Monthly Archive: March, 2005

The adjustment of alliances according to the inevitable shifting of nations’ interests is a gradual process, but if there’s a single event that can be said to mark the end of a military alliance based on a great nation’s promise to protect a small one, it is the point where the great nation publicly withdraws its promise of protection: [Chairman of the House International Relations Committee Henry] Hyde said the South Korean Defense Ministry omitted from its 2004 white paper...

It’s March, and the South Korean government has cranked up the fightin’ words about Takeshima Tokto . . . which means that we must be about a month until the next South Korean election. More here. I can’t understand that bone-headed Japanese rightists would actually fail to see this connection in picking the timing of a stunt like this one. Certainly not calculated to achieve the desired objective; but it always gets the South Korean red guards stirred up just...

The draft’s English text is here. The bill has a heavy focus on the return of the abductees, but goes far beyond in its human rights implications. Specifically, the bill– Links Japanese aid to improvement in human rights in North Korea; Calls for the government to welcome North Koreans to Japan and to its foreign missions’ Requires that Japan’s diplomats in other countries and at the U.N. work for the protection of North Korean refugees; Provides for government cooperation with–and...

The draft’s English text is here. The bill has a heavy focus on the return of the abductees, but goes far beyond in its human rights implications. Specifically, the bill– Links Japanese aid to improvement in human rights in North Korea; Calls for the government to welcome North Koreans to Japan and to its foreign missions’ Requires that Japan’s diplomats in other countries and at the U.N. work for the protection of North Korean refugees; Provides for government cooperation with–and...

The adjustment of alliances according to the inevitable shifting of nations’ interests is a gradual process, but if there’s a single event that can be said to mark the end of a military alliance based on a great nation’s promise to protect a small one, it is the point where the great nation publicly withdraws its promise of protection: [Chairman of the House International Relations Committee Henry] Hyde said the South Korean Defense Ministry omitted from its 2004 white paper...

I wrote that headline just for Angus and Aaron . . . . This interesting Iran update from Dr. Zin seems to suggest that things are starting to work that way, however: It is being reported that later today the US will also offer trade incentives to Iran to end their nuclear enrichment programs. In exchange, the Europeans have agreed to send Iran to the UN Security Council if their negotiations fail. And once again, Iran flatly refuses to end...

I wrote that headline just for Angus and Aaron . . . . This interesting Iran update from Dr. Zin seems to suggest that things are starting to work that way, however: It is being reported that later today the US will also offer trade incentives to Iran to end their nuclear enrichment programs. In exchange, the Europeans have agreed to send Iran to the UN Security Council if their negotiations fail. And once again, Iran flatly refuses to end...

Curb Your Enthusiasm: My pals on the neo-Right, of course, are beaming all over their faces. None of them is so dim as to think it’s game, set, and match in the Middle East, and they all have the phrase “there are many things that could still go wrong” set up as a macro on their word processors, but let me tell you, in private they are pretty darn cheerful. The phrase “irrational exuberance” comes to mind. —John Derbyshire, self-described...

Tung Resigns: China’s bumbling puppet and surrogate despot, Tung Chee-Hwa, has resigned two years before the end of his term. It’s a partial victory for pro-democracy protestors who turned out in the hundreds of thousands to protect their freedoms. China will try again. A contest of wills with the people of Hong Kong is a contest China knows it can’t afford to lose.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: My pals on the neo-Right, of course, are beaming all over their faces. None of them is so dim as to think it’s game, set, and match in the Middle East, and they all have the phrase “there are many things that could still go wrong” set up as a macro on their word processors, but let me tell you, in private they are pretty darn cheerful. The phrase “irrational exuberance” comes to mind. —John Derbyshire, self-described...

Tung Resigns: China’s bumbling puppet and surrogate despot, Tung Chee-Hwa, has resigned two years before the end of his term. It’s a partial victory for pro-democracy protestors who turned out in the hundreds of thousands to protect their freedoms. China will try again. A contest of wills with the people of Hong Kong is a contest China knows it can’t afford to lose.

A Message to North Korea: U.S. Ambassador to Korea Christopher Hill said Wednesday there was no middle way for North Korea between international isolation and dismantling its nuclear program as a road to economic revival. Contrast this with South Korea’s new ambassador to the United States, who looks more pathetic every day. It seems the meeting with Dennis Hastert might have been enough to throw someone off his game.

South Korean Priorities: Eight North Koreans have entered the Japanese School in Beijing. Perhaps they’ll use more of that “quiet diplomacy” that’s evidently insufficient when it comes to two uninhabited, guano-encrusted islands that are halfway to Japan, or the novel question of just where the United States can send its own soldiers. Meanwhile, the South Korean Human Rights Commission is as vigilant as ever about everything else that can keep its staff of busybodies occupied without saving any actual humans....

Let France Choose Its Ally. France says it wouldn’t dream of being so irresponsible as to sell weapons to the Chinese. . . which explains why they’re trying to lift the arms embargo. A tale we’ve heard before, in Iraq, and France sold them weapons right up to the eve of the war. I say let France sell China arms–which are mostly crappe in any event–and put France and the rest of the EU on the technology control list. Then...

North Korea Travelogue: I have strong reservations about encouraging anyone to travel to North Korea, but I also like reading what visitors have to tell about what they saw there. Ari has published an interesting travelogue, and has since blegged for a link, which he earned in my book by approaching his subject with appropriate skepticism, even if his conclusion don’t all match my own. Don’t miss his “Hotel California” vignette, or his observation that North Korea is whoring off...

Yes, I think the triumphalism is premature, but optimism is another thing entirely. There are growing signs of uppitiness among the once-silent majority of the world’s ordinary people–those not represented in the coffeehouses of Brussels or in the General Assembly. There is nothing inevitable about the success of a revolution; the tyrants can delay the realization of those trends as long as they control the guns. But oppression inevitably breeds discontent and systemic inefficiencies. End caveat; pan to reality. Bloggers...

A Message to North Korea: U.S. Ambassador to Korea Christopher Hill said Wednesday there was no middle way for North Korea between international isolation and dismantling its nuclear program as a road to economic revival. Contrast this with South Korea’s new ambassador to the United States, who looks more pathetic every day. It seems the meeting with Dennis Hastert might have been enough to throw someone off his game.

South Korean Priorities: Eight North Koreans have entered the Japanese School in Beijing. Perhaps they’ll use more of that “quiet diplomacy” that’s evidently insufficient when it comes to two uninhabited, guano-encrusted islands that are halfway to Japan, or the novel question of just where the United States can send its own soldiers. Meanwhile, the South Korean Human Rights Commission is as vigilant as ever about everything else that can keep its staff of busybodies occupied without saving any actual humans....