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November 28, 2007

Chris Hill (Possibly) Heading for P’yang

Hill has already left for Tokyo and Beijing; the stopover in Pyongyang is still unconfirmed.  In Japan, I suppose we can expect Hill to tell his hosts to forget about ever seeing their abducted citizens again, to hurry up and pay ransom, or perhaps both.  In China, after performing a full kowtow before  Jiang  Zemin, Hill will  not mention the impending repatriation, torture, and execution of the dissident  Yoo Sang Joon or any other North Korean refugee.  Ever so stealthily,...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy
November 27, 2007

The Pressure Is Off on Human Rights in North Korea

North Korea no longer feels the constraint of international pressure — particularly American pressure —  so it  believes that  it has a free hand to try to increase its  internal control by any means necessary.  Witness last week’s decision  by South Korea to abstain again from a U.N. resolution condemning the North, a reversal of a hard-won gain.   Two of the ways the regime is trying to reassert itself:  tightening its border controls and carrying out more public executions. It’s...

Categories Diplomacy/Human Rights
November 27, 2007

Terrorism, Plain and Simple

If you stick with me for a modest amount of law, I promise you that this post will end with a nice little adventure in participatory democracy.  But to get there, we must begin with how the United States Code defines “international terrorism,” at section 2331 of Title 18: As used in this chapter –       (1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that –                 (A) involve violent acts or...

Categories Appeasement/Terrorism (NK)
November 26, 2007

Impervious to Evidence: State’s Appeasement Express Arrives at the Koryo Hotel

[Update:   Richardson links to State’s quasi-denial:  why, yes, we have stationed a State Department  employee in Pyongyang, but he’s strictly there to supervise the equipment for the technical process of disabling North Korea’s nuclear programs.  That’s peculiar.  If this employee’s job is strictly scientific or technical, why not avoid giving people the wrong idea and  send someone from the Department of Energy or Defense  instead?  At best, this is a trial balloon.   More likely, we’ve just seen  the camel’s...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Proliferation
November 24, 2007

Casualties of Banalities: The Arrest and Coming Death of Yoo Sang-Joon

One of the bravest men I have ever met is locked in a Chinese prison this weekend, facing the risk of being sent back to certain execution in his native North Korea.  His story stands for the human suffering that endures while diplomats craft a controversial agreement to disarm North Korea of its nuclear weapons and to grant its dictator, Kim Jong-il, the peace treaty and the recognition that his regime has sought for decades.  [The Sunday Times, Michael Sheridan]...

Categories "United" Nations/Activism/China/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees/U.S. Politics
November 24, 2007

Bush Administration’s Blackout Can’t Silence Syria-N. Korea Speculation

The latest theory, via  Prof. Uzi Even, an  Israeli scientist interviewed in Haaretz, is this: “In my estimation this was something very nasty and vicious, and even more dangerous than a reactor,” says Even. “I have no information, only an assessment, but I suspect that it was a plant for processing plutonium, namely a factory for assembling the bomb.” In other words, Syria already had several kilograms of plutonium, and it was involved in building a bomb factory (the assembling...

Categories Diplomacy/Proliferation
November 23, 2007

South Korea Abstains Again

. . . in a U.N. vote  to condemn  North Korea’s human rights  atrocities (via Korea Unification Studies).  They abstain, for the record, from condemning this, or this, or this.  Or this. Almost exactly a year ago, after years of abstentions, the South Koreans finally yielded to intense pressure and voted in favor.  What changed?   My theory is that America’s betrayal gave the South Koreans cover.  Remember that next time anyone tries to argue that our diplomacy with North Korea...

Categories "United" Nations/Human Rights
November 21, 2007

No Legacy for You

The Washington Post declares: The war in Iraq seems to have taken a turn for the better and the opposition at home has failed in all efforts to impose its own strategy. North Korea is dismantling its nuclear program. . . .  Yet none of this has particularly impressed the public at large, which remains skeptical that anything meaningful has changed and still gives Bush record-low approval ratings. No, not if the Washington Post does not choose to make it...

