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Category: Korean Politics

May 15, 2006

UniFictions

This one is straight out of the Peter Ban book of Foreign Policy: A new sign reading “Passengers Heading to Pyongyang Board Here” was set up on the Dorasan Station platform, one of the test-operation sections of the Gyeongeui and Donghae Lines over which South and North Korea reached an agreement on May 13. What an amazing coincidence! Why, that’s just six days before the next election! Still, if we really, really wish for it, it will be. I wonder...

Categories Appeasement/Korean Politics
May 14, 2006

Links of Interest

Richardson has already linked it, but I want to add is that this one could be very, very important to what happens in North Korea. The United States is considering economic sanctions on Chinese banks which have business transactions with North Korean companies allegedly implicated in the development or proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), a news report said Sunday. ================= Rep. Henry Hyde, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, has a message for President Junichiro Koizumi. Hyde,...

Categories Activism/An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Censorship/China/China & Korea/Defectors/Democracy/Diplomacy/History/Human Rights/Korean History/Korean Law/Korean Politics/News Links/NK Economics/North Korea/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views/WMD
May 10, 2006

Should Hanchongryon Be Designated a Terrorist Organization?

“Let us eliminate anti-unification pro-war forces which intend to cast fire clouds of a nuclear war on the heads of Koreans. — Hanchongryon Statement before visiting Pyongyang If I’d had any idea that things were this bad on South Korean university campuses, I’d have been paying much closer attention: Seven Korea University students face disciplinary punishment after illegally detaining nine professors for 16 hours. The Yonsei University president is working elsewhere after being driven out of his office some 40...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Law/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Law/U.S. Military/Uncategorized
May 8, 2006

We Are (Not) One, Part 2

According to this unscientific-looking survey, half of the North Koreans living in South Korea would prefer to live in the United States, despite differences of language and culture and a lifetime of anti-American brainwashing. Why? A survey conducted by the Chosun Ilbo on Monday among 100 North Korean refugees who settled in South Korea found that 50 would go to the U.S. given a choice and 46 South Korea. The others were not sure. Of those who chose the U.S.,...

Categories Defectors/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
May 8, 2006

Kaesong Absurdities

[W]e have signs to believe that there are certain incentives for North Korean laborers working at the Kaesong complex, such as there are no complaints from workers who are asked to work overtime. — Unification Ministry Official As long as the UniFiction Ministry speaks, this blog will never lack for exquisite fisking material. With the White House standing firmly behind Human Rights Envoy Jay Lefkowitz’s concern that Kaesong fails to comply with international labor standards, (I would also raise U.S....

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Human Rights/Korean Politics/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
May 7, 2006

Links of Note

The Political Pendulum: The Chosun Ilbo thinks that the Korean blogosphere is turning right. Although the report depends on readers’ ideological self-identification, I do see modest signs that in South Korea, the pendulum is swinging away from the far left. The problem for the Korea right continues to be that it has articulated no vision that has appeal for younger voters. In a word, it’s reactionary. ====================== Engaging the People: American cartoonist Ranan Lurie wants to bring “uniting artwork” to...

Categories Appeasement/Blogs & Blogging/Korean Law/Korean Politics/News Links
May 7, 2006

Reaction to the Arrival of North Korean Refugees

The arrival of the first six North Korean refugees — including survivors of concentration camps and sexual slavery — could mark a tipping point in the politics of North Korean human rights. The timing of the arrival is either a fortunate coincidence or the height of shrewdness. Local elections are coming up in South Korea on May 31st, and with the human rights issue having created a clear schism (see here, here, and here) between the United States and South...

Categories An Alliance?/Defectors/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Refugees/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views
May 5, 2006

The Battle of the Hump, Part 2

They’re ba …. ack! A day after the Defense Ministry forcefully evacuated protesters from an area in Pyeongtaek slated for the relocation of U.S. military installations, about 2,500 activists staged abrupt demonstrations by cutting through the fences built around the site of the future base. About 2,000 protesters from around the nation broke through the police line to seal off the area from outsiders. They marched three hours to join about 500 other protesters who had been scouting in Daechu...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Law/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Uncategorized/Washington Views
May 5, 2006

Had Enough Tokdo Yet?

Time Asia does a spot-on summary, if you can bear it. According to a report by Peter Beck, the Northeast Asia project director for the International Crisis Group, “One would be hard pressed to find a single Korean over the age of five willing to admit that control of Dokdo does not matter.” By contrast, says Hideshi Takesada, a professor of Korean politics at Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies, “most people in Japan have no knowledge of the issue,”...

Categories Japan & Korea/Korean Politics/Unintended Humor/WTF?
May 4, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 38: Chairman Lee’s Little Red Book of Quotations

[Update and Clarification: Non-geek readers with lives may not realize that Lee Jong-Seok is actually South Korea’s Minister of Unification. One reader reasonably assumed that he was a North Korean, which is certainly an understandable assumption, based on some of the things Lee has been saying this week.] “[Kim Jong Il is] one of the figures in the North we can get [an] agreement from and who can make proper decisions. . . . The two [Kim and South Korean...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
May 3, 2006

Union Thugs Attack Riot Policemen’s Mothers

[Update: More KCTU follies: “We will unite with the workers of the North to fight against the U.S.” Except these workers, I presume.] The 51-year-old mother of a riot policeman is being treated in the hospital for a serious head injury after being pushed to the ground by union demonstrators while she and a group of other parents were monitoring a protest rally in South Jeolla province, police said. The group demanded an apology yesterday from the Korean Confederation of...

Categories Korean Law/Korean Politics/Korean Society
May 2, 2006

Jay Lefkowitz Is Right About Kaesong

The debate about South Korea’s role in (not) improving human rights in the North seems to intensify by the hour. Freedom House is the latest to testify for the prosecution. If you believe the latest report from the Chosun Ilbo, the State Department is reeling from the vitriolic South Korean reaction to U.S. Human Rights Envoy Jay Lefkowitz over labor conditions in North Korea’s Kaesong Industrial Park: Another U.S. government insider also said the controversial piece by Lefkowitz had not...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Media Criticism/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Law/Uncategorized/Washington Views
May 2, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 37: Seoul’s Scorched Earth Retreat on Human Rights

At a comment to an earlier post by James, I listed the following as one of the accomplishments of last week’s North Korean Freedom Week: South Korea has never been more diplomatically isolated in regard to the aforementioned issues, plus on Kaesong, where it sounds increasingly desperate. South Korea’s government is giving some preliminary confirmation of that analysis, in a characteristically disordered way. The first reaction was a tantrum that almost merited a “Death of an Alliance” post. The Korean...

Categories Activism/An Alliance?/Appeasement/Human Rights/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
May 1, 2006

DailyNK Makes Newsweek, Sort of

Newsweek’s latest article on South Korea’s “New Right” is a must-read (ht to the Marmot). The New Right, in remarkable parallel to the rise of American neocons, has sprung up in reaction to these changes. They promote American-style capitalism, denounce the type of totalitarian socialism found in North Korea and–unlike traditional GNP conservatives–advocate a more open world view that transcends narrow nationalism.

Categories Democracy/Korean Politics
May 1, 2006

Revealed: The Halliburton Conspiracy to Unify Korea!

A comment to this post implies belief in an old canard of the Korean left that the United States is an invisible hand that keeps Korea divided. That argument depends on any number of dubious lines of reasoning, from control of South Korea’s natural resources (such as . . . ?), to controlling its trade (and yet, China is now Korea’s largest trading partner), to keeping Korea as a client for U.S. arms (a united Korea wouldn’t need arms, and...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/China & Korea/Democracy/Geopolitics/Humor/Satire/Korean Politics/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/Uncategorized