November 20, 2006

Kumgang Revenues Continue to Decline

Whether it’s because of  the diminishing  appeal of tyranny tourism or North Korea’s sheer belligerence, South Koreans have never been less enthusiastic about the Kumgang tourist resort: Tour organizer Hyundai Asan on Sunday said fewer than 300 tourists now visit Mt. Kumgang over the weekend. During the same period last year, weekend visitors to Mt. Kumgang numbered 400-500. The number of ordinary tourists has dwindled to fewer than 2,000 bookings for December tours, but activist groups have booked the tours...

Categories "United" Nations/Appeasement/Korean Politics/NK Economics
November 20, 2006

Wobble Watch: Has China Unfrozen Blocked North Korean Accounts?

The State Department is saying it doesn’t know if the reports are true; it’s telling reporters to ask the Chinese: A diplomatic source in Beijing said China has released some of the North Korean money at Macau’s Banco Delta Asia (BDA), frozen after the U.S. Treasury in September last year designated it a primary money laundering concern abetting Pyongyang’s illicit activities.  The unfrozen accounts, less than half of the US$24 million initially held up, are believed to be those not...

Categories China/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Money Laundering
November 20, 2006

‘Unlike in the past, it is absurd to call a person unqualified because he was a pro-North leftist.”‘

This is the statement attributed to ruling  Uri Party lawmaker Im Jong-Seok during the confirmation hearing for Lee Jae-Joung, South Korea’s next Minister of Appeasement Unification.  Fine, then.  Is it equally absurd for a civilized democracy to question the fitness of a pro-fascist rightist  for a senior cabinet position?  Does Korea’s left hereby waive all grievances against Park Chung-Hee for his collaboration with Imperial Japan, along with any hereditary claims against his daughter, just in time for next year’s election? ...

Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Korean Society
November 19, 2006

‘The North Korea Refugee Relief and Reconstruction Act’

Several weeks ago, K-blogs were all aflutter with Robert Kaplan’s article on the prospects for destabilizing chaos when the North Korean regime collapses.  I argued in response that the United States should begin planning to fund reconstruction and organize an emergency humanitarian response, and that this ought to be one of the main contingencies  around which a U.S.-Korea alliance should be designed.  Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has now introduced a bill to address those issues.  Here’s the summary;...

Categories An Alliance?/Reconstruction/Refugees/Washington Views
November 17, 2006

Proliferation Security Watch

The AP has a very detailed story on the search of a North Korean ship in the Indian Ocean, along with a nice summary of other searches in the recent past.  In this case, it sounds like all they found was cement. In other searches, Hong Kong authorities detained two North Korean cargo ships in October for safety violations apparently unrelated to the U.N. sanctions. Myanmar permitted a North Korean cargo ship in distress to anchor at a port in...

Categories "United" Nations/Appeasement/China & Korea/Japan & Korea/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/WMD
November 17, 2006

General Assembly Passes N. Korea Resolution, Continues to Be Mostly Worthless

[Update:   Here is the text of the resolution.] South Korea for the first time on Friday joined other U.N. members in rebuking North Korea for gross human rights abuses, including torture, political executions and miserable prison camp conditions. A draft resolution on the abuses was passed by a vote of 91 to 21 with 60 abstentions in a General Assembly committee that includes all U.N. members, thereby assuring its official adoption by the full assembly. North Korea rejected the...

Categories "United" Nations/Appeasement/Human Rights
November 16, 2006

What’s the Korean Word for ‘Obsolete?’

Unification minister-designate Lee Jae-joung said Wednesday while the Korea-U.S. alliance is crucial and should remain solid, it must not be allowed to affect South Korea’s future negatively. In a special lecture for children of Korean expatriates in English-speaking countries, Lee said there must be a “Maginot Line“ for South Korea in maintaining its alliance with the U.S., and the two countries should break away from the form their relations took in the Cold War and pursue a new relationship suited...

Categories An Alliance?/U.S. & Korea
November 16, 2006

Define ‘Fully Accountable’

The United States should consider the danger that we could transfer nuclear weapons to terrorists, that we have the ability to do so. ““ North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye-Gwan, April 2005 The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable for the consequences of such action ….  It is vital that the nations of...

Categories Proliferation/WMD
November 16, 2006

Il Shim Hue Member Planned Violent Attacks

A member of the Democratic Labor Party who was arrested Oct. 24 on charges of spying for North Korea reportedly told investigators he drew up plans for terror attacks against conservatives and influential government figures in the 1990s. What the report doesn’t clarify is just what methods were put into those plans, although investigators claim that the suspect, a DLP member named Park, tried to buy a gun. Any plan involving a deadly weapon would clearly be terrorism. MBN-TV reports...

Categories Korean Law/Korean Politics/The Fifth Column
November 16, 2006

No Abstention This Year!

Seoul, in a surprise reversal, will reluctantly support this year’s U.N. resolution on human rights in North Korea: South Korea decided Thursday to vote in favor of a United Nations resolution condemning North Korea’s human rights abuses, citing a change in the geopolitical situation after Pyongyang’s nuclear weapon test in October.  The U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote on the nonbinding resolution drafted by the European Union, the United States, and Japan early Friday (Seoul time). Thursday’s decision, which...

Categories "United" Nations/Appeasement/Human Rights
November 15, 2006

Two Cheers for Tom Lantos

He’d get three if he’d said  it three years ago, and four if he offered a few more specifics, but Tom Lantos (D, Cal.) sounds at least as  tough here  as Jim Leach (R, Ia.) might have: The Bush administration’s policy toward North Korea has failed and a new approach must be tried, including punishing the North’s leaders and sending a U.S. envoy to Pyongyang for talks, a key Democrat said on Wednesday. Rep. Tom Lantos of California, who is...

Categories America/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/Washington Views/WMD
November 15, 2006

Scarlet Fever Outbreak Spreads in N. Korea

South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency is now picking up the story that the Daily NK first reported, and the news isn’t good. Scarlet fever has been spreading fast in North Korea for nearly a month and is showing signs of becoming a full-blown pandemic despite efforts by North Korean authorities to contain the disease, a source close to the North said Wednesday. The disease first broke out in the communist state’s northern Yanggang Province last month, but is quickly...

Categories Human Rights/Inside NK
November 14, 2006

In Search of the Clear, Simple, and Wrong

This must be the most interesting, most heartening, and least reported poll result of the week, if not the year: While a bare majority of 51 percent called the Democrats’ victory “a good thing,” even more said they were concerned about some of the actions a Democratic Congress might take, including 78 percent who were somewhat or very concerned that it would seek too hasty a withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Another 69 percent said they were concerned that the...

Categories America/Terrorism/Iraq