November 27, 2007

The Pressure Is Off on Human Rights in North Korea

North Korea no longer feels the constraint of international pressure — particularly American pressure —  so it  believes that  it has a free hand to try to increase its  internal control by any means necessary.  Witness last week’s decision  by South Korea to abstain again from a U.N. resolution condemning the North, a reversal of a hard-won gain.   Two of the ways the regime is trying to reassert itself:  tightening its border controls and carrying out more public executions. It’s...

Categories Diplomacy/Human Rights
November 27, 2007

Terrorism, Plain and Simple

If you stick with me for a modest amount of law, I promise you that this post will end with a nice little adventure in participatory democracy.  But to get there, we must begin with how the United States Code defines “international terrorism,” at section 2331 of Title 18: As used in this chapter –       (1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that –                 (A) involve violent acts or...

Categories Appeasement/Terrorism (NK)
November 27, 2007

Still Collapsing?

The Weekly Standard publishes a very non-specific, unsourced prediction that North Korea is on the verge of collapse.  Read it for yourself, but I don’t find it very persuasive.  While collapse is a distinct possibility for the reasons Andrei Lankov has recently repeated (see yesterday’s post), I don’t see signs that it’s more imminent today than it was a  year ago.  If anything, the North Korean leadership has gained strength from its acceptance by the Bush Administration.

Categories Inside NK/Kremlinology
November 26, 2007

Impervious to Evidence: State’s Appeasement Express Arrives at the Koryo Hotel

[Update:   Richardson links to State’s quasi-denial:  why, yes, we have stationed a State Department  employee in Pyongyang, but he’s strictly there to supervise the equipment for the technical process of disabling North Korea’s nuclear programs.  That’s peculiar.  If this employee’s job is strictly scientific or technical, why not avoid giving people the wrong idea and  send someone from the Department of Energy or Defense  instead?  At best, this is a trial balloon.   More likely, we’ve just seen  the camel’s...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Proliferation
November 25, 2007

If you’re hungry for dog meat, why not dine with ‘The Pariah Family?’

You’ve seen the unintended comedy of Japanese, Chinese,  and Koreans decorating their wares with English, badly.  You’ve seen the hilarity of  British people  tattooing such Chinese  marks of distinction  as, “Coca-Cola” or  “At the end of the  day, this is an  ugly boy,” on their bodies. Now, see what happens when Hangul-challenged Chinese try to ride the Korean Wave.  And fail (one, two, three, four).

Categories Humor/Satire
November 24, 2007

Casualties of Banalities: The Arrest and Coming Death of Yoo Sang-Joon

One of the bravest men I have ever met is locked in a Chinese prison this weekend, facing the risk of being sent back to certain execution in his native North Korea.  His story stands for the human suffering that endures while diplomats craft a controversial agreement to disarm North Korea of its nuclear weapons and to grant its dictator, Kim Jong-il, the peace treaty and the recognition that his regime has sought for decades.  [The Sunday Times, Michael Sheridan]...

Categories "United" Nations/Activism/China/China & Korea/Human Rights/Refugees/U.S. Politics
November 24, 2007

Bush Administration’s Blackout Can’t Silence Syria-N. Korea Speculation

The latest theory, via  Prof. Uzi Even, an  Israeli scientist interviewed in Haaretz, is this: “In my estimation this was something very nasty and vicious, and even more dangerous than a reactor,” says Even. “I have no information, only an assessment, but I suspect that it was a plant for processing plutonium, namely a factory for assembling the bomb.” In other words, Syria already had several kilograms of plutonium, and it was involved in building a bomb factory (the assembling...

Categories Diplomacy/Proliferation
November 23, 2007

South Korea Abstains Again

. . . in a U.N. vote  to condemn  North Korea’s human rights  atrocities (via Korea Unification Studies).  They abstain, for the record, from condemning this, or this, or this.  Or this. Almost exactly a year ago, after years of abstentions, the South Koreans finally yielded to intense pressure and voted in favor.  What changed?   My theory is that America’s betrayal gave the South Koreans cover.  Remember that next time anyone tries to argue that our diplomacy with North Korea...

