March 2013 – Page 2

March 11, 2013

Chinese banks host massive slush funds for Kim Jong Un despite “tough” new U.N. resolution

So over the weekend, I read U.N. Security Council Resolution 2094, and I didn’t see much that deviated from the low expectations I expressed based on the press reports. (Since then, Marcus Noland has expressed a similarly pessimistic view). For those nations that are interested in strict enforcement, there is useful material in this; for example, the reference to the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force, which you can find on Page 13 of this document, will cause some nations to be more circumspect about...

"United" Nations/China & Korea

March 9, 2013

What would you ask the AP?

The AP is hosting an event on social media in North Korea, with the AP’s Eric Carvin and its Korea Bureau Chief, Jean H. Lee. Thanks to the readers who let me know. The conversation was dead — no one seemed all that interested the AP’s views on social media amid the re-declaration of Korean War II — so I decided to stimulate a livelier discussion by asking whether the AP will ever reveal its agreements with KCNA, whether it pays...

AP Watch

March 8, 2013

North Korea’s Underground Bond-Villain Air Base Nears Completion

Since we last visited Kim Jong Il’s big dig almost five years ago, North Korea has continued to make progress on its most sinister-looking airfield. According to Global Security, it’s called Kang Da Ri. The first image is from November 11, 2002. This series of images shows how the project has progressed steadily up through August 9, 2011: These final images show close-ups of the north tunnel entrance … … and this bridge, which will allow aircraft to cross over...

Anju Links

March 7, 2013

Plan B Watch: China’s U.N. Bait-and-Switch

We’ve seen enough of China’s past conduct when it comes to U.N. resolutions aimed at North Korean proliferation that we ought to recognize duplicity when we see it. We should also know by now that our hapless U.N. Ambassador isn’t very good at recognizing that duplicity. That’s why the news that China is expected to vote for another U.N. Security Council resolution this morning underwhelms me. I even think I have a pretty good idea what China’s game is here. Like I said before — China...

"United" Nations/China & Korea/Sanctions

March 6, 2013

N. Korea threatens to re-renounce Armistice; cancer threatens to re-kill Chavez

As one of the few Americans who can claim the “privilege” of a direct line of communication with North Korea, I offer two friendly reminders to my growing readership in Pyongyang: First, you can’t renounce something you’ve already renounced, and never really complied with anyway. Second, South Korea never actually did sign that Armistice, and they aren’t sounding particularly stuck on it these days.

Korean War II

March 5, 2013

Plan B Watch: Royce Seizes the Agenda

Hearings at the House Foreign Affairs Committee have traditionally been occasions when Special Envoys related their latest efforts to get North Korea to agree to behave until it chooses not to. Invariably, most of the Democrats would applaud them for it, most of the Republicans would express mild skepticism, and the Congress as a whole would defer. Until now, there was never any other alternative up for discussion. Today’s hearing was a break with that tradition. It was the first...

Anju Links

March 5, 2013

Park Geun Hye will back human rights probe of North Korea

You don’t need a Ph.D. to see that North Korea is gearing up to test Park Geun-Hye. The nice people at the quasi-official, Japan-based Chosun Sinbo reacted to Park’s inauguration speech, in which she called on North Korea to disarm, by saying they were “unable to hide our rage.” Domestically, the North has launched another series of exhausting war exercises, with soldiers forced to live days on end in tunnels, or standing guard and catching frostbite outdoors. All of this...

"United" Nations/Human Rights

March 4, 2013

The Fulcrum: 39°24’43.50″N, 125°53’25.70″E

Nearly all of the North Korean aircraft you can see on its airfields are ancient MiGs — 60s vintage or older. But Sunchon Air Base, the home of the 57th Air Regiment, is where North Korea keeps some of its more modern aircraft — its Su-25 ground attack aircraft, and its MiG-29 fighters. On October 14, 2010, the North Korean ground crews rolled their wares out of their underground hangars. It was a bright, clear day, giving us an excellent...

Google Earth/NK Military

March 3, 2013

Rodman on North Korean gulags: “We do the same thing here.”

Update: Video: OH, AND HE ALSO SAID, “DON’T HATE ME”: Hearing those words makes me wish we could fast-forward through whatever remains of Dennis Rodman’s biography and go straight to the perfect epitaph. One of the drawbacks of our age is the constant mind-rape we endure from the forcible penetrations of unwanted information. I’ll eventually die regretting all I know about Dennis Rodman because so many people enjoy watching the moral and financial despair of other people. Thanks to those...

Useful Idiocy

March 2, 2013

The Road Not Traveled: 40.013N, 126.154E

North Korean public works priorities are a thing to behold. Not far south of Huichon, in central North Korea, I followed a modern-looking superhighway northward to this dramatic terminus at a Bridge to Nowhere. Older (and newer) images on Google Earth show this project has been stalled for a decade. You can scan north from here and see miles of disused roadbed overgrown with farm plots, punctuated by the pilings of the unbuilt bridges. Now have a look at this...

Google Earth

March 1, 2013

Say, do you think Kim Jong Un might just be a complete doofus who happens to have nuclear weapons?

SO THE FIRST WELL-KNOWN AMERICAN to meet with Kim Jong Un is not an AP interviewer, a tribute-bearing Bill Richardson, a ransom-bearing Jimmy Carter, or first choice Michael Jordan. It is this man: Strain, if you must, to make this into some sort of soft power diplomatic coup; it really looks like a tragic sequel to “Being There.” The very weirdness of it all is evident in some priceless exchanges from yesterday’s State Department daily press briefing. Delectably, the AP’s...

AP Watch/Kim Jong Un/WTF?

Monthly Archive: March, 2013