Category: Anju Links

IT’S A FEW DAYS OLD, but this New York Sun report on Republican revulsion at President Bush’s appeasement of Kim Jong Il is worth a read, particularly because of the signals McCain is sending.  If McCain were to oppose this vocally, Bush would probably have a hard time keeping the Republicans togther, and some Democrats would probably also feel the need to pivot.  Related editorial here. ONE WAY YOU COULD help push public opinion (here, anyway) modestly in the right...

YOU DON’T SAY: “There is concern that North Korea might want to retain nuclear weapons that they have already produced so, in fact, they can be considered as a nuclear weapon state,” Lee Myung-Bak told Japan’s Kyodo News in an interview released on Monday.  “This is a very serious concern we all have,” said South Korean President Lee stressing the need for the six-party nuclear negotiations to tackle the weapons issue.  [Channel News Asia] Unlike Japan’s leaders, Lee doesn’t have...

NOT-VERY-FAMOUS LAST WORDS:  Most observers now rate the 100,000-man South Korean army as the best of its size in Asia. Its fast-moving columns have mopped up all but a few of the Communist guerrilla bands. And no one now believes that the Russian-trained North Korean army could pull off a quick, successful invasion of the South without heavy reinforcements. [Time, June 5, 1950]   MAD SHEEP DISEASE UPDATES: In a fine example of the unrealized expectations of government-funded media, KBS...

STARVING NORTH KOREAN WOMEN TURN TO PROSTITUTION:  “Around stations in big cities, you can see many pimps affiliated to inns . . . .  They approach pedestrians, euphemistically saying that “˜I am selling a bed,’ or “˜selling a flower.’”  Sadly,  some of those forced to survive this way are children.  IT’S CAUTIOUSLY ENCOURAGING to hear USAID official John Brause say something like this about the first shipment of U.S. food aid to North Korea  since 2005:  The agreement to provide...

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED the show.   That’ll be $2.5 million.  SORRY ‘BOUT THAT!   Yet again, the South Korean government endangers the families of its forgotten prisoners of war. DON’T THINK OF THEM AS LOVED ONES.  Think of them as hostages  (more). FOR THE FIRST TIME, senior South Korean officials have commemorated the anniversary of a 2002 sea battle with North Korean patrol boats that left six South Korean sailors dead. THE HOTTEST ITEM FOR SMUGGLERS in Sinuiju, along the...

THE KOREAN GOVERNMENT HAS PUBLISHED a guidebook for foreigners.  The guidebook contains a warning about the dangers of … fan death.   Have you heard of this “fan death?”  (ht).  BUT WE MUSTN’T POLITICIZE THE OLYMPICS:  China’s  anti-North Korean refugee pogrom  continues, though almost no one sees fit to mention it, and the people of South Korea still don’t really care about it.  I wonder if they’d care more if they felt completely safe criticizing China. AT TIMES, IT  ALMOST SEEMS...

STALL, STALL, STALL:  North Korea says it will halt the “disablement” of its nuclear facilities until it receives energy aid first.  Interestingly, food was not a high-priority demand. THIRTY-THREE YEARS after the North Koreans seized his fishing boat and took him and 32 of  his fellow crewmen hostage, South Korean fisherman Yun Jong-Su, 65,  has escaped and taken refuge in the South Korean consulate in Shenyang.   I had hoped to do a longer post on this, but there just wasn’t...

I REALLY HOPE THIS WOMAN WINS HER LAWSUIT, but isn’t her first claim against her own parents, for bringing her back to North Korea to begin with? MINISTRY OF IRONIC PROPAGANDA: Famine-plagued North Korea jumps on the anti-U.S. beef import bandwagon. I’m guessing this message is sort of like North Korean food imports — not to be consumed by ordinary North Koreans. MAYBE THEY SHOULD ASK THE ONES WHO ARE STARVING: The North Korean regime refuses to acCept a South...

THE DAILY NK HAS POSTED some pictures of rice-planting time in North Korea.  These appear to have been taken surreptitiously.  These, on the other hand, appear to be taken from the Chinese side of the border, and show North Korean soldiers and kids catching frogs to eat in the paddy fields. ONCE AGAIN, YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST:  More details of U.S.-North Korean food aid talks have leaked out: The United States is ready to ship 500,000 tons of food...

