June 3, 2007

How to Leave North Korea, and How Not To

*   There’s a right way and a wrong way to do everything.  See also related posts at DPRK Studies. *   As much as I’d like to see this Yonhap story as evidence of more cultural infiltration of North Korea by the South, it seems more like an example of the opposite.  In what must have been a very carefully guided and choreographed tour of a P’yang department store, a clerk is wearing earphones, is predictably asked why, and...

Categories Defectors/Media Criticism/Refugees
June 2, 2007

U.S. to Hand Over Nine Army Posts to S. Korea, Including Sears, Edwards, and Essayons

The U.S. and ROK governments have agreed on the handover of nine more U.S. bases, further reducing our footprint in South Korea. The process was concluded Thursday as a joint committee under the South Korea-United States status of forces agreement (SOFA) approved and signed the agreement on the relocation of the bases, the ministry said. …. The relocation of the bases are part of a long-term, multi-billion dollar project to realign and move the U.S. forces in South Korea further...

Categories An Alliance?/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Military
June 1, 2007

‘[W]e believed the United Nations could save us.’

I wonder how many mass graves could be marked with those words.    That quote — it would be funny, though epitaphs  seldom are — comes from this testimonial of a Yodok survivor, via the International Herald Tribune.  In 1999, a group of seven North Koreans fleeing their country was intercepted in Russia. The Russian authorities, rejecting appeals from the United Nations and human rights groups, sent them to China. China returned them to North Korea. In the ensuing uproar...

Categories "United" Nations/Human Rights/Refugees
May 31, 2007

Freedom House Will Host Discussion on N. Korean Concentration Camps

Their message: On May 21, 2007, Freedom House released a new report, Concentrations of Inhumanity.  The report written by Hidden Gulag author, David Hawk, carefully details the criminal acts prohibited by Article 7 of the ( Rome ) Statute of the International Criminal Court which are being carried out in North Korea on a massive scale.  You can download the full report at www.nkfreedomhouse.org. Freedom House and Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) cordially invite you to a panel discussion to...

Categories Anju Links/Human Rights/The Camps
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