July 2, 2009

This Means World War III for Sure

Contrary to previous reports suggesting that he was out of the running, Bill Stanton has been named head of the American Institute on Taiwan, making him the de-facto U.S. Ambassador to Taiwan.  The post does not require confirmation by the Senate.  Recall that Stanton (no relation) had called Laura Ling and Euna Lee “stupid” and a distraction from “bigger issues” while leading a delegation of young congressional staffers through the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in March. Later, North Korea claimed...

Categories China/Ling/Lee Incident/Taiwan
July 2, 2009

Where Does North Korea’s Economy Stand Now?

Time has an interesting analysis.  The short-term picture has improved, though perhaps not sustainably: Estimates from South Korea’s central bank, released on Monday, suggest that North Korea’s gross domestic product recovered in 2008 after two years of contraction, with 3.7% growth. The bank attributed the increase to “one-off factors,” such as an improved harvest.  [Time, Michael Schuman] Still, I have to wonder if the regime would be clamping down on private trade if it was truly pinched for cash: Marcus...

Categories NK Economics
July 2, 2009

Plan B Watch

Philip Goldberg, the head of President Obama’s new inter agency task force charged with squeezing Kim Jong Il’s palace economy, visits China and Malaysia: The China visit, which State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said will include talks with officials from the foreign and other ministries, makes sense given China is a neighbour of the North, its largest trading partner and a long-time benefactor. It was not immediately clear why Goldberg was going to Kuala Lumpur before returning to Washington on...

Categories Money Laundering/Sanctions
July 1, 2009

ROK Defense Minister: N. Korea Steps Up Uranium Enrichment

I can only thank God for Chris Hill, whose Jedi mind tricks completely, verifiably, and irreversibly disarmed these people in the nick of time … not: North Korea appears to be enriching uranium, potentially giving the state that has twice tested a plutonium-based nuclear device another path to making atomic weapons, South Korea’s defense minister said on Tuesday. “It is clear that they are moving forward with it,” Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee told a parliamentary hearing, adding such a programme...

Categories Proliferation/WMD
July 1, 2009

Robert King to Be Next NK Human Rights Special Envoy? (Updated)

So says a reader I trust.  The little I know is that he was a staffer who worked for Rep. Tom Lantos, meaning he probably knows plenty about foreign policy and shares his former boss’s interest in human rights, but may not have much specific Asia expertise.  Here’s a photo of him. There are three things that I like about King without knowing anything else.  First, he’s not a State Department insider.  Second, he’s not the same person who will...

Categories Diplomacy/Human Rights/U.S. Politics/Washington Views
July 1, 2009

How China Helps North Korea Proliferate

Who still thinks the Chinese want to help us make North Korea play nicely? But tighter controls by the international community of weapons of mass destruction and restraints on the North’s arms industry meant Pyongyang had to look for more devious ways. For instance, the North took a roundabout land route via China and Russia, which is harder to trace, or used transport planes at night. It also exported weapons by building assembly factories in importing countries. To circumvent an...

Categories China/Proliferation/Uncategorized
July 1, 2009

Why Re-Designate North Korea as a State Sponsor of Terrorism?

I make my best case here, at the New Ledger: Almost a year to the day after Bush’s announcement, North Korea threatened to “wipe out the aggressors” — meaning America — “on the globe once and for all,” and to unleash a “fire shower of nuclear retaliation” on South Korea. The nation most recently stricken from the list of state sponsors of terrorism is also the world’s most accomplished at using its official state media as an instrument of terrorism. ...

Categories Terrorism (NK)
July 1, 2009

The Detention of Mr. Yu Gains International Coverage

Finally, we are seeing more international concern for the welfare of the South Korean national who was detained at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea months ago, known only by his family name, “Yu.” Amnesty International has called for “urgent action” over Yu’s case. From Yonhap: The Hyundai Asan Corp. employee, 44, was detained in a North Korean industrial park in March on charges of “slandering” the North’s political system and trying to persuade a North Korean female employee...

Categories Human Rights
July 1, 2009

Plan B Watch: Treasury Sanctions Iranian, N. Korean Companies for WMD Financing

Treasury has sanctioned an Iranian company under Executive Order 13382 for its dealings with previously sanctioned North Korean entities suspected of involvement in WMD development and proliferation.  It has also designated a new North Korean entity, Namchongang Trading Company.  Treasury’s full announcement itself is interesting and worth reading.  I’ve posted the full text below the jump, interlaced with a few editorial comments of my own.

Categories Axis of Evil/Money Laundering/Proliferation/Sanctions/WMD
June 30, 2009

Kang Nam I Turns Around, Heads North

U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back in the direction it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons. The move keeps the U.S. and the rest of the international community guessing: Where is the Kana Nam going? Does its cargo include materials banned by a new U.N. anti-proliferation resolution?  [AP, Pauline Jelinek] The ship apparently turned around last...

Categories "United" Nations/Proliferation/Sanctions
June 30, 2009

South Koreans Not Feeling the Unification Spirit

About one-fifth of South Koreans think North Korea is trustworthy, a poll said Thursday, the lowest level in a decade amid heightened tension over the communist state’s recent belligerent acts. The survey by Hyundai Economic Research Institute, a Seoul-based private think tank, showed 22.2 percent of the 623 respondents felt that North Korea could be trusted as a “partner for dialogue.”  [Yonhap] That’s down from a high of 52.3 percent in 2000, after the summit between Kim Jong Il and...

Categories North-South/Sunshine
June 30, 2009

Plan B Watch

A year ago, who would have suspected that we’d be celebrating the replacement of a liberal accommodationist named George W. Bush with a hard line neocon named Barack Obama, who would finally show signs of grasping not just the reality of North Korea’s bad faith, but some of the very best tools for breaking it? Christine Ahn’s misery (and Selig Harrison’s, and Leon Sigal’s) is my pleasure: The Treasury Department’s 2005 blacklisting of Macau’s Banco Delta Asia, which held a...

Categories Money Laundering/Sanctions/Washington Views
June 30, 2009

Orascom Watch

The Egyptian conglomerate that is rebuilding the Ryugyong Hotel, and whose relationship with North Korea showed signs of trouble several months ago, is reporting that it’s actually selling mobile phones to North Koreans: Egypt-based mobile operator Orascom Telecom earned US$312,000 in first-quarter sales this year from its mobile service in North Korea on surging demand among the communist nation’s upper class, a company press release said Thursday. More than 19,200 people have signed up for Orascom’s mobile phone service as...

Categories NK Economics
June 29, 2009

Obama Forms Team Plan B

The Washington Post is reporting that President Obama is forming an inter-agency team, much like the Illicit Activities Initiative that David Asher headed in G.W. Bush’s first term, to coordinate sanctions against North Korea: The White House is forming an interagency team to coordinate sanctions efforts against North Korea with other nations, senior administration officials said yesterday.  The team will be led by Philip S. Goldberg, a former ambassador to Bolivia who is slated to leave for China in the...

Categories Diplomacy/Money Laundering/Sanctions/U.S. Politics/Washington Views