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Monthly Archive: July, 2007

July 31, 2007

Ransom Is Not a Countermeasure

The Taliban have now murdered a second South Korean hostage.  I don’t know what I can say about the Taliban that I haven’t already said, other than that the odds are good they can be tracked down for their trials and whatever appropriately miserable  fate awaits them in Pol-e-Charki Prison.  There have been a lot of stories recently  reporting that  dozens of their fighters have been killed.  Stories like this may or may not indicate a more significant trend.  Insurgencies...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/Terrorism/Iraq
July 30, 2007

A Basket of Ants

It’s not an uncommon event for  South Korean political parties to split and re-unite during election years, and as you may recall,  Kim  Dae Jung’s Millenium Democratic Party looked hopelessly split this time five years ago (before it successfully capitalized on anti-Americanism to  eke out  a narrow win).  It’s anyone’s guess what this hopelessly confusing picture will look like next week, so instead of wasting time on analysis that will be meaningless tomorrow, here’s a brief chronology of what’s happening:...

Categories Korean Politics
July 28, 2007

Not Ready

I have resigned myself to a Lee Myung Bak presidency in Korea, something I can do without much difficulty because (a) there will be much amusement, hilarity, scandal, and great blog material,  and  (b) because I’m not South Korean [Update:   or North Korean].  Superficially, Lee is the furthest “right” of the major candidates, and while  South Korea’s idea of “right” may  not be my thing, it’s  the linear opposite of South Korea’s idea of  “left,” which I unreservedly  despise.  Concepts...

Categories Korean Politics/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics
July 27, 2007

Watching You

I wanted to alk-tay about ina-Chay, but as it turns out, they’re listening to everything we say here.  China’s intelligence services are gearing up for next year’s Beijing Olympics, gathering information on foreigners who might mount protests and spoil the nation’s moment in the spotlight. Government spy agencies and think tanks are compiling lists of potentially troublesome foreign organizations, looking beyond the human rights groups long critical of Beijing, security experts and a consultant familiar with the effort said. They...

Categories Censorship/China
July 26, 2007

South Korea: No Worse Friend, No Better Enemy

By now you’ve heard that the Taliban have murdered their first Korean hostage, and so Korea has now wheeled as one  in spontaneous rage at the Taliban, as though they’d  issued postage stamps with images of  Tokdo, right?  Well, not exactly.  There are many things I could say about the reactions of Roh Moo Hyun, his government, and his country’s media, but Robert Kohler has pretty much already said those things, and a few others.  Two lessons bears repeating:  first,...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Society/Religion/Terrorism/Iraq
July 25, 2007

LiNK Seeking Resettlement Volunteers for North Korean Refugees in the United States

This is from LiNK‘s latest newsletter: As the number of North Korean refugees arriving in the US for resettlement increases, we can also expect increasing numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors (children or teenagers), many of them orphaned entirely, and all who will be starting new lives in America. We are seeking families to become foster families for these children that can help to serve as a bridge between two very different cultures. Families with a Korean-American background or Korean-speaking ability...

Categories Activism/Refugees
July 24, 2007

Forgetting Someone?

The Korean War Abductees Research Institute (KWARI) will hold a press conference next Thursday, July 26, 2007, at 2 p.m. in the Zenger Room of the National Press Club in Washington. The subject will be whether the return of abducted South Koreas should be a prerequisite to a North-South peace treaty. It’s a question you can hardly believe anyone would have to ask — isn’t the first prerequisite to peace that each nation ends its continuing offenses against the other...

Categories Abductions/Activism
July 22, 2007

What I’m Reading: Andrei Lankov, ‘North of the DMZ’

Back in the 1980s, one of my Russian friends who was then in her early 20s, worked as an interpreter at a joint venture between North Korea and the Soviet Union. She was by no means a prude herself …, but she was somewhat shocked by the amount of sexual banter which her female North Korean colleagues engaged in. For the entire summer when the girls were on their own, they tried to learn as much as possible about the...

Categories Books & Films/Deprogramming/Korean Society
July 21, 2007

‘Pyongyang Soju’ Importer Arrested

A Korean American businessman has been arrested by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges of hiding his activities as a spy for the South Korean government, AP reported Thursday. According to court documents obtained by the wire agency, Park Il-woo, also known as Steve Park, was a legal resident in the U.S. for the past 20 years and conducted business with North Korea. Park provided information he obtained from his frequent trips to North Korea to the South...

