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Best Commentary of the Week (But It’s Still Thursday)

Professor Sung-Yoon Lee, writing a lengthy Outlook piece for the American Enterprise Institute, predicts that history will be unkind to Kim Dae Jung (and if you read Don Kirk’s book, already is to a degree). I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but Lee is an all-time OFK favorite, and I’ve read enough to see that it’s up to Lee’s high standards of writing. What’s more, this article has fired up spittle-flecked fulmination from a lot of the right people — that is, people who are no doubt feeling the raw wound of having been discredited by the regime whose crimes they overlooked for so long. (It may be that Lee is less easily dismissed as a harmless crank than I am; to be thought of as dangerous is a high compliment I do not enjoy, sadly …). Lee’s argument is summarized thusly:

* The Sunshine Policy, an effort to engage North Korea initially implemented under South Korean president Kim Dae Jung, appears increasingly ineffective in light of North Korea’s continued nuclear threat and oppression of its people.

* Despite his work for human rights in South Korea, Kim Dae Jung chose not to address grievous human rights violations in the North in any meaningful way.

* In light of Kim Dae Jung’s failure to fight for basic human rights for North Koreans, future generations of Koreans are likely to see Kim Dae Jung and his Sunshine Policy in an increasingly negative light.

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Brian Myers catches us up on the latest North Korean propaganda messages.

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Aidan Foster-Carter smells a cover-up of North Korea’s role in the Cheonan Incident. I think that conclusion is premature, but Foster’s piece is very interesting and well worth a read nonetheless.

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Claudia Rosett talks about Bureau 39, sanctions, and nukes.

7 Responses

  1. Presumably, “Should the political forces surrounding the Korean peninsula align so as to lead to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea, the balance of power between the two Koreas would undergo a fundamental shift in Pyongyang’s favor,” was not a favorite?

    Regardless of which, excellent stuff.

  2. The U.S. is the only political force irregardless of political power concerning Korea besides China, but with that and then some whom is willing to withdraw at a moments notice from the Korean peninsula if the R.O.k. demands us to do so. If the R.O.K wants to unify with the D.P.R.K at any given moment and demand the United States to leave the Korean Peninsula for good; the U.S. Will do so and Would follow suit. Contrary to popular belief, we Americans do not want to be colonizers like our cousins the Brittish, nor occupiers once our conrtract has expired.

    neither do we appreciate aiding in a country’s prosperiety while the same throws pearls before swine. Even if the swine is the former third world country’s twin.

  4. I note with interest that AFC seems to have come to the same conclusion as I have ages ago, that trouble in NK means trouble for the stock markets – despite some muppets posting here arguing the contrary. It wouldn’t even suprise me AFC nicking my write ups here and put them across a bit more eloquently so that he can collect another suckers’ fee from Asia Times.

  5. On another note, these articles posted by this Claudia Rosett character are also not worth the paper its written on. I could have figured out myself whilst pissing in the sink that it would not be a bad idea to starve the N-Korean regime of ‘means to generate cash’. A lot of her articles reak of muppetism anyway, but especially this last one was as bad as her hair style. Worse are the idiots posting what wonderful job she’s doing…

    [So aside from the fact that you don’t like her hair, any substantive criticism? By the way, her husband went through British SAS training, and I’m guessing he could crush you like a beer can, so you might want to ix-nay on the air-hay. Also, it’s spelled “reek.” – Joshua]

  6. Well, like I said, her articles are just a lot of rehash of stuff we already know ; she only seems to distinguish her self by putting a bit of middle aged motherly spin on news. Pity all her readers who think she’s the next best thing since sliced bread. Suprising to hear about her husband, albeit I am more surprised she has a husband in the first place and secondly British SAS training….well, we’ve all seen what a bunch of cowards the British are judging by their ‘commitment’ in Iraq, so I’ll just leave it there.

  7. Aidan Foster-Carter wrote:

    And indeed, North Korea claims these waters. Pyongyang never accepted the Northern Limit Line (NLL), unilaterally drawn by the United Nations command to reflect the post-1953 status quo in these west coast waters. Its own counter-proposal simply extends the land-based Military Demarcation line westwards into the sea. This would put Baengnyeong and another South Korean-held island, Daecheong, inside Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) waters – so they cannot be serious; can they?

    Frankly, though I think Mr Foster-Carter usually does good work, I thought this article was a bit sloppily written.

    Wasn’t the Chonan sunk in the territorial waters around Paengnyŏngdo, a mile or so from the southwestern side of the island? As you can see in the map here, these waters are not claimed by North Korea, as Mr Foster-Carter states. The Chonan may earlier have been in waters North Korea claims, but the waters around Paengnyŏngdo, Taech’ŏngdo, Soch’ŏngdo, and Yŏnp’yŏngdo are all recognized as ROK-controlled by the DPRK, as is a corridor to them.

    It seems Mr Foster-Carter doesn’t even know about the corridor the DPRK graciously provides in its counter to the NLL.