July 6, 2009

State Dep’t: NK Trades in Slave Labor

What the State Department is saying about North Korea’s use of forced labor is at least as strident as anything we heard during George W. Bush’s second term.  I suspect we’re seeing a combination of two things here — first, the State Department has internal politics of its own, and the bureaus that deal with labor and refugee issues tend to subscribe less to the diplomacy of connivance than the East Asia Bureau.  Second, with North Korea’s recent behavior pushing...

Categories Human Trafficking
July 6, 2009

Chosun Ilbo: Ling and Lee Likely to Be Sent to “Special” Labor Camp

The Chosun Ilbo speculates — and that’s pretty much all there is to this — that Laura Ling and Euna Lee will miss the opportunity to report on the conditions in a real North Korean labor camp. Lucky for them. Instead, they will probably be sent to a special camp originally built to accommodate ranking members of the Workers Party and other figures thought to merit special treatment. Special camps are better furnished than general camps, and inmates reportedly do...

Categories Ling/Lee Incident/The Camps
July 6, 2009

Improving Obama’s Grade on North Korea

I admit, when things with North Korea under the new Obama administration first started heating up, I was cynical and doubtful due to what I perceived as Washington’s lack of organization on the issue. When the Asia Society gave Obama a “C” on his first 100 days in office with the spotlight on the DPRK, I felt that was being a bit generous. But I’m now up to entertaining the possibility that I might be growing more cautiously optimistic about...

Categories America
July 5, 2009

Christian Group Threatened Over Faxes to North Korea

Remember when, several months ago, I published a long list of fax numbers for North Korean entities of various kinds, both inside and outside North Korea? I wondered if any of those faxes would actually get though. I guess we have our answer: North Korea has threatened a Christian ministry to stop sending Gospel messages to the country through fax, saying the consequence will be “very bad,” amid testing of seven missiles on U.S. Independence Day. Voice of the Martyrs...

Categories Activism/Religion/Terrorism (NK)
July 3, 2009

Kremlinology Update

Kim Jong-Il’s third son, the likely successor to the North Korean leader, has been appointed acting defence chief under his ailing father, a Japanese newspaper reported on Saturday. Kim Jong-Un started supporting his father as acting chairman of North Korea’s National Defence Commission, the evening edition of the Mainichi Shimbun said, quoting unnamed sources close to North Korean leadership. [AFP] I don’t believe one word of it. Even if Kim Jong Il were incapacitated — a possibility I certainly wouldn’t...

Categories Kremlinology
July 3, 2009

After the Collapse

Michael O’Hanlon of Brookings, who (imho) did his best work on Iraq, refocuses on what happens after Kim Jong Il goes off to meet Saddam. Unlike me, O’Hanlon thinks a major U.S. troop presence in North Korea is inevitable. I think it’s just about the last thing we need: The notion that the United States could somehow outsource most of this DPRK stabilization mission to its South Korean ally falls apart the minute one begins to consider the immediate stakes...

Categories Reconstruction
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