Categories Human Trafficking/NK Economics/U.S. Law
July 21, 2007

The Next Deadlock

The irony of North Korea calling another nation “fascist” can’t be appreciated by those who are missing that gene, confined  within North Korea, or both.  Maybe this is an f-bomb that could only be built  in a place where abductees are no more hostages than their captors.  It’s probable that the author’s irony  was completely unintentional —  that he was  oblivious to  what Earthlings would think when they read his words: The search [of Chongryon headquarters] was part of an...

Categories Abductions/Six-Party Talks/WMD
July 20, 2007

Taliban Kidnap 18 South Koreans in Afghanistan

They were members of a church group, and readers may recall other church groups  from South Korea have also ventured into some very dangerous places. Taliban gunmen abducted at least 18 members of a South Korean church group in southern Afghanistan, and a purported spokesman for the Islamic militia said Friday it will question them about their activities in Afghanistan before deciding their fate. The Koreans were seized Thursday in Ghazni province as they were traveling by bus from Kabul...

Categories Korean Society/Religion
July 20, 2007

A License to Stall

If you read those breathless reports that North Korea was really, really  ready to fully denuclearize,  you can  catch your breath now:  “We had a big discussion about putting an overall deadline in,” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator, told reporters after talks concluded today. “We had a consensus. Since we were not very successful in meeting the date in the spring, we decided that we should have working groups before we come up with a...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks
July 16, 2007

Reminder: ‘Let My People Go’ Rally, Noon Tomorrow on the West Lawn of the Capitol

The Korean Church Coalition picks up an impressive and somewhat  surprising endorsement in advance of tomorrow’s rally.  As always, you need not be present to win.   If you have an  Internet connection or a phone, you can pester your Senators, your Representatives, and your pals at the Korean and  ChiCom Embassies: chinaembassy_us@fmprc.gov.cn / Tel.: (202) 328-2500 (Why should you do this?) http://www.dynamic-korea.com/embassy/meet.php / (202) 939-5600 (Why should you do this?)

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Religion
July 16, 2007

IAEA Confirms Yongbyon Shutdown

After much speculation, the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that North Korea has shut down its plutonium reactor at Yongbyon.  I have always expected North Korea to go through this part of the deal (full text here), as I expected them to let IAEA inspectors back into Yongbyon and the other  facilities near it.  But to simplify arguments I’ve made here  before, those things cost North Korea almost  nothing: It’s easy to kick inspectors out.  They’ve done it before....

Categories Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/WMD
July 14, 2007

If Jack Pritchard Doesn’t Believe Jack Pritchard, Why Should We?

Jack Pritchard probably comes to his role as South Korea’s  main policy mouthpiece honestly,  through a shared  belief that the next ten years of unrequited aid really will change North Korea into a peaceful, bucolic, union-free garment  district.  Pritchard is President of the Korea Economic  Institute, which  works  Washington’s Korea-watching and policy-making crowds through its regular sponsorship of social and academic dinner  events.  I’ve been to a few myself, and though I seldom agree with  what I hear there,  the...

Categories Media Criticism/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Politics/Washington Views/WMD
July 13, 2007

Law Enforcement Will Be Compromised, Part 2

Law enforcement will not be compromised. ““ Chris Hill, Feb. 27, 2007 [Update: Welcome Wall Street Journal readers.] The latest refutation of this whopper of diplomatic mendacity is an extensive new investigative report on North Korea’s criminal enterprises from Time (thanks to a reader for forwarding). The report suggests that our State Department’s incomprehensible decision to return $25 million of Kim Jong Il’s criminally derived funds, now under GAO investigation as a possible violation of our own money laundering laws,...

Categories Appeasement/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks
July 12, 2007

Korean Church Coalition Joins N. Korean Human Rights Movement, and an Appeal for a Condemned Man

[Update:   Barack Obama endorses  the rally and its cause with a nicely written letter.  Read it here.  Of course, it would be great to think that Obama will be as persistent and passionate on this issue  as Sam Brownback, who introduced this resolution  in the Senate.  That’s two presidential candidates, one from each party.  In a particularly  bipartisan gesture, one prominent  Republican staffer even  sent me a copy of Obama’s letter(!).  If the KCC turns out a good crowd...

Categories Human Rights/Religion/Resistance