Monthly Archive: July, 2005

Sharansky spoke three times–in an address to the group, in a Q&A forum beside Kang Chol-Hwan, and in a rather sparsely attended press conference (as always, watching the press turns out to be just as interesting than watching the speaker). Sharansky was introduced by Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy, and his introduction contained two significant statements: first, that “a dissident movement in North Korea will come in [due] time;” and second, that “people with the moral...

I walked out of the conference with eleven pages of handwritten notes. Clearly, that exceeds the level of your own interest, so I’ll break the postings up over time, as I get the chance to write them. Overall, it ran like the Tokyo train system–on time, efficient, and more than able to accomodate the large crowds it attracted. There were between 300 and 500 people there, depending on the time of day, the peak being when Sharansky and Kang Chol...

Blogging will be light for the rest of the day while I’m at the Freedom House Conference. Meanwhile, LiNK has called a rally in front of the South Korean Embassy. Before you scroll down and read the full statement, check out this flyer, which is a much-improved version of my own prototype. Since I came up with that design, comparing South Korea’s policy to the old Fugitive Slave Act, Jasper Becker’s book has come out with a of a Chinese...

They can’t ignore our message anymore. In addition to the intense interest they’ve paid to today’s Freedom House Conference, they’re on the op-ed pages, too. Won Joon Choe e-mailed me (thanks) to point out this letter, published in yesterday’s New York Times, in response to this piece, again by Jasper Becker: “Dancing With the Dictator,” by Jasper Becker (Op-Ed, June 9), is an unwarranted criticism of South Korea’s policy toward North Korea. Mr. Becker alleges that “the government tries to...

For new readers, Won Joon-Choe and I are debating the future of the U.S.-Korea alliance. I generally favor a dramatic downsizing, but not the elimination, of the USFK. Mr. Choe favors keeping the alliance in it current form. The debate began with Mr. Choe’s recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. My response to the op-ed is here, and Mr. Choe’s counterpoint today is here (my apologies in advance for moving it off the main page due to its length;...

Our “allies” in Yemen have found a novel way to silence the opposition. The government security guard took over their headquarters. Did the government arrest him? Nope. It recognized him as the head of the party.

Between The American Enterprise Institute and Korea. Background.

James Chen has some thoughts on assisted suicide, a subject whose dreariness has probably deterred me from serious thought about it so far. I’m cringing at the thought of Kristof’s soft-ball treatment of North Korea in his next “exposee” column on how President Bush failed to take advantage of Kim Jong Il’s eagerness to engage.

Here’s a prisoner non-abuse story that the papers won’t touch. Watch this video. Then read how the story ends. Apparently, some consider killing an appropriate time to invoke allah’s name (which makes their concept of allah a lot like my personal concept of satan). Now, I realize I’m letting one example of a wider evil turn into a generalized rant, but who can name just one moderate Muslim of any prominence? Secularists–who are simply trying to elbow some of the...

The Joongang Ilbo seems to expect Freedom House to have moved or cancelled its North Korea conference, scheduled months ago, on account of the fact that Kim Jong-Il waited thirteen months and then decided to come back and parlay. Depressingly, someone appears to have had some success at dulling the message: Measures are being taken to avoid unncessarily riling North Korea. An exhibition titled “Kim Jong-il’s crimes against humanity” that planned to show how the leader abuses its people along...

I’ve never been less persuaded that “connectivity” has defanged China, particularly given a Chinese general’s crude nuclear threat against the United States yesterday. Make no mistake: the statement was no gaffe. It represents the opinion of at least a substantial sector of China’s military. And they are watching how we respond. China has reinvented itself as a nationalist empire with socialist vestiges (credit me for not saying “national socialist empire”). They see us as an enemy. We are in an...

I’ve been tagged for music now. What track has been running through my mind lately? Easy answer. Prokofiev’s sublime Symphony No. 5. When I brought it up in my book tag, a reader e-mailed me to tell me that he’s played orchestral piano for it at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, where the symphony first premiered. What is so remarkable about the Soviet composers of that era is that they managed to testify vividly about the grimness, the...

With the news that Rep. Henry Hyde, R. Ill., Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, will soon retire, the race for succession appears to have begun in earnest. Two of the names most frequently mentioned as successors are those of Republican congressmen Dana Rohrabacher of California and Dan Burton of Illinois. Other candidates include Republican Reps. Jim Leach of Iowa, Chris Smith of New Jersey, Ed Royce of California, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida. With the exception of Burton,...

Seventy years of being run as a Soviet colony have left Mongolia resource-rich but people- and technology-poor. Half of the Mongol nation is, as they love to say in Beijing, “part of China.” Mongolia is squeezed between two great economic and diplomatic powers, one declining but still formidable, the other growing in power, arrogance, and appetite for resources. Nothing gets in or out of Mongolia without crossing the land or airspace of Russia or China. Little wonder that Mongolia is...

If you thought the passage of the North Korean Human Rights Act last year appropriated money to drop radios into Korea, you were as mistaken about the congressional appropriations process as I was. In fact, the NKHRA authorized appropriations that run into the tens of millions for assistance to refugees, democracy promotion, and radios, among other items. The vast majority of that amount has yet to be appropriated, however, with the notable exception of the $2 million democracy promotion grant,...

Our blood allies in Korea are asserting their “maturity” again. While we’re gathering to tell the world about a few-million odd North Koreans starved to death by a regime that always seems to find the ready cash for cruise missiles and fuel rods, “progressive” South Koreans are on the way to Inchon to tear down the statue of MacArthur. Fears of a violent clash mounted Friday after progressive civic groups wanting a statue of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur in Incheon...

The Chosun Ilbo has a big story on it today, although you pretty much read it all here weeks ago. Otherwise, this was the only amusing part: The meeting, which will be a highly visible platform publicizing the Pyongyang regime’s rights abuses, comes only a week ahead of a fresh round of six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program. Freedom House’s North Korea director, Dr. Ku Jae-hee, said his group’s position was that human rights need to be a part...

This was a week of disturbing signs that the Bush Administration was going into the next hastily-arranged round of disarmament talks with North Korea prepared to make ill-advised compromises. Today was a day the administration tried to reassure those of us who wondered whether it was about to do another Agreed Framework. South Korea has already promised the down-payoff of massive energy assistance. Past events suggest that this is probably just part of a mystery gift bag whose precise value...