Monthly Archive: May, 2005

As you may recall, the North Korean Human Rights Act (specifically, section 107) created a new position of Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea. As of last week, none of my impeccable sources knew who this person would be–one heard the rumor yesterday–so this does appear to be a very new development. And he appears to be an excellent choice, judging by the panic in the South Korean press: Officials connected with the North Korean human rights movement...

Before and After: A nice photo montage. I especially like the last one.

Not Good: North Korea’s most recent missile launch turns out to have been a real missile–a Soviet SS-21 of relatively recent 1974-vintage. I paid the story little attention initially, thinking that it was another Silkworm or Sunburn anti-ship missile. Since large numbers of short-range missiles of this type could target cities and military bases in the South, and because their low trajectory makes them harder to intercept, it’s a more significant provocation. Update: More here.

Joseph DiTrani has warned North Korea that “the international community has ‘a very strong position’ on the possible export of nuclear materials by Pyongyang.” Everyone from the South Korean Foreign Ministry to Congress and the White House are showing signs that their patience with North Korea’s b.s. has expired at last. So exactly what has this guy been smoking? Earlier this month, Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Center for International Policy, told reporters in Beijing...

In the wake of its modest election beating and newly-implausible deniability that Sunshine has failed to do anything but exacerbate North Korea’s intransigence, could these be the first hints that we have entered the post-Sunshine age? Chun Young-Woo, the Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Policy Director, was in New York last week at a conference on the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and said this: Addressing a second-day session, Chun, who heads the South Korean delegation, said, “Although we will continue...

Not Good: North Korea’s most recent missile launch turns out to have been a real missile–a Soviet SS-21 of relatively recent 1974-vintage. I paid the story little attention initially, thinking that it was another Silkworm or Sunburn anti-ship missile. Since large numbers of short-range missiles of this type could target cities and military bases in the South, and because their low trajectory makes them harder to intercept, it’s a more significant provocation. Update: More here.

Joseph DiTrani has warned North Korea that “the international community has ‘a very strong position’ on the possible export of nuclear materials by Pyongyang.” Everyone from the South Korean Foreign Ministry to Congress and the White House are showing signs that their patience with North Korea’s b.s. has expired at last. So exactly what has this guy been smoking? Earlier this month, Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Center for International Policy, told reporters in Beijing...

In the wake of its modest election beating and newly-implausible deniability that Sunshine has failed to do anything but exacerbate North Korea’s intransigence, could these be the first hints that we have entered the post-Sunshine age? Chun Young-Woo, the Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Policy Director, was in New York last week at a conference on the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and said this: Addressing a second-day session, Chun, who heads the South Korean delegation, said, “Although we will continue...

According to the report, another must-read, natural curiosity and market forces are doing what a decade of the Sunshine Policy and government-controlled trade couldn’t do–open up North Korean society. . . . North Korea, long one of the world’s most isolated societies, has grown vulnerable to the flow of information from the outside world. North Koreans are watching Western movies on hidden video players and tuning in to Korean-language broadcasts from the South on illicit radios. In the border regions,...

According to the report, another must-read, natural curiosity and market forces are doing what a decade of the Sunshine Policy and government-controlled trade couldn’t do–open up North Korean society. . . . North Korea, long one of the world’s most isolated societies, has grown vulnerable to the flow of information from the outside world. North Koreans are watching Western movies on hidden video players and tuning in to Korean-language broadcasts from the South on illicit radios. In the border regions,...

The final Washington-area event of North Korea Freedom Week was a prayer vigil at a Maryland church last Saturday evening. I should have attended, but instead took pity on my neglected family, who had become a blogger’s widow and orphans over the course of the previous week. Dennis Halpin, who is a senior aide to Representative Henry Hyde, the retiring Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, spoke, and he was kind enough to send me the text of his...

The final Washington-area event of North Korea Freedom Week was a prayer vigil at a Maryland church last Saturday evening. I should have attended, but instead took pity on my neglected family, who had become a blogger’s widow and orphans over the course of the previous week. Dennis Halpin, who is a senior aide to Representative Henry Hyde, the retiring Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, spoke, and he was kind enough to send me the text of his...

I simply lack the time to completely respond to Nick Kristof, but having spent a few hours assembling some facts, I realize they speak more persuasively than most of the arguments I could offer. Here is the statement Kristof uses to open his argument: “How many nuclear weapons did North Korea produce in Bill Clinton’s eight years of office . . . ? The answer to the first question, by all accounts, is zero. Never mind that neither Kristof nor...

Korea won’t stop tormenting Sgt. Mark Walker, whom you will recall was one of two soldiers inexplicably put on trial for that tragic accident that killed two Korean schoolgirls in 2002. The MBC cameras are still following Walker around in his home town: Mark Walker, the former U.S. Forces in Korea sergeant who drove the vehicle told MBC’s current affairs program “W” broadcast Thursday he lost 25 kg in the three or four weeks after the accident and was still...

Putinization Update: South Korean journalists say press freedom continues to worsen. They hold Roh responsible.

I simply lack the time to completely respond to Nick Kristof, but having spent a few hours assembling some facts, I realize they speak more persuasively than most of the arguments I could offer. Here is the statement Kristof uses to open his argument: “How many nuclear weapons did North Korea produce in Bill Clinton’s eight years of office . . . ? The answer to the first question, by all accounts, is zero. Never mind that neither Kristof nor...

Korea won’t stop tormenting Sgt. Mark Walker, whom you will recall was one of two soldiers inexplicably put on trial for that tragic accident that killed two Korean schoolgirls in 2002. The MBC cameras are still following Walker around in his home town: Mark Walker, the former U.S. Forces in Korea sergeant who drove the vehicle told MBC’s current affairs program “W” broadcast Thursday he lost 25 kg in the three or four weeks after the accident and was still...

Putinization Update: South Korean journalists say press freedom continues to worsen. They hold Roh responsible.