Categories "United" Nations/Human Rights
November 21, 2007

No Legacy for You

The Washington Post declares: The war in Iraq seems to have taken a turn for the better and the opposition at home has failed in all efforts to impose its own strategy. North Korea is dismantling its nuclear program. . . .  Yet none of this has particularly impressed the public at large, which remains skeptical that anything meaningful has changed and still gives Bush record-low approval ratings. No, not if the Washington Post does not choose to make it...

Categories Diplomacy/U.S. Politics
November 20, 2007

Global Protest Against China’s Brutality Toward N. Korean Refugees — Nov. 30 – Dec. 1

The list of locations scheduled to hold demonstrations is impressive; organizers will target Chinese embassies and consulates in Washington, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Brussels, Toronto, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Oslo, London, Amsterdam, Seoul, and Madrid. That represents significant growth since past demonstrations, something that’s very welcome at a discouraging moment when the Bush Administration has pretty much sold out the entire cause. If you don’t know what we’re upset about, here’s a good introduction to the issue....

Categories Activism/China/China & Korea/Refugees
November 19, 2007

Beyond the U.N. Experiment

What serious thinker still believes the United Nations still reflects the values of its own charter, much less contributes to seeing them realized?  Much has been said about what was unexpectedly not found in Iraq, much less so about what was unexpectedly found:  proof of just how completely the U.N. had been corrupted by arguably the second-worst dictator on earth.  Not that all of the U.N.’s corruption is monetary: Recall what Churchill told the audience at Fulton about the United...

Categories "United" Nations
November 18, 2007

It Takes Many Wards to Make an Asylum

Maybe this will help support my efforts to talk one of you off the Ron Paul ledge.  The favorite candidate of “truthers” and other conspiracy theorists the mainsteam won’t embrace is  also the favorite of  white supremacists and neo-Nazis.  Andrew Walden lays it all out in meticulous detail.  Call it guilt by association if you will, but weeks after the questions  were raised,  Paul isn’t refusing their money or blocking those donate links from white supremacist sites.  I’ll save you...

Categories U.S. Politics
November 15, 2007

Kim Jong Il’s Moment of Truth, and Bush’s

Not off to a very encouraging start, are we?  Of North Korea’s intentions and attitudes, we already know plenty from past experience.  The real question is what our own government is willing to do for a few friendly headlines.  I think personalities in the State Department who would overlook inspection, verification, and proliferation to please their Chinese and South Korean friends  have the tiller firmly in their grasp.  Bush is worn  down from bleeding wounds to his ankles,  going through...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks
November 13, 2007

Korean Election Update: Lessers Versus Evils

Just over a month before South Korean presidential election, Lee Hoi Chang has announced that he’s  running as an independent candidate.  I have now seen it all.   So can he win?  Hell if I know.  To an observer of long American political campaigns, it’s hard to see how anyone could  enter  a race so late and have a chance of winning it, but this most definitely is not American politics.  Korean politics is famously mercurial; it’s about as exact, empirical,...

Categories Korean Politics
November 9, 2007

Walking the Road to Hell With the Eugene Bell Foundation

I want to begin this post with a correction.   On  October 29th, commenter  Marion Spina, referring to the  seventh “See Also” item in this post,  said: Question on your post: “I’m suspicious of the Eugene Bell foundation, because it recently received a “frienship” medal from the North Korean government, and because you don’t win Kim Jong Il’s friendship by asking hard questions and without paying for it. Based on this document, I infer that the Bell foundation is having some...

Categories Famine & Food Aid
October 29, 2007

There Is Such a Thing as ‘Good’ Engagement

If you’re reading this, you’re bearing with me despite the light blogging of late.  Thank you.  I make a habit of not talking about my work here, but suffice to say that it carries significant responsibilities that sometimes leave no time and energy for other things.  At times like these, when there is very little time left over, I owe that time to my family.  Thank you again for your understanding,  for continuing to stop by, and for your e-mails. ...

Categories Deprogramming/Six-Party Talks