Anju, April 25, 2012

THE ECONOMIST on North Korea’s gulag:

Perhaps the scale of the atrocity numbs moral outrage. Certainly it is easier to lampoon the regime as ruled by extraterrestrial freaks than to grapple with the suffering it inflicts (The Economist is guilty). Yet murder, enslavement, forcible population transfers, torture, rape: North Korea commits nearly every atrocity that counts as a crime against humanity.

A world that places any value on the idea of universal human rights should no longer overlook North Korea’s enormities. China should end its shameful forced repatriation of North Koreans and allow the Red Cross and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees into border areas. It should also cease sheltering the Kims at the UN, which should launch a commission of inquiry. America and South Korea, especially, must not hide behind nuclear diplomacy, but press harder on human rights. On April 15th the state’s young new ruler, Kim Jong Un, marked the centenary of his grandfather’s birth. This third-generation seed of the Kim dictatorship must now be confronted with his own murderous inheritance–a blot on humanity.

I’M BEGINNING TO WONDER when we’ve had a less effective U.N. Ambassador than Susan Rice, whose tenure I cannot associate with one solid accomplishment. Rice says we’ll soon see an expanded list of sanctions against North Korea over its failed missile test, so I guess I’ll wait and see. It’s true that the main deficiency of the sanctions is enforcement — specifically by China — rather than their breadth on paper. But I see no reason to suspect that China is anything but cynical and insincere about enforcement. The initial reports that it would halt refugee repatriations were likely disinformation, and whatever China says now is probably meant to deflect criticism after it was caught selling the North Koreans mobile missile launchers.

WELL, THIS SHOULD STOP THEM FROM TESTING THAT NUKE:

Chinese President Hu Jintao vowed on Monday to bolster ties with North Korea and backed its young leader, Kim Jong-un, despite an international outcry over the North’s recent rocket launch and the possibility of a third nuclear test by the isolated state. [….]

“The traditional friendship between China and North Korea was personally created and nurtured by our two parties’ and countries’ former generation of revolutionaries, and is our precious common treasure,” Hu said, according to Xinhua. “Constantly consolidating and developing Chinese-North Korean friendly cooperation is the firm and unbending policy of China’s party and government,” he added.

Hu’s comments underscored the extent to which China remains committed to shoring up North Korea, in spite of regional tension over the rocket launch and the possibility of another, third nuclear test explosion by the North.

BRUCE KLINGNER OF THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION has a fine Plan B for dealing with North Korea and China. I can feel the mainstream consensus closing in around me, and it’s an odd feeling.

LARGE AND IN CHARGE? I really don’t care how many analysts think a porcine twentysomething is really in charge in North Korea. They don’t have any evidence to support that claim than I do, which means that we’re all speculating. The illogic of it fastens me to my skepticism. The fact that this revelation comes via an AP reporter — even one who isn’t specifically tainted as a regime shill — doesn’t make the conclusion more credible.