May 4, 2009

ROK Navy Saves N. Korean Freighter from Pirate Attack

The spirit of 2000 isn’t quite dead yet: A South Korean naval unit rescued a North Korean freighter from being hijacked by suspected pirates in Somali waters on Monday, a Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) official said. The incident, which took place at 5:40 a.m. (Somali time) 37 km south of the Yemeni port city of Aden, came amid chilled relations between the Koreas that have been technically at war for over five decades.  [Yonhap] The freighter arrived safely in...

Categories Humor/Satire/North-South
May 3, 2009

A Redefined Alliance With South Korea as Necessary as Ever

I can’t resist returning to the Weekly Standard piece I linked here to quote one very interesting passage for special mention.  After calling for a strengthening of our military alliance with Japan, it says: Second, we should redefine our alliance with South Korea. The North’s primary threat to the South is its arsenal of hundreds of artillery systems that could devastate Seoul. Rather than a U.S. presence that still includes ground forces, the primary focus of our military cooperation with...

Categories An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea
May 2, 2009

N.Y. Times: It’s Safe to Ignore North Korea Again!

It’s odd, though, how my mind my mind can’t let go of what’s gone down the New York Times memory hole — alarmist warnings about North Korean nukes, peddled with the meme that George W. Bush transformed a contained North Korea into a grave national security threat. I remember Nick Kristof warning us of a nuclear 9/11 if the Bush Administration failed to appease North Korea with aid, in the same way that worked so brilliantly for Roh Moo Hyun,...

Categories Media Criticism/Proliferation/WMD
May 2, 2009

At The New Ledger: On the New Hostage Diplomacy

I have a new piece up at The New Ledger: As President Barack Obama basks in the adoration of the media, the captivity of three of their colleagues — one in Iran and two in North Korea — now looks very much like a calculated test of whether terrorism will be restored to its former place as a tolerated method of diplomacy. The new administration’s reaction thus far has seemed paralyzed and unprepared for the test that Joe Biden, after...

Categories Media Criticism/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics
May 2, 2009

Obama Policy Watch: Reality Sinking In?

There have been several signs this week that the Obama Administration is reaching an early recognition of the realities that eluded the Bush Administration for most of its two terms. Recent statements from the new administration reflect a growing acknowledgment that unconditional aid and easy concessions have failed as tools for the “management” of Kim Jong Il. That acknowledgment would not have been possible without the inspiration of Kim Jong Il. I will give you some quotes, and then I’ll...

Categories U.S. Politics/Washington Views
May 1, 2009

But at Least They Didn’t Waterboard Her

You need to see the picture to believe this. Bang had formerly been an actress with the propaganda squad of the Musan Mine. She fled the North with her children when her husband starved to death in 2002, but soon fell victim to human traffickers. She was arrested by Chinese police and was sent back to the North, where she was tortured. In 2004, she escaped again. Bang testified that one 21-year-old pregnant woman who had fled to China and...

Categories Human Rights
May 1, 2009

All About Kim Jong Un

Ken Gause may be the best open-source expert on North Korean kremlinology who writes in the English language, and he has an extensive survey of what we know about Kim Jong Un at Foreign Policy: In February 2009, Yonhap reported that Jang (director of the KWP’s Administrative Department, which oversees much of North Korea’s security apparatus) had shifted his support to Kim Jong-un in light of Kim Jong Il’s “special affection” for his third son and out of consideration for...

Categories Kremlinology
May 1, 2009

NOOOOO!

Chung Dong-young, the former DP presidential candidate who lost to President Lee Myung-bak in 2007 in the presidential race, will now represent Deokji in Jeonju, North Jeolla. Following his defeat against Lee Myung-bak in 2007, a power struggle with the Democratic Party and his subsequent defection, Chung has scored a successful political comeback with 72.3 percent of the vote. [Joongang Ilbo] This, of course, follows Chung’s much-discussed failure to be named to the National Defense Committee after March’s Supreme Peoples’...