IT’S NOT THE COWS THAT ARE MAD:  USFK is warning our soldiers to watch out for a resurgence of violent anti-American  demonstrations.  If their goal is to get U.S. forces withdrawn from Korea, they’ve already persuaded me to support them.  I’ll be  watching how the Korean government deals with this very carefully. AMERICA IS AGAIN ASKING South Korea to join the Proliferation Security Initiative.  The aftermath of a round of missile tests seems an opportune time for that. NORTH KOREA...

JOSEPH HONG, ONE OF LiNK’s RISING STARS and one of this site’s most valued readers, writing in the International Herald Tribune, asks, “Where has all the courage gone?” After summarizing the current conditions both inside North Korean and for the refugees who have managed to flee, Hong says: In light of this, it is fair to say that international institutions have totally failed in their duty to protect refugees and curtail human rights violations. President George W. Bush has met...

MORE PROTESTS  against China’s repatriation of North Korean refugees  are scheduled  to take place  in Seoul.  The theme: “No human rights, no Olympics.”  If you live in the area and have a good videocamera (riot gear would also help)  there’s probably  a time that’s convenient for you: * Tuesday, 5/6, 2 pm, Chinese embassy, Seoul * Every week Thursday candlelight demonstration * Thursday, Date: 5/8, 7 pm, Seoul City Hall square * Every day at noon at the Chinese consulate...

MUST READ:   Andrei Lankov talks about North Korea’s food situation in the Asia Times.  BETTER THEM THAN US, PT. 2:  Ten North Koreans were killed in that Israeli  air strike  on a nuclear reactor in Syria: The intelligence officers told NHK the 10 killed North Koreans, who were helping build a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria, were believed to be officials from the Munitions Industry Department (No. 99 Department) of the North Korean Worker’s Party and North Korean sappers, or...

THAT’S MORE LIKE IT: South Korean human rights groups said Thursday they will block the Olympic torch relay in protest at China’s alleged human rights violations against Tibetans and North Korean defectors. The torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympics is scheduled to reach South Korea on April 27 and be passed on to North Korea on the following day. It will arrive in Beijing in early May. “We urge China, as a host of the Olympic Games, to abide by...

ANOTHER GOOGLE EARTH MYSTERY: In the two days following my publication of this post on North Korea’s construction of a suspected underground runway, the same site has also been discovered by the Voice of America and Yonhap. Thanks a million for reading, guys. I’d thank you two million for a little attribution or a link…. IS KOREA’S LEFT MOVING TOWARD THE CENTER? Well, there’s a lot less room under the tent these days. By the way, the picture accompanying the...

THE LIFE IMPRISONMENT ZONE of Camp 14 is described in vivid detail by Shin Dong-Hyuk, who claims to be a survivor (by the way, hat tip to usinkorea for sending this).  Shin’s story of how  another prisoner helped him  survive interrogation in an underground dungeon is particularly touching.  The concern you always have with reports like this is that they come from a single source and can’t be independently confirmed.  Oddly enough, this  report comes by way of the Pattaya...

A HUMANITARIAN SPIRIT that would have seemed unimaginable in Japan half a century ago is taking root: No Fence in North Korea, a Tokyo- based association, started campaigning to release political prisoners from camps in North Korea, where as many as 250,000 people are subjected to torture and summary execution. The group, headed by Shojun Sunagawa, a former Japanese diplomat, held its first meeting in Tokyo yesterday and plans to raise awareness of the camps in North Korea and rescue...

MORE TRAIN WRECKS in North Korea have injured hundreds, according to the Daily NK. Recall that an explosion that may have killed hundreds in the town of Ryongchon in 2006 was triggered by a train accident. SPEAKING OF THINGS THAT SOUND DANGEROUS, I wonder where these North Korean soldiers were getting the scrap iron they were selling to China. Even in the United States, there are idiots who deliberately drive into live-fire zones of U.S. military bases to collect scrap...