Monthly Archive: October, 2005

The Congressional-Executive Committee on China has released its 2005 Annual Report: The Chinese government forcibly repatriates North Koreans seeking refuge in China from starvation and political persecution, contravening its obligations to handle refugees as required by the 1951 Convention Related to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. The Chinese government classifies all North Koreans in China as “illegal economic migrants” and denies the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) access to this vulnerable population. Living conditions of...

Nativity in Hell. Maybe they should name her Kwan Li So.

Reunification. This is a case of either bad polling or bad reporting, on what should have been an interesting survey on South Korean attitudes about reunification. Unfortunately, it doesn’t publish enough facts about previous surveys and when they were taken, or why people don’t want immediate reunification, for me to tell. That leaves it open for academics to interpret this way: While more than eight out of ten people here still see reunification as important, over half of Koreans say...

More union corruption.

We’ll deal with those splitters after the revolution, comrades! The quality of academic debate in some quarters of Korean academia makes for eerie reading these days.

Perhaps I need to adjust my perceptions of the Korean justice system, whose idea of prosecutorial discretion apparently makes no room for Korea’s equivalent of the attorney general to direct who gets prosecuted and who doesn’t. Because our own system protects the independence of the judiciary but tolerates political influence over the prosecution, I’m not able to work myself into a lather over reports that the Uri Justice Minister intervened to quash to prosecution–for something similar to sedition–of the manure-spreading...

There are many wonderful dialogues in Lawrence of Arabia, but this is one of my favorites: SILIAM: And yet now it seems Audar has grown old and lost his taste for fighting. AUDAR: It is well you say it in my tent, thou old tulip! ALI: Yet, this is a tulip that the Turks could not buy. AUDAR: Why should they wish to? Now! I will tell you what they pay me, and you will tell me if this is...

Yet another reason to put up with the bombast, vitriol, and loopy Tokarevs-for-the-masses ideas you read here: you might just get more information, and get it faster: The influential U.S. congressional advisor Dennis Halpin, a Korea expert, said there was a connection between Seoul’s sunshine policy vis-à-vis Pyongyang and its neglect of the alliance with Washington. Halpin went on to compare Korea’s appeasement of the North to the people of Troy’s acceptance of the Trojan Horse laden with enemy soldiers....

The shouting over the last forced repatriations hasn’t yet ended, but still they come, risking their lives to escape hell on earth: Eight North Koreans entered a South Korean school in China in a bid to seek asylum in South Korea, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said. The entry came Tuesday, a day after South Korea protested China’s repatriation of seven North Korean asylum seekers who entered an international school in the northeastern Chinese city of Yentai in August. The...

As confirmed by an unnamed EU diplomat, via Kyodo news: The European Union has decided to present a draft resolution that denounces North Korea’s poor human rights record, including its abductions of Japanese and other nationals, at the U.N. General Assembly, a European diplomat said Tuesday. It will be the first time that North Korea has been named in such a resolution submitted to the assembly. The resolution is aimed at urging North Korea to follow similar resolutions adopted during...

The AP reports: North Korea will find itself in a “wilderness of isolation” if it walks away from a landmark agreement to give up its nuclear program, but will see a host of economic and diplomatic opportunities if the deal sticks, the chief U.S. envoy for talks with the country said Tuesday. . . . . “If they walk away from this, they would truly walk into a wilderness of isolation,” Hill told the Asia Society in Manhattan. “They walk...

The AP reports: North Korea will find itself in a “wilderness of isolation” if it walks away from a landmark agreement to give up its nuclear program, but will see a host of economic and diplomatic opportunities if the deal sticks, the chief U.S. envoy for talks with the country said Tuesday. . . . . “If they walk away from this, they would truly walk into a wilderness of isolation,” Hill told the Asia Society in Manhattan. “They walk...

The AP reports: North Korea will find itself in a “wilderness of isolation” if it walks away from a landmark agreement to give up its nuclear program, but will see a host of economic and diplomatic opportunities if the deal sticks, the chief U.S. envoy for talks with the country said Tuesday. . . . . “If they walk away from this, they would truly walk into a wilderness of isolation,” Hill told the Asia Society in Manhattan. “They walk...

Prediction is a dangerous business, but Stratfor is saying it’s a sure thing: Meanwhile, signs of rot in the North Korean police state continue to appear. These include more crime, especially burglary and robbery. There’s more corruption, with even some secret police (the core force in keeping the communists in power) taking bribes. Discipline continues to decline in the army, as does readiness (because of little training with heavy equipment, and lack of spare parts for maintenance.) It’s looking more...

The aide in question, Dennis Halpin, was actually seated between the Committee Chairman (Rep. Hyde) and the Subcommittee Chairman (Rep. Leach) at the last Korea-related hearing of the House International Relations Committee on October 6th, at which Ambassador Chris Hill testified before the Committee. The following day, Mr. Halpin spoke to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington. This is the text of his address. Must-reading if you want to puncture through the diplospeak to see what Congress...

Updated 10/12; scroll down. Never accuse the North of not fighting above its weight or thinking big. In the process, it has cemented the most recent credible evidence of its cooperation with international terrorists, which might prove troublesome for that pesky terrorism list. Via the Times of London (also reported in Yonhap): ONE of Ireland’s most famous revolutionaries could face 20 years in an American jail for his alleged role in a communist plot to wreck the dollar. Sean Garland,...

Ohno wins again. Heh. But what’s this? Ahn Hyun-soo failed to keep his dominance over archrival Apolo Anton Ohno of the United States at the final phase of the second meet of the Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Seoul, Sunday. Since this is the first time in my natural life that I’ve deliberately clicked a “Sports” button, I’ll defer to readers. When did Ahn “dominate” Ohno before, or is this just the reporter’s way of keeping a grievance...

Uri Party chairman Moon Hee-sang said Thursday a “significant change” to the armistice that has divided the two Koreas since the Korean War could come within three years. Link.