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Category: U.S. & Korea

September 14, 2006

Roh’s Tepid Welcome

Sure, you read it here first, but David Sanger has great White House sources, and his new story in the New York Times provides fairly solid confirmation: Mr. Bush is determined to squeeze North Korea with every financial sanction possible until it gives up its nuclear capacity and other illicit activities, or, some believe, until it collapses. I wonder how the Chosun Ilbo will react to this: In past meetings, Mr. Bush has done his best to paper over the...

Categories An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea
September 14, 2006

Anti-Americanism Goes Freudian

This post by the Marmot is a must-read. As represented by USFK’s illegal release of formaldehyde into the Han River, the tragedy on the Korean Peninsula began with the unclean sperm of the United States fertilizing the egg of the Han River. The monster’s outrages and its eating of people shows the similar tyranny displayed by the United States toward the Korean Peninsula. Let me see if I can find just the right words for my reaction to this:

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/U.S. & Korea/WTF?
September 12, 2006

Human Wrongs Lawyer

Nice to know that Roh’s previous life experiences are still useful to him on occasion. Before he left for the United States, Mr. Roh reiterated his position on human rights abuses in North Korea. Calling such rights a universal value, he added, “Still, I don’t think there is an agreed universal principle yet in international society as to whether a country can take certain measures against another country because of the details of human rights.” He added, “South Korea has...

Categories History/Human Rights/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
September 12, 2006

No Balance, No Net: Anything Could Happen During the Roh-Bush Meeting

If you have any questions about the state of U.S.-South Korean relations today, you need only read this. Seoul and Washington have decided not to adopt a joint statement or declaration at the Roh-Bush summit. Contrast that to the scripted appearances and affirmations of unity we saw last time. No longer. This visit was hurriedly scheduled after North Korea’s missile launches, which showed everyone just how little security seven billion dollars could purchase, and after which the United States broke...

Categories An Alliance?/Money Laundering/U.S. & Korea
September 10, 2006

For My Next Act, I Shall Balance Four Whales on One Shrimp!

Roh Moo Hyun thinks his neighborhood needs a regional “multilateral security framework:” Roh […] emphasized that the European experience can be useful in coping with pending issues surrounding the Korean Peninsula. He said challenges confronting Northeast Asia include lingering Cold War-like tensions, concerns over the spread of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and environmental protection. He also said there are uncertainties on the possible realignment of power among Northeast Asian actors. “The European system that laid the foundation for the...

Categories China & Korea/Geopolitics/Russia & Korea/U.S. & Korea/Unintended Humor
September 8, 2006

I Propose an Exchange

I love irony. The fellows on the left are in Korea. They’re angry that their President is trashing their country’s alliance with America, and they want him prosecuted for treason. The fellows on the right are in Seattle. They’re angry with America, of course, but also with their President. They think he’s plotting to sell their country to top-hatted Yankee capitalists. They want him brought before a People’s Revolutionary Court for bourgeois splittism, but they’ll probably vote for him until...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/Korean Society/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
September 8, 2006

Why, What Excellent Questions!

At a public forum sponsored in part by the Joongang Ilbo, USFK Commanding General B.B. Bell asks existential questions about the alliance: “In exercising independent operational command and in developing future alliance war plans, what will be the ROK government’s strategic war aims, military objectives and desired war-end state?” he asked. They have no idea, of course. They’re making this up as they go.

