June 29, 2009

WaPo on China’s Trade with North Korea, and Its Rulers’ Darkest Fears

China, which the unmitigated chutzpah we’ve come to expect of it, reassures us that it is “deeply committed” to the enforcement of UNSCR 1874.  Today, Blaine Harden of the Washington Post reports the facts that shatter that mendacious claim.  In a new report, he provides fresh evidence of China’s economic colonization of North Korea, which fits neatly with its agenda of undermining U.N. sanctions against the North.  It’s a must-read, but here’s a money quote: As U.N. sanctions mount and...

Categories China/NK Economics/NK Military/Proliferation/WMD
June 29, 2009

Your Tax Dollars at Work: Navy Tracks “Multiple” Suspicious N. Korean Ships It Won’t Actually Stop

The United States said it was monitoring “multiple” North Korean ships suspected of carrying weapons and that it would discuss with its allies what to do with one suspect vessel it is tracking.While the United States has been tracking the Kang Nam since last week, the Pentagon said it is closely monitoring several other North Korean ships allegedly carrying weapons. “We have been interested in this one ship [the Kang Nam], but we’ve been interested in, frankly, multiple ships,” Pentagon...

Categories "United" Nations/Proliferation
June 28, 2009

Sam Brownback Strikes Again

Now, he’s holding the nomination of Kurt Campbell to replace Chris Hill as Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.  Recently, Brownback has used the power of the nomination hold to become the congressional oversight over State’s spectacularly unsuccessful North Korea policy that no one on the Foreign Relations Committee is willing to be.  He’s brought a degree of public scrutiny to some of State’s dumbest decisions, and has managed to slow down — but not stop — the...

Categories Diplomacy/Sanctions/U.S. Politics/Washington Views
June 28, 2009

In the case of a DPRK regime collapse, what power would South Korea have?

Had an interesting conversation this weekend with a North Korea watcher where for the first time, the idea of reunification seems realistic and within reach, yet at the same time, also at risk. It all has to do with the current health of Kim Jong Il who appears to be hanging on by a thread, the relatively short grooming period of his son to succeed him, and of course, China and the U.S. But not South Korea interestingly…

Categories China/North Korea/Regime Change
June 28, 2009

A North Korean Connection to Those Counterfeit Bonds?

It’s very short on specifics, but it’s the first published report affirmatively linking those fake bonds to North Korea: An Italian newspaper reports a recent mysterious case involving US$134.5 billion worth of counterfeit bonds has a North Korea connection. Earlier this month two Japanese nationals were caught in Italy allegedly trying to smuggle the bonds into Switzerland. Il Messaggero says the fake bonds may have been manufactured in North Korea since the two men are North Korean agents and are...

Categories Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/NK Crime/Sanctions
June 26, 2009

U.S. Won’t Board Suspected N. Korean Arms Ship

The North Korean ship Kang Nam I may be carrying missiles to Burma, and then again, it may be headed for a stopover in Burma as it transits to points west.  And then again, it may merely be carrying “small” arms and bullets for shooting dissidents and uppity monks (for which their next of kin will be duly billed).  The official Burmese version is that they aren’t expecting the Kang Nam I in any of their ports. For some reason,...

Categories "United" Nations/China/Proliferation
June 26, 2009

Nothing Says “Democratic Peoples’ Republic” Like a New S-Class

A recent report claims that even as North Korea was preparing missile and nuclear tests, China helped North Korea flout a U.N. Security Council Resolution for which it voted and which it has promised to implement in good faith.  UNSCR 1718, in effect since October 2006, bans the export of luxury goods to North Korea.  It has since been reinforced by UNSCR 1874: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il doled out foreign-made cars to senior intelligence officials to ensure their...

Categories "United" Nations/China & Korea/Kremlinology
June 26, 2009

Fists Still Firmly Clenched …

Punching their fists into the air and shouting “Let’s crush them!” some 100,000 North Koreans packed Pyongyang’s main square Thursday for an anti-U.S. rally as the communist regime promised a “fire shower of nuclear retaliation” for any American-led attack. Several demonstrators held up a placard depicting a pair of hands smashing a missile with “U.S.” written on it, according to footage taken by APTN in Pyongyang on the anniversary of the day North Korean troops charged southward, sparking the three-year...

