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Monthly Archive: January, 2010

January 21, 2010

Benefit Concert for Stateless Orphans in China

Last Saturday night, January 16th, friend Lauren Walker put together an intimate evening of music at Yogiga Gallery in the Hongdae area of Seoul. Though by “intimate” I do not mean quiet. “A Night for North Koreans: Stateless Orphan Benefit Concert” raised over 700,000 won (~US$617) for an orphanage in China. Possibly 10,000 or more children of North Korean mothers and Chinese fathers are stateless, because they cannot be registered with the Chinese authorities, lest the mothers be caught and...

Categories Activism/China/Human Rights/Refugees
January 21, 2010

Bosworth, On “Colbert,” Shifts the Goal Posts

The appearance was distressing on two levels. First, how is it possible that Stephen Colbert could be so funny on the Daily Show and yet provide so little entertainment value on his own show? Stewart becomes unwatchable during election years, but even when John Yoo is wiping the smirk off his face, Stewart still operates at a high level of sophistication. Colbert, on the other hand, seems to be playing for an audience that reads at a fourth-grade level, not...

Categories Diplomacy/Humor/Satire/Six-Party Talks
January 20, 2010

20 January 2009

THE JOONGANG ILBO JUDGES VITIT MUNTARBHORN’S LEGACY rather harshly in this article, I’d say. While I agree that the situation has gotten worse, I’ve always gotten the impression that Muntarbhorn did the best he could, given the limited backing he seems to have had from his boss, Ban Ki Moon, to confront the Chinese. But of course, it would be too much to ask of a South Korean newspaper to render an honest criticism of Ban’s repeated and woeful betrayal...

Categories Anju Links
January 20, 2010

South Korea Threatens Preemptive Attack

Uh oh: “We would have to strike (North Korea) right away if we detected that it has a clear intention to attack (South Korea) with nuclear weapons,” Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told a local defense forum. “It would be too late and the damage would be too big if, in the case of a North Korean nuclear strike, we had to cope with the attack. There can be no changes to this principle.” [Yonhap] Let the histrionics commence forthwith!

Categories North-South
January 20, 2010

Kim Jong Il Death Watch

I’m not sure where Open News is getting its insider information about Kim Jong Il’s comings and goings, but if true, this would seem significant: According to a high-official North Korean, Kim Jong-Il could not visit the Mt. KeumSu Memorial Palace on New Years Day, where the formal chairman Kim Il-Sung is buried, missing out on one of the major new years events in North Korea. It is stated that there was not a single year since 1995 when Kim...

Categories Kim Jong Il
January 19, 2010

19 January 2010: KCNA Announces Purge of “Class Enemies”

CHILLING WORDS FROM KCNA, as it calls for “struggle against anti-socialist moves:” It is also important to struggle against allies and stooges of the imperialists. A fierce struggle should be waged against the class enemies within the socialist society. All those who try to destabilize the socialist society are the enemies of socialism. They include remnants of the exploiting classes who harbor antipathy towards the socialist system, those who work hard overtly and covertly to bring down the socialist system...

Categories Anju Links
January 18, 2010

Chosun Ilbo: North Korean guards beat Robert Park “to within an inch of his life.”

Our worst fears for Robert Park and his mission are being realized: Sources say Robert Park, an ethnic Korean, told them he is an American citizen and came to call for human rights improvements and to urge leader Kim Jong-il “to repent.” In response, the guards beat him to within an inch of his life. Even remaining silent while another person denounces the leader or the system is a punishable offence in North Korea, so the guards were unlikely to...

Categories Robert Park
January 18, 2010

Great. Now Even the North Koreans Are Doing the Jihad Thing.

I had meant to blog about North Korea’s simultaneous acceptance of South Korean food aid just as it declared a “holy war” against South Korea, but a nasty intestinal virus had other plans for the entire family for the last few days (and how was your weekend?). Still, I can’t less this pass without comment. For those of you who hadn’t heard, North Korea’s latest fit was over South Korean contingency planning for regime collapse in the North. Planning was...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Terrorism (NK)
January 18, 2010

A Tribal Strategy for Winning in Afghanistan

With a problem as complex as Afghanistan, I have felt some justifiable trepidation to enter an overcrowded field of underqualified experts and opine on what should be done there. The real experts are the Afghans themselves, though many of the Afghans with the best access to foreign audiences have their own agendas. The few Americans who speak with credibility are those with experience living and fighting there — men like Major Jim Gant, who embedded a team of half a...

Categories Afghanistan
January 16, 2010

Ten Years Later, South Korea Questions Suspected North Korean Agent in U.S. Resident’s Kidnapping

The Reverend Kim Dong Shik, a U.S. lawful permanent resident, was kidnapped from China by North Korean agents 10 years ago today. Rev. Kim was there helping North Korean refugees. Somehow, the North Koreans managed to carry Rev. Kim back across the Chinese-North Korean border without any interference from our friends the ChiComs, despite the fact that Rev. Kim was wheelchair-bound (do wheelchairs even exist in North Korea?). Years later, rumors emerged to the effect that Kim was tortured to...

Categories Abductions/Terrorism (NK)
January 15, 2010

We Are All Neocons

Seeing this item at the Real Clear World blog, I could no longer evade the cold truth that Change has come! The American Interest has a good round table on North Korean policy. The upshot seems to be that most analysts think that regime change is not only the optimal outcome but essentially an inevitable one – Kim Jong Il won’t live forever and what comes next could be quite chaotic if it’s not handled correctly by all the parties...

Categories Regime Change/Washington Views
January 15, 2010

Apocalypse Watch: China Cancels Gay Beauty Pageant

From this report on the cancellation of the Mr. Gay China Pageant, I learn: 1. For all of the party’s apparent success at maintaining, er, tight control over society, social change is putting the state in conflict with individuals: “I feel really sad. This was going to be a very good event to show a positive image of gay people,” said Wei Xiaogang, a pageant judge and host of Queer Comrades, a popular Internet talk show on gay issues. 2....

Categories China
January 15, 2010

How Corrupt Is North Korea These Days?

Very, if this report from Good Friends is true: On November 28th, Hamheung City, South Hamgyong Province publicized the latest results of the drug crackdown. The City launched the campaign since last September. Party officials, including four officials belonging to the Provincial Party, three officials from the city party, two police officers from the Sungchun region, two prosecutors from the Province, and one party official from the Sapo region, who have accepted bribes from drug smugglers were the main targets...

Categories Drugs & N Korea/Inside NK
January 15, 2010

North Korea Battles Rising Cell Phone Use

Cell phone use continues to grow in North Korea, despite the government’s best efforts to block it. Handsets are used to make appointments and payments and to trade goods. Even South Korean pastors are using cell phones to give sermons to people in North Korea. If cell phones connected to the North are linked to the South via the Internet, this provides valuable information unobtainable through traditional media. Competition for breaking news is expected among South Korean civic groups related...

Categories Inside NK/Subversion
January 14, 2010

14 January 2010: The Morally Retarded Lorin Maazel, Part 3

JEFFREY GOLDBERG IS READING “NOTHING TO ENVY” and contrasting the plight of its subjects with Lorin Maazel’s moral equivalence between America in North Korea. Like Karajan and Bernstein before him — try that for equivalence! — Maazel’s political views add more value to our discourse for the criticism they evoke than for their own substantive merits. THE H1N1 OUTBREAK CONTINUES in North Korea, although it’s very difficult, for the most familiar of reasons, for anyone to know how serious it...

Categories Anju Links