Home  >  South Korea

Category: South Korea

June 17, 2006

Why He Took Those Pictures

The U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, has paid a very public visit to the Kaesong Industrial Park, and the initial signs are good. Vershbow, a man who seeks the public debate his predecessors so often avoided, has not shied from stating some rather blunt views about North Korea. Thus, the fact that the North Koreans allowed his visit to go forward at all is surprising. Best of all, Vershbow snooped around, took pictures, and even seems to have...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Human Rights/NK Economics/Technology/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Law/Uncategorized/WMD
June 12, 2006

An Endorsement, of Sorts

As used in this chapter – (1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that … (B) appear to be intended … (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; [or] (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion …. – Title 18, Section 2331, United States Code If North Korea’s latest were less laughable than a “threat” to cut off what must amount to billions in free money from South Korea, it might serve as one...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Korean Politics
June 10, 2006

Minister Lee, Call Your Lawyer!

I wonder if the UniFiction Ministry’s Kaesong brain trust — perhaps the same great minds that thought they could fill Wal-Mart shelves with Kaesong products — ever stumbled across these articles of the Republic of Korea Constitution: Article 32 (1) All citizens shall have the right to work. The State shall endeavor to promote the employment of workers and to guarantee optimum wages through social and economic means and shall enforce a minimum wage system under the conditions as prescribed...

Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/Korean Law/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
June 8, 2006

Korea Diary, 8 Jun 06

Uri Death Watch: North Korea is preparing for life after conservatives return to power in South Korea. While it’s premature for anyone to presume, I suppose it’s prudent to prepare. What’s really disturbing, from the perspective of journalistic ethics, is how the Chosun Ilbo is engaging in its own private diplomacy with the North, which certainly implies more favorable coverage in exchange for something — such as access. Now, the American media have made the same faustian deals in both...

Categories Korean Politics/Media Criticism/NK Military/WMD
June 7, 2006

Yodok Story Coming to Washington

Confirmed by a reliable source: the U.S. debut for Yodok Story will be Wednesday, September 27th at the National Theater. There will be seven shows, through Sunday, and the plans (still not final) are to move to New York and the West Coast, probably L.A., after that. Freedom House and Sen. Sam Brownback both helped bring the production here. I had a chance to meet the director, very briefly, in April. My impression was that he’s physically very small, stylishly...

Categories Activism/Censorship/Human Rights/Korean Society
June 7, 2006

State Dep’t Applies the Term ‘Forced Labor’ to Kaesong

This new State Department report looks very bad for Kaesong products even getting into the United States, much less getting FTA status: The North Korean government may be pocketing most of the pay foreign employers pay North Korean workers, a U.S. report on human trafficking asserted. The report was released Monday by the State Department in Washington. …. Seoul wants, and Washington opposes, the designation of goods made there as domestic South Korean products. U.S. officials have criticized the labor...

Categories Human Rights/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
June 5, 2006

Hypocrisy Illustrated

If you want an ideal illustration of why I believe the political tide is turning in Korea, you couldn’t do better than this picture of this anti-free trade demonstration in Washington (Yonhap, via the Joongang Ilbo, now Korea’s best daily). It’s a real Where’s Waldo of illogic and double standards rooted in vitriol, and I’m compelled to warn you that if you stare at this picture too long, you will get a brain aneurism. Before we zoom in on this...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
June 5, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 41

I don’t know how much deader you can get than this: In a seismic shift in an alliance that has held since the Korean War, the military plans to scrap Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command by 2012, it emerged Sunday. Wartime operational control of Korean forces will also return to the country, probably by 2011, since it now rests with the commander of the U.S.-led CFC. According to a military source, plans to abolish the CFC are clearly stated in the...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military
June 3, 2006

Mercurial Politics, Part 1: The Center

Every Korean election year, the political parties’ festering grudges and tribal feuds, catalyzed by ambition, render the entire Korean political party system unstable. Parties shatter into mercurial gobs, collide, and reform. — OFK, 5 January 2006 The first test tube hit the laboratory floor today: Goh Kun made it clear on Thursday that he intended to run for the presidency, and the reaction in political circles has been swift. Especially with the Uri Party in disarray after its drubbing in...

Categories Korean Politics
June 3, 2006

Mercurial Politics, Part 2: The Left

[Update 5 Jun 06: Uri appears to be dissolving over a proposed merger with the Democratic Party. Scroll down for more.] Here is the most remarkable demographic trend of the week: Mr. Roh and Uri also seem to have lost the young vote. About half of Koreans in their 20s supported the Grand National Party, as did half of those in their 30s. The real action now centers around Korea’s political left and right, with the left being much more...

Categories Korean Politics
June 3, 2006

Mercurial Politics, Part 3: The Right

[Update 5 Jun 06: As I predicted below, the GNP win and the attack on Park Geun-Hye have given her a big boost at Lee Myung-Bak’s expense. Scroll down for more.] You know that the maneuvering is in high gear when it reaches the Washington think tank circuit. Here’s an excerpt from e-mail I received yesterday, inviting me to a think-tank event in Washington next week: The New Right Union (NRU) Mission Statement: “To expand freedom over the entire Korean...

Categories Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea
June 2, 2006

S. Korean Students Will Hold Summit on N. Korean Human Rights

[Updated 6 Jun 06] In the heart of hostile territory, no less — North Cholla Province! The Young Students’ Solidarity for North Korean Human Rights (YSS) announced on June 1, “We will hold the “˜College Students’ Progress Assembly for Improvement in North Korean Human Rights and Democracy,’ which is the first time college students alone have held a meeting related to North Korean human rights. Founded in May 2003, the organization has a membership of over 500 students at 25...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Korean Education
June 2, 2006

Jay Lefkowitz to Visit Kaesong?

He must be thanking his Creator that he’s not in Chung Dong-Young’s league now. South Korea has invited the man Comrade Chung snubbed last year to Kaesong, and Yonhap reports Lefkowitz, who has publicly raised some pointed questions about the use of slave labor at Kaesong, has accepted. The latest report follows this one, confirmed by the USG, that a senior State Department official will also visit. Just one small problem here: the North Koreans haven’t granted him a visa,...

Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea