May 29, 2007

Wachovia Backs Off of North Korea Funds Transfer

State must  really regret having let the Banco Delta issue  enter the mainstream of our nuclear diplomacy with the North Koreans.  What a terrifically mangled excuse it has become for North Korea’s nonperformance. The United States believes a banking dispute blocking a nuclear disarmament accord will drag on and has pressed North Korea to start shutting its reactor in return for a firm US promise of a solution, a report said Monday.  [AFP] This is just odd.  You’d think that...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Money Laundering
May 22, 2007

Anju Links for 22 May 2007

*   Freedom House has released an extensive new report on North Korea’s concentration camps.  The author is David Hawk, who wrote “The Hidden Gulag.” *   John Bolton is leading the charge against Agreed Framework 2.0, and his latest effort is this piece at OpinionJournal.com.  He doesn’t quite accuse Chris Hill of conspiring to launder money — I did — but he does a good job of explain our  dizzying series  of  retreats on the Banco Delta issue.  Thanks...

Categories Anju Links
May 21, 2007

Frostbrain

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A snag in what is probably the easiest phase of the North Korea nuclear agreement has sparked new criticism of the Bush administration but U.S. officials appear committed to pursuing a solution, even if it reverses previous policy. More than a month after Pyongyang was due to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear complex under a Feb 13 deal, it has not done so, insisting it first receive $25 million in once-frozen accounts. “It’s tricky but I think...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks
May 14, 2007

FTA Update

The N.Y. Times reports: Peru and Panama are considered most likely to win early Congressional approval. Colombia is more problematic, because Democrats are demanding that, besides the new measures, more protections be added to prevent violence against activists trying to organize workers. The South Korea accord, if put in place, would lead to the largest amount of increased trade. But it is opposed in its current version by Democrats who want greater access to that country’s markets for American beef,...

Categories NK Economics/U.S. Politics
May 14, 2007

One Man’s Diplomacy Is Another Man’s Conspiracy (or Chris Hill, Call Your Lawyer)

Whoever [in the United States or in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States] knowingly engages or attempts to engage in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property of a value greater than $10,000 and is derived from specified unlawful activity, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b). — So here’s something I though I’d never see: U.S. government officials more-or-less openly engaging in a conspiracy that would land anyone else in a federal prison for...

Categories Appeasement/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks
May 14, 2007

Surprisingly Strong Criticism of AF 2.0 on WaPo, NYT Editorial Pages

It’s a surprising reversal to see the Washington Post in particular speaking so critically of the results of something for which it spent so many years and so much ink advocating. North Korea first made clear that it would take no action until the banking issue was settled by the unfreezing of its accounts. The administration conceded that. Then Pyongyang demanded all of its money back, including that linked to criminal activity. Again, the administration gave in; on April 10,...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks
May 7, 2007

So Much for ‘Hawk Engagement:’ Victor Cha Steps Down

The proponent of the “hawk-engagement” theory of North Korea policy looks to be the first casualty of the unraveling of Agreed Framework 2.0.  The AP  tries to shoehorn this into its standard anti-Iraq War meme, but it’s a strained fit for  on Cha,  an architect of  a soft-line diplomatic approach that is clearly failing:  Cha leaves amid concerns over  North Korea’s failure to comply with deadlines to eliminate its nuclear weapons programs.  [AP] Reporter  Matthew Lee’s story is  what you’d...

Categories An Alliance?/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/U.S. Politics
May 7, 2007

Soju for You = Hennessey for You-Know-Who

[Update:   I’ve made indirect contact with a North Korean defector familiar with how Pyongyang Soju is made.  Based on that information, the product is not manufactured in a forced labor camp.  I  hope to  have more specific information about the materials and labor practices later.]   The Chicago Tribune and the  Hankook Ilbo are both reporting that North Korea is about to export of shipment of soju to the United States. US-North Korean trade is rare as Washington imposes...

