Category: Miscellaneous

SPOILER ALERT: The AP says “UN sanctions may play into North Korean propaganda.” I’m sure they’re in a perfect position to forecast that. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ NORTH KOREA, WHICH WAS REMOVED from the list of state sponsors on October 11, 2008, has moved some long-range 170mm guns and 240mm rockets (which are capable of...

Since we last visited Kim Jong Il’s big dig almost five years ago, North Korea has continued to make progress on its most sinister-looking airfield.  According to Global Security, it’s called Kang Da Ri. The first image is from November 11, 2002.  This series of images shows how the project has progressed steadily up through August 9, 2011: These final images show close-ups of the north tunnel entrance … … and this bridge, which will allow aircraft to cross over...

Hearings at the House Foreign Affairs Committee have traditionally been occasions when Special Envoys related their latest efforts to get North Korea to agree to behave until it chooses not to. Invariably, most of the Democrats would applaud them for it, most of the Republicans would express mild skepticism, and the Congress as a whole would defer. Until now, there was never any other alternative up for discussion.  Today’s hearing was a break with that tradition. It was the first...

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT WILL BACK a long-belated U.N. human rights probe of North Korea. *          *          * NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME, North Korean defectors allege that the regime uses political prisoners to dig tunnels for its nuclear tests, and then executes them.  I found no evidence to support that charge in the imagery, but I couldn’t rule it out, either. *          *          *...

CONGRATULATIONS, MADAME PRESIDENT.  It’s already looking like five hard years ahead. *          *          * ISN’T THAT HOW EINSTEIN DEFINED INSANITY?  Robert Gallucci cannot possibly have said, on one hand, that “[t]he policy we have pursued over the last 20 years — engagement, containment, whatever — has failed to reduce the threat posed by North Korea to the security of the region,” and also, in the same speech, said, “It’s my conclusion that the best...

NORTH KOREA PERESTROIKA WATCH: Funny, as of 3 p.m. on Inauguration Day 2009, the Nobel Committee seemed so sure our enemies would all love the guy.  How could so many distinguished European humanitarians be so wrong? President Bush removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors on October 11, 2008 for verifiably dismantling its nuclear weapons programs, renouncing terrorism, making peace with South Korea, returning its Japanese abductees, and closing down its concentration camps.  Unlike President Obama, however, President...

NORTH KOREA, WHICH WAS REMOVED FROM THE LIST of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008, has threatened South Korea with “final destruction,” … at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament.  I don’t have the original Korean, so I won’t opine on how similarly it translates to “endlossung.”  Discuss among yourselves. *          *          * GALLUCCI:  IT DIDN’T WORK: “The policy we have pursued over the last 20 years — engagement, containment, whatever...

In the pages of the L.A. Times, Barbara Demick interviews Sig Hecker, who reassures us that North Korea is years away from having a nuclear weapon that it can deliver to its target.  As welcome as that reassurance would be if it were credible, Hecker is not exactly a rocket scientist. Sig Hecker is a nuclear scientist and a metallurgist, but he isn’t an oracle.  Hecker spent most of the decade leading up to 2010 explaining how far North Korea...

THE POOL IS STILL OPEN:  It’s no longer Kim Jong Il’s birthday in Pyongyang, but there will be more opportunities for North Korea to make good on its threats to conduct more nuke or missile tests, including Park Geun-Hye’s inauguration and Kim Il Sung’s birthday. *          *          * A COUPLE OF STARK-RAVING PAULIES were the only members of Congress to vote against a non-binding resolution condemning North Korea’s nuclear test. *  ...

UPDATE/BREAKING:  More nuke tests coming soon? *          *          * ALL OF YOU WHO BET that Park Geun Hye would tilt toward engagement — you know who you are — pay up: “No matter how many nuclear tests North Korea conducts to bolster its nuclear capabilities, it will eventually bring itself self-destruction by wasting its resources,” Ms. Park was quoted as saying by her office during a meeting with her national security and foreign...

GOOGLE HAS RELEASED A NEW ATLAS of North Korea, and Curtis, who has endured countless hours of the torture that is North Korean television for Queen and Country, is deservedly and prominently credited.  On a personally gratifying note, it also seems apparent that the mapping of the political prison camps derives in large part from the work of this humble blog. *          *         * AIR KORYO’S AGEING Russian aircraft are banned from Chinese...

I MAY HAVE A MORE COMPLETE REACTION TO UNSCR 2087 after I’ve had more time to read it and work through its provisions, but I’m not yet ready to accept the spin that this tightened sanctions on North Korea.  Frankly, I’m worried that it actually gives China a basis to argue that it narrowed the sweep of 1718’s financial provisions — the ones with the most potential to be effective, if enforced.  Not that any U.N. resolution matters if China...

NORTH KOREA PERESTROIKA WATCH:  First it was lipstick, now it’s bicycles.  Where are Christine Ahn and Christine Hong to defend North Korean women against sexism? *          *          * I’VE HAD A LOT TO SAY ABOUT NORTH KOREA’S METH PROBLEM, but this article on North Koreans smoking pot was interesting.  You wouldn’t think pot would catch on in a place without freely available snacks, and where being mellow is strictly forbidden.  *      ...