Categories An Alliance?/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military
September 8, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 50: Alternative Realities and Real Alternatives

I suppose everyone is entitled a theory on why Kim Jong Il decided to launch a round of missiles on July 4th, thereby drawing the wrong kind of attention from the U.N. Security Council, Japan, China, and the U.S. Treasury Department. This blog has been lukewarm on the conventional “extortion” theory, and has recently hosted discussions of the Strategic Disengagement Theory, the “Barrel of a Gun” Theory, The Loyalty Test Theory, and most recently, the Robert Kaplan Theory. All of...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/WMD
September 4, 2006

Anti-Americans Head for Seattle; Anti-Anti-Americans Fill Void on Streets of Seoul

GI Korea points to an impressive turnout for an anti-anti-American demonstration in Seoul. Although it’s not clear whether 50,000 or 200,000 showed up, it was at least comparable to the turnout at the anti-American protests of 2002. There was word that early presidential front-runner Park Geun-Hye even planned to show up. The word I often use to describe the Korean street is “mercurial.” The America-hating left isn’t just going away, though, especially when it can count on local reinforcements …...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea
September 1, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 49: The Perception Gap

[Update: The U.S. and Korean authorities are now denying that the Humphreys move is on hold. The Commanding General of the USFK admits that “minor adjustments” may be necessary, but that they can be “easily handled within the framework of the current plan.” H/t GI Korea] It begins with the apparent perception that Roh Moo Hyun could expect a state dinner or a 21-gun salute. I guess he perceived wrong: Unlike the incumbent, former presidents Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military
August 31, 2006

TKL Interview with Chuck Downs on the Alliance, Diplomacy, Nukes, and Why Kim Jong Il Tested Those Missiles

[Update 2: Thanks to the reader who pointed out that I had accidentally disabled the comments! That’s fixed now; please submit any questions or comments you have.] [Update: This post will “stick” at the top of the page for a couple of days; scroll down for new entries.] Chuck Downs is an author, independent consultant, and former Pentagon official who frequently appears on television news programs to discuss North Korea policy. He has held a number of important positions in...

Categories An Alliance?/China & Korea/Geopolitics/Japan & Korea/Kim Jong Il/Korean Politics/Kremlinology/NK Military/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views/WMD
August 26, 2006

Lefkowitz: N.Korean Refugees Welcome in America

Updates: This chatroom for English-speaking expats in Thailand has pictures of the refugees and pages of outraged, sympathic comments. One of them points to this BBC story. The Thai government’s reaction is to increase patrols on the Mekong to keep the refugees out. Look at this baby’s face. Then try to comprehend what will happen to her if she is sent back to North Korea. . . ====== (original post follows) ====== With somewhere around 175 North Korean refugees in...

Categories "United" Nations/Activism/Human Rights/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views
August 21, 2006

Kaesong Update

[Correction: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. A reader (thanks!) notes that Ms. Schwab is the U.S. Trade Representative. As it happens, the USTR has been independent from the State Department since 1962! My apologies to the State Department for the unintended defamation.] This may be the most unequivocal thing I’ve ever heard anyone in our State Department say, ever. And it pertains to including (North Korean) Kaesong products in a possible FTA with South...

Categories Appeasement/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views
August 15, 2006

You’re Welcome.

Today is Liberation Day, at least for those of us on this side of the International Date Line. And because we’ve recently been on the subject of things that happened at Incheon, I thought I’d mention that the Incheon landing pictured here took place on September 8, 1945, when the United States Army arrived to liberate South Korea for the first time … from Japanese rule. You did hear that, right? Funny how no one ever talks about it. If...

Categories Anti-Americanism/History/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military
August 15, 2006

Referendum

I don’t really have much to add to this, because I’ve thought a referendum on the alliance was needed since I was serving in Korea myself. While there, I could see the tension between Koreans’ desire to keep the alliance’s benefits and their contempt for the soldiers and the country who bore its burden. My small quibble with Kim Dae Joong is that “wartime control” is only the first of many dominos, and phrasing the question that way benefits those...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military
August 12, 2006

The Death of an Alliance, Part 47: What Henry Hyde Said at Incheon

Last September 11th, a band of violent quislings to a pathologically murderous regime tried to tear down a statue of the man who saved their country and the system of government that would eventually protect their right to call for its destruction. The statue survived, but the relationship between two nations suffered one more of many injuries that cumulatively may well be mortal. True alliances cannot be unilateral. As the United States and the Republic of Korea both ask what...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/The Fifth Column/U.S. & Korea