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S. Korean Spymaster Resigns; Fifth Column Scandal Widens

Here, as foreshadowed in Update 6 to this post. Like Lee, NIS Chief Kim Seung-Kyu must be resigning to celebrate the success of his tenure. Following Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, who expressed his wish to quit in mid-November to prepare for his new job as the U.N. secretary-general, Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung and Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok offered to resign earlier this week, holding themselves responsible for “confused” policies on the North Korean nuclear crisis and the Seoul-Washington military alliance....

Korean Politics/The Fifth Column

Must Read: International Crisis Group on N. Korean Refugees

It’s probably the most comprehensive and detailed report I’ve yet seen on the subject, and from a non-partisan and balanced group. The most immediately relevant point is that things could soon get much worse: Even without a strong response to the 9 October 2006 nuclear test that targets the North’s economy, the internal situation could soon get much worse. The perfect storm may be brewing for a return to famine in the North. Last year, Pyongyang reintroduced the same public...

Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/Refugees

China-N. Korea Trade: Business as Usual

I didn’t get terribly excited about initial reports that China wouldn’t enforce 1718 in good faith, because I don’t frankly care much what they say, but rather, what they do. Sounds like we have our answer, courtesy of the N.Y. Times: Truckers carrying goods into North Korea across the sludge-colored Tumen River say inspections are unchanged on the Chinese side. Customs agents rarely open boxes here or at two other border crossings in this mountainous region, truckers and private transport...

"United" Nations/China & Korea/NK Economics

Kim Jong Il Saved by a Fortune Teller?

The idea had crossed my mind, since there don’t seem to be rational explanations for so many of the things he’s been doing lately. Via the Daily NK: Explosives targeting Kim Jong Il were found set up at the Yongcheon explosion. They were small explosives that cannot be made with North Korean technology, leading people to believe that they came from outside the country, and causing Kim Jong Il to become concerned over his safety. At the time of the...

Uncategorized

What a Dumb Question

Sorry, but I don’t recall anyone except a collection of has-beens suggesting “military action” against North Korea. But if you ask registered or likely voters what that means, I suppose the most reasonable interpretations are invasion and air strikes. If so, please count me firmly among the 56% opposed. If it means interdicting their boatloads of Iran-bound uranium, as authorized by a U.N. resolution (which apparently means a lot to some people), then that’s how the question should have been...

Media Criticism

The Return of Comrade Chung!

Comrade Chung has returned from the state of seclusion with which he’d graced us all since his humiliating defeat last spring. The most recent sighting was at Cheongbuk National University (Korean link): The Sunshine policy and the North Korean nuclear are separate matters, not related to each other. America’s U.N. Ambassador said, “The North Korean regime should be changed,” but I think that doesn’t solve the problem, and North Korean regime change should not be the goal of alliance between...

Uncategorized

The Death of an Alliance, Part 57: Time to End the Screen Quota

I’m about to go all screedy about this, but I can be brief, because Robert Koehler has pretty much said everything I’d have said anyway. I generally write “DOA” posts after an action by either government documents some new low in bilateral relations. The government isn’t responsible for the content of what Korea’s notoriously militant film industry makes, but it wasn’t responsible for the content of “Yoduk Story,” either. So on one hand, fictionalized movies about No Gun Ri or formaldehyde...

Anti-Americanism/Korean Society/NK Economics

Where Is That Other Shoe?

[Update: A State Department official who asked not to be identified said the sanctions authority, bearing the name of Senator John Glenn, who sponsored it in the Congress, is open-ended in the range of sanctions available. That official predicted that all financial and economic transactions with North Korea would be ended, except for humanitarian aid. ] We’ve all been waiting for othe other shoe to drop — for the U.S. to announce what sanctions it will impose — since North...

Diplomacy/Money Laundering/Proliferation/Six-Party Talks/Washington Views/WMD

Police Suspect Ex-DLP Leader of Being a N. Korean Intel Asset

More linkage between South Korea’s radical left and North Korean intelligence. Police raided the homes and offices of three activists, seized electronic files and photos, and obtained arrest warrants. One of those arrested is Lee Jung-Hoon, 42, a former leader of the far-left Democratic Labor Party. That’s not all he was the leader of, apparently: Lee was a leader of Sammint’u, or the Struggle Committee for Liberation of the Masses, Attainment of Democracy and Unification of the Nation, and was...

Korean Politics/The Fifth Column

Annual Treasury Report on Counterfeiting of U.S. Currency Abroad

The full report is here, but it’s a big, fat, nasty pdf. Here’s the section on North Korea: 6.5.7 North Korea and the Supernote Since 1989, the U.S. Secret Service has led a counterfeit investigation involving the trafficking and production of highly deceptive counterfeit notes known as supernotes. The supernote investigation has been an ongoing strategic case with national security implications for the U.S. Secret Service since the note’s first detection in 1989. The U.S. Secret Service has determined through...

Counterfeiting/Money Laundering

S. Korean Cabinet Shakeup: Unifiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok Will Resign; Defense, Foreign Ministers Will Also Step Down

Reuters Photo: UniFiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok and Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon at the National Assembly, Oct. 6, 2006. [Scroll down for updates] Roh has not confirmed that he will accept the resignation of the UniFiction Minister who replaced Comrade Chung Dong-Young. Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok was soon expected to confirm his intention to step down during a meeting with reporters, according to the officials. With Lee’s resignation, if accepted, the president is expected to reshuffle all of his...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Korean Politics

Nuclear Blackmail

Update: A couple of delightfully subtle KCNA quotes: “If South Korea joins the PSI, it will pay.” “South Korea, if you want to have security, trust in those who share your blood.” And spill it. “If the South Korean authorities end up joining U.S.-led moves to sanction and stifle (the North) we will regard it as a declaration of confrontation against its own people … and take corresponding measures,” the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland...

Appeasement/Diplomacy/WMD/WTF?

Three More N. Korean Refugees Headed to U.S. from China

We’re about to see another test of that oddly arousing “lips and teeth” analogy. Two boys in their early teens without family and a man about 18 or 19 years old were taken without incident into the consulate in Shenyang with a member of Liberty in North Korea, according to a spokesman for the grass-roots group who asked not to be identified for security reasons. The group, also known as LiNK, operates orphanages in China that provide for North Koreans...

China & Korea/Refugees/Uncategorized

Marcus Noland on Sanctions and Engagement

He makes several good points, but this is probably my favorite: If I lived in Korea, I myself would also support the engagement policy. Engagement is very important as a tool to induce the fundamental changes of the North Korean regime. But from some time back, the South Korean government seems to have lost its perspective. Engagement is just a tool to achieving the goal of making changes in North Korea, but now it seems engagement itself has become the...

Appeasement/WMD