June 3, 2009

Axis, Schmaxis

The Wall Street Journal reports more evidence of cooperation between North Korea and Iran: In a 2008 paper published by the Korea Economic Institute, Dr. Christina Lin of Jane’s Information Group noted that “Increased visits to Iran by DPRK nuclear specialists in 2003 reportedly led to a DPRK-Iran agreement for the DPRK to either initiate or accelerate work with Iranians to develop nuclear warheads that could be fitted on the DPRK No-dong missiles that the DPRK and Iran were jointly...

Categories Axis of Evil/Iran/Proliferation/WMD
June 3, 2009

Nationwide vigils for Ling and Lee to take place tonight

[This post will be updated as necessary.] Today is June 3 and that means tonight it will be June 4 in North Korea, where detained journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee will be tried in a North Korean court for supposed crimes of illegal entry into North Korea and unexplained “hostile acts.” In a show of support for the two women, vigils are taking place nationwide this evening and also tomorrow. Some vigils will include celebrity appearances, speakers and public...

Categories Activism/Human Rights
June 3, 2009

Kaesong Death Watch: Fleeing for the Exits

South Korean companies are packing up their equipment and leaving Kaesong while they still can. Even by the Hanky’s low standards, this is an exceptionally dishonest bit of spin.  The reporter tries to place the blame for the exodus on President Lee for joining the PSI, while making only cryptic references to the events that brought that decision about.  But it’s the glaring omissions that are the most striking:  the Hanky makes no mention at all of North Korea blocking...

Categories Media Criticism/NK Economics/Sunshine
June 3, 2009

Must Read: New Details Leaked on North Korea’s Counterfeiting

Say it with me: thank goodness Christopher Hill got the North Koreans promise never, ever to counterfeit our currency ever again — cross my heart and hope to be executed before a crowd of bused-in schoolchildren! A North Korean general who is a confidant of the country’s leader, Kim Jong-il, has been identified by U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies as a key figure in the covert production and distribution of high-quality counterfeit $100 bills called supernotes, according to documents and...

Categories Counterfeiting/Kremlinology/Media Criticism/Money Laundering/Sanctions
June 2, 2009

Source: Syria Hires N. Korea to Reverse Engineer, Manufacture Russian Missiles

A source who has proved reliable in the past e-mails me to pass along that the Syrian Scientific Study Research Center has made a deal with North Korea’s Korea Overseas Mining and Development, a/k/a KOMID. Both entities are notorious proliferators, and both CERS and KOMID have been sanctioned by the Treasury Department repeatedly. The missile we speak of is not a ballistic missile. Instead, it’s the 9M133 “Kornet” missile, an advanced antitank missile known to NATO as the AT-14 Spriggan....

Categories Proliferation/Russia
June 2, 2009

Korean War 2, Week 2 Begins!

SEC DEF GATES VISITS A MISSILE INTERCEPTOR SITE in Alaska: “If there were a launch from a rogue state such as North Korea, I have good confidence we would be able to deal with it,” Mr. Gates said. Despite its backing for the missile defense system, the Obama administration has proposed scaling back the number of interceptors to be placed in Alaska from 40 to 26, arguing the lower number would be sufficient to match near-term North Korean missile capabilities....

Categories NK Military/Proliferation/WMD
June 2, 2009

Updated: China Steps It Up

Updated: Got my hopes up too soon, I see. China says its relations with North Korea remain normal after last week’s nuclear test. Original: Finally, we are hearing news of China taking an initiative in North Korea’s nuclear issue. This surely is a significant development (from yesterday’s headlines): China suspended government exchanges with North Korea after Kim Jong-Il’s regime last week tested a nuclear device and fired short-range missiles, Yonhap News said. China has halted plans to send officials to...

Categories China
June 2, 2009

The Only American Who Scares Kim Jong Il Goes to Seoul

Forget Hillary Clinton; I’ve been telling you that if you want to see whether the U.S. government is serious about bringing the pain to Kim Jong Il, keep an eye on Stuart Levey. And did I not tell you that President Obama would thank himself for renominating the architect of the financial constriction strategy that briefly struck fear into Kim Jong Il’s dessicated heart? A United States government official who played a key role in freezing North Korean assets in...

Categories NK Economics/Sanctions
June 2, 2009

Meet the New Boss, Part 3

Via the Dong-A Ilbo, the wire services are reporting that North Korea’s overseas missions have been instructed to swear loyalty to Kim Jong Un, who is also following Kim Jong Il around in his daily rounds. Time reports that he’s the spitting image of his father. Update: Yonhap, citing South Korean intel reports to legislators, confirms. Update 2: Here’s a roundup of my previous postings on Kim Jong Un and his brothers: Feb 07: Oldest son Kim Jong Nam, out...

Categories Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology
June 1, 2009

Updated: Summary of Ling-Lee family appearances on The Today Show (and CNN)

Updated: The family members of detained journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live tonight as part their efforts to further publicize the detention of the two reporters as their “trial” date in North Korea nears. While much of the show was a repeat of this morning’s interview on The Today Show in terms of public appeal from the family members, a few new revelations caught my attention: This was Euna Lee’s first assignment out of...

Categories Human Rights
June 1, 2009

SecDef Gates Not Pushing for Agreed Framework III

Michael Yon traveled with Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Singapore and passes along these observations: One matter that you will see in the press is that North Korea is the elephant in the room. Secretary Gates has made it clear that we have no intention of rewarding bad behavior, as we have done in the past with North Korea. Many readers seem to hold a special disdain for President Obama, and I actively campaigned for McCain, but I get the...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/U.S. Military/U.S. Politics/Washington Views
June 1, 2009

Koreans Flock to U.S. Army

It’s certainly an improvement on how the Army was received in Korea when I was there. For everyone who says “Yankee Go Home,” someone else says, “and take me with you:” The program was authorized without fanfare late last year by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to attract temporary immigrants who speak strategically important languages such as Arabic, Farsi and Korean. The bait: The soldiers could immediately apply for U.S. citizenship, skipping the sometimes decadelong process of securing a green card...

Categories An Alliance?/Korean Society/U.S. Military
May 31, 2009

Why Are Laura Ling and Euna Lee Being Tried on June 4th?

Why else, silly? When a government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter, or to abolish it. Hey, something has to push that off page one. And people really think China will finally bring North Korea to heel this time? Fat chance. If the North Koreans are interested in making a big spectacle of their belligerence, it’s a very bad sign indeed for Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two young women who made...

Categories China/China & Korea
May 31, 2009

Korean War 2, Day 5: Gates Calls for a ‘Plan B,’ The Next Missile Test, and More Calls for Military Action

GATES LOOKS FOR A “PLAN B:” Mr. Gates raised “the notion that we should think about this as we are pursuing the six-party talks,” said a senior defense official who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. “We ought to think about what more we need to do should they not prove successful.   [N.Y. Times, Elisabeth Bumiller] Better late than never, and he’s welcome to order from this menu. MISSILE TEST UPDATE: ...

Categories NK Economics/Proliferation/Sanctions/WMD
May 31, 2009

Unsung Misery

From the London Telegraph comes the story of Hyok Kang, a resident of Onsong, quite possibly the most miserable quarter of North Korea that isn’t a concentration camp, in its extreme northeast.             Kang speaks of a hellish everyday life in which people were publicly executed for stealing copper wire to sell: When the time came, the condemned man was displayed in the streets before being led to the place of execution, where he was...

Categories Google Earth/Human Rights/Refugees