Category: NK Economics

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...

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...

America’s Energy Future

Although new oil reserves are routinely discovered in the U.S. and other parts of the world, eventually oil will be almost entirely consumed. And the looming lack of oil is about much more that just transportation (which includes asphalt for roads, by the way), and keeping the lights, heat, and air-conditioning on. Take a look around you ““ see any plastic? Plastics and many other synthetics are manufactured from oil, from the mouse in your hand, to the insulation of...