Open Sources, October 30, 2013

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AGREED FRAMEWORK III WATCH: Yesterday, I fisked Ambs. Bosworth and Gallucci for calling for talks with North Korea despite the concession by one of them (Bosworth) that a deal could never be verified, and despite North Korea’s repeated statements that they would never disarm. As if on cue, the North Koreans have said it again!

SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Yonhap) — North Korea said Wednesday that its nuclear weapons program is not a bargaining tool and slammed South Korean policymakers for challenging the country’s sovereign right to defend itself from outside aggression.

In an article carried by the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), Pyongyang said if it did not possess nuclear weapons there would be no peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and that the fate of the Korean people would be placed in jeopardy.

“The build-up of nuclear deterrence has proven to be a wise choice,” the daily claimed. The communist country detonated three nuclear devices since 2006, with the latest test being carried out on Feb. 12.

The paper, which effectively represents the views of the North Korean leadership, then blasted South Korea’s foreign minister and unification minister for calling on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions.

“Remarks by Yun Byung-se and Ryoo Kihl-jae are direct challenges to the country’s dignity and independence,” the article monitored in Seoul said, adding that calls for the North to denuclearize is nothing more than foolish wishful thinking.

It warned that any individual who challenges the rightful course taken by the country will pay a hefty price.

Also, any nation that enters nuclear negotiations with North Korea will pay a hefty price; it’s just denominated in a different currency.

North Korea was removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008. Discuss among yourselves.

Although I can prove that people in North Korea read this site, I cannot prove that they actually take their cues from me.

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WHY NORTH KOREANS STARVE: There was a lot I wanted to say about Dennis Rodman’s description of Kim Jong-un’s ‘seven-star’ lifestyle of yachts, booze, and lavish food, but those thoughts never congealed into something worthy of printing here, so I started over with a less ambitious argument: the media are getting this story wrong.

Some journalists tried to call Kim Jong Un’s wasteful spending (even amid reports of famine) a sign of reform. That view has been booed off the stage.

Only slightly less pernicious is relegating the gradual, extended, agonizing murder of human beings to Buzzfeed lists and off-beat, smirky side-bar stories inseminated with TMZ pop culture references. Stop. This isn’t entertaining or trivial. This is an outrage. Pyongyang is making a deliberate choice to buy these things while foreign donors grow weary of being expected to provide food for people who may not even be allowed to eat it. That is a crime against humanity, a system of politically motivated unnatural selection. For God’s sake, treat it like one.

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IF ANYTHING GOOD COMES OF RODMAN’S VISITS, it will be the self-inflicted propaganda disaster of having himself photographed in the company of this laughingstock (a criticism that could apply to either Rodman or Kim, only the consequences won’t be fatal for Rodman). I’m grown accustomed to my role as the drunk at the embassy cocktail party, but on occasion, I’m pleasantly surprised that a more intelligent person agrees with me. In this case, it was Brian Myers, in an interview at NK News.

Like me, Myers thinks that only Kim Jong Un would have done something this stupid — twice — and like me, Myers was convinced that Kim Jong Un really is in charge because this would not have happened if anyone else was. That’s a frightening thing when you observe how ruthless, impulsive, and immature Kim Jong Un has shown himself to be.

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A NORTH KOREAN DIPLOMAT posted in Ethiopia, a past buyer of North Korean weapons, has defected to the South. The man was a trade representative, which suggests that he may have tantalizing information about North Korea’s finances or arms sales.