Category: Miscellaneous

THE BALLOON PEOPLE are back! OBAMA IS “LEERY” of direct talks with North Korea: “[A] State Department official said Tuesday that the U.S. will not agree to one-on-one talks unless it is given assurances in advance that the outcome will be a deal to resume six-party negotiations.” Well, good for them. No talks will ever disarm North Korea, but always good to show them we mean what we say. SOUTH KOREA PLACES A CAP on what local Commie-sympathizing fifth-columnists can...

ROH MOO HYUN takes the Fifth. NO WORSE THAN HAVING THEM THERE, I guess: The Economist calls for proceeding with six-party talks without the North Koreans. I happen to be a supporter of continuing this charade, but only because charades have cosmetic value. CITING SOUTH KOREAN INTELLIGENCE SOURCES, the Joongang Ilbo reports that the North Korean military is reasserting itself “over several key policy-making issues” in a restructuring of the ruling Worker’s Party. This would dial back a trend reported...

RISING CRIME against the “upper classes” and “party officials” in North Korea’s border regions. THAT’LL TEACH ‘EM: Behold the dreaded awesomeness of European diplomacy! A FEW DAYS OLD, but here’s some idea of the emerging policy paralysis in the Obama Administration. I’m starting to believe that the Obama Doctrine will be, “Never make a decision.” THE SEAL MEN of Seoul. I’d say my main question was answered: Kim doesn’t crawl in his “off” hours. He can walk fitfully with crutches....

THE STATE DEPARTMENT given the North Koreans a stern talking-to.  Because, you know, they’re still reeling from that U.N. presidential statement. OH, GOODY:  North Korea wants to talk to South Korea about God-only-knows what. IT NEVER FAILS TO AMAZE ME how North Koreans, including defectors, often continue to revere Kim Il Sung, even after the break with the system.  Don’t underestimate the ability of reverence and skepticism to coexist. NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES you hear that the Pentagon and...

U.S., JAPAN MOVE TO ENFORCE SANCTIONS: Japan and the US have submitted to the UN the names of North Korean companies they believe to be associated with the country’s weapons programme.  The list of companies has been sent to the UN’s Security Council’s sanctions committee for consideration. The move to enforce sanctions against North Korea follows the country’s long-range rocket launch on 5 April.  Diplomats say China, which has a lot of trade with North Korea, will want to study...

PRESIDENT LEE CALLS FOR the release of a South Korean man held at Kaesong. Or, they could declare him to be a North Korean citizen and put him to work on the assembly lines for two bowls of rice a day. GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE: The Daily NK talks about targeting Kim Jong Il’s finances with sanctions. More here. Also, this bit of perspective: The total amount that North Korea had spent developing nuclear weapons and missiles is placed at...

THE WIFE AND CHILDREN OF NORTH KOREA’S TRADE REPRESENTATIVE in Shanghai have defected to the South: The woman, identified only as Ri, arrived in Seoul in early March through the South Korean Embassy in Singapore and is now going though questioning like other North Korean defectors, North Korean sources said. Ri reportedly sought protection at the embassy in Singapore in January while her husband was in Pyongyang for a meeting. She decided to defect to South Korea after a troubling...

FISTS STILL NOT UNCLENCHED, APPARENTLY: North Korea threatens to shoot down U.S. spy planes, and the threat is classic KCNA: “If the brigandish U.S. imperialists dare to infiltrate spy planes into our airspace to interfere with our peaceful satellite launch preparations, our revolutionary armed forces will mercilessly shoot them down,” the ministry quoted the radio as saying. [AP, Jae Soon Chang] JAPAN’S REACTION TO NORTH KOREA’S MISSILE THREAT IS “JUSTIFIED:” Not an especially surprising statement, until you see who said...

THE SENATE Foreign Relations Committee is expected to approve Christopher Hill’s confirmation today, but tabloid rumors notwithstanding, that isn’t the final “confirmation” vote. THE U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION has adopted a resolution denouncing North Korea’s human rights record and reappointing Vitit Muntarbhorn for another year. The resolution was adopted despite the opposing votes of China and Russia: The UN Commission on Human Rights yesterday adopted the European Union-led resolution on a 26-6 vote with 15 abstentions at a meeting at...

GOOD QUESTION! Now that he’s pending confirmation as a senior Pentagon official, do you suppose Ashton Carter will call for President Obama to destroy North Korea’s missile on the ground, as he and William Perry did in 2006? The idea of launching a military strike against North Korean territory is stoopid — that’s with two O’s — whether you look at it politically, diplomatically, or militarily. Waiting for North Korea to launch it and destroying it in flight, however, would...

THE DAILY NK ALREADY HAS some details about the whereabouts of the American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee: The information source also released that, “The emergency, that they had arrested American citizens, was immediately reported to the DSC, which supervises the border guard units. It was also reported to the headquarters of the 9th corps, which has jurisdiction over North Hamkyung Province. The two were sent to Pyongyang in the morning of the 18th after investigation by the special...

WHEREVER THEY ARE NOW, LAURA LING AND EUNA LEE are having a rough day, and that’s about all we know for certain. Although it’s not much more than speculation, the L.A. Times’s Barbara Demick suggests that Ling and Lee might have strayed into North Korean territory. Underground railroad hero Chun Ki Won doesn’t think the North Koreans would have crossed into China: “They must have gone in too close, where it was dangerous. I don’t think the North Koreans would...

THE WEEKLY STANDARD BLOG is reporting that Senator Brownback is publicly threatening to hold Chris Hill’s nomination, which would doom it. TWS points out that Brownback isn’t running again and has little to lose by raising the ire of Sen. Richard Lugar. Lugar, who represents the State Department in the Senate, is also Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. IT WAS LUGAR, you will recall, who quietly torpedoed the nomination of John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador, despite the fact that...

INTOLERABLE SUFFERING, STARVATION, torture, almost universal suffering, yada yada: Thai jurist Vitit Muntarbhorn told the world body’s Human Rights Council that the situation in the communist-ruled country was “dire and desperate” with the population living in fear and pressed to inform on each other. “The country is under one-party rule. At the pinnacle there is an oppressive regime, bent on personal survival, under which the ordinary people of the land undergo intolerable and interminable sufferings,” he said. Diplomats said his...

JAPAN WILL GO TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL if North Korea tests a missile. If they’re shivering in Pyongyang, it’s probably just cold there. ARBEIT NICHT FREI: If the prospects for the Kaesong Slave Labor Park were bleak enough already, briefly imprisoning its South Korean business managers there can’t have helped matters. UH OH: The new U.S. Trade Representative calls the U.S.-ROK FTA “unfair” as negotiated. Pretty much as I’d predicted — South Korea let the issue become toxic in the...

NORTH KOREA has serial killers? EVERYONE ACT SURPRISED: Kim Jong Il is reelected with 100% of the vote — which even beats Obama’s margin in Takoma Park. But whereas free elections are noted for saturating voters with information, North Korea’s election was accompanied by a crackdown on illegal cell phones. More here. KIM JONG IL AND I MAY AGREE ON ONE THING: Can I infer that he detests Vista, too? THE LEAKY BLOCKADE: Open Radio has more on the proliferation...