Categories Propaganda
June 25, 2009

Ling and Lee Families Hold Vigil in San Francisco

The husband of an American journalist jailed in North Korea says his wife sounded scared during a recent phone call and described her confinement as “bearable.” Iain Clayton, the husband of Laura Ling, said Wednesday his wife called him on Sunday night. He said although she tried to be strong on the phone, he could tell she was worried. [….] Clayton also says Ling’s medical condition has deteriorated and Lee has developed a medical problem. Ling reportedly suffers from an...

Categories Kremlinology/Ling/Lee Incident
June 25, 2009

North Korea Threatens to Wipe U.S.A. Off the Map, Etcetera, Etcetera

The harder KCNA’s writers work on their invective, the more this blog just writes itself: “If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will … wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all,” the official Korean Central News Agency said. [Fox News] And of the so-called U.S. nuclear umbrella over South Korea, KCNA offers this new variation on “sea of fire:” North Korea condemned a recent U.S. pledge to provide nuclear defense...

Categories Terrorism (NK)
June 24, 2009

In the Absence of Facts, Rumor Overtakes the Injustice of Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s Captivity

I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought of Laura Ling and Euna Lee when I heard about the escape of David Rhode from the Taliban.  An unpleasant quirk of human nature occurred to me:  by virtue of his escape, Rohde had instantly transformed himself from “stupid” to intrepid.  I’m glad Rohde lived to bring the story home.  Oddly enough, the minute I heard the report on the radio, I remembered Rohde’s name, because being captured isn’t a new...

Categories Ling/Lee Incident
June 24, 2009

Issue of U.S. Troop Withdrawal from ROK Resurfaces in Opinion Piece

Interesting. I remember hearing many people (American and South Korean alike) call for the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from the ROK during the Roh Moo-hyun years. Some of the calls coming from South Korea in particular were clearly based off anti-American sentiments while other people simply felt the absence of the U.S. military in Korea (or at least a reduced presence) would help the ROK become more self-sufficient militarily. At the time, I remember having conversations with people who...

Categories ROK Military/U.S. Military
June 23, 2009

Someone Will Face a Firing Squad for This

Some of Hwang Jang Yop‘s family members have escaped from North Korea: Three relatives of Hwang Jang-yop, a former North Korean Workers’ Party secretary who defected to South Korea over a decade ago, fled the North last month and are now in a third country en route to the South, sources said Tuesday. The defectors are members of Hwang’s extended family, one of the sources who is also a North Korean defector and frequently communicates with defectors abroad, said on...

Categories Defectors
June 23, 2009

The Jackboot Is on the Other Foot

For years, Roh Moo Hyun’s government funded a host of habitually violent left-wing unions and “civic” groups, and we never heard a peep from the Hankyoreh about that outrage against democracy. But that was then: It has been revealed that of the 14.1 billion Won in subsidies for social groups to be provided by the 25 district offices of Seoul City this year, about half, 7 billion won, will go to three major government-initiated community development project groups and 10...

Categories Censorship/Democracy/Korean Politics/Korean Society/Media Criticism
June 22, 2009

North and South Korea According to the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report

While I was gone, the U.S. State Department released the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, revealing few surprises in terms of North Korea’s record on the issue. The DPRK remains a Tier 3 country meaning “the government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Furthermore, in 2009 “[t]he North Korean government made no significant efforts to prevent human trafficking. It did not acknowledge the...

Categories Human Rights
June 22, 2009

Kaesong Death Watch

North and South Korea failed to reach agreement in talks Friday on the fate of a joint industrial estate which is their last remaining reconciliation project, officials said. The South insisted it cannot accept demands for hundreds of millions of dollars in extra payments for the Kaesong estate just north of the heavily-fortified border, Seoul’s unification ministry said. The North refused to discuss the fate of a South Korean employee it has detained since March 30, it said.  [AFP] What...

Categories North-South/Sunshine
June 21, 2009

Let There Be Blood!

It’s a rare moment when I express even mild interest in metric football, otherwise known as soccer. This year, however, North and South Korea have both qualified for the World Cup, which holds the distant promise to beat down the saccharine we-are-one, brotherly-love hippie crap of the 90’s. According to this pernicious stupidity, sports could overcome differences between nations with diametrically opposed interests, values, and psychologies. It hasn’t quite worked out that way. It’s enough to make you retch. On...

Categories North-South/Sunshine