Search Results for “The Death of an Alliance”

April 23, 2007

Anju Links for 23 April 2007

* The Ides of April. I’ve previously blogged about the replacement of Premier Pak Pong Ju with Kim Yong Il. Now, we learn that Kim Kyok-Sik is taking over as the new “military first,” to borrow a tired expression, which technically makes him second only to Korigula himself (ht: Richardson). Two other old party hacks have gone off to that Eternal Party Congress chaired by Mephistopheles himself, or soon will: Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun and Marshall Cho Myong-Rok. All...

"United" Nations/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Drugs & N Korea/Korean Society/Kremlinology/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks/Southeast Asia/Uncategorized/WMD

April 17, 2007

Virginia Tech Shooter Was Cho Seung-Hui, a U.S. Permanenent Resident From Korea

Police identified the classroom shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior from South Korea who was in the English department and lived in another dorm on campus. They said Cho committed suicide after the attacks, and there was no indication Tuesday of a possible motive. [AP] Police also report, however, that Cho left behind a “disturbing” note that may give us some idea what kind of ideas took root inside this young man’s fevered mind. I’ll post more when I...

Miscellaneous

April 17, 2007

Where All of the Guilty Ones Get Fair Trials

I suspect that relatively few members or staffers had time to read the long-winded written statement I submitted to the record with my September 27, 2006 congressional testimony. Starting on page Page 79, I described the many procedural and institutional reasons why American soldiers do not receive fair trials in Korean courts. I drew heavily on stories that GI Korea and USinKorea had originally linked in preparing it, along with the assistance of a good friend I asked to fact-check...

Anti-Americanism/UCMJ & SOFA

March 31, 2007

An FTA Pre-Post Mortem

At this hour, it looks like free trade talks with South Korea are about to fail, despite their extension for another 48 hours. It may be a bit early for the Chosun Ilbo to have published this post-mortem, but any free-trade agreement we reach now will be unworthy of the name and hardly worth doing from an American perspective. Yes, I still believe an US-Korean FTA is a good idea, but it’s pretty hard to write a good one when...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Politics

March 24, 2007

Anju Links for 3/24: Another Stolen Life, More Measles in N. Korea, Cowardly Capital, and the Diplomacy of Blame

* Doina Bumbea, artist, 1950-1997. From this photo, it’s almost as if she could foresee the tragedy of her own life. The circumstantial proof seems strong, though not conclusive, that the North Koreans lured Doina from Bucharest to Japan and kidnapped her for the use of U.S. Army deserter James Dresnok, who by all accounts is an utterly comtemptible person. But Doina’s family, which didn’t know what happened to her for all these years, seems convinced. And there’s...

Abductions/Diplomacy/Famine & Food Aid/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks/WMD

March 19, 2007

Chipyong-ni It Aint

[See also: A very good, thorough ROK Drop post, and a dissent from Andy Jackson.] Reporting from Kurdish Iraq, Michael Totten says the only booms are economic, and that the Kurds are leveraging peace and prosperity into de facto independence. It’s a long, interesting, occasionally fretful post, and well worth reading. Along the way, Totten notes how Kurds view the South Koreans’ “sacrifice” for a democracy in Iraq: Iraqi Kurdistan is technically occupied by a foreign power, but this...

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

March 8, 2007

Peace in Our Time! Abductions Edition

I forecast severe tire damage along the road to removing North Korea from the terrorism-sponsor list: HANOI–Japan and North Korea opened talks here Wednesday morning on normalizing bilateral relations, but the North Korean side canceled the afternoon session apparently as a way of refusing the Japanese request to discuss the abduction issue further, the chief Japanese delegate said. However, the meeting is scheduled to resume Thursday morning at the North Korean Embassy to discuss the abduction and normalization issues, Koichi...