Categories Google Earth/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/NK Economics/U.S. Law/Uncategorized
May 6, 2007

North Korea Demands That U.S. Launder Its Counterfeiting Money

What do you get for making concessions to North Korea?  Demands for even more ridiculous concessions! North Korea has demanded the United States allow it to open an account at a bank in New York and its funds at a Macau bank be transferred there, a Japanese daily reported in Sunday. …. “The United States hurt the credibility of North Korea by imposing financial sanctions. The United States must correct this,” the source quoted an unnamed North Korean official as...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy
May 5, 2007

How Feminist Liberalism Supports Misogynist Terror

It’s very simple. Step One, rig a girls’ school with explosives. Step Two, blow up the school and a few dozen little girls, and bask in the fascination (three parts horror, one part masochistic adoration) of news media everywhere. Step Three, wait for for Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and Barbara Boxer to declare you the victor. Wait for atrocities to be rewarded and mass murder to be misdiagnosed as a liberation struggle. Wait for Michael Moore to call you and...

Categories Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics
May 5, 2007

Nice Town. It’d Be a Shame If Something Happened to It.

If you thought North Korea bought its South Korean supporters, you underestimated just how unnatural this intercourse really is. We know the going rates for the various Il Shim Hue operatives were cheap, but South Korea’s violent far-left unions are actually helping to keep Korigula’s palaces stocked with Hennessey. South Korea’s unions, particularly the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, have a history of trashing public property during their demonstrations, so when they make extortionate demands for city funds to celebrate...

Categories The Fifth Column
May 5, 2007

A Denuclearization Agreement, But Without the ‘Denuclearization’ Part

It’s Day 21 since Peace in Our Time Day, and here’s the latest “peace in our time” update: Yonbyong is running; no IAEA inspectors have gone to North Korea and none have been invited; there have been no substantive six-party sessions since March; North Korea denies having the uranium program it previously admitted; North Korea may or may not be running away with the ransom in dirty money that held this deal up, even though it wasn’t part of the...

Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/Uncategorized
May 5, 2007

Who Still Wants the Alliance?

Because of Agreed Framework 2.0, South Korea thinks it’s set for the duration of the Bush Administration — which it is — so it now feels free to demand our taxpayer dollars rather than ask for them politely. There are unpleasantries like Washington’s decision to sell off its ammunition stockpiles in Korea, but no matter; South Korea is certain war will never come (no, we still can’t leave). South Korea also feels free to ignore our requests not to give...

Categories An Alliance?/Diplomacy
May 4, 2007

New Blogroll Additions

I’ve added three new sites to the blogroll under “Human Rights Sites,” be sure to give them a look: Frequent commenter USinKorea has put up a very good North Korea Human Rights 101 page for those new to the topic, with numerous links to both scholarly reports and videos he edited himself.  He calls it North Korea:  Our Holocaust Now. During North Korea Freedom Week, I met a very congenial young woman from PSALTNK, a new Christian human rights site...

Categories Blogs & Blogging
May 4, 2007

Anju Links for 4 May 2007: Foot-and-Mouth Strikes North Korean Cattle and American Politicians

1. The latest outbreak of disease in North Korea is foot-and-mouth among the cattle, and presumably the oxen that would be used as draft animals for spring plowing. That’s very bad news for a country with a declining food situation and no margin of survival. The U.N., which generally takes pains to avoid offending North Korea, says that the outbreak is “under control.” 2. New, Improved, and Completely Failed! It has now been 20 days since North Korea violated all...

Categories Anju Links
May 2, 2007

Anju Links for 2 May 2007: North Korea Denies Abducting Any S. Koreans, May Day in Kaesong, and North Koreans’ Growing Meth Problem

*   It has now been 18 days since North Korea violated all of  the denuclearization commitments to which it agreed last February.   I blame  Bill Richardson, who obviously must have said something tactless and belligerent while being led around the deck of the U.S.S. Pueblo.   It’s time for us to get serious about diplomacy and  offer some carrots.   How many of our soldiers’ lives is Catalina Island really worth?   How many times must the canonballs fly, Bill? *  ...

Categories Anju Links/Diplomacy/Drugs & N Korea/Geopolitics/Human Trafficking/Inside NK/Six-Party Talks