Regime Change – Page 9

February 4, 2008

U.S., ROK Forces Will Draw up Contingency Plans for N. Korea Unrest

It’s about time: The Defense Ministry is planning to create a joint plan with the United States to cope with possible internal unrest in North Korea after the Lee Myung-bak administration comes into office. According to military sources, the ministry reported last month a US-Korea joint plan to the transition committee in preparation for possible contingencies in North Korea from March to the end of this year. [….] “The current administration was too conscious of North Korea to...

An Alliance?/Reconstruction/Uncategorized

January 8, 2008

MUST READ: ‘Finding America’s Role in a Collapsed North Korean State’

[Update: Is this an invitation to Munich? China promises to “cooperate” with the West, but admits that it might move into North Korea to “restore order,” and for strictly humanitarian reasons, of course. We all know what humanitarians rule the People’s Republic of China.] Not a moment too soon, as the Red hordes mass to reclaim the Outer Koguryo Autonomous Zone, there is a much-needed advancement of the discussion of the future former North Korea. It comes from U.S....

China & Korea/Reconstruction

September 11, 2007

Newsweek Reports on Son Jong Nam, North Korea’s Only (Possibly) Living Dissident

A new Newsweek piece about North Korea’s underground movement reports on the plight of Son Jong Nam. If Son still lives, he sits on death row in Pyongyang for spreading his faith. You will recall that I previously wrote about him here, and told you how you can join in a campaign to save his life. Newsweek estimates that there are between 20,000 and 100,000 underground Christians in North Korea. You can’t bring Christianity to such a place on a...

Inside NK/Religion/Resistance

August 5, 2007

Quote of the Year

“The only way I’m going back to Korea is in a coffin,” she said, a look of defiance flashing across her face. “F*** you, comrade Kim Jong-il.” Meet Ban Yong Mee, a whore who should have been a doctor, and who may one day be a revolutionary.

Refugees/Resistance

July 12, 2007

Korean Church Coalition Joins N. Korean Human Rights Movement, and an Appeal for a Condemned Man

[Update: Barack Obama endorses the rally and its cause with a nicely written letter. Read it here. Of course, it would be great to think that Obama will be as persistent and passionate on this issue as Sam Brownback, who introduced this resolution in the Senate. That’s two presidential candidates, one from each party. In a particularly bipartisan gesture, one prominent Republican staffer even sent me a copy of Obama’s letter(!). If the KCC turns out a good crowd...

Human Rights/Religion/Resistance

June 26, 2007

Anju Links for 6/25

* There’s another report that a North Korean border guard has defected, only this time, he brought a few things with him: At the time of arrest, Kim was armed with an automatic AK rifle, 5 magazines, 30 cartridges and [a]sword. [Daily NK] Then, the Chinese caught him. They’ll send him back to North Korea, where he’s certain to face a firing squad at 19 [because Koreans calculate age from the time of conception, he’s just 17 or 18 in...

Anju Links/NK Military/Resistance/Uncategorized

April 4, 2007

Stage 4 Watch: Are North Korean Diplomats Going Native?

An order from Pyongyang directing North Korean diplomats in overseas posts to send their children back home has been met with defiance, sources in Beijing said yesterday. Pyongyang has extended the deadline for sending the children home until the end of this month in the face of the diplomats’ reluctance to obey. On March 6, the JoongAng Ilbo reported that the communist Workers’ Party of North Korea had issued the order in February, but no explanation was provided. Under the...

Kremlinology/Resistance

March 7, 2007

Andrei Lankov on Triggering a North Korean Revolution

Update: Here. It’s a must-read. You have to see this one (via The Marmot). In a logical follow-on to “The Natural Death of North Korean Stalinism,” Professor Andrei Lankov offers practical suggestions for exploiting and accelerating a trend he identified previously — the political decline of the Kim Dynasty. I’ve previously called Dr. Lankov arguably the Western world’s only genuine North Korea expert; he’s one of those rare people you can listen to for hours in rapt attention without even...

Deprogramming/Reconstruction

March 6, 2007

Can They Do It? A Brief History of Resistance to the North Korean Regime

[Updated March 2007; See new incidents and survey stats at the bottom of the post.] According to the image of the North Korean people that their rulers carefully cultivate, North Koreans are brainwashed automatons. Regime minders, who closely follow foreign camera crews inside North Korea, seldom permit outsiders to see any alternative. That image is probably a combination of fear, stage management, brainwashing, and a degree of truth: few North Koreans have ever known anything else, and extreme nationalism...

