Open Sources, March 22, 2012

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ANOTHER NORTH KOREAN SPY has been caught posing as a defector. She claims to have been coerced into spying for the North. And two other North Korean spies, whom I believe I’ve written about before, are now facing two-year (!) prison terms. A South Korean prison still probably beats the hell out of a North Korean village.

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NORTH KOREA CAN’T POSSIBLY THINK its forces are capable of mechanized warfare if they’re this poorly trained, and given the generally terrible quality of their armor. I think they plan to use other capabilities, sadly.

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HWANG WOO-YEA IS STILL TRYING to get a human rights bill passed in the South Korean National Assembly. Given the obsession of some South Koreans with past atrocities against fellow Koreans, you wonder why some of them are so dead-set opposed to responding to the atrocities of the present day. One day, these people will hide their actions from their grandchildren, or lie to them and say they didn’t know.

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NORTH KOREA, WHICH WAS REMOVED from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008, has threatened to attack U.S. military installations in the Pacific and to launch a preemptive nuclear strike against Japan if it passes a sanctions law. I wish they’d quit with the terrorism for a few days. I have an article on this subject that’s nearly ready for publication, it’s right at the word limit, and they keep making me revise the damn thing.

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SO IF IT TURNS OUT North Korea really was behind a massive cyber-attack against South Korea, the appropriate response would be (1) name, shame, and take legal action against the Chinese entities that provided material support for the North Korean hackers, and (2) finally, at long last, get serious about broadcasting free internet and cell signals to the North Korean people.

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WE’VE SEEN LESS EVIDENCE of a high volume of state-sponsored drug trade by North Korea recently, but the regime and its diplomats continue to be involved in the trade nonetheless. The extent remains uncertain, as is the degree to which some meth cookers have “turned pro” and gone independent to supply the Chinese market. Follow the links.