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Category: Diplomacy

January 11, 2007

Lefkowitz on Kaesong: ‘Material support for a rogue government, its nuclear ambitions, and its human rights atrocities.’

[Updates Below; and a big welcome to everyone coming in from Gateway Pundit.] Ambassador Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea, has an excellent new op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (thanks to a reader!) that will provoke an absolute Category 5 sh*tstorm between the United States and South Korea, and for the best of reasons. Without question, the State Department and the Administration have not always lived up the high ideals the Special Envoy...

Categories "United" Nations/Human Trafficking/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/WMD
January 10, 2007

N. Korean Foreign Minister Conveys Dear Leader’s Greetings to Saddam Hussein, Presents Credentials to Satan

In an obituary dated Jan. 4, the Minju Chosun said, “Regrettably, Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun passed away at 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 2 at the age of 77 because of terminal disease (lung cancer),” the newspaper was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency.  [link] After  a simple funeral service in Paek’s provincial  home town, his porcine corpse was disinterred, rendered into soondae and taeji-kalbi,  and eaten by starving neighbors. Pic:  REUTERS/Viktor Korotayev

Categories Diplomacy/Kremlinology
January 10, 2007

Be Sure the Survivors Stay Buried

The South  Korean government is going all out to find the remains of its  Korean War dead:  The Defense Ministry has set up a task force to retrieve and identify the remains of the dead from the 1950-53 Korean War, officials said Wednesday. The team of 85 is modeled after the U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. Its mission is to excavate remains and identify them through DNA analysis, they said. Col. Park Sin-han, chief of the team, said they would...

Categories Abductions/Appeasement/Korean War/ROK Military
January 10, 2007

Two Questions for Lee Jae-Joung

1.  If poverty is  really the reason why North Korea builds nukes, then why is it that the people who actually built the thing  have so much higher a standard of living than  I do  (contrarily, I wonder how much Lee really knows about what poor North Koreans think about this)? 2.  If the key to denuclearization is ending poverty in North Korea, why has your government tolerated the North Korean regime’s theft of your government’s aid from the neediest...

Categories Appeasement/Famine & Food Aid/WMD
January 9, 2007

Kim Jong Il Unplugged, Part 17

After North Korea showed up at last month’s disarmament talks just long enough to give the United States the finger, you wouldn’t expect us to go wobbly on our financial measures against North Korea’s financing of WMD’s, counterfeit currency, and other illegal proceeds.  With the passage of U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1695 and 1718, those measurements have become requirements.  The good news is that we’re not going wobbly. Treasury, mainly in the physical form of Undersecretary Stuart Levey, has been...

Categories "United" Nations/Axis of Evil/Counterfeiting/Iran/Money Laundering/NK Economics/WMD
January 8, 2007

Will John Negroponte Put Some Steel in Our Korea Policy?

If so, it would be good news. I’ve argued on this blog that the G.W. Bush policy isn’t really that different from the Bill Clinton policy on the fundamentals. Both shared the same set of  essential beliefs: that North Korea has a genuine interest in disarming, for the right price; that such a disarmament is achieveable, verifiable, and enforceable; implicitly, that North Korea’s nuclear proliferation can be contained; implicitly, that North Korea is more dangerous if its regime is destabilized...

Categories Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/Washington Views/WMD
January 7, 2007

N. Korean Freedom Coalition Protests Thai Generals’ Pact With China’s Inhumanity

You may recall my previous post about the decision of the Thai military government to launch an “offensive” against North Korean refugees crossing into Thailand after a long and dangerous journey through China. The decision, by a government run by a military junta, reverses what had been the most humane policy in an undemocratic region. As is often true, democracy was only the first casualty; humanity soon became the next casualty. The generals’ decision comes despite the fact that the...

Categories "United" Nations/China/Human Rights/Refugees/Southeast Asia
January 5, 2007

Because the Last One Solved So Much …

… South Korea is  begging the North Koreans for another summit.  Except that it really isn’t: During the interview, Lee said, “Now is the time for the North to give an answer (to the opening of a second summit). I hope the North will prepare fully to hold (the summit) at an early date.” But Lee said it is not proper for the Seoul government to make a specific request about this matter under the current circumstances, apparently referring to...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/WTF?
January 5, 2007

Yet Another Nuke Test?

