America – Page 11

April 8, 2010

Tremble, Commies!

Forwarded by a friend: WASHINGTON, D.C. ““ Today, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) issued the following statement in response to the conviction of American Aijalon Gomes by a North Korean court. Senator Kerry called on the DPRK to release Mr. Gomes immediately on a humanitarian basis: “This is a mother’s worst nightmare and a horrific situation. This young man belongs in Massachusetts with his family, and I join with them in expressing my hope that North Korea...

Aijalon Gomes/U.S. Politics

April 1, 2010

How Republican Stall Tactics Could Capsize Guam!

I really wish I could say this was an April Fool’s hoax or a Mensa audition gone horribly awry. Actually, it’s a hearing in the House Armed Services Committee: Which seems like a good time to mention that Senator Carl Levin is filled with angst over all the wise on-the-spot guidance our general officers are missing out on because of a Republican parliamentary stall tactic somehow related to health care collectivization reform: “Lives are at stake here. American lives and...

U.S. Politics/WTF?

March 20, 2010

Rumor: U.S., China Planning for “Upheaval” in N. Korea

The United States Thursday denied reports that it will soon have closed-door discussions with South Korea and China on plans for upheaval in North Korea. “I have not been told we are going to have this type of meeting at this particular point,” a senior State Department official said, asking not to be named. “If we are working on that in sort of an early stage, that could be possible.” [Yonhap] Normally, I’d be tempted to believe this because they...

China/Reconstruction/Regime Change/U.S. Military

March 13, 2010

All About Those Lawsuits Against North Korea

Yes, you too can now read the complaints against North Korea filed in U.S. federal district courts — all four of them. At this new page, I’ve posted a summary and the status of each case, downloaded and posted the key court documents, and even linked to the statutes that strip North Korea of its sovereign immunity. Hours for fun for North Korea watchers and plaintiffs’ lawyers.

Terrorism (NK)/U.S. Law

March 8, 2010

North Korea Re-Re-Declares War, Threatens “Merciless Physical Force,” Demands Peace Treaty

So Operations Key Resolve and Foal Eagle have started again. I boldly predict that this year, as has been the case for each year for the many decades we’ve had troops stationed in South Korea, the exercise will not end with an American invasion of North Korea. Just as predictably, North Korea is threatening the United States and/or South Korea. The challenge for North Korean propagandists is always how to make each year’s threat stand out from such previous-year classics...

Diplomacy/ROK Military/Six-Party Talks/Terrorism (NK)/U.S. Military/Useful Idiocy

February 21, 2010

Were the Taliban Casing Yongsan?

By what unhappy accident did the muses of Seoul’s urban planning put a large mosque with a significant population of Pakistani fundamentalists in its congregation smack-dab on top of Hooker Hill? Walking through Itaewon shortly after 9/11 and shortly before my DEROS date, watching chitrali hats and shalwar kamiz coexist uneasily with spandex mini-dresses, Dimple scotch, and crowded nightclubs frequented by U.S. military personnel, I confess to having thought: it’s just a matter of when. A Pakistani man who claims...

Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military

February 2, 2010

DNI Releases Annual Threat Assessment

And it’s more bad news for the usual suspects — David Albright, Selig Harrison, and Mike Chinoy: After denying a highly enriched uranium program since 2003, North Korea announced in April 2009 that it was developing uranium enrichment capability to produce fuel for a planned light water reactor (such reactors use low enriched uranium); in September it claimed its enrichment research had “entered into the completion phase”. The exact intent of these announcements is unclear, and they do not speak...

NK Military/Proliferation/Washington Views

February 1, 2010

Must Read: Daily NK Interviews Heritage Foundation’s Bruce Klingner

Klingner, formerly a CIA analyst and a private consultant with the Eurasia Group, has been with Heritage since 2007. He’s also a daily reader of this site. Here’s a sample of his assessment of the current situation: Pyongyang is increasingly desperate to have the UN sanctions removed. Obama administration officials have commented that the Banco Delta Asia (BDA) sanctions of 2005-06 were very effective and it was a mistake for the Bush administration to have removed them. This is, of...

