Monthly Archive: May, 2005

“Bush Freed Lebanon” is the rather declarative statement of this Lebanese blogger who participated in the mass protests. “Bush had nothing to do with the impetus for our protests in Lebanon. He was the reason we went to bed afterward.” Bush’s Iraq campaign may not have had an effect on us, but it sure had an effect on Syria. Would Syria have exited Lebanon without American pressure and proof that Bush means what he says in the Middle East? Probably...

Freedom House, which won the $2 million contract to promote democracy under the North Korean Human Rights Act, has picked professor Jae Ku to be its North Korea Program Director. My sources don’t know anything about him, but I’ll keep asking around.

Idiocy: The industrialized world’s worst judicial system makes its home in Korea. It places great emphasis on the extraction of confessions, which are a great short-cut to the truth for lazy jurists who’d rather jail the occasional innocent than hit the ground, investigate the facts, or perform a competent cross-examination. Its main truth-engine is a prosecutorial investigative service with powers of lengthy pre-trial detention without habeas corpus (and a few cattle prods, should the need arise). It tends to compensate...

If You Enjoy Reading this Blog, I hope you’ll take a few minutes to oppose government efforts to regulate it. This is a recipe for doing to the Internet what we’ve managed to do to newspapers and radio in this country: overconsolidate control, constrict the flow of ideas past biased editors, and stultify debate.

Dissident Demonstration in Cuba: A great post, with pictures. I’d be disappointed if a USG representative was not there, but I have to say that the presence of the Czech diplomat is uniquely inspiring to me. I’ll say it again: Vaclav Havel would make an outstanding replacement for Kofi Annan.

Is this Bad News? I suspect it’s not. As much as I despise the Uzbek government, I don’t want us to end up in the same situation there as in Iran in 1979. Those in the vanguard of the current “uprising” appear to be completely hostile to democracy. What we should be pushing for is a soft landing for regime change–if it can still be managed–that will allow time for pro-democracy forces to organize, persuade, and gather support. The same...

“Bush Freed Lebanon” is the rather declarative statement of this Lebanese blogger who participated in the mass protests. “Bush had nothing to do with the impetus for our protests in Lebanon. He was the reason we went to bed afterward.” Bush’s Iraq campaign may not have had an effect on us, but it sure had an effect on Syria. Would Syria have exited Lebanon without American pressure and proof that Bush means what he says in the Middle East? Probably...

Dave at No Illusions has a report of another dangerous North Korean provocation. If this doesn’t get our attention, I don’t know what will. If you’re not a regular at NI, this would be a great time to start.

G.I. Korea spotted this article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, quoting gulag survivor and Chosun Ilbo correspondent Kang Chol-Hwan, author of The Aquariums of Pyongyang. The author is none other than DailyNK’s own Young Howard, the same person who invited me to hear Ambassador DiTrani last night. Some excerpts: Fifty-three-year-old Chul-min Kim’s job in “the complete control zone” was to drive trolleys for transporting coal. One day, he saw some chestnut burrs roll down the mountain slope and stop in...

The Marmot gets two tips of the hat today, the first for spotting this review of Jasper Becker’s book, Rogue Regime. Chris Beaumont has praised Becker’s previous book, Hungry Ghosts, about the Chinese famine during the Great Leap Forward years, which cost an estimated 30 million lives. Becker appears to be that rarest sort of person who possesses two traits seldom found in a single individual–compassion and the capacity for reason. In northern China, Becker joined a Chinese shopkeeper to...

One more article that you should really read in its entirety is this piece in Time Asia on South Korea’s pollyannish view of the North. The general facts aren’t anything you don’t already know from reading “The Death of an Alliance” posts here, but it’s makes for great gawk-at-the-trainwreck reading, and some of the man-on-the-street quotes are almost beyond belief. Why add it to the series, then? Because while the media may be late to realize developments, the media catching...

Dave at No Illusions has a report of another dangerous North Korean provocation. If this doesn’t get our attention, I don’t know what will. If you’re not a regular at NI, this would be a great time to start.

G.I. Korea spotted this article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, quoting gulag survivor and Chosun Ilbo correspondent Kang Chol-Hwan, author of The Aquariums of Pyongyang. The author is none other than DailyNK’s own Young Howard, the same person who invited me to hear Ambassador DiTrani last night. Some excerpts: Fifty-three-year-old Chul-min Kim’s job in “the complete control zone” was to drive trolleys for transporting coal. One day, he saw some chestnut burrs roll down the mountain slope and stop in...

The Marmot gets two tips of the hat today, the first for spotting this review of Jasper Becker’s book, Rogue Regime. Chris Beaumont has praised Becker’s previous book, Hungry Ghosts, about the Chinese famine during the Great Leap Forward years, which cost an estimated 30 million lives. Becker appears to be that rarest sort of person who possesses two traits seldom found in a single individual–compassion and the capacity for reason. In northern China, Becker joined a Chinese shopkeeper to...

The Marmot gets two tips of the hat today, the first for spotting this review of Jasper Becker’s book, Rogue Regime. Chris Beaumont has praised Becker’s previous book, Hungry Ghosts, about the Chinese famine during the Great Leap Forward years, which cost an estimated 30 million lives. Becker appears to be that rarest sort of person who possesses two traits seldom found in a single individual–compassion and the capacity for reason. In northern China, Becker joined a Chinese shopkeeper to...

One more article that you should really read in its entirety is this piece in Time Asia on South Korea’s pollyannish view of the North. The general facts aren’t anything you don’t already know from reading “The Death of an Alliance” posts here, but it’s makes for great gawk-at-the-trainwreck reading, and some of the man-on-the-street quotes are almost beyond belief. Why add it to the series, then? Because while the media may be late to realize developments, the media catching...

Thanks to a friend from DailyNK for inviting me to last night’s meeting to the Korea Club. The bad news is that everything there, including remarks by the featured speaker, U.S. Special Envoy to the Six-Party Talks, Ambassador Joseph DiTrani, was off-the-record, and I’m going to keep my word and respect that. The good news is that what I learned will still be useful here, because it will open up new sources of information all of us, and more importantly,...

Dennis Halpin, a senior aide to Rep. Henry Hyde, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, was kind enough to submit a second essay for publication here. Dennis has somewhere around three decades of experience as a diplomat in Asia or as a senior staffer in Congress, where he’s widely regarded as a resident expert. He was also a major force behind the North Korean Human Rights Act. It’s long, thoughtful, and well-researched piece–a must-read for anyone who wants to...