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Monthly Archive: June, 2006

June 25, 2006

Simple, Neat, and Wrong: Lugar and Hagel Go Wobbly on North Korea

[With a tip of my hat to H.L. Mencken.] Now that Democrats are suggesting that we bomb Kim Jong Il’s ballistic showpiece on the launching pad, we only need one more really dumb idea to make the role reversal complete. “It would be advisable to bring about a much greater intensification of diplomacy, and this may involve direct talks between the United States and North Korea,” said [Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard] Lugar, R-Ind. . . . “We need...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/NK Military/Uncategorized/WMD
June 23, 2006

Strange Doves (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About This Missile and Worry About Proliferation Instead)

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” — Napoleon Bonaparte The day after Newt Gingrich called for destroying North Korea’s Taepodong II ICBM on the ground, former Clinton-era SecDef William Perry has made a similar call in a Washington Post op-ed. He is joined by Ashton Carter, who turns out to have been Perry’s assistant before he was Demi Moore’s. The latest to support this proposal is … Walter Mondale: “I think it would end the nuclear...

Categories Diplomacy/Geopolitics/NK Economics/NK Military/U.S. Military/WMD
June 21, 2006

The Forked Tongue of Lee Jong-Seok, Part 3

“At least since 2000 when we began providing assistance to the North, no one there has been starving to death. ““ UniFiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok, May 2, 2006 That was then. South Korea’s UniFiction Minister is now saying no more rice if the little man fires the big rocket. I strongly support feeding the people of North Korea — especially those to whom the government has denied food aid. They are also victims; they bear no responsibility for the actions...

Categories Appeasement/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/NK Economics/NK Military
June 21, 2006

Newt: Destroy NK Missile on the Ground

[Update: John Bolton has the quote of the week: “You don’t normally engage in conversations by threatening to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles ….”] National Review has two pieces today on North Korea’s satellite ransom theater possible missile test. The editors argue, as I did here, that the United States should shoot down the missile if the North Koreans launch it. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, no doubt motivated by a desire to make me look like a moderate, goes further:...

Categories NK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/WMD
June 21, 2006

Translation Error?

Just what exactly is the Chosun Ilbo suggesting here when it says that “[t]he people will have to take matters into their own hands,” in the context of [local] elections not resulting in their preferred [national]policies? The fact that the piece otherwise has no real point raises my suspicions. I mean, isn’t that one of the big downers of fixed terms of office, you know, when the other party gets elected to them?

Categories Korean Politics/Media Criticism
June 20, 2006

The End of Sunshine?

[Update 6/20: As predicted, the North Koreans aren’t taking this well.] “We have the right to speak.” — North Korean government official, talking about South Korean politics Has international pressure has finally forced South Korea to abandon years of official apathy about the phobocracy that is North Korea? Finally, South Korea declares, it will ask the North to treat the lives of its people with a modicum of respect.

Categories Activism/Europe/Human Rights/Japan/Japan & Korea/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Uncategorized
June 20, 2006

Shenyang Four Three Update

Several days ago, I reported that the Shenyang Four would be allowed to leave China safely. This latest report doesn’t directly contradict that, but … A diplomatic source in Seoul said yesterday the United States will accept three of four North Korean asylum-seekers now in the U.S. Consulate General in Shenyang, China. The source said Washington had informed Seoul of the decision. The four North Koreans first entered the South Korean diplomatic premises in that city, but on May 6...

Categories China/Defectors/Human Rights/Refugees/U.S. & Korea
June 19, 2006

Please, Please, Please Test It!

Plenty of people have asked me if Kim Jong Il will test a long-range Taepodong II missile, and really, I have no more idea that anyone else this side of the Taedong. On one hand, the North Koreans are desperate for some attention. They’re running out of money and friends, and they’ve added liquid fuel to a rocket, that’s corrosive to the fuel and oxidizer tanks and is thus more than an empty gesture. On the other hand, North Korea...

Categories NK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/WMD
June 19, 2006

Please, Please, Please Test It!

Plenty of people have asked me if Kim Jong Il will test a long-range Taepodong II missile, and really, I have no more idea that anyone else this side of the Taedong. On one hand, the North Koreans are desperate for some attention. They’re running out of money and friends, and they’ve added liquid fuel to a rocket, that’s corrosive to the fuel and oxidizer tanks and is thus more than an empty gesture. On the other hand, North Korea...

Categories Uncategorized
June 19, 2006

The Congo Question, The Heart of Darkness, and Accountability

The enforcement of standards of civilized behavior is what distinguishes us from our enemies, and today, we must again make that distinction plain. The Army has charged two soldiers and an NCO with murder in Iraq, based on an alleged incident that took place just last month. A three-star general ordered the investigation after following up reports about it. We eagerly await a John Murtha coverup allegation. The case will now proceed to an Article 32 investigation, a cross between...

Categories "United" Nations/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Law/U.S. Military/Uncategorized
June 19, 2006

European Parliament Condemns North Korea’s Human Rights Violations

Thanks to Human Rights Without Frontiers for sending. What follows is the full text of a resolution passed in the European Parliament on June 15, 2006: ======== Text of resolution follows ======== European Parliament adopted resolution on human rights violations in North Korea At its plenary session in Strasbourg on 15 June 2006, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on human rights violations in North Korea. The Resolution was tabled by MEP Dr. István SZENT-IVÁNYI (Group of the Alliance of...

Categories Uncategorized