Resistance

February 26, 2007

The Death of an Alliance, Part 65: Beyond Dependency, Toward Reunification

[Update: In the course of a whiney tirade about how America “betrayed” South Korea, Kim Dae Joong also calls for a national conversation about South Korea becoming more self-sufficient in its own defense. I’d suggest to Mr. Kim that it’s a wee bit early to declare South Korea fully abandoned by America while we still have 29,000 of our people there. Kim also admits that the (elected) South Korean government got the deal it wanted, and in light of...

An Alliance?/Reconstruction/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military

February 22, 2007

Two Jailbreaks Reported in Hoeryong

As North Korea tries to enforce a crackdown on cross-border smuggling of people and subversive items, it finds that control isn’t as easy to maintain as it once was. Both incidents involved suspected (cross-border?) smugglers: The source said that in the evening, around 10 PM, unknown arsonist set fire on armory that caused confusion. Amid fire, two smugglers broke the prison bars and escaped. Although the Manghyang district security guards declared state of emergency over Hoiryeong and tried to catch...

Inside NK/Resistance

February 6, 2007

Mass Escape at N. Korean Concentration Camp; 120 Escape

[For images of North Korea’s nuclear sites, click here; for updates and commentary on North Korea’s latest nuclear test, click here; for images of other concentration camps, click here and here; for more Google Earth imagery of North Korea, click here.] [Update 11 Feb 07: North Korea denies it] The Daily NK reports: Sources residing in the district of Chongjin, North Hamkyung informed on the 1st and 5th “On December 20th, a mass group of 120 prisoners from the...

Google Earth/Human Rights/Inside NK/Resistance/The Camps

February 5, 2007

We Are (Not) One

When I reported to Korea for my first tour there, I recall walking around Yongsan with another Army officer looking at all the Korean civilians and wondering how many were North Korean sleeper agents. Hey, even paranoid people have enemies. I remember that officer saying, “I don’t claim to be able to tell North Koreans from South Koreans.” I laughed, but that was before I actually met any people I knew to be North Koreans. My views have since...

Korean Society/Reconstruction

January 12, 2007

Beyond Empty Threats

Yes, Stealth fighters have some value in deterring a North Korean first strike, if we think that’s a possibility, but I do not believe that any weapon in the U.S. military arsenal (with this possible exception) can deter or prevent a North Korean nuclear test. The threat of a direct, large-scale use of force by either the United States or North Korea against the other is an empty threat. The conventional Korean War has been a standoff since 1953. ...

An Alliance?/NK Military/Resistance/ROK Military/U.S. Military

January 8, 2007

U.S. and Japan Quietly Prepare for North Korean Collapse

The Asahi Shimbun said the government has estimated that 100,000 to 150,000 people would arrive from North Korea and has been discussing with the United States how to deal with such a situation. Japan could only provide temporary shelter for several tens of thousands of displaced persons and would need to consider transferring them to third countries in such a case, the Asahi quoted government sources as saying. The refugees are expected to head to southern Japan from ports on...

An Alliance?/Japan/Japan & Korea/Reconstruction/U.S. Military

January 7, 2007

You Can’t Eat Plutonium

The Daily NK previously reported that Pyongyang’s patrician class had swallowed the whole “barrel of a gun” spin after North Korea’s nuclear test. It didn’t surprise me to hear that. I’d even predicted it. I’m equally unsurprised that North Korea’s proles, and some of its urban youth, are less impressed and seem completely disillusioned with the course of things. Young adults in Pyongyang commonly call Kim Jong Il as “that guy,” whereas in the province of Hamkyung, Kim Jong Il...

Deprogramming/Inside NK/Resistance

December 3, 2006

If the Alliance Has a Future …

Several new articles give us some idea of what it might look like. The first item is the alliance’s reason for being, part of which involves dealing with life after Kim Jong Il: OPLAN 5029. Back in April 2005 the South Koreans unilaterally pulled out of planning for it for fear of pissing off North Korea. A month later, talks seemed to be on again, but with no word on progress until now. A government source on Thursday said then-defense...

An Alliance?/Reconstruction/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military