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Monthly Archive: January, 2007

January 7, 2007

Gerry Bevers, Tokdo, and the Heckler’s Veto

Kind words about your thoughts mean all the more when they come from someone like Kevin Kim, a/k/a The Big Hominid. Kevin, who reads and writes in fluent French, speaks fluent Korean, and creates art and books that people pay real money for, is what people call a “renaissance man.” He’s even created photoshop icons for pretty much every k-blog but this one…. Kevin links to what he calls my “awesome … ranticle” (thanks!) on the Marmot thread about the...

Categories Censorship/Japan & Korea/Korean Society
January 6, 2007

KCTU Thugs May Have to Switch to PVC Pipe

When I testified before the House International Relations Committee last September, one of the issues I raised was a report that the South Korean government was funding “civic groups” that habitually engaged in violence (see page 18), including the protests at Camp Humphreys last year. More recently, some of the leaders of those protests, and other violent anti-American protests, have been exposed and indicted as North Korean agents. This should not have surprised anyone.

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Democracy/Korean Law/Korean Politics/Korean Society/The Fifth Column/U.S. & Korea
January 5, 2007

Because the Last One Solved So Much …

… South Korea is  begging the North Koreans for another summit.  Except that it really isn’t: During the interview, Lee said, “Now is the time for the North to give an answer (to the opening of a second summit). I hope the North will prepare fully to hold (the summit) at an early date.” But Lee said it is not proper for the Seoul government to make a specific request about this matter under the current circumstances, apparently referring to...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/WTF?
January 5, 2007

Whatever Happened to Jay Lefkowitz?

The Washington Post sets a new milestone by reading my mind when it asks the question. The position of Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea was created in the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, which President Bush signed in November of that year. After a long delay in filling the post, President Bush finally nominated Lefkowitz. Despite a few promising words and some forthright challenges to South Korean appeasement and apathy, the White House has never...

Categories America/Human Rights/Washington Views
January 5, 2007

Yet Again, S. Korea Betrays One of Its Own

Updates:   A great post with a picture that nearly had  me in tears at GI Korea, and another picture here.  First, there was Han Man-Taek, a South Korean POW from the Korean War who escaped from North Korea after 50 years in captivity.   He had been held  by North Korea for all this time,  in violation of the 1953 Armistice.  Han nearly made it to freedom, when Chinese police caught Han and sent him back to almost certain death...

Categories Abductions/China/China & Korea
January 5, 2007

Yet Another Nuke Test?

Yonhap is reporting suspicious vehicle movements, plus South Korean denials that  another test is likely (the power of bilateral engagement and  “carrots” will save us … just like before!).  Until Google Earth goes real time, the most accurate indicator of  a North Korean provocation we ordinary folks  are going to get is the exact opposite of whatever South Korea predicts. Update: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice caution[ed] the communist nation that a second nuclear test “no doubt would deepen its...

Categories Appeasement/Japan/Japan & Korea/WMD
January 2, 2007

Kim Jong Il Unplugged, Part 16

East Asia Commercial Bank of Vietnam closed all accounts linked to North Korea on Wednesday after the Macau government indicated it will keep the North’s accounts in its own Banco Delta Asia frozen “as long as legally possible. EACB has been acting as a correspondent bank for customers to remit money to and from North Korea. The U.K. Financial Times on Thursday quoted a letter from EACB deputy general director Nguyen Thi Ngoc Van to its North Korean customers and...

Categories NK Economics/Six-Party Talks
January 2, 2007

Comrade Chung Picks Up Kim Jong Il’s Endorsement

In a uniform editorial in three newspapers representing the North’s party, military and youth militia, North Korea has urged South Koreans to prevent the opposition Grand National Party and conservatives from taking power by any means at their disposal. Commenting on South Korea’s presidential election scheduled on Dec. 19, 2007, the editorial said South Koreans from all walks of life should form an anti-conservative grand coalition and take the presidential election as an opportunity to throw out “conservative, pro-American power.” ...

Categories Korean Politics
January 2, 2007

KBS Confirms It: N. Korean Workers in Europe Are Slaves

Thanks to Mingi Hyun for forwarding, and to my wife for translation assistance.  Report, with video, here. KBS has confirmed that North Korean workers’ pay in East Europe is sent to a North Korean government account.  The Czech government learned that most of the workers’ pay was sent to the North Korean government and has stopped issuing work visas for North Korean workers. . . . The underwear factory is in the small village of Zebrac (phonetic), in the Czech...

Categories Human Rights/Human Trafficking/NK Economics
January 1, 2007

2007 Portends a Leaner, Meaner Left

As foreshadowed here previously, the Uri death watch is over. Uri Party chairman Kim Geun-tae and former chairman Chung Dong-young in an emergency meeting on Thursday agreed to create a new party, to be called the People’s Party. In a thinly veiled warning to President Roh to keep his hands off, the two said it will be “autonomous and independent from outside political influence. That finalizes the two ex-Cabinet minister’s break with their former boss. Uri will continue to exist,...

Categories Korean Politics/Korean Society