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Some Good Reads

Both appear in the Wall Street Journal, and both are too good to just graf and go. Read them both in their entirety. Nicholas Eberstadt: A New Plan for Pyongyang Paul Wolfowitz: Resettle the North Korean Refugees Plus this from Melanie Kirkpatrick: “I pray Ms. Lee and Ms. Ling will come home soon. But if the Americans’ ordeal raises international awareness of the horrors of North Korea’s gulag, it will not have been in vain.”

Diplomacy/Human Rights/Refugees/Uncategorized/Washington Views/WMD

Selig Harrison: Obama Shouldn’t Say Mean Things to North Korea

Sometimes, a news organization’s selection of guests tells you almost everything you need to know about its biases. In one corner, we have Balbina Hwang, formerly of the Heritage Foundation before she sold out and went to work for Christopher “Kim Jong” Hill. In the other, Selig Harrison presents that valuable “from beneath contempt” perspective. This interview is a little old — from just after the toothless U.N. presidential statement that served as North Korea’s perfectly suitable excuse to walk...

Appeasement/WMD

Poll: Obama Too Soft on North Korea

Admittedly, I’m ambivalent about this. On the one hand, I’ve noted signs that Obama’s North Korea policy is headed in the right direction — a far better one than Bush’s, if carried out in a sustained and comprehensive way — although I think Obama will probably do a Chris Hill and buy the same horse all over again the minute North Korea offers to sign Agreed Framework III. Still, my idea of “loyal opposition” extends an elected president and its...

Appeasement/Diplomacy/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics

Latest “New Ledger” Piece

Although the piece nods toward recent events, such as President Lee’s visit to Washington, its central theme is really the inescapable relevance of human rights and North Korea’s disinterest in the kind of coexistence that too many diplomats, academics, and grad students long for in much the same way that Borat longed for Pamela Anderson. Also, I am not responsible for selecting the photo of that priceless pose by Mrs. Clinton, or for her choice of a pantsuit color.

Blogs & Blogging/Human Rights/WMD

Great Iran Demo Photos

The Boston Globe has some terrific pictures of the protests in Iran, of the regime’s fascist thugs beating men and women in the streets, and of the victims of that violence. Like most of you, I’ve been watching events in Iran with great interest. Many other bloggers, including some who are getting camera phone pics and twitter updates straight from Tehran, are saturating that topic far better than I could, so I won’t wade into that field. Because of well-armed...

Uncategorized

DNI: N. Korean Explosion Probably a Nuke

“The US intelligence community assesses that North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of P’unggye on May 25, 2009. The explosion yield was approximately a few kilotons,” Blair said. [AFP] We figured that much, but I haven’t heard anyone mention the results of air sampling, which would rule out the likelihood of a large conventional blast.

WMD

Did Kim Jong Un Try to Assassinate Kim Jong Nam?

Life imitates Austin Powers! An aide to Kim Jong Un, the third and youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, planned to assassinate Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of Kim Jong Il, KBS television reported Monday. The plan was foiled by Chinese authorities, KBS said, citing a Chinese government source. [Kyodo News] Well, maybe, but it’s too good not to blog. Other Kim Jong Un rumors hold that he was actually in China recently as a “special...

Kremlinology/WTF?

The Hankyoreh: A Wealth of Embarrassments

The Hankyoreh watches North Korea TV for instructions analysis following U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874 and pronounces North Korea’s reaction “moderate,” even finding reason to believe that it creates “room to negotiate.” No, seriously: In a Foreign Ministry statement released immediately after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 1874, North Korea announced it would weaponize all newly extracted plutonium, begin uranium enrichment and react militarily to a blockade. All three of these threatening measures fell within a range...

Media Criticism/Propaganda

North Korea May Have More Nuke Test Sites

The ROK intelligence leak ticker reports: North Korea may have built more underground nuclear test sites in the northeastern district where it staged its first two tests, a news report has said. South Korean intelligence sources quoted by Yonhap news agency said the North could have built two or three such sites in and around Punggyeri in Kilju district near the coast. [AFP] I wonder how many concentration camp prisoners are entombed in those new sites.

Human Rights/Proliferation/WMD

Another day, another North Korean nuclear threat, another post that writes itself

You know, I really should come up with a macro for these posts, or even a bot that posts them automatically. It only takes three easy steps. First, simply copy and paste North Korea’s latest threat(s) to nuke Seoul … KCNA news agency quoted an unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying in a statement, “We’ll take firm military action if the United States and its allies try to isolate us. [Reuters] North Korea’s communist regime has warned of...

Terrorism (NK)

Biden, Lee: Won’t Get Fooled Again

He’s best known for saying things that make us cringe, but even Joe Biden is on message on North Korea: “It is important that we make sure those sanctions stick and those sanctions prohibit them from exporting or importing weapons,” Biden said. “This is a matter of us now keeping the pressure on.” [AP] And since everyone else is, Joe, why not psychoanalyze the North Koreans’ motives? Nope, he wouldn’t touch that one: “God only knows what he wants,” Biden...

Appeasement/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea

Hey DJ, What’s That Big Pink Animal With the Prehensile Trunk? (Updated)

Admittedly, I don’t have high expectations of NPR, but I would expect that even they would at least mention the circumstances surrounding the summit that bought Kim Dae Jung his Nobel Peace Prize. Instead, NPR lets his grandiose claims go unchallenged: “The Sunshine Policy has been and still is supported by the majority of South Koreans and the whole world,” Kim says, sitting in his living room. “It’s the reason I won the Nobel Peace Prize. People are telling President...

Appeasement/Censorship/Democracy/Media Criticism

Axis, Schmaxis

“It really is an international effort going on out there to develop ballistic missile capability between these countries,” Army Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly told a forum on Capitol Hill. [….] They are sharing know-how on avionics, propulsion and materials, among other things, O’Reilly said. [Reuters] Speaking of which, how ’bout those protests?

Axis of Evil/Iran/Missiles/Proliferation

Kaesong Death Watch

North Korea’s latest demands seem calculated to drive away investors: Although it was expected that North Korea would ask for higher salaries during the talks, an increase of more than fourfold was a surprise and is unlikely to be accepted by the South Koreans, who pay about $170 a month to Chinese laborers at their factories in China. “That’s nonsense!” Park Jung-ho, a former official of a shoe factory operating in Kaesong, said of the North’s wage demand. “We have...

North-South/Sunshine