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Monthly Archive: October, 2006

October 1, 2006

Is the Bush Administration Backing Ban Ki-Moon?

Jim Hoagland thinks so, and he thinks we may regret that: That warning of the dangers of answered prayers applies particularly to President Bush and his support for Ban Ki Moon, South Korea’s reliably stolid foreign minister, in the highly competitive race to succeed Kofi Annan at year’s end. Bush — pilloried by Third World radicals at last week’s General Assembly opening — may be picking up a lightning rod instead of a shield. Hoagland isn’t very clear in his...

Categories "United" Nations/U.S. & Korea
October 1, 2006

La Place Des Miserables: 39.713N, 126.895E

This is one district, called Pyongchang-ri, of the infamous Camp 15, now known worldwide as Yodok. Here, according to survivors, children labor, starve, sicken, and die beside their parents — thousands of them each year. The entire camp is massive, and not all of it is within Google Earth’s high-resolution coverage. This picture gives a partial overview; you can see another photograph of this district here, and more photos here.  Yodok was the place Kang Chol-Hwan documented in “The Aquariums...

Categories Google Earth/Human Rights/Korean Society/The Camps
October 1, 2006

Sucking Sound

Not a R.A.I.N. concert.  Even worse:  capital flight. The government is seeking to prevent massive capital flight led by U.K. and U.S. investors. In all, US$9.264 billion foreign investors had in stocks, bonds and dividends here left the country between the beginning of this year and Aug. 11, the most since the stock market was opened to foreign investors in 1992. This is especially worrisome as the foreign funds are fleeing the country for good without re-investing here after they...

Categories NK Economics
October 1, 2006

South Korean Companies Accused of Trying to Sell Missile-Making Equipment to the North

It’s a good illustration of why South Korea needs to exercise “vigilance” in its trade with the North: Two South Korean companies made failed attempts to export military-purpose materials to North Korea last year, an opposition lawmaker claimed Sunday. Citing data from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE), Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon of the Grand National Party said a South Korean company signed a contract in August with a North Korean firm for the sale of an air-pressing machine...

Categories Appeasement
October 1, 2006

Everybody Riot!

This week, U.S. forces picked up or put down (I use the term in the veterinary sense) 20 members of an al-Qaeda cell in Baghdad.  It’s always unfortunate when terrorists choose to take shelter in civilian neighborhoods; worse yet when some inhabitants choose to shelter them, thus endangering their families and their neighbors.  As a consequence, a woman and child who didn’t have to die, died.  Observe the reaction of some: Angry men at the scene held up a color...

Categories Censorship/Terrorism/Iraq/Unintended Humor/WTF?
October 1, 2006

Chief Justice Lee Yong-Hyun Is Right About Reforming the Courts

Finally, the process of raising the wreck of Korea’s judical system is off to a halting start. But the first effect of the reforms has been to elucidate just how awful the system really is. For example, prosecutors are just starting to submit written arraignments. In the past, they’d simply presented the courts with reports of police investigations with exhibits, long before the defense had an opportunity to present anything. It’s little wonder, then, why the conviction rate was, and...

Categories Korean Law