Categories Diplomacy/U.S. Politics
November 19, 2007

Beyond the U.N. Experiment

What serious thinker still believes the United Nations still reflects the values of its own charter, much less contributes to seeing them realized?  Much has been said about what was unexpectedly not found in Iraq, much less so about what was unexpectedly found:  proof of just how completely the U.N. had been corrupted by arguably the second-worst dictator on earth.  Not that all of the U.N.’s corruption is monetary: Recall what Churchill told the audience at Fulton about the United...

Categories "United" Nations
November 15, 2007

Kim Jong Il’s Moment of Truth, and Bush’s

Not off to a very encouraging start, are we?  Of North Korea’s intentions and attitudes, we already know plenty from past experience.  The real question is what our own government is willing to do for a few friendly headlines.  I think personalities in the State Department who would overlook inspection, verification, and proliferation to please their Chinese and South Korean friends  have the tiller firmly in their grasp.  Bush is worn  down from bleeding wounds to his ankles,  going through...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks
October 29, 2007

There Is Such a Thing as ‘Good’ Engagement

If you’re reading this, you’re bearing with me despite the light blogging of late.  Thank you.  I make a habit of not talking about my work here, but suffice to say that it carries significant responsibilities that sometimes leave no time and energy for other things.  At times like these, when there is very little time left over, I owe that time to my family.  Thank you again for your understanding,  for continuing to stop by, and for your e-mails. ...

Categories Deprogramming/Six-Party Talks
October 21, 2007

The Unstoppable Self-Destruction of Kim Jong Il

[Updated below] We often hear reports that China has curtailed or cut aid to the North Korean regime. I’ve usually been skeptical of those reports because I believe that Kim Jong Il’s arch-patron China wants us to believe that it’s being “helpful” in disarming North Korea of its nuclear programs, but actually considers it a useful distraction for American power in the region. Now, a new report claims that China is holding up cross-border rail traffic to the North over...

Categories China & Korea/Diplomacy/Famine & Food Aid/Kim Jong Il/NK Economics
October 14, 2007

NYT: It Was a Reactor

Israel’s air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports.  [N.Y. Times, David Sanger and Mark Mazzetti] Even among other journalists who cover this story and the White House, Sanger is well known for having good sources...

Categories Six-Party Talks
October 11, 2007

Summit Perceptions

So what will be the enduring  effect of the meeting between Roh Moo Hyun and Kim Jong Il?  I could speculate, but others have already done that.  Simply read the divergent brands and ask yourself:  who is better informed and grounded in reality:  a semi-random sampling of ordinary  North Koreans, or a New York Times reporter?  (Big hint:  it’s Norimitsu Oniishi, who is almost always over his head when he strays beyond culture and fluff stories).   I’ll just observe that...

Categories Appeasement/Inside NK/Korean Politics
October 9, 2007

The Last Chance

Does this sound like a country that’s made the decision to give up its nuclear arsenal? The North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper ran a lengthy editorial to mark the anniversary, imploring the poverty-stricken population of 23 million to rally around Kim, the official Korean Central News Agency said. “Never forgettable are acclamations of October, 2006, when we shouted hurrah again and again at the top of our voices in admiration of General Kim Jong Il who unfolded an eternally clear...

Categories Six-Party Talks
October 7, 2007

Who Cares About Politicizing Intelligence Now?

Washington was plunged into sleepy apathy this week as ABC News reported that the  Bush Administration  ingored, then  failed to act on intelligence about  nuclear proliferation and potential terrorism that could have endangered  millions of lives.  The report claims that the Secretary of State and the President  received credible reports that North Korea transferred nuclear technology to Syria,  but suppressed the information  to save a troubled diplomatic deal, and even  sought to tip  the Syrians off.  The latest report follows...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks
October 3, 2007

Define “All”

Update:   A reader was kind enough to send a copy of the latest six-party joint statement, which you can read here.   Some of the key langugage: 2. The DPRK agreed to provide a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programs in accordance with the February 13 agreement by 31 December 2007. A deadline.  I like deadlines.  But  this adds no clarity  that nuclear “programs” means nuclear “weapons,” and nothing about inspection or verification beyond Yongbyon. 3. The...

Categories Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks