Anju, 19 June 2012

U.N. + NORTH KOREA = KLEPTOCRACY:

The U.N. is funneling millions of dollars worth of tradable carbon credits to corrupt nations worldwide, including Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Uzbekistan in an attempt to encourage clean energy projects in the developing world. [….]

North Korea is hosting seven hydroelectric dams, which may generate over $1 million in CERs annually.

North Korea, Sudan, and Uzbekistan are among the 10 most corrupt nations worldwide, according to Transparency International’s 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index.

It is unsurprising that North Korea is using U.N. money to develop its own infrastructure, said Claudia Rosett, journalist-in-residence at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“One of the first questions with any U.N. program is, ‘Who is overseeing this?’” said Rosett. “Very often no one is.” [Washington Free Beacon]

A STEP IN THE WRONG DIRECTION: Bloomberg is reporting that the Pentagon wants to put more ground forces into Korea. I can see that to the extent those forces will be used to protect Osan and hold the aerial supply lines and evacuation routes open. I might be able to see the missile defense piece of it if someone explains to me why South Korea can’t just buy its own missile defense. I can’t see any logic at all in the idea of putting just one brigade of American infantry — in military terms, a speed bump — within range of North Korean artillery. It hasn’t made sense since 1990 to ask Americans to defend one of the world’s richest countries from one of the world’s poorest, least of all while our ostensible ally continues to subsidize the very country we’re supposed to be defending it against.

SURELY THE STATE DEPARTMENT will want to kill this one:

A U.S. Senate committee is seeking ways to establish a database on the realities of prisons and political prison camps in North Korea and relay that information on the Internet.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Patrick Leahy, submitted a bill to the Senate Committee on Appropriations last month urging for the establishment of the database via the National Endowment for Democracy.

The bill also called for regular upgrades to the database and that it be made available online.

The legislation also included ways to allocate funds specifically to help North Korean escapees and protect them in China. It further calls for the provision of nearly nine-million dollars to a broadcasting firm that airs programs targeted at North Koreans. [KBS]

Does anyone suppose Robert King supports these ideas, much less had anything to do with suggesting them? Really — does anyone out there know?

NO KIDDING!

South Korea, the U.S. and Japan last year discovered that China exported missile launch vehicles to North Korea, but they did nothing to hold Beijing to account, the Asahi Shimbun reported Wednesday.

Me, I’d say that’s worth two shiny new Aegis cruisers for Taiwan.