Search Results for: The Death of an Alliance

U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow recently drew some shrill responses from North Korea and its friends in the South for calling the North a “criminal regime” when commenting on the latter’s counterfeiting of U.S. currency. The ambassador may create a degree of discomfort in the South Korean government, but he’s certainly doing a far better job of carrying the American message than his predecessors. In the process, he’s won some fans, and not just on this blog. All emphasis...

The New York Times earns high praise this week for its brave, straightforward coverage of the slaughter in Dongzhou, where Beijing is trying its best to revive the old Maoist terror: Now, a stilted calm prevails, a cover-up so carefully planned that the small town looks like a relic from the Cultural Revolution, as if the government had decided to re-educate the entire population. Banners hang everywhere, with slogans in big red characters proclaiming things like, “Stability is paramount” and...

There is no respite for the profligate tyrant of a criminal regime today, notwithstanding the fury of his abetters. His access to ready cash may soon dry up. The Chosun Ilbo reports: The U.S. government on Wednesday turned up the heat on North Korea by warning U.S. financial institutions that North Korea may be looking for new money laundering channels after Washington blocked transactions with the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia, allegedly Pyongyang’s main funnel for gains from criminal activities. An...

This would be a good time to hawk your unfinished copy of The Pentagon’s New Map on e-Bay. Have a look at the new blocs shaping Asia’s new Cold War: ASEAN, Korea, Japan and China on Monday reiterated their commitment in principle to forming an East Asian Community on Monday, the first day of the ASEAN + 3 Summit. Heads of government from the 10-member Southeast Asian bloc met with the three affiliates in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. . . ....

Chosun Ilbo on Hyde Letter. In case you’re interested in reading half as much information a week later. . . . And no, I don’t think that’s a garbled reference to this site. If you want to read the full text, just click. Update 11/15: Suddenly, I realize how much we are going to miss House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde when he retires, and how essential it is that the next chairman be of similar caliber (in other...

Since I’ve been experiencing some of the busiest weeks in my professional life lately, I haven’t been able to sneak out of the office to attend hearings, but there are two interesting highlights to report. The first is the latest House hearing, which took place October 27th, covering the U.S. government’s implementation of the N.K. Human Rights Act. Here is a link to all of the testimony, which I freely admit I haven’t the time to review in full. Still,...

Welcome to the new, independent South Korea–the one that bravely sets its own policy direction without regard for how Yankee imperialists may view it: The Foreign Ministry is hiring an American PR firm to put a positive spin on its U.S. policies in a nation that has been reading them as increasingly hostile. The Foreign Ministry recently wrote to the parliamentary Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee asking for an extra budget of W1.2 billion (about US$1.2 million) next year...

Korea-Iraq Update: On September 6, I blogged about what appeared to be a trial balloon statement from an Uri MP that Korea was considering a premature downsizing of its force of 3,600 troops in Iraq. Korea’s Iraq contingent is substantial on paper–the third-largest of any coalition partner–but is of little military value, remaining hidden away behind its barricades in the safest corner of Kurdistan. Today comes word that the Korean Ministry of National Defense intends to extend the mandate of...

This is an updated post. With the news that the talks are now on again, apparently for September 13, the odds dim that substantial progress will result. Begin with this money quote on South Korea’s position: “South Korean officials are pinning their hopes on a U.S. concession.” That hope appears misplaced. The New York Times published some blunt comments from Reps. Jim Leach and Tom Lantos, who represent the moderate views of both parties in the House International Relations Committee,...

Welcome to the Carnival of the Revolutions edition for August 29th. Hosting next week’s edition (Sept. 5) will be Thinking-East; next up (Sept. 12) is Quid Nimis. Updates added, typos fixed. East Asia and the Pacific Rim Burma: Did the government’s army use chemical weapons against Karen rebels earlier this year? The Jubilee Campaign, a Christian human rights NGO, prints an editorial by Lord David Alton, a member of the British House of Lords. Publius reports on new rumors of...

When I interviewed Nick Eberstadt last week, I asked him how patient the United States was willing to be. Now, Chris Hill has told us. North Korea may well interpret this as obviating any compelling need to make progress before then. In the same article, Hill refused to comment on Chung Dong-Young’s latest diplomatic masterstroke, while repeating his insistence that the U.S. won’t accept any “peaceful” North Korean nuclear programs.

August 15, 2005, a date on which more bullshit flowed than one snarky blogger could possibly step around, so I’ll let the stories pretty much speak for themselves. In case you’re new here, this is the anniversary of the date on which American soldiers–supported by Russian invaders further north–entered Seoul before passing the reigns of government to the Koreans themselves. Yes, things could have been faster and smoother, and Korea’s first rulers were certainly not Jeffersonian democrats, but what’s most...

My deepest thanks to Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute for agreeing to a telephone interview. Eberstadt is one of Washington’s most highly regarded Korea experts. The interview ended up lasting a full hour. Nothing has been edited out, although I missed a word here and there because I’m not a stenographer. Still, this is pretty close to a verbatim transcript; Nick Eberstadt is one of those rare individuals who speaks in complete sentences. All comments in brackets and...

My deepest thanks to Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute for agreeing to a telephone interview for OFK readers. Eberstadt is one of Washington’s most highly regarded Korea experts. The interview ended up lasting a full hour. Nothing has been edited out save one abortive “I don’t know” answer, although I may have I missed a few words because I’m no stenographer. Still, this is pretty close to a verbatim transcript. Nick Eberstadt is one of those rare individuals...

The online version of the Christian Science Monitor story, which originally stated that South Korea’s Human Rights Commission had endorsed calls to tear down MacArthur’s statue in Incheon, has been corrected: A complaint filed with the quasi-governmental National Human Rights Commission, which is reviewing the statue controversy, condemns MacArthur as “a war criminal who massacred numerous civilians.” The complaint adds, “To induce or force children to respect such a person by erecting a statue of him and teaching them that...

I don’t have one, for reasons I’ll be able to explain later. For now, don’t assume the HRC’s position is as reported.

I’ve previously blogged about Deborah Fikes here, and about meeting and talking with her at the Freedom House Conference, here. Now, the New York Times has discovered her Midland Ministerial Alliance, which put on what appears to have been a very substantial event to publicize the same human rights issue that the Times has been ignoring for the most part. As with Nick Kristof’s recent piece, the article manages the difficult balancing act of being both patronizing and envious of...

The American Enterprise Institute’s Nicholas Eberstadt is unimpressed with the latest round of six-party talks with North Korea. After thirteen months of pining for this dead parrot, we returned to the talks to hear an intentionally obtuse new set of North Korean demands–including demands to abrogate our alliance with South Korea (something that we’d more likely do without North Korea getting mixed up in the matter), and to let North Korea keep its reactors for “peaceful” uses. In fact, Eberstadt...