Appeasement – Page 17

April 11, 2007

Anju Links for 11 April 2007

* Are You Effing Kidding Me? The Bush administration, reversing a six-year-old North Korea policy based on deep mistrust, said it will now rely on Pyongyang’s “good faith” to ensure that funds released yesterday from a Macao bank are not misused…. Mr. McCormack said the North Koreans had promised “to spend the money for the betterment of the North Korean people,” and not for the personal benefit of its officials. [Wash Times] Stupidity with malice aforethought is its...

Activism/Anju Links/Appeasement/Kremlinology/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics

April 9, 2007

Peace in Our Time: Bracing for a Missed Deadline, and the ‘Good’ Unilateralism

If you wonder just how fundamental our policy shift on North Korea has been — fundamentally bad, that is — just look at the fact that Bill Richardson’s amateur diplomacy toward Kim Jong Il is no longer being ignored by the White House [AP, Foster Klug]. Six months ago, a Bill Richardson visit to his friends in Pyongyang would have followed some White House statements that Richardson was acting on his own as a private citizen. Today, as President Clinton...

"United" Nations/Appeasement/Diplomacy/WMD

April 8, 2007

John Bolton on Agreed Framework 2.0

“I think this deal will inevitably fail,” Bolton said. “That day cannot come too soon in my view.” [CBS] That was John Bolton speaking at the American Enterprise Institute on Thursday (I was home sick). If you were to ask me the reasons why I think AF 2.0 is a flat-out capitulation — one that will make our world more dangerous, hurt our friends, and reward our enemies before it fails — all I have to do is look who...

Appeasement/U.S. Politics

April 8, 2007

N. Korea gets a U.S. green light to sell arms, and six months after its unanimous passage, UNSCR 1718 is a dead letter

That resolution may have been the only potentially effective U.N. action in my living memory, and the hand that held the dagger belonged to none other than our own State Department. The United States ignored an apparent violation of the international sanctions against North Korea by turning a blind eye to an arms shipment that Pyongyang sent to Ethiopia earlier this year, according to a story in Sunday’s edition of The New York Times. North Korea has been subject to...

Appeasement/Diplomacy/Terrorism (NK)/Washington Views/WMD

March 23, 2007

How Many North Koreans Was the World Program Really Feeding?

Update: Paul Eckert of Reuters did a very fine interview with Marcus Noland. “It could well be that a nuclear deal that resulted in greater amounts of aid would actually allow the North Korean government to intensify activities that are essentially reestablishing economic and political control over the population,” he said. …. “When things look better … the North Korean government tries to pull back on this process of marketization and reform,” Noland said. “One of the saddest things...

"United" Nations/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Famine & Food Aid/WMD

March 21, 2007

Anju Links for 3/21

* It’s a pity both sides can’t lose: It’s Taliban v. Al-Qaeda in Pakistan, with high casualties on both sides (I’ll be praying for more). it’s nice to see that the bad guys are just as capable of self-destructive division as we are. * Larry “Bud” Melman has passed away. He was 85. * Fifth Column Update: South Korea’s far-left “civic groups” have seen a significant decline in membership. This fits with other recent evidence that...

Abductions/Appeasement/Korean Politics/Six-Party Talks/Terrorism/Iraq/The Fifth Column

March 20, 2007

Anju Links for 3/20

* Renaissance man Kevin Kim, a/k/a The Big Hominid, has launched his new book, “Water from a Skull.” * Missed the train, but not the train wreck. “Notice me!,” cries Ban Ki Moon, just as the February 13th deal starts to strike immovable objects, one of which has an atomic mass of 238. * I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Japanese are an odd people. * Don’t Forget to Ask for Receipts:...

"United" Nations/Appeasement/Blogs & Blogging/Diplomacy/Japan/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. & Korea/WMD

March 19, 2007

Anju Links for 3/19

* Radio Megumi. An international body has granted Japan permission to increase broadcasts into North Korea. The broadcasts will be directed at a small audience: its abducted citizens. I tend to think that Japan would see them home again sooner if it broadcast words of dissent and subversion to the North Korean people. * Short-Selling Appeasement. Japan now stands alone in standing up to the North Koreans in Beijing: not one Yen until you give us back...

Appeasement/Diplomacy/Drugs & N Korea/Japan & Korea/Media Criticism/NK Economics/Terrorism/Iraq

March 18, 2007

Ill-Gotten Gains: Who Still Remembers Resolution 1718?

[Scroll down for updates.] (d) all Member States shall, in accordance with their respective legal processes, freeze immediately the funds, other financial assets and economic resources which are on their territories at the date of the adoption of this resolution or at any time thereafter, that are owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the persons or entities designated by the Committee or by the Security Council as being engaged in or providing support for, including through other illicit means,...

"United" Nations/An Alliance?/Appeasement/Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks/WMD

March 16, 2007

N. Koreans May Have Given U.N. Counterfeit $100 Bills

[A] new twist now emerging in the Cash-for-Kim scandal is that while the UNDP has been giving Kim real money, Kim’s regime may have been handing over counterfeit banknotes to the UNDP–which apparently had a stack of counterfeit $100 bills sitting in its office-safe in Pyongyang. [National Review] We owe this revelation to — who else? — Claudia Rosett.

"United" Nations/Appeasement/Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/NK Economics/WTF?

March 16, 2007

Congressional Conservatives Threaten Rebellion on N. Korea Policy

A reader and friend forwarded me a press release by three conservative Republican members of Congress (thanks), including the Ranking Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. The press release accompanies a letter that urges “caution” on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in attempting to normalize diplomatic and trade relations with the North too quickly. The clear subtext is that conservatives think that Rice may not be demanding enough of North Korea in meeting the necessary prerequisites on disarmament, terrorism,...

Appeasement/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/U.S. Politics

March 15, 2007

Peace in Our Time! Yongbyon Edition

North Korea has told the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency that it will not shut down its 5-MW reactor at Yongbyon until the U.S. lifts its sanctions against the North: “The DPRK mentioned that they are waiting for the lifting of sanctions with regard to the Macau bank before they implement the part of the agreement allowing the agency to monitor and verify the shutdown of the Yongbyon facility,” ElBaradei told a news conference…. [Reuters, Chris Buckley] Kim...

Appeasement/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/WMD

March 13, 2007

The Worst Friend, The Best Enemy

[Update: My worst fears are coming true. Now the opposition Grand National Party is trying to soften up its North Korea policy as it braces for a summit visit from Kim Jong Il and a presidential election this year. One possible effect is that the GNP’s own perpetual appeaser, Sohn Hak-Kyu, could become the new flavor of the month.] One of the disadvantages of appeasing North Korea is that the North Koreans are so despised and distrusted, you can...

Appeasement/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Geopolitics/Money Laundering

March 10, 2007

Eight Questions Our Shenyang Consul General Won’t Answer

About a week ago, I published this post, relaying Adrian Hong’s assertion that the U.S. Consulate in Shenyang, in direct contravention U.S. law, stood by and refused entry to six North Korean refugees who where just feet from the Consulate’s front gate. Shortly thereafter, the refugees, Hong and other LiNK activists were arrested by the Chinese authorities. After I published that post, a reader supplied me with the e-mail addresses of the Stephen Wickman, the U.S. Consul General in...

Appeasement/China/China & Korea/Diplomacy/Refugees

March 8, 2007

Peace in Our Time! Abductions Edition

I forecast severe tire damage along the road to removing North Korea from the terrorism-sponsor list: HANOI–Japan and North Korea opened talks here Wednesday morning on normalizing bilateral relations, but the North Korean side canceled the afternoon session apparently as a way of refusing the Japanese request to discuss the abduction issue further, the chief Japanese delegate said. However, the meeting is scheduled to resume Thursday morning at the North Korean Embassy to discuss the abduction and normalization issues, Koichi...

Abductions/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Japan & Korea/Six-Party Talks/WMD

March 7, 2007

Hill: N. Korea Must Give Up Uranium Program

[Update: This doesn’t sound very “newly murky:” “I have no doubt that North Korea has had a highly enriched uranium program,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said during a visit to Seoul. …. “We would expect that when North Korea makes its declaration of nuclear facilities that that would be one of the issues addressed in North Korea’s declaration,” he told a news conference. Good, if we really have no doubts. Straightforward interpretation is all that can...

Abductions/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Japan/Japan & Korea/WMD

March 6, 2007

Peace Is at Hand!

* Accountability Is So Last Month: For those who are thirsty for some rare news of someone holding Kim Jong Il accountable for anything lately, Opinion Journal has more on the end of the U.N. Development Program’s highly questionable North Korea operations, and some unsolicited advice for Chris Hill. * ‘There’s Nothing to Wait for Here:’ Those words, from the North Korean delegate who passed reporters on his way into “normalization” talks, could be the truest...

Appeasement/Deprogramming/Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK

February 28, 2007

Welcome to the Hen House

[Update: The Daily NK has more on the working groups.] Those “working groups,” to which most of the difficult unresolved issues with North Korea have been delegated, are scheduled to meet next month, and get a load of who is chairing them: South Korea will chair a working group on providing economic and energy incentives for North Korea, while China will be responsible for a group on the North’s denuclearization. Russia will head a group concerned with peace and...