June 18, 2008

Some Good Friends Updates

With busy times in recent days, I’ve fallen behind on posting Good Friends updates.  I’ll try to catch these up a few at a time, and I’m just going to post the summaries Good Friends sends as well, without having had time to read the bulletins themselves.  Here’s number 139, dated June 9th:  good-friends-139.pdf * Senior Officials at Gimchaek Steel Mill Meet Over Absentee Workers * Difficulties at Gimchaek Caused by the Bankruptcy of the Jangsaeng Company * Workers and...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/NK Economics
June 18, 2008

Kathleen Stephens Nomination Update

The Chosun Ilbo that the White House may not be interested in expending scarce capital on this one: There is only a slim chance of the U.S. Senate approving the nomination of Kathleen Stephens as ambassador to Seoul, Radio Free Asia reported Tuesday.  Her nomination bill was passed by the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in April and sent to a plenary session for a vote. But according to the RFA, Republican Senator George Voinovich has delayed his approval,...

Categories Human Rights/U.S. Politics
June 16, 2008

B.S. Stands for ‘Bovine Spongiform’

At this time a year ago, I thought by now that I’d be writing about the restoration of an alliance that Roh Moo Hyun had just about managed to destroy.  Although I’ve long felt that  a large  U.S. military presence in South Korea was an anachronism no longer justifed by any North Korean threat, I saw benefits to having  a healthy military, diplomatic, and economic alliance between South Korea and the United States.  Also, I think it would be nice...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
June 12, 2008

Anju Links for 11 June 2008

STALL, STALL, STALL:  North Korea says it will halt the “disablement” of its nuclear facilities until it receives energy aid first.  Interestingly, food was not a high-priority demand. THIRTY-THREE YEARS after the North Koreans seized his fishing boat and took him and 32 of  his fellow crewmen hostage, South Korean fisherman Yun Jong-Su, 65,  has escaped and taken refuge in the South Korean consulate in Shenyang.   I had hoped to do a longer post on this, but there just wasn’t...

Categories Anju Links
June 12, 2008

Great Moments in Congressional Relations: ChiComs Caught Hacking into Congress’s Computers

A staffer  for Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican and stalwart opponent of China’s human rights abuses (pictured here at a Darfur rally), e-mailed me the texts of  a statement, a speech to have been given yesterday,  and a resolution to be introduced in the House.  Here’s the gist of it: Madam Speaker, in August 2006, four of the computers in my personal office were compromised by an outside source.  In subsequent meetings with House Information Resources and officials from...

Categories China/U.S. Politics
June 10, 2008

Anju Links for 10 June 2008

I REALLY HOPE THIS WOMAN WINS HER LAWSUIT, but isn’t her first claim against her own parents, for bringing her back to North Korea to begin with? MINISTRY OF IRONIC PROPAGANDA: Famine-plagued North Korea jumps on the anti-U.S. beef import bandwagon. I’m guessing this message is sort of like North Korean food imports — not to be consumed by ordinary North Koreans. MAYBE THEY SHOULD ASK THE ONES WHO ARE STARVING: The North Korean regime refuses to acCept a South...

Categories Anju Links
June 10, 2008

You’re Quasi-Evil. You’re Semi-Evil….

So Kim Jong Il sent Kim Jong Chol, his son with the (ahem) hormonal imbalance, to Chongjin to carry out some “inspections,” and things did not go well: In particular, for Kim Jong Cheol, who is being considered as Kim Jong Il’s leading successor, this seems to be an opportunity for on-site training and testing his leadership and insight. However, the source remarked that Kim Jong Cheol could not perform according to Kim Jong Il’s expectations. Another source said, “Jang...

Categories Kremlinology/Resistance
June 9, 2008

Good Friends: NK Soldiers Ordered to Send Wives, Children to Home Provinces

Good Friends Newsletter Number 138 is here: nkt138-eng1.pdf   Highlights: Skyrocketing rice prices top W4,500/kG in South Hwanghae, W4,200 in North Hwanghae.  Corn at approx. W2,000/kG;   Starving North Koreans dying from eating grass, spoiled food; Middle-class North Koreans selling luxury possessions for a fraction of their former value (VCR’s, refrigerators, TV’s); Regime allows some food-seekers into China; This won’t be good for military morale: The 4th corps headquarters of Hwanghae Province fell far short in military food supplies this...

Categories Famine & Food Aid
June 9, 2008

Good Friends: Mysterious Disease Spreads in N. Korea; More Signs of Discontent

Good Friends Newsletter No. 137 is here:  nkt137-eng1.pdf Highlights: Rising mortality in both South and North Hwanghae provinces from famine and the effects of “alternative” foods made of grass; Mysterious disease spreads, kills kids near Chinese border regions; doctors guess  it could be  avian flu or hand-foot-and mouth disease; Frost kills crop seedlings in North Pyongan; Amid fertilizer shortage, regime set quota for human excrement (seriously) that starving people can’t meet; Hungry North Koreans express resentment at growing class divisions,...

