Open Sources, January 31, 2014

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OH LOOK, North Korea restarted a nuclear reactor.

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AND NOW, A LIST OF POLITICIANS WHO DID GOOD: H.R. 1771 has some new co-sponsors in the House. Rep. Pete Sessions (R, Tex.), Rep. Jeff Duncan (R, S.C.), and Rep. Adam Smith (D, Wash.) have signed on. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI), joins early supporter and fellow Hawaii Democrat Tulsi Gabbard. The biggest surprise? Rep. Jim McDermott, who is known for his outspoken liberal views on foreign policy, but who is highly regarded by human rights NGOs, is also a co-sponsor, joining fellow liberals Jim Moran, Carol Shea-Porter, and Joseph P. Kennedy III.

Several of these co-sponsorships were recruited by a dynamic and highly effective organization called the Federation of Korean Associations, which I was privileged to address in meetings here in Washington and in Chicago recently. Korean-Americans are taking their rightful place in the patchwork of our democracy. I can’t think of a better use for their growing organization and influence.

Meanwhile, Senator Marco Rubio met with human rights activists – and the Korean Foreign Minister– in Seoul this week.

“Being raised in and representing a community of Cuban exiles, I have friends, constituents and visitors to my office who know what oppression is because of their experiences as political prisoners in Castro’s gulags,” said Rubio. “Hearing firsthand accounts of the human rights violations that occur in North Korea affected me on a personal level.

Rubio will also visit the DMZ and U.S. service members (probably soldiers, but I don’t presume).

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SO, WHO HASN’T JAPAN PISSED OFF YET? For the second time this year, Japan is caught engaging in secret talks with the North Koreans. Rumor has it that Japan is asking for a “reinvestigation” of its abductees in North Korea, which isn’t going to happen unless Japan is willing to pay Kim Jong Un some astronomical sanctions-busting sum of cash. Has it crossed anyone’s mind in Tokyo that alienating all of your allies is a dumb thing to do when China is threatening to invade your territory?

What many people in Washington forget, of course, is that Shinzo Abe was also Prime Minister when Chris Hill double-crossed Japan on the abductee issue. For years, the U.S. government had said that North Korea would never be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism until Japan’s abductees were returned. During his first term, Abe hewed to a hard-line policy on North Korea, and made a major political sacrifice by sending troops to Afghanistan, to earn Washington’s goodwill on issues of concern to Japan, including the abduction issue. Hill’s deal with Pyongyang reversed that long-standing U.S. position and threw Japan’s government into a crisis. We are still paying the price for Christopher Hill’s short-sighted mendacity to this day.

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JOHN KERRY HAS MET with Kenneth Bae’s family. You know how to free Ken Bae? Tell the North Koreans we’re about to re-invoke the Trading With the Enemy Act and impose a ban on transactions incident to travel to North Korea. (The Executive Order that does this, however, has to contain a special exemption for Dennis Rodman.)

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NORTH KOREA CRACKS DOWN on private child care. Can’t let them miss a minute of the indoctrination, after all.

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COAL EXPORTS TO CHINA continued, at a slightly reduced rate, after Jang Song Thaek’s execution.

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Wow. Who saw that coming?