Monthly Archive: September, 2005

Random Predictions: Commie rat bastards will fail to knock down MacArthur on 9/11, but because it’s 9/11, just showing up will be enough to piss of the entire United States and insure that no U.S. president will ever get congressional backing to send the military to defend Korea. Soon afterward, Hwang Woo-Suk will be nudged aside by American rookie Apolo Ohno in a highly controversial Nobel Prize upset. South Korea will print a commemorative stamp of Tung-Do, known as “Alcatraz”...

Remember a couple of weeks back, when I blogged about the big Chinese mafia bust–the one where the FBI agents posed as a couple and arrested scores of gangsters on their “wedding” day? The one that ended up with the feds taking possession of a large quantity of North Korean supernotes? At the time, I had a number of questions to which I wished I knew the answers, and here are two of them: 7. Were any of those caught...

Reader Brendan Brown, who teaches North Korean refugees to speak English with Australian accents, has a letter in this morning’s Joongang Ilbo, opposing the National Security Law: “My rationale can best be summed up by Volitaire who famously said, ‘I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’” I agree with Brendan. Oppressing people for nonviolent expression or mere belief–even repugnant belief–only clothes them in the aura of dissidents, an...

The question I’ve been asking this week is why the world should bother giving North Korea food aid when the North insists that the donors have no right to monitor it, meaning that it all ends up in the bellies of the elite. In North Korea, even the enlisted soldiers are starving, and Marcus Noland has reminded us that North Korea has taken advantage of food aid to cut back on food imports and buy more arms. Seventeen percent of...

Well, I admit it. I just feel bad for these people. There are some forms of attachment that are beyond compensation.

Roh Denies Coalition Permission to Floss His Hips.

From the Chosun Ilbo: “Two men came South; one has clearly expressed the intention to defect while the other is asking to be returned to North Korea,” South Korean authorities said Wednesday. The government is reportedly involved in inter-ministerial talks over what to do with the two and their boat. Another government official said North Korea wants both men and their boat returned. This is the third time this year that North Koreans have come South braving the West Sea...

South Korean Poll Shows Turd Sandwich Over Giant Douche! When asked, “Between President Roh and chairwoman Park, whose opinions are you more sympathetic to?” 48.9 percent said they supported Park whereas 18.2 percent said that they agreed with the president. Supporting the opinions of Park Geun-Hye is like squaring zero. But take comfort from the fact that at least they didn’t pick “Giant Douche.”

I strongly favor food aid to the North Korean people, but when I see stories like this, I’m increasingly convinced that the people won’t see any of it and it will only serve to sustain the regime itself. North Korea continues to insist that it’s kicking out international food aid workers, leaving the 6+ million North Koreans who depend on that aid to go hungry. Pyongyang is also riled by attempts by the WFP, which was providing about 100,000 tons...

Update 9/16/05: We have solved the mystery of where Park gets his MacArthur quote–a history textbook from North Korea whose poisonous content found a willing host in the radical politics of South Korea. Must read to believe. _______________ Park Seong-Hwan, the epic poet who (may or may not have*) brought us “Fucking USA“* has penned a new ditty that will soon hit Korea’s Top 40, and it’s a real piece of historical scholarship: Between verses two and three, Park adds...

Meet the Ambassadors of the Month.

Korea wants a seat on the U.N. Security Council.* * Not a parody. But it’s only for a non-permanent seat, which probably means Roh is positioning himself to run interference for Kim Jong Il when the six-party talks finally break down. And whose seat does Korea want to occupy, you ask? It will be interesting–and extremely telling for the state of US-Korea relations today–to see how much support Korea gets from the United States. _____________________ A Setback for the Mt....

Have I ever mentioned that my other Korea interest is building Korean furniture (redesigned according to my wife’s specs and my tastes)? Been meaning to show some pictures of the cradle I built for my baby daughter for some time. She turns one next week, and as luck would have it, this kid is the one that eats, and she’s already outgrown it. I’d show you the completed version, but it’s full of laundry (sigh). At least my wife is...

AFP reports: North Korea is continuing to build nuclear reactors that could produce weapons-grade plutonium, risking the future of six-way talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, a report on Sunday quoted a Japanese government source as saying. A US spy satellite has confirmed several times in August that the seclusive Stalinist country is building reactors at Yongbyon and Taechon, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted the unnamed source as saying.

NK Bars Chosun Ilbo Reporter: There’s no clear explanation, but one strong possibility is that they didn’t care for the coverage of this concert and the audience’s reaction to it, something that doesn’t surprise me in the least. The other possibility suggested is that it’s for trying to break the hermetic seal around Kaesong during a recent visit. So much for “window to the world.”

Kaesong Update: North Korea’s latest shakedown is aimed at the investors . . . which is at least an improvement over shaking down the workers. They have the chutzpah to call it “insurance.” I would complain with extreme caution if I were you, gentlemen.

You Are Asking Too Many Questions, You Puppet of the Imperialist Dungeon-Masters! The gentle charms of North Korean dining, courtesy of the Associated Press.

Marcus Noland and Stephan Haggard have a new report out for the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. It appears to be extremely detailed and rigorous–just what you’d expect from Marcus Noland. There is much to read and I haven’t been through all of it yet, but what they’re essentially saying is that the famine is a part of North Korea’s machinery of oppression (a drum I’ve been beating for some time now). Here’s an executive summary, kindly...