Abductions/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Japan & Korea/Six-Party Talks/WMD

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

February 13, 2007

Definitely Not Gitmo

Chinese authorities in the far-west city of Urumqi today executed an ethnic Uyghur man for allegedly attempting to “split the [Chinese] motherland. “The execution was carried out at 9 a.m.,” Ismail Semed’s widow, Buhejer, told RFA’s Uyghur service. “They gave his body to us at the cemetery. Some of his relatives and friends joined us. When the body was transferred to us at the cemetery I saw only one bullet hole in his heart. Semed, a Uyghur political activist deported...

China/Terrorism (NK)

January 24, 2007

What Jim Webb Should Have Said

[Welcome Instapundit readers.] My fellow Americans, We have have a long and glorious history that I join you in celebrating here tonight. Let me share with you this deguerrotype of my great great great great grandfather, a penniless drunkard and street-corner pugilist who sat in a Dublin jail, until he was paroled and came to Virginia in 1724, just in time to join in the massacre of the peaceful Massapequasimolie Indians. I would hope you draw strength from this...

Terrorism/Iraq/Washington Views

January 1, 2007

2007 Portends a Leaner, Meaner Left

As foreshadowed here previously, the Uri death watch is over. Uri Party chairman Kim Geun-tae and former chairman Chung Dong-young in an emergency meeting on Thursday agreed to create a new party, to be called the People’s Party. In a thinly veiled warning to President Roh to keep his hands off, the two said it will be “autonomous and independent from outside political influence. That finalizes the two ex-Cabinet minister’s break with their former boss. Uri will continue to exist,...

Korean Politics/Korean Society

November 30, 2006

Cindy Sheehan, Kim Jong Il, and Me

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. — Martin Luther King, Jr. I will restrain the expression of views on Cindy Sheehan herself. I’m one who makes allowances for the fact that she’s traumatized by her son’s death, an event that quite obviously and understandably blew a few of her circuits. And while I’m sure that Casey Sheehan wouldn’t appreciate his mother’s hard work to render his sacrifice meaningless, I’m just as sure...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/The Fifth Column

October 19, 2006

Interview: L. Gordon Flake, Executive Director, Mansfield Foundation

Gordon Flake (bio) is two things that make his opinions interesting and valuable to me. First, he’s a fluent Korean speaker, and those of us who aren’t are always at some disadvantage to those who do when we are gathering the facts we process into our views. Second — and Gordon may not agree with this characterization — his views strike me as classically liberal. His views are probably more independent and less jaundiced by partisan bias or ambitions than...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Blogs & Blogging/Famine & Food Aid/Google Earth/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Korean Society/Media Criticism/NK Economics/Proliferation/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views

October 14, 2006

U.N. Security Council Resolution Takes Shape Passes Resolution 1718

Update: Too good to be true? Looks like the vote will be delayed … probably so that the Chinese and Russians can water this thing down. —– Update 2: On again. Supposedly, there will be a vote today. —– Updated 3: It passed; analysis below, and the full text at the bottom of this post. Naturally, the North Korean delegate walked out and denounced everyone for being “gangster-like. This is what the psychologists refer to as “projection.” ...

"United" Nations/NK Economics/NK Military/WMD

October 11, 2006

If Only They Had Listened to Us: Fact-Checking the Dems on North Korea

Update: I was just wondering when we would hear from America’s worst ex-president. Scroll down. “I concur with most [of] the president’s policy on North Korea.” — Howard Dean, January 5, 2003 (ht). “Under the President’s watch, North Korea has become more dangerous and Iran continues to threaten its neighbors and America. Democrats remain committed to a foreign policy that is both tough and smart. — Howard Dean, October 9, 2006. If you’re looking for a defense of...

Uncategorized/WMD

September 27, 2006

My Testimony at the House International Relations Committee

[Update: For some strange reason, the document was coming up as a previous, incomplete draft. Sorry for any who saw that one; you should be able to see the final version now.] [Update 1/2007: , including my verbal testimony, written statement, and photographic exhibits, at pages 59-94 (pdf). Other witnesses that day were Amb. Chris Hill, Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless, and Korea experts Balbina Hwang and Gordon Flake.] Well, I can’t thank Rep. Henry Hyde’s staff enough for believing...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views

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...

An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea