps it has something to do with stories like this one, with their sophisticate condescension crudely disguised as compassion, help to explain: Stuart, named for the Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, has always sent its sons off to war. On the courthouse lawn, the World War II memorial bears 64 names. The Vietnam War memorial lists seven men who did not come home. High unemployment has caused many of Stuart’s young to seek...

The White House has added its say to the Washington Post’s sensational–and almost certainly false–claim that it “misled” U.S. allies about North Korean proliferation of uranium by “concealing” the fact that Pakistan acted as middleman in that transfer. “U.S. Misled Allies About Nuclear Export,” the March 20 front-page story about nuclear material exported to Libya, was flat wrong. Our allies were not “misled” by the United States about North Korea’s proliferation activities. We provided an accurate account of the intelligence...

The White House has added its say to the Washington Post’s sensational–and almost certainly false–claim that it “misled” U.S. allies about North Korean proliferation of uranium by “concealing” the fact that Pakistan acted as middleman in that transfer. “U.S. Misled Allies About Nuclear Export,” the March 20 front-page story about nuclear material exported to Libya, was flat wrong. Our allies were not “misled” by the United States about North Korea’s proliferation activities. We provided an accurate account of the intelligence...

Well, well . . . and what did I happen to see in today’s Letters to the Editor? A map included with the March 17 news story “Islands Come Between South Korea and Japan” used the terms “East Sea” and “Dokdo.” Regarding the term “East Sea”: Japan believes it is essential to refer to this body of water as the “Sea of Japan,” a name used widely by the global community since the early 19th century. Although South Korea asserts...

Why Do Red-Staters Despise the East Coast Media? Perhaps it has something to do with stories like this one, with their sophisticate condescension crudely disguised as compassion, help to explain: Stuart, named for the Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, has always sent its sons off to war. On the courthouse lawn, the World War II memorial bears 64 names. The Vietnam War memorial lists seven men who did not come home. High unemployment has caused many of Stuart’s young to seek...

Although I’ve been deeply interested in Central Asia for many years, it’s been difficult to get inordinately excited about events in Kyrgyzstan, given that I don’t yet know just who composes the opposition. There’s not much to be gained from replacing one dictator with another, and there’s certainly always room for things to get worse. It seems that the previous president was a Soviet holdover, but a less ruthless one than his neighbors in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. I’m always ready...

Add Stratfor to the list of pundits veering sharply from bearish to bullish on Iraq. Success, as they say, has a thousand fathers. Failure grovels, disowned and bitter, for a dollop of gruel (more fun here). The best news of all is the role being played by the Iraqi people in turning against the terrorists, via this fascinating AP report: The raid at Lake Tharthar in central Iraq turned up booby-trapped cars, suicide-bomber vests, weapons and training documents, Iraqi Maj....

. . . lest anyone get too carried away with optimism about the Middle East. According to the AP, these boys are Fatah. That would be the ruling faction of Mahmoud Abbas. I realize that mentalities can only change so much overnight, but . . . .

Although I’ve been deeply interested in Central Asia for many years, it’s been difficult to get inordinately excited about events in Kyrgyzstan, given that I don’t yet know just who composes the opposition. There’s not much to be gained from replacing one dictator with another, and there’s certainly always room for things to get worse. It seems that the previous president was a Soviet holdover, but a less ruthless one than his neighbors in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. I’m always ready...

A must-read in today’s New York Times. My wife’s mother died of kidney cancer five years ago yesterday, so this passage plunged me into a dark gloom: “We have no friends, and no future, nothing at all, really,” said the soft-spoken older sister, Hae Jon, 17. “But if we stay here, at least we have enough to eat. In our country, we could go for days without eating.” Within months, according to an underground network of people who help support...

Add Stratfor to the list of pundits veering sharply from bearish to bullish on Iraq. Success, as they say, has a thousand fathers. Failure grovels, disowned and bitter, for a dollop of gruel (more fun here). The best news of all is the role being played by the Iraqi people in turning against the terrorists, via this fascinating AP report: The raid at Lake Tharthar in central Iraq turned up booby-trapped cars, suicide-bomber vests, weapons and training documents, Iraqi Maj....