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April 4, 2009

We Can’t Ignore North Korea’s Proliferation Threat

I’m a very big fan of B.R. Myers and very seldom disagree with him, but he’s dead wrong when he tells us that the best way to deal with North Korea’s threats is to ignore them. First, the idea would only be practical if B.R. Myers set editorial standards for all the world’s news media. In fact, Kim Jong Il is very good at not being ignored, and if the media comprise the fourth branch of our government, any minor...

Missiles/Proliferation

April 4, 2009

Psalm for a Lost Utopia

And the era of cowboy diplomacy ended, and the war-gods were banished from the great city, and the world was uplifted on the wings of Hope and Change. And utopia dawned across Mother Gaia, and our wisest emissaries were sent to talk to our enemies rationally, carrying the word of His love and promises of much treasure. And all was calm and placid. Peace was at hand, double rainbows shone over the sacred mount, and stimuli of expropriated cheese and...

Humor/Satire/Missiles

April 3, 2009

3 April 2009

THE WIFE AND CHILDREN OF NORTH KOREA’S TRADE REPRESENTATIVE in Shanghai have defected to the South: The woman, identified only as Ri, arrived in Seoul in early March through the South Korean Embassy in Singapore and is now going though questioning like other North Korean defectors, North Korean sources said. Ri reportedly sought protection at the embassy in Singapore in January while her husband was in Pyongyang for a meeting. She decided to defect to South Korea after a troubling...

Anju Links

April 3, 2009

Hill’s Nomination Held, But Senate Could Override the Hold Today (Update: Hill Still Not Confirmed!)

[Update: The gods of the Senate calendar were not kind to Chris Hill today. Harry Reid and John Kerry tried to bully him into it, but Brownback stood his ground and did not lift his hold. Hill was not confirmed. It may be a short-lived moral victory. After the recess, it will be in the hands of the Senate leadership to get the nomination to the full Senate floor. In any event, North Korea’s missile test will have happened by...

Appeasement/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics

April 2, 2009

KCNA Stands Up for Press Freedom!

North Korea, which was ranked 172nd out of 173 countries on last year’s survey of world press freedom and which is currently holding two journalists hostage, has lent its moral authority to the oppressed purveyors of the fraudulent P.D. Diary in South Korea, which inspired last year’s violent mad cow demonstrations. The Citizens Federation for Democratic Media of south Korea issued a statement on March 27 denouncing the present “government” and the ruling party for their undisguised moves to put...

Censorship/Media Criticism/Unintended Humor

April 1, 2009

1 April 2009

FISTS STILL NOT UNCLENCHED, APPARENTLY: North Korea threatens to shoot down U.S. spy planes, and the threat is classic KCNA: “If the brigandish U.S. imperialists dare to infiltrate spy planes into our airspace to interfere with our peaceful satellite launch preparations, our revolutionary armed forces will mercilessly shoot them down,” the ministry quoted the radio as saying. [AP, Jae Soon Chang] JAPAN’S REACTION TO NORTH KOREA’S MISSILE THREAT IS “JUSTIFIED:” Not an especially surprising statement, until you see who said...

Anju Links

April 1, 2009

Reporters Without Borders Petitions for the Release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee

Fittingly, Reporters Without Borders has launched an online petition for the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who are now facing a North Korean “trial” for allegedly crossing the border between China and North Korea. Regardless of which side of the border Ling and Lee were on, or your views about North Korea policy, every reasonable person should agree that holding Ling and Lee is unjustified; indeed, it’s clear that North Korea is holding them as “bargaining chips,” which...

Activism/Human Rights/Media Criticism/Refugees

April 1, 2009

South Korean Man Still Held at Kaesong

That South Korean man arrested at Kaesong continues to be held incommunicado. It’s staggering that South Korea would invest so much economic and political capital on something as poorly thought through as Kaesong. I didn’t have time to find an estimated total cost for the entire Kaesong fiasco, but this UPI report puts the cost of Kaesong’s recent expansion alone at $2.5 billion, just a small portion of more than $11 billion committed by Roh Moo Hyun to upgrade North...

Appeasement/NK Economics

March 31, 2009

Is Hostage-Taking North Korea’s New Business Model?

