So is China that rising global power with the clout to lead a 19-nation boycott of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, or is China that third world Paper Tiger with delusions of grandeur that can’t even keep Kim Jong Il’s guns inside their zippers? My vote is with the Wall Street Journal on this one. It’s just too delectable to contrast China’s protestations that it has no power to prevent its economic dependent from starting Korean War II, and then bully South Korea or Belgium over the Dalai Lama or the Nobel Prize.
What ever has happened to that old Human Rights Commission we loved to ridicule so?
The recommendations contain support for the distribution of leaflets inside North Korea and the provision to NGOs of short- and medium-wave frequencies owned by the government. The recommendations had been previously submitted by Kim Tae Hun and the other five committee members, but were rejected in a plenary meeting of the NHRCK in August for fear of inciting North Korea.
However, the recommendation was passed in a meeting of the NHRCK yesterday afternoon, partly due to a standing committee reshuffle carried out early in December.
Report: “N.Korea ‘Fattens Up’ People for Family Reunions.” When you factor in those steep ransom costs, the South Koreans would save money by just smuggling in cell phones that can call South Korea.
Jonah Goldberg:
If North Koreans were pandas, would we have let them suffer so?
….And yet, North Korea’s plight is not news. It’s been the status quo for two generations. Everyone knows that it is an anachronistic, totalitarian police state, and yet the spirit of “never again” finds little purchase in the Western conscience. Indeed, with the exception of some heroic human rights organizations, such as the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, the debate is defined almost entirely by what some call “realism.” If North Korea could be trusted to abandon its nuclear ambitions and mischief — an absolute impossibility — one gets the sense that vast swaths of the foreign policy establishment would be happy to call it a day.
One day, a lot of liberals who were largely absent from the discussion about, say, Camp 22 while they hyperventilated about Gitmo are going to say they had no idea these places existed, and I suppose that’s when I’ll consult my hit counter. And then my head will explode. Meanwhile, there’s ample evidence to support Goldberg’s sense about our State Department, which is a bit harder to dismiss as merely silly, irrational, or ill-informed.
North Korea’s decades of famine and near-famine are taking a demographic toll. As summarized by Professor and defector Lee Ae-Ran:
“As economic problems worsened in the 1990s, many young North Koreans avoided marriage and childbirth and illegal abortions were rampant. Especially in the late 90s, many children and youths starved to death in urban areas, as well as in rural regions.”
We are all neocons: “Iran and North Korea are ‘evil twins’ separated at birth who have joined forces in pursuit of nuclear programs that could have devastating consequences, a senior US lawmaker charged Wednesday.” So, did you guess Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, too?
Via the New York Times, here’s a great graphic on North Korea’s proliferation business.
That’s funny, I miss kaeranbang, too. And since Kushibo has covered street food, let me add that I miss the train food, especially the salmun kaeran and kimpap on the saemaul trains. Great with some kyul a can of Hite, watching the scenery go by.
Sorry, but I challenge anyone to look at this and deny the existence of God.
If North Koreans were pandas, we’d still be paying China lip service. No one wants to stand up to that paper tiger bully.
Just my thoughts.
Shock and awe?
“The past pattern shows that North Korea will strike in some unimaginable way,†said Kim Jong-ha, a professor of defense and security studies at Hannam University in Daejeon, South Korea. “It may not come for a few months, but we must be ready or the shock and awe will be so great.â€
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/world/asia/10korea.html?ref=world
OP:
I wasn’t ridiculing the NHRCK so much as I was making fun of the people who abused it.
Looks like the nK defectors are uniting and calling for more action from their ranks:
I’ve been in Korea since June 2008 and one can actually feel the momentum changing here on the peninsula. Something is happening. Its not small. I like the word the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea uses: “ripe.” Yes, like a long awaited, and specially satisfying Chusok (harvest festival).
KCJ – In line with your feeling the momentum change:
ROK President Lee says reunification of two Koreas drawing near
12/9/10
“I feel that reunification is drawing near,†Lee said at a meeting with a group of Korean residents in Malaysia shortly after his arrival in Kuala Lumpur. “We should prepare for reunification on the basis of bigger economic power.â€
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2010/12/09/0401000000AEN20101209010800315.HTML
This is not language I am used to hearing from the ROK govt.
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I read that Stars & Stripes has just posted a link to NonCombatant Evacuation Operations and a whole bunch of other evacuation-related material.
There is a new section that was just added within the last 24-48 hours called “USFK Evacuation Infoâ€
http://www.stripes.com/news/special-reports/crisis-in-korea
Can’t comment on any NEO stuff other than what you see is what’s out there is S&S and other media outlets. But I found the LMB comment you posted as well but couldn’t find a context for his remarks. But yes, jhpiggot, I agree, this is not the usual ROK boilerplate…
North Korea’s nuclear activities are more advanced than Iran’s. The facility recently shown to Siegfried Hecker implies an extensive network of secret sites. The North Koreans seem to be using P-2 centrifuges, an advanced Pakistani design. American officials think they showed Hecker that facility to advertise their wares.
Here’s the report by David E. Sanger and William J. Broad
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/world/asia/15nukes.html?ref=world