Categories Korean Politics
April 30, 2009

Korean Word of the Day: 막무가내

This word, pronounced mak-mu-ga-nae, roughly translates to that most untranslatable of Yiddish words:  chutzpah. On Tuesday, North Korea had the chutzpah to demand (막무가내로 우기다) that the U.N. Security Council apologize for the flaccid non-binding presidential statement it offered in lieu of any meaningful enforcement of the two Security Council resolutions North Korea’s recent missile test violated: The UNSC should promptly make an apology for having infringed the sovereignty of the DPRK and withdraw all its unreasonable and discriminative “resolutions”...

Categories "United" Nations/Unintended Humor/WTF?
April 29, 2009

Study: N. Korea Reduced Public Executions in Reaction to S. Korean Criticism

Does Kim Jong Il care what South Koreans, Americans, or other earthlings say about his regime? Citing interviews with about 50 North Korean defectors who fled their homeland between 2007 and 2008, the Korea Institute for National Unification said in a report that North Korea appears to be mindful of criticism from the international community about its human rights condition and has responded with limited changes. According to the annual report “White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea 2009,”...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Uncategorized
April 28, 2009

It’s North Korea Freedom Week

The list of events this year looks extremely interesting. For most of these, you have to be in Washington D.C. I only wish I had time to attend more of these. More here. One that I’d especially like to attend is a screening of “Kimjongilia,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Calls for the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee will also be heard, but so far, Lisa Ling is maintaining her public silence. Sort of. Their families...

Categories Activism/Human Rights
April 28, 2009

Kaesong Death Watch

There’s enough bile circulating in my veins as it is, so it’s a burden lifted to read reports like this, via G.I. Korea, and have the confidence that the behavior will be terminated and deterred in due course. These days, Kaesong isn’t shipping much merchandise, but a lot of karma is about to arrive on some manufacturers’ loading docks. Exhibit A: Amid North Korean demands to increase “wages” for Kaesong workers — the workers themselves probably see little or any...

Categories NK Economics/Sunshine
April 27, 2009

27 April 2009

ROH MOO HYUN takes the Fifth. NO WORSE THAN HAVING THEM THERE, I guess: The Economist calls for proceeding with six-party talks without the North Koreans. I happen to be a supporter of continuing this charade, but only because charades have cosmetic value. CITING SOUTH KOREAN INTELLIGENCE SOURCES, the Joongang Ilbo reports that the North Korean military is reasserting itself “over several key policy-making issues” in a restructuring of the ruling Worker’s Party. This would dial back a trend reported...

Categories Anju Links
April 26, 2009

Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy in Seoul Calls Laura Ling and Euna Lee “Stupid”

I wonder how many years of studying international relations it would take a guy like me to become a suave, smooth-talking ambassador of American values like this guy: A US diplomat in Seoul has shocked a group of visiting Congressional staff members by allegedly making highly insensitive comments about two journalists — Taiwanese ­-American Laura Ling and Korean-American Euna Lee — now facing serious criminal charges in North Korea. William Stanton, deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in...

Categories Abductions/Appeasement/Diplomacy
April 24, 2009

North Korea’s Indictment of Laura Ling and Euna Lee Is Meant to Terrorize Journalists and Paralyze Our Government (And It’s Working)

Someone wake up Al Gore and tell him Manbearpig has two of his reporters: North Korea said Friday that it had decided to indict two American journalists who have been detained for more than five weeks on charges of illegally entering the country and committing “hostile acts. “Our related agency has completed its investigation of the American journalists,” North Korea’s state-run news agency, KCNA, reported. “It has formally decided to put them on trial based on confirmed criminal data. [….]...

Categories Uncategorized
April 23, 2009

23 April 2009

RISING CRIME against the “upper classes” and “party officials” in North Korea’s border regions. THAT’LL TEACH ‘EM: Behold the dreaded awesomeness of European diplomacy! A FEW DAYS OLD, but here’s some idea of the emerging policy paralysis in the Obama Administration. I’m starting to believe that the Obama Doctrine will be, “Never make a decision.” THE SEAL MEN of Seoul. I’d say my main question was answered: Kim doesn’t crawl in his “off” hours. He can walk fitfully with crutches....

Categories Anju Links