Categories Famine & Food Aid
June 9, 2008

Leaked to OFK: Lugar Will Go to Pyongyang

Or intends to, anyway (the road to Pyongyang is paved with unrealized intentions).  Maybe when he’s there he can clarify Kim Jong Il’s intention not to disarm, or he can help  the State Department boys write Kim Jong Il’s nuclear declaration for  him (which should make it easy to disavow). Sen. Lugar, one the the Senate’s most liberal Republicans, is memorable for his failure to get John Bolton’s confirmation through the committee he formerly chaired.  Lugar is advised by staffer...

Categories Appeasement/Six-Party Talks/U.S. Politics
June 9, 2008

Good Friends: Famine Worsens Along N. Korea’s East Coast, Regime Tries to Shief Pyongyang from Starvation

Good Friends Dispatch No. 136  is here:  nkt136-eng1.pdf Highlights: Regime promotes “alternative foods,” generally  made of grass; Some local officials turning to traders to feed the starving; central government fires one local official for taking out a “food loan;” Rising death toll among farmers in Kangwon and near Hamheung; Situation in Sinuiju is desperate, but not yet in famine condition; High absenteeism from munitions factory in Eundok County; workers are too weakened by hunger; In Pyongyang, hard times but relatively...

Categories Famine & Food Aid
June 8, 2008

Anju Links for 8 June 2008

THE DAILY NK HAS POSTED some pictures of rice-planting time in North Korea.  These appear to have been taken surreptitiously.  These, on the other hand, appear to be taken from the Chinese side of the border, and show North Korean soldiers and kids catching frogs to eat in the paddy fields. ONCE AGAIN, YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST:  More details of U.S.-North Korean food aid talks have leaked out: The United States is ready to ship 500,000 tons of food...

Categories Anju Links
June 7, 2008

U.S. to Abandon Second Consecutive U.N. Human Rights Sham

After the former U.N. Human Rights Commission died of shame for having admitted some of the world’s most repressive nations as members, the United Nations formed the “Human Rights Council” to replace it,  and promptly admitted China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Cuba as members.  The U.S. government has finally given up on this second sham human rights body: The United States has quietly informed Western allies of its intention to walk away from the U.N. Human Rights Council, diplomatic sources...

Categories "United" Nations
June 7, 2008

North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act Passes in House

So I dropped by Open Congress and was pleased to see: Passed by voice vote in the House on May 15, 2008. On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR 5/13/2008 H3747-3748) Here’s more on the House bill.  Here’s the full  text (opens in pdf).  The list of co-sponsors is impressive for its bipartisanship:  Rep Ackerman, Gary L. [NY-5] – 4/17/2008  [Democrat] Rep Berman, Howard L. [CA-28] – 4/17/2008...

Categories Human Rights/U.S. Politics
June 4, 2008

In Food Aid Talks, North Korea Reverts to Old Ways; Regime Thins Population of P’yang

A reliable source who asks not to be named e-mailed me yesterday to pass along a fly-on-the-wall description of an “expert’s meeting” in Beijing. The purpose of the meeting between U.S. and North Korean officials had been to agree on the technical details of the U.S. food aid program — exactly how the North Korean regime will and will not allow us to feed its population. The meeting was described as “fairly downbeat” and “contentious,” with the North Korean negotiators...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Regime Change
June 3, 2008

N. Korea Threatens South Over Leaflets

North Korea warned Friday South Korea should immediately stop spreading anti-North propaganda leaflets in the communist state to prevent worsening inter-Korean ties from leading to “a catastrophic phase.”  The warning by the North’s delegation to the inter-Korean military working-level talks came in a message sent to the South Korean military. “If they do not want the present inter-Korean relations to lead to a catastrophic phase, they should take immediate steps to stop all forms of reckless scattering of leaflets at...

Categories Terrorism (NK)
June 3, 2008

The Washington Times Reviews “Crossing”

Avoiding the melodrama of many South Korean films, “Crossing” is relentless in its detailed, docudrama approach. A cross-border trader and his family are seized by secret police in a midnight raid. Ragged orphans beg in destitute markets. Camp guards kick a pregnant woman in China in the stomach. Kim Tae-kyun, the film’s director, said he did not retain Mr. Yoo, a high-profile defector, as a consultant for fear of creating a political incident while filming in China. Last year, Mr....

Categories Appeasement/Korean Society/Refugees