Washington Views

January 28, 2010

Equality Begins Where Dependence Ends

South Korea, which spent the better part of the last two decades bitching that it wanted to be treated like America’s equal, has been bitching ever since the Pentagon decided that Korea was just about ready to take over wartime operational control of its own military, you know … for its own defense. Needless to say, and largely as a result of having served in the USFK myself for four years, I’m neither as sympathetic nor as diplomatic as our...

An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/UCMJ & SOFA

January 28, 2010

On North Korea, Obama Touts Sanctions, Not Talks

Change! Now, these diplomatic efforts have also strengthened our hand in dealing with those nations that insist on violating international agreements in pursuit of nuclear weapons. That’s why North Korea now faces increased isolation, and stronger sanctions ““- sanctions that are being vigorously enforced. That’s why the international community is more united, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated. And as Iran’s leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: They, too, will face growing...

Sanctions/U.S. Politics/Washington Views

January 15, 2010

We Are All Neocons

Seeing this item at the Real Clear World blog, I could no longer evade the cold truth that Change has come! The American Interest has a good round table on North Korean policy. The upshot seems to be that most analysts think that regime change is not only the optimal outcome but essentially an inevitable one – Kim Jong Il won’t live forever and what comes next could be quite chaotic if it’s not handled correctly by all the parties...

Regime Change/Washington Views

January 13, 2010

State Department Spokesman on Human Rights Policy

Because of time constraints, all I can give you for now is some quotes from yesterday’s press briefing, below the fold. Thanks to a reader for forwarding. Money quote: “We’ve made clear, going back several months, we’re not going to pay North Korea for coming back to the Six-Party process.” On the role of human rights in the six-party talks, however, the answers were vague to the point of being non-responsive.

Six-Party Talks/Washington Views

January 8, 2010

The Indictments Are Coming! The Indictments Are Coming!

Why do I blog? Because of stories like this: U.S. authorities plan to indict a New Zealand company allegedly involved in selling North Korean arms to Iran, sources linked to the investigation say. They are trying to track down shadowy figures using a labyrinth of thousands of Auckland companies registered to an office on Queen Street, Auckland’s main street. [Sydney Morning Herald] The significance of indicting the company is that the feds will probably tack on some criminal forfeiture counts,...

Axis of Evil/Iran/Missiles/Money Laundering/Proliferation/Sanctions/U.S. Law

December 17, 2009

Well, Then. I Guess We Need a New OPLAN!

Since the North Koreans have their own copy of 5027. Would it be impudent of me to FOIA my own copy, in that case? Sheesh.

NK Military/U.S. Military

December 11, 2009

Did I Just Get the President I Voted For?

[Update: OK, this is just wrong.] The award of a Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama was as good a reason as any to ridicule Europeans, but I can’t help thinking, with malicious delight, how much the shallow, vapid, cynical pacifists in attendance must have hated his acceptance speech — for the award itself was a cynical act, as Obama probably knows. I’ve made no secret of my skepticism that President Obama was prepared for the office he has since...

America/Europe

December 9, 2009

Recent Pictures from Pyongyang

Jack Pritchard, Scott Snyder, and other poobahs from the Korean Economic Institute have put up this Flick page of photographs from their recent visit to Pyongyang. Hat tip to a reader and friend.

Blogs & Blogging/Washington Views

December 4, 2009

Another Lawsuit Against North Korea in a U.S. Court

Previously, I’ve posted about the lawsuit in a U.S. federal court by the crew of the U.S.S. Pueblo — heroes in my book, who resisted and humiliated their captors despite unendurable torture — and about the efforts of the plaintiffs’ lawyers to find and recover North Korean assets to satisfy the judgment. The plaintiffs took advantage of a 2001 amendment to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (see subsection (a)(7)) that allows the victims of “torture, extrajudicial killing, aircraft sabotage, hostage...