Open Sources

You’re kidding me. Even the New York Times has written a perfectly sensible editorial about North Korea?

When President Obama and President Hu Jintao of China meet next week in Washington, this must be one of the top items on their agenda. Mr. Obama will have to forcefully argue the case that an erratic neighbor armed with nuclear weapons is anything but a recipe for the stability Beijing so prizes, or for an American military drawdown in the region.

The United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia need to vigilantly enforce sanctions on North Korea and find new ways to increase the pressure. It also makes sense to test the North’s intentions, so long as Washington and its allies go in with their eyes open.

We are all neocons.

Talks for thee, but not for me?

“When or if North Korea’s actions show cause to believe that negotiations can be productive and conducted in good faith, then we could see a return to the six-party talks,” Gates said. “But the DPRK leadership must stop these dangerous provocations and take concrete steps to show that they will begin meeting their international obligations.”

Contrast this with the New York Times editorial above, which says that the U.S. side has “nudged” South Korea back to talks with the North. If those are just talks at the DMZ or over hot lines meant to reduce tensions, I say fine. If we’re now opening up multiple tracks for nuclear disarmament negotiations, that’s a recipe for divide-and-chaos.

A report on South Korea’s plans to increase and toughen military exercises. Let’s hope they’ll get out of the habit of killing their trainees, though.

Ha Tae Kyung, founder of Open News / Open Radio for North Korea, has produced a graphic novel about Kim Jong Eun. I’m sticking to my doubts that Jong Eun is the mastermind behind Korean War II, even if the regime is spreading that story to build a myth around him. But in the myth-making contest between North and South Korea to shape Jong Eun in the popular consciousness, the South seems to be taking a decisive lead. I don’t doubt that Ha’s Open Radio is playing a significant role here.

One of the North Korean Reconnaissance Bureau officers sent to Seoul to murder Hwang Jang Yop has been sentenced to ten years in prison. North Korea was removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008. Discuss among yourselves.

There’s something almost uniquely North Korean about this combination of tactical perfection and strategic incompetence. The Reconnaissance Bureau successfully infiltrated two of its officers into South Korea, had them join up with an agent who’d been in the South for decades, and then botched a plot that would have created a global outcry — and all of this over a man who was then 87, and only a few months from dying of natural causes. Think of all the work the North went to to counterfeit a perfect C-note, only to realize a relatively paltry profit and incur devastating financial sanctions as a result. This doesn’t suggest a picture of a hyper-competent leadership directing its lesser minions, does it?