Yonhap is reporting suspicious vehicle movements, plus South Korean denials that  another test is likely (the power of bilateral engagement and  “carrots” will save us … just like before!).  Until Google Earth goes real time, the most accurate indicator of  a North Korean provocation we ordinary folks  are going to get is the exact opposite of whatever South Korea predicts. Update: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice caution[ed] the communist nation that a second nuclear test “no doubt would deepen its...

Categories Appeasement/Japan/Japan & Korea/WMD
January 2, 2007

Kim Jong Il Unplugged, Part 16

East Asia Commercial Bank of Vietnam closed all accounts linked to North Korea on Wednesday after the Macau government indicated it will keep the North’s accounts in its own Banco Delta Asia frozen “as long as legally possible. EACB has been acting as a correspondent bank for customers to remit money to and from North Korea. The U.K. Financial Times on Thursday quoted a letter from EACB deputy general director Nguyen Thi Ngoc Van to its North Korean customers and...

Categories NK Economics/Six-Party Talks
December 22, 2006

The Talks Aren’t Over Until Chris Hill’s Plane Takes Off

Despite this AP report that the talks are over, I’ll refrain from publishing my draft post until Hill actually leaves Beijing on Saturday, and possibly until his plane lands.   While hopes for a successful outcome are high — and to me, that means continued  impasse with maximum cosmetic value — it would be just like the North Koreans to revert to their bottom line negotiating position after all of the other delegates had packed their suitcases, especially right before Christmas. ...

Categories Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks
December 20, 2006

OFK Exclusive: N. Korea to Charge Crafty Yodok Inmates With Running International Counterfeiting Ring

The U.S. has said the question of North Korea’s frozen accounts in the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia could be resolved early if North Korea punishes counterfeiters of U.S. dollars and destroys their equipment.  [link] Firing squads and bloody handshakes to follow, and my sources tell me there may  even be a ceremonial steamrolling of the HP Laserjet that was  the center of this dastardly plan.  I dare you to  figure out where the  satire ends and the “news” begins: Ever...

Categories Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks
December 19, 2006

If I Were a Member of the North Korean Elite, I, Too Would Be Buying Up Gold and Chinese Real Estate

One of the least recognized moral responsibilities assumed by authoritarian states is the responsibility for misspent words and wealth they choose to get into the business of controlling. For example, when the South Korean government dabbles in the control of objectionable speech, whether for political or nationalistic reasons, it assumes responsibility for the decision to license, by omission, (and sometimes, even to subsidize) other objectionable or controversial speech. To a much greater extent, North Korea, which aspires to a higher...

Categories "United" Nations/China & Korea/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights
December 18, 2006

Wobble Watch: Desperation Isn’t Enough

My fear:  the U.S., desperate for the appearance of a last-minute  diplomatic success, would sign up for Agreed Framework II at Beijing.  The reality:  the North Koreans and the Americans are both acting as if they expect the other to give more, with the North Koreans enjoying a clear advantage in chutzpah: North Korea defiantly declared itself a nuclear power Monday at the start of the first full international arms talks since its nuclear test and threatened to increase its...

Categories Six-Party Talks
December 13, 2006

Wobble Watch: Interesting Comment from S. Korean Delegate to Talks

“As the BDA account case shows us well, if we mention bilateral issues between North Korea and the U.S., we will not see much progress in the denuclearization of North Korea. Matters such as the BDA issue should not be mentioned during the six-party talks, and should be discussed in a working group or at least should be a separate part of the six-party talks. I read this as a good sign, given that the South Koreans had previously pressured...

Categories America/Six-Party Talks/WMD
December 12, 2006

The Speech Kofi Annan Should have given

During my decade as secretary-general, and indeed for some time before that, I have indulged in more than my share of half-truths, quarter-truths, cover-ups, immoral inanities and staggering hypocrisies. I have shuffled paperwork while ignoring genocides, I have rushed to shake hands with tyrants while deriding democrats; I have suffered from memory gaps while adroitly recalling just enough to know what needs covering up. I took office promising to reform the U.N., and instead produced a record that deserves to...

Categories "United" Nations
December 12, 2006

Fifth Column Update

Prosecutors have identified additional suspects in the Il Shim Hue cell, who they think provided the following types of information to the North Koreans: The suspects reportedly provided information on the six-nation talks and the internal split of the Grand National Party over the National Security Law to Mr. Jang starting early last year. Internal conflicts in the army and developments in the judicial and media communities were also provided to Mr. Jang. That information was delivered to Pyongyang, sources...

Categories Six-Party Talks/The Fifth Column