Open Sources, Aug. 23, 2013
NOW THAT EVERYONE HAS SUDDENLY DISCOVERED THAT North Korea has a meth problem, I thought I’d link this five-year-old post and let you read (or reread) what OFK readers read way back when. (There’s plenty more where that came from if you put “meth” or “heroin” in the search window.)
This is a perfect example of why we need sources like the Daily NK so badly. They are the first harbingers of emerging social, economic, and political trends that will have important policy implications later. Please consider giving them a few bucks. (Yes, that problem with Indiegogo has been resolved.)
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TOTALITARIANISM + MILITARISM + NATIONALISM + PLUTOCRACY = FASCISM: Time’s Angela Whitehead looks at the kinda-good life of Pyongyang’s elite and reports on North Korea’s growing class divide. Somehow, I don’t think this is Time’s year for getting permission to start a bureau in Pyongyang….
You’d think even the neo-Stalinists and -Trotskyists would know this math well enough to have written North Korea off years ago, but I’ve observed that if a regime is anti-American enough, all other ideological impurities are forgivable.
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I WONDER WHAT THE PANAMANIANS WILL DO with the Chong Chon Gang if North Korea doesn’t pay the $1.27 million fine.
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THIS MUST BE ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF KIM JONG UN’s “surprisingly good” domestic policy: North Korean comedienne sent to the coal mines for edgy humor.
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EUROPE HAS OFTEN TURNED A BLIND EYE TO feeding North Korea’s kleptocracy with luxury exports, so this report that the Swiss refused to sell the North Koreans ski lift equipment is a welcome sign that (at last) Europe may be taking U.N. Security Council prohibitions against such things seriously.
Better yet, take their money and ship them corn instead. If enough people do this, maybe they’ll get the idea.
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BRUCE CUMINGS WOULDN’T APPROVE: During the 1948 Yeosu Rebellion, a Life Magazine photographer accompanied a U.S. military observer and photographed the abuses of both sides — Communist prisoners who were beaten by their military captors, and whole families shot to death in their shops by the Communists. The decade after liberation was a pretty grim time for Korea, to a degree that’s difficult to believe when you walk the streets of Seoul today.
“NOW THAT EVERYONE HAS SUDDENLY DISCOVERED THAT North Korea has a meth problem, I thought I’d link this five-year-old post…”
Are you having a Glenn Reynolds-style “I told you so” moment, there, Joshua?
Indeed.
I didn’t know about the Yeosu rebellion, so I looked it up in Wikipedia. I learned this:
“Park Chung-hee, who would later become the president of Korea, participated in the rebellion. It is alleged, however, that he was punished leniently in exchange for agreeing to hunt down those involved.” And the source for that is Cumings, Bruce (1981); The Origins of the Korean War, Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945-1947; Princeton University Press. p. 266
I’m pleased to see you are back. NKPro is a really good new site, but it lacks the personality and jugularity of your views. They are most welcome.
Chong Chon Gang.
Panama has adopted many US maritime rules: one of these is that a vessel can be a defendant itself, and can be sued “in rem.” The ultimate result is that, if it fails to pay up, it can be judicially sold, in a way that strips North Korea of all ownership rights. Customarily, such a judicial sale is final, and is recognized by nearly every country.
The sale is conducted by the Marshal (the US Marshal here) and bidding can start at $1, or at any figure the Court sets (say, the amount of the fine) and anyone can bid. So it would be possible for a diplomatic arrangement to be made that would forfeit the vessel “in rem” and allow it to be sold with a starting bid of $1 … and to permit the NorKs to buy it back cheaply.
But that assumes that no one else wants to “bid in”, which they can do in an open court system like Panama’s. (Now, of course, the NorKs could send their thugs to warn people off in advance.) After the sale process, the Court holds an open session to confirm the sale and to confirm how and when payment must be made … and US Treasury could examine the source of the funds, and try to inhibit payment.
So there may be more fun on the Chong Chon Gang. Meanwhile, I’ll bet the crew is eating better in Panama than they did onboard.
Not sure if it’s my browser or what but when I click “this five-year-old post” link on NK meth problem I get back to the same front page I start from.
It’s not your browser. Thanks for letting me know; I fixed it.