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Category: Diplomacy

February 12, 2006

Has George Bush Finally Put the Fear of God in Kim Jong Il?

Via Kyodo news: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il thinks his government could collapse if the United States continues to impose financial sanctions against the country, diplomatic sources close to the six-way talks on North Korea’s nuclear program told Kyodo News on Saturday. The sources said Kim made the remarks when Chinese President Hu Jintao asked him at their meeting in Beijing last month to drop the lifting of the sanctions as a condition for Pyongyang to return to the...

Categories China/China & Korea/NK Economics/Six-Party Talks/Uncategorized
February 12, 2006

$140,000 in N. Korean ‘Supernotes’ Found in Namdaemun

So South Korea really isn’t sure North Korea is counterfeiting our currency? Have a look at this: The South Korean government concealed the fact that U.S. investigators told it US$140,000 in counterfeit dollars found in Seoul’s Namdaemun market last April was made in North Korea, it emerged Sunday. Police at the time arrested three people who tried to exchange 1,400 so-called supernotes at a local money changer. They allegedly bought the supernotes from a broker in Shenyang, China. How do...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Counterfeiting/Uncategorized
February 12, 2006

Why ‘Liberator’?

One of our inspirations for the new site name is William Lloyd Garrison, an uncompromising abolitionist and editor of “The Liberator,” published from 1831 to 1865. Garrison published his final issue after the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, eight months after the conclusion of the Civil War. Garrison was certainly not a man without flaws and rhetorical excesses (nor are we). He had a habit of publicly burning copies of the Constitution for its textual accomodations with slavery. In his...

Categories Activism/Appeasement/Blogs & Blogging/Uncategorized
February 5, 2006

Springtime in the Gulag: S. Korean Gov’t Says Play ‘Dwells Too Heavily on Negative Aspects’ of Concentration Camp Life

Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! So it has come to this: it is no longer legal to criticize the human rights record of North Korea in Seoul, South Korea. For those who would defy the rising vicarious control of North Korea’s Ministry of Public Security on the streets of Seoul, here is what happens next: A planned musical about human rights abuses in North Korea’s Yoduk concentration camp has run into massive obstacles, not least from officials fearful of upsetting the...

Categories Appeasement/Censorship
June 27, 2005

THE PRICE OF A NUCLEAR FREE NORTH KOREA & REUNIFICATION

A major justification of South Korea’s unification policy is that by continuing to help North Korea, through the “Sunshine Policy,” they are facilitating both an atmosphere conducive to good relations and a way to help North Korea rebuild itself. The idea is that if North Korea is more prosperous, it will be able to rebuild some of its own infrastructure, thus reducing the cost of reunification in the future. Besides overlooking the glaringly obvious fact that if North Korea is...

Categories Appeasement/NK Economics/Six-Party Talks
June 24, 2005

U.S. CALLING CHINA TO THE COURT – WILL IT DO ANY GOOD?

Today’s Washington Post has the story, “U.S. Says China Should Prod N. Korea on Talks,” which does report the president’s position, even if trying to blame him at the same time; The Bush administration blamed China yesterday for not doing enough to cajole North Korea back to nuclear talks… Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph, who recently replaced John R. Bolton… said China, which is a close ally of North Korea and which supplies the impoverished state with oil and food,...

Categories China/Six-Party Talks
June 23, 2005

SIX-PARTY TALKS – TALKS ARE CHEAP

Kwon Ho-ung, the chief North Korean delegate in Seoul for Cabinet-level talks, today echoed comments made by Kim Jong-il to South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, on 17 June, concerning North Korea’s willingness to return to talks, and ultimately to give up nuclear weapons. A South Korean spokesman quoted the Northern delegation as having stated: “If the United States treats the North in a friendly manner, we will possess not one nuclear weapon. Kim Jong-il reportedly said that if the...

Categories Six-Party Talks
June 20, 2005

SIX-PARTY TALKS HOPES – DEJA VU, AGAIN

Once again South Korean hopes have been raised that the Six-Party Talks will soon re-start, again. On 17 June, Kim Jong-il told South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young that ““ if the U.S. “recognizes and respects“ North Korea — talks could begin by July. I am not sure how many times we have been down this path since it is nearly pointless to keep count. The U.S. position has stayed the same: talks should begin immediately, and without pre-conditions. By...

Categories Six-Party Talks