Home  >  Diplomacy

Category: Diplomacy

January 16, 2007

Eum, Yang, and Korean Diplomatic Courtesy

A few days ago, Occidentalism posted this absolutely priceless flowchart that is too telling by half about how some Koreans tend to scapegoat their way through real problems. I suppose the temptation to pin blame on others is human nature; that temptation is at its greatest when a solution to the underlying problem seems beyond reach. Witness the finger-pointing that followed last October’s nuke test (and the notable absence of constructive proposals accompanying it). I shouldn’t miss this opportunity to...

Categories Anti-Americanism/China & Korea/Diplomacy/History/Japan & Korea/Korean Politics/Korean Society/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military
January 16, 2007

Sounds Like a Job for ‘The Dog’

But this time, they mean business: An international energy consortium has asked impoverished North Korea for nearly US$1.9 billion in compensation for its defunct project to build two nuclear power plants in the North under the 1994 nuclear agreement on the North’s freezing of its nuclear activities, diplomatic sources here said Tuesday. North Korea, however, has yet to respond to the claim, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Analysts also said the North is unlikely to respond favorably,...

Categories Diplomacy/NK Economics/WMD
January 12, 2007

UniFiction Ministry Plans ‘Peace Education’ and ‘Unification Education’ in Public Schools

From the Ministry’s own Web site: Minister Lee said, “The inter-Korean relations have improved from confrontation and tension to reconciliation and cooperation. Excuse me????   In order to match such improvement, peace education needs to be introduced into the curriculum of school and unification education. I want to promote the peace education in a future-oriented way so that the people can foster their ability to keep peace firmly and it can contribute to the peace in Northeast Asia as well...

Categories Appeasement
January 12, 2007

Fortunately, No Translators Were Present

Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, stated that the new South Korean president must be “sensitive to the needs of the (Asia-Pacific) region, in addition to thinking about North-South relations.” …. Washington expects the new Korean administration to think “about working closely with Tokyo and Washington in terms of joint approaches, in terms of what’s going on in North Korea,” he told Yonhap News Agency after meeting with Kim Geun-tae, chairman of the ruling Uri Party, at Kim’s parliament...

Categories Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views
January 12, 2007

Donga Ilbo Interview: David Straub

Straub, a State Department expert on Korea and Japan who has been a member of our six-party negotiating team, will spend an unspecified amount of time at an unspecified university — the report seems to have been mangled by an editor —  doing the heroic work of openly questioning Korea’s historical mythology: “I would like to teach historical issues such as Katsura-Taft Secret Agreement (a secret treaty between Japan and the U.S. The U.S. recognized Japanese control of the Korean...

Categories America/Anti-Americanism/Diplomacy/U.S. & Korea
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