This should do wonders for North Korea’s foreign direct investment: North Korea told South Korea on Monday it put a South Korean worker at the joint industrial zone of Kaesong under probe on suspicion of violating relevant regulations, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said. North Korea sent a notice to South Korea, saying the South Korean worker, detained at around 11:50 a.m., has criticized the North’s political system, ministry spokesperson Lee Jong Joo said at a press briefing. [Kyodo News] I...

Appeasement/NK Economics

March 31, 2009

Gates to North Korea: You Are Clear for Lift-Off! (Plus, N. Korea’s Nuclear “Reset Button”)

Is Obama the new Kennedy, or the new Carter? It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union”¦. To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation and...

Missiles/Uncategorized

March 31, 2009

31 March 2009

THE SENATE Foreign Relations Committee is expected to approve Christopher Hill’s confirmation today, but tabloid rumors notwithstanding, that isn’t the final “confirmation” vote. THE U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION has adopted a resolution denouncing North Korea’s human rights record and reappointing Vitit Muntarbhorn for another year. The resolution was adopted despite the opposing votes of China and Russia: The UN Commission on Human Rights yesterday adopted the European Union-led resolution on a 26-6 vote with 15 abstentions at a meeting at...

Anju Links

March 30, 2009

One Man’s “Bargaining Chip” Is Another Man’s Hostage

Update: Uh oh: Two American journalists detained at North Korea’s border with China two weeks ago will be indicted and tried, “their suspected hostile acts” already confirmed, Pyongyang’s state-run news agency said Tuesday. The Korean Central News Agency report did not say when a trial might take place, but said preparations to indict the Americans were under way as the investigation continues. “The illegal entry of U.S. reporters into the DPRK and their suspected hostile acts have been confirmed by...

Media Criticism/Refugees/Terrorism (NK)

March 27, 2009

It is NOT ‘legal’ for North Korea to launch a satellite, plus miscellaneous observations

Let’s begin with a historical contrast that pretty much speaks for itself: It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union…. To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from...

"United" Nations/Missiles

March 26, 2009

26 March 2009

GOOD QUESTION! Now that he’s pending confirmation as a senior Pentagon official, do you suppose Ashton Carter will call for President Obama to destroy North Korea’s missile on the ground, as he and William Perry did in 2006? The idea of launching a military strike against North Korean territory is stoopid — that’s with two O’s — whether you look at it politically, diplomatically, or militarily. Waiting for North Korea to launch it and destroying it in flight, however, would...

Anju Links

March 26, 2009

Chris Hill Lies to Entire Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Sam Brownback’s Finest Hour

[Updated below.] [A]s the current assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, [Christopher Hill] presided over negotiations with North Korea that deliberately minimized focus on the bleak human rights record of that country, ignored its nuclear proliferation, and had the practical effect of affirming its nuclear weapons capability. Hill also has a troubling hotdog tendency to play by his own rules, to the detriment of U.S. diplomacy…. Hill’s brand of cowboy diplomacy might be justified if it...

Human Rights/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics

March 26, 2009

Erection Day!

North Korea is lifting its Taepodong II missile peaceful satellite launch vehicle onto the launching pad. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned that such a “provocative act” could jeopardize the stalled talks on supplying North Korea with aid and other concessions in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program. “We have made it very clear that the North Koreans pursue this pathway at a cost and with consequences to the six-party talks, which we would like to see revived,” Clinton...

"United" Nations/Missiles/NK Military

March 25, 2009

The Weekly Standard on North Korea’s Changing Food Supply System

The article, with the provocative title “Kim’s Crumbling Regime,” discusses trends in bottom-up marketization of the food supply and the regime’s failure — a potentially fatal one — to stop that trend and regain control over the food supply. I’m not plush for time today, so I’ll just throw out a link and recommend you read it on your own. I’ve discussed the same tends a great deal here recently, because a growing body of evidence suggests that they’re accelerating.

Famine & Food Aid/Regime Change

March 25, 2009

U.S. journalists under ‘intense interrogation’ in Pyongyang

This is the price a journalist pays for trying to report the truth about North Korea, away from the regime’s guided tours. The information about the whereabouts of Euna Lee and Laura Ling comes from South Korean “human intelligence” sources in the North, so don’t take this at face value: After being questioned at the security command, Lee and Ling were reportedly taken to Pyongyang last Wednesday. Each was put in a separate vehicle so that there would be no...